Theorizing the End of the Universe

[Astrofox]

So, I have been thinking about this for quite a while now: assuming that the Universe ends via the big 'freeze' (aka stars burn out and distances get farther), what could be next?

Will there ever truly be an end?

Will black holes devour everything, and then just dissipate?

Could there be certain stars that use heavier, rarer elements?

 

Anyway, this is the thread where we can debate on the end of the universe, and hypothesize whatever you believe could possibly exist...

 

Of course, the universe would be way colder, and the sky would be completely/mostly dark - nothing too spectacular to see...

... whatever is left of humanity will only have legends and tales of what color was, what the night sky looked like...

[Robotengineer]

10 minutes ago, Astrofox said:

Will there ever truly be an end?

Are you at the restaurant at the end of the Universe?

 

Edited July 16, 2016 by Robotengineer
Someone had to do it.

[Astrofox]

no...

not right now...

[HoloYolo]

8 minutes ago, Astrofox said:

Of course, the universe would be way colder, and the sky would be completely/mostly dark - nothing too spectacular to see...

... whatever is left of humanity will only have legends and tales of what color was, what the night sky looked like...

Humanity at that point (which could be hundreds of billions to TRILLIONS of years ahead), would either be extinct, or evolved to a point where a universe is just one of many universes, and traversing dimensions and time would be as easy as breathing.

10 minutes ago, Astrofox said:

So, I have been thinking about this for quite a while now: assuming that the Universe ends via the big 'freeze' (aka stars burn out and distances get farther), what could be next?

Will there ever truly be an end?

Will black holes devour everything, and then just dissipate?

The question that there would be an end is a good one to ask. Are we just living in an already used universe? Is this one the first? Is this one the last?

According to the theory, yes. Black holes will be the only remnants of the universe alongside burnt out Neutron Stars and Black Dwarves. Hawking Radiation will slowly decay these black holes, and there would be nothing but a void after trillions of years.

[PB666]

16 minutes ago, HoloYolo said:

Humanity at that point (which could be hundreds of billions to TRILLIONS of years ahead), would either be extinct, or evolved to a point where a universe is just one of many universes, and traversing dimensions and time would be as easy as breathing.

The question that there would be an end is a good one to ask. Are we just living in an already used universe? Is this one the first? Is this one the last?

According to the theory, yes. Black holes will be the only remnants of the universe alongside burnt out Neutron Stars and Black Dwarves. Hawking Radiation will slowly decay these black holes, and there would be nothing but a void after trillions of years.

The larger the black hole the slower it decays, so the most massive black holes would literally go on forever in any meaningful sense. The problem however is that space-time is composed of non-zero rest energy feild that may not be scalar over an infinite range, meaning quantum spacetime could be far less stable than it is currently. 

[magnemoe]

24 minutes ago, Robotengineer said:

Are you at the restaurant at the end of the Universe?

 

One fun thing about the restaurant at the end of the universe is that they would have access to some very old vine and liquors. 

[HoloYolo]

Just now, magnemoe said:

One fun thing about the restaurant at the end of the universe is that they would have access to some very old vine and liquors. 

Another thing is that it would be REALLY hard to get to. At least from where we are.

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, HoloYolo said:

Another thing is that it would be REALLY hard to get to. At least from where we are.

True for one it would require a starship with good time travel ability. Second it's a obviously 3 star restaurant

 

[cubinator]

6 hours ago, PB666 said:

The larger the black hole the slower it decays, so the most massive black holes would literally go on forever in any meaningful sense. 

Isn't it like googol years until the end, according to the heat death theory? That's nowhere near forever, when you're actually talking about infinities.

[PB666]

2 hours ago, cubinator said:

Isn't it like googol years until the end, according to the heat death theory? That's nowhere near forever, when you're actually talking about infinities.

I said meaningful. 

[cubinator]

2 minutes ago, PB666 said:

I said meaningful. 

