If the universe wants to reach a state of entropy, how did it come to have such a large amount of concentrated energy in the first place?
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1This is a reasonable question. Why the down votes? – mmesser314 Oct 13 '20 at 14:29
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1What does it mean to "reach a state of entropy?" – BioPhysicist Oct 13 '20 at 14:42
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1Do you mean why did the universe start in a low entropy state immediately after the Big Bang? – John Rennie Oct 13 '20 at 15:47
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The simple answer is that we do not know. We believe the universe started with a very large amount of potential energy stored in what is called the inflaton field. This potential energy drove a vast expansion of the early universe during the inflationary epoch and then populated the universe with a dense, hot mixture of quarks, anti-quarks and gluons as it entered the subsequent electroweak epoch. But what caused the universe to be created with so much potential energy in the first place is unknown.
If we knew that there were many many separate universes with different initial states then there might be an anthropic argument that only those universes that started with a very large amount of potential energy could have long enough lifetimes and be sufficiently complex to give rise to entities like us that ask this sort of question.
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