In the beginning, it would appear that the universe was a featureless ferment of quantum energy which suddenly burst forth in a state of rapid expansion. It was only then that energy began to congeal into matter and, one by one, the four fundamental forces separated out from the superforce. It also represented the beginning of space-time.³

The evolution of intelligence, from the standpoint of how it manifests itself relative to matter-energy (brain, body), did require the expansion of space. Prior to the big bang, matter- energy would have been compressed into a small volume of space and would have been too chaotic to form complex molecules. Quantum particle motions would have been too extremely energetic to allow atoms to come together to form even small, simple molecules, let alone complex ones. As the universe expanded, energy was allowed to dissipate, and atoms and molecules could congeal together to form units of increasing complexity. None of this could have happened prior to the expansion of space. The more open space that matter-energy has to move around in, the greater the statistical probability that it will congeal into more organized complex states with higher information content. This is based in principle on the similar concept contained in Boyle's and Charles' laws. If a gas is held within a container, such as a piston, where the volume of the container can be increased, then there will be a drop in temperature and pressure of that gas. Under the right conditions this allows molecules to come together and precipitate out into liquid form. In similar fashion, energy could not congeal into matter in the very early universe prior to sufficient spatial expansion, because the energy level was much too high to allow for molecular stability. As the universe has undergone spatial expansion, more complex forms have been possible with higher information content. The expansion of space has allowed "order out of chaos" to occur.

Entropy is occurring, but is doing so in the sense that energy is being lost to surrounding space in the form of heat, electromagnetic radiation or atomic particles. Complex structures are breaking down into smaller simpler forms. However, this phenomenon is being overridden by the opposing process that is producing systems of increasing complexity.

In the past, arguments have been presented that molecules complex enough to be life-forming and life-sustaining could not have randomly formed, because higher-order molecules were continually undergoing an entropic process and breaking down to simpler atoms and molecules. The apparent fact is that there must be a universal pressure causing more complex structures to form from simpler ones, and this would have aided the origin of life forms.

As the expansion of space continues, it will allow the formation of material structures with increasingly higher levels of total information content, and this in turn will result in higher levels of intelligence and consciousness.

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