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The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make

nautil.us

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Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make

#41

Post by webkike »

stackbutterflow wrote: post #36
misthop wrote: post #12

Wikipedia has a page on the Timeline of the far future[1]. It lists a ton of physical and cosmological things that are predicted to happen based on our current understanding of physics. A really fun read that always takes me down a rabbit's hole of phenomena wikipedia pages. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future

There's a video on that. The end of the universe: https://youtu.be/uD4izuDMUQA This is so weird to think that for most of its life the universe will be empty and cold. Like what's even the point of all this, of life, of us, if in the end nothing matters, everything decays into nothingness.

Super Mario bros is pretty fun

Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make

#42

Post by mormegil »

acheron wrote: post #6
digitcatphd wrote: post #4

It is funny, I was just thinking about this myself, the fact that in a determinable amount of time, the observable universe, will be completely unable to sustain any type of life. Really puts things into perspective.

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Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make

#43

Post by [deleted] »

stackbutterflow wrote: post #36
misthop wrote: post #12

Wikipedia has a page on the Timeline of the far future[1]. It lists a ton of physical and cosmological things that are predicted to happen based on our current understanding of physics. A really fun read that always takes me down a rabbit's hole of phenomena wikipedia pages. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future

There's a video on that. The end of the universe: https://youtu.be/uD4izuDMUQA This is so weird to think that for most of its life the universe will be empty and cold. Like what's even the point of all this, of life, of us, if in the end nothing matters, everything decays into nothingness.

[deleted]

Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make

#44

Post by Out_of_Characte »

SamBam wrote: post #24

I'd be interested to know how people (humanity) would feel if it were known that the universe would just come to a hard-stop in a million years. In practice, it should make no difference. That's already much, much further than any of us can comprehend. It's a hundred times the length of recorded human history. What would it really matter? On the other hand, it would seem so short, I think a sense of nihilism would al…

Its more like the entirety of humanity is frozen in time. 13.7 billion years ago the universe began, life was 3.8 billion years ago, the first telescope was 405 years ago. The only way to see how stars and planets develop is by taking thousands of celestial bodies and figure out the rules of the universe.

Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make

#45

Post by foxyv »

This makes me wonder, how many sparks of life and ancient civilizations have been wiped from the universe by the birth and death of stars. How many supernovae have violently ripped them from existence. How many rogue stars have cooked them to molten slag. What a small and fragile thing humanity is in the face of these forces.

Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make

#46

Post by s1artibartfast »

It is important to contextualize what almost all means in this context of a vast and possibly infinite universe. It leaves an incomprehensible number of stars yet to form. It also leaves open a backdoor for a star forming Renaissance if blackhole activity dies down in another 10 billion years.

Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make

#47

Post by lemonberry »

stackbutterflow wrote: post #36
misthop wrote: post #12

Wikipedia has a page on the Timeline of the far future[1]. It lists a ton of physical and cosmological things that are predicted to happen based on our current understanding of physics. A really fun read that always takes me down a rabbit's hole of phenomena wikipedia pages. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future

There's a video on that. The end of the universe: https://youtu.be/uD4izuDMUQA This is so weird to think that for most of its life the universe will be empty and cold. Like what's even the point of all this, of life, of us, if in the end nothing matters, everything decays into nothingness.

"Nothing matters"

This is true in the biggest sense of the word. But it's also false. We all have things that matter to us and the various communities that we belong to. In some ways, to me anyway, it's very liberating: life as a blank canvas to imbue it with the meaning we want on.

That won't resonate with everyone or even most people, but it's motivating for me.

Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make

#48

Post by simonh »

stackbutterflow wrote: post #36
misthop wrote: post #12

Wikipedia has a page on the Timeline of the far future[1]. It lists a ton of physical and cosmological things that are predicted to happen based on our current understanding of physics. A really fun read that always takes me down a rabbit's hole of phenomena wikipedia pages. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future

There's a video on that. The end of the universe: https://youtu.be/uD4izuDMUQA This is so weird to think that for most of its life the universe will be empty and cold. Like what's even the point of all this, of life, of us, if in the end nothing matters, everything decays into nothingness.

It's about the journey, not the destination.

Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make

#49

Post by bntyhntr »

stackbutterflow wrote: post #36
misthop wrote: post #12

Wikipedia has a page on the Timeline of the far future[1]. It lists a ton of physical and cosmological things that are predicted to happen based on our current understanding of physics. A really fun read that always takes me down a rabbit's hole of phenomena wikipedia pages. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future

There's a video on that. The end of the universe: https://youtu.be/uD4izuDMUQA This is so weird to think that for most of its life the universe will be empty and cold. Like what's even the point of all this, of life, of us, if in the end nothing matters, everything decays into nothingness.

(Simplification, I'm happy and "well-adjusted" whatever that means): I've accepted the fact that my body has an urge to survive and it's not worth (and why would I want to) trying to weigh that against the grand nothingness that my life will amount to. I don't think there's a point to it all but if my body's gonna make me live then I'm gonna live it up. But it is kinda weird.

Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make

#50

Post by lemonberry »

webkike wrote: post #41
stackbutterflow wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a video on that. The end of the universe: https://youtu.be/uD4izuDMUQA This is so weird to think that for most of its life the universe will be empty and cold. Like what's even the point of all this, of life, of us, if in the end nothing matters, everything decays into nothingness.

Super Mario bros is pretty fun

I imagined this as a modern buddhist story:

The student approaches their master lamenting the meaninglessness of everything.

The master, "Super Mario bros is pretty fun".

Enlightenment ensues.

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