You also said forever.  Googol is a ridiculously long time, but it's not forever. It's hard to say what will happen after googol years. Could it possibly be an infinity of empty nothingness and total quantum uncertainty and lack of observation? It might be, but it's hard to say. 

[kerbiloid]

The physicists have a tradition. Every 13 bln years they build a Large Hadron Collider...

 

9 hours ago, HoloYolo said:

Are we just living in an already used universe? Is this one the first?

It's a second hand.

10 hours ago, HoloYolo said:

Humanity at that point (which could be hundreds of billions to TRILLIONS of years ahead), would either be extinct, or evolved to a point where a universe is just one of many universes, and traversing dimensions and time would be as easy as breathing.

An alternative/consolidated way. While a civilization develops, it:

• from one side studies more and more about the entities of astronomical scale, and thus more and more precisely predicts astronomical events and dispositions;
• from another side goes deeper and deeper into the microscopic world, and thus more and more precisely predicts subatomic events and dispositions;
• builds more and more powerful computers, virtually modelling more and more parts of the surrounding world more and more precisely;

So, once, it reaches the state when it can predict every quark and every galaxy life journey in one CPU tick, while whole astronomical objects are parts of their CPU and there's no more difference for them, a one yottasecond or a plenty of eons. Thus they dissolve in nirvana.

9 hours ago, PB666 said:

The larger the black hole the slower it decays

"Slower" is a puny terrans' fiction. Who cares about several zillion more years in the Universe lifespan scale?

[wumpus]

20 hours ago, HoloYolo said:

Another thing is that it would be REALLY hard to get to. At least from where we are.

Of any fastastical places, it would be one of the easiest.  Of course, I think Orion was only expected to get to .1C, which wouldn't allow the Lorentz effect to get anywhere near the effects you need (and then if you had the increased momentum* you would need more fuel, and extreme shielding beyond any known tech).  But it shouldn't break any known laws (note that when Douglas Adams wrote this, we weren't aware that the universe was increasing in the rate of expansion, which might put the restaurant in an "impossible" position where we couldn't outrace the expansion).

Getting back appears impossible.   But getting there shouldn't be.

* My physics classes seemed to emphasize momentum far less than most, but this looks right.  Significantly increasing velocity near c isn't quite accurate.

[PB666]

11 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

The physicists have a tradition. Every 13 bln years they build a Large Hadron Collider...

 

It's a second hand.

An alternative/consolidated way. While a civilization develops, it:

• from one side studies more and more about the entities of astronomical scale, and thus more and more precisely predicts astronomical events and dispositions;
• from another side goes deeper and deeper into the microscopic world, and thus more and more precisely predicts subatomic events and dispositions;
• builds more and more powerful computers, virtually modelling more and more parts of the surrounding world more and more precisely;

So, once, it reaches the state when it can predict every quark and every galaxy life journey in one CPU tick, while whole astronomical objects are parts of their CPU and there's no more difference for them, a one yottasecond or a plenty of eons. Thus they dissolve in nirvana.

"Slower" is a puny terrans' fiction. Who cares about several zillion more years in the Universe lifespan scale?

The universe is a definition created by sentients, if we do not exist, then the concept does not exist. If all energy in the universevis sondiffuse and sonredshifted that no communication occurs its subsequent fate is irrelevant. You can create a childish number and say beyond this universe goes on, but that universe has no meaning. The universe is that which contains everything, but at some point everything equals one type of thing, and the universe is trivial. 

[kerbiloid]

A funny wiki article, just4lulz.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future

P.S.
I don't like the "artist's concept" of the Earth. Why the continents are red, while ocean basins are black? The ocean is not so deep, they all should be of more or less the same color.

Edited July 17, 2016 by kerbiloid

[Jeanjvs]

11 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

A funny wiki article, just4lulz.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future

I was about to make a deep and meaningful reply. But now you just said everything i had to say about the topic.

 

Well, call me when someone starts a quantum physics thread!

I'll be here... learning about the biggest questions of the universe...

... on Wikipedia.

Edited July 17, 2016 by Jeanjvs