Many years ago I read Stephen Hawking’s book, A Brief History of Time.  I remember being captivated by the idea that the universe might be oscillating between phases of expansion and contraction.  The current expansion from the Big Bang might have been preceded, and could be followed, by a contraction to a Big Bang or Crunch.  A contracting universe would be governed by a different set of laws of physics; for example, the second law of thermodynamics would be reversed with every natural process leading to a reduction in entropy.  This idea might seem fanciful; however, it is not original because I recently discovered that the Sanskrit epic, Makabharata describes time as a giant wheel rotating through cycles of creation and destruction leading, over aeons, to the birth and death of entire worlds.

Sources:

Nilanjana Rana, Our time-poor lives, lived against a ticking clock, FT Weekend, May 26th 2023.

Stephen Hawking, A brief history of time, London: Random House, 1998.