What exactly is 'heat death'? I've read several of Hawking's public lectures on physics (both normal and quantum) and I haven't come across this term yet.
Responses:
Crow T. Robot
Well, you know, if it's really hot outside, and the Universe doesn't get enough fluids, and he's kinda overweight to start with, and then it tries playing softball with a bunch of Universes only a couple billion years old, and, oh, he's playing right field, because he's pudgy, and he circles under a fly ball, and then he kinda just falls down and faints, right there on the field!
Joel Robinson
Um, Crow, buddy, you're thinking of the heat stroke of the Universe.
Crow T. Robot
Oh yeah. Heat death is when basically when entropy increases to the point that all the heat energy has moved from warm places (stars and such) to cold places (space) and everything is the same temperature...