Universe expected to decay in 10⁷⁸ years, much sooner than previously thought

Re:Universe expected to decay in 10⁷⁸ years, much sooner tha... by Lerc on Monday May 12, 2025 @07:00AM (#43961661)

If there is nothing left, does time pass? Does it pass but is meaningless? Does it no longer exist?

The same question goes for space. Is there any size to the nothingness? To go further when you have notions like inflation, can you have nothing that is increasing in volume? That would suggest a change in state an thus a sense of not yet ended.

It would be a weird thing for nothingness to change state. It seems like fertile soil for sci-fi. Imagine if space itself was kind of Turing complete and once the noise of matter ended it could start the real work, which of course would be simulating the next universe.

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Re:Universe expected to decay in 10⁷⁸ years, much sooner tha... by mr_toad on Monday May 12, 2025 @07:15AM (#43961764)

> It would be a weird thing for nothingness to change state.

If there are no physical laws, there’s nothing to stop that happening.

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Re:Universe expected to decay in 10⁷⁸ years, much sooner tha... by coolcase on Monday May 12, 2025 @07:06AM (#43961705)

There is a theory out there that once heat death is done distance is meaningless, therefore zero, therefore big bang again.

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Re:Universe expected to decay in 10⁷⁸ years, much sooner tha... by Lerc on Monday May 12, 2025 @07:17AM (#43961772)

That was kind of my intuition as well, similarly for time, if there was no distinction between long and short amounts of time, an instant would be the same as eons. If the big bang was improbable but possible it would just happen. The fact that we are here is suggestive that is possible.

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Re:Universe expected to decay in 10⁷⁸ years, much sooner tha... by laxd on Monday May 12, 2025 @11:53AM (#43964409)

Conformal cyclic cosmology, by Roger Penrose

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Re:Universe expected to decay in 10⁷⁸ years, much sooner tha... by coolcase on Monday May 12, 2025 @05:55PM (#43967841)

I think that's it. Ad a layman I don't understand how the final transition (final hawking radiation) then tells the rest of the universe "I'm done" similar to a sprint retro!

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Re:Universe expected to decay in 10⁷⁸ years, much sooner tha... by zero_bias on Tuesday May 13, 2025 @01:49AM (#43969922)

It’s a beautiful theory, and I’d like to believe in it, but with ubiquitous virtual particles, the last particle in the universe would never be alone to reject time

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