Discussion the ultimate fate of the universe

[thejumper]

Been doing a lot of research about the universe and the ultimate fate awaiting it in the end. During this process, there are times I get so disassociated with reality that I feel like I'm gradually succumbing to madness, but I'm aware that I'm not mad and will probably never be. I'm highly interested in astrophysics and the space, so most of my time is spent reading about these topics on the internet, which leads me to the question of "What happens then?". You think about existence itself, the Big Bang, Heat Deah of the universe and so on, arriving at nothing conclusive. The insatiable curiosity to learn about it all sometimes proves profoundly difficult for me to come to terms with reality itself, leaving me dejected in this vast void. I want some relief from my underlying affliction, so to speak. The only thing giving me hope is working on my Computer Science degree and maybe someday working with great scientists. I'd been coping this way for the past months but lately I've been feeling like I'm using this "hope" as a means of masking my passive depression (I don't like to associate with the word depression but couldn't find a better word).

What happens after the heat death of the universe though? I firmly believe that nonexistence is the way until that event, which is supposed to occur approximately 1.7×10106​ years from now if protons decay. Does everything end then? If it doesn't, what then? I feel like we might be stuck in an eternal oblivion, going through some existential cycles that our minds are incapable of comprehending.

I'm obsessed with these questions and want a way out. I wish I didn't have this amount of keen curiosity from my childhood.

Have a great day.

 

[scared:bug]

How strange is the world, how strange is living, how strange is the mind...

 

[Pluto]

This topic is a bit of a rabbit hole since there are many unknowns. Should we view time as a linear graph in which the Big Bang happens at some point, then the heat death a googol or so later? Scientists might argue that time itself is tightly integrated with space and did not exist prior to the Big Bang.

The next unknown is the question of multiple dimensions in a multiverse. This perspective could render our entire universe as less than a single grain of sand compared to a much vaster cosmic superstructure, the overwhelming majority of which is beyond our ability to interact with.

While today's scientific narrative centres around the heat death, it's worth noting that the main driver of universal expansion - dark energy - is a completely mysterious force. An alternative scenario - the universe contracting in a 'big crunch' followed by another 'big bounce' - cannot be ruled out and would be more in kilter with nature's theme of cycles. This repeating cosmic heartbeat is how the universe works according to the theologian Neale Donald Walsch, who also quotes William Shakespeare's Hamlet:

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

 

[Abandoned Character]

I am a big fan of Roger Penrose's pet theory of what happens. You can find him succinctly describing his view in a joe rogan episode. Essentially, Penrose claims that once the final black holes evaporate (as we know they will, thank you Steven Hawking), since light does not necessarily "percieve" space nor time, and given a hyperbolic universe, all light will become pressed at the infinitely distant "boundary," so to speak. As a result, another "big bang" will occur, giving rise to another epoch of cosmic evolution and decay. Penrose has done some preliminary work on this theory, even demonstrating that we may be able to see traces of the previous epoch's final moments within the cosmic microwave background.

I like this idea because of its poetic implication, although I admit that is not very rigorous. The cycle continues ad infinitum, birth and death. In and out. This great happening comes and goes, the nature of which eludes itself.

 

[carac]

Me trying to understand this discussion