Has the author considered K-Pop?
The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
101–110 of 213 posts
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#102I'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…
> 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.
I see what you mean by setting a hard stop, it does mean little in the end. The Wikipedia timeline, which makes a lot of assumptions, show galaxy formation stopping at 100 trillion years from now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future
We're human beings who only came on the scene around 200,000 years ago. It's impressive that we can work out the math and physics to try to comprehend 100 trillion years, but it is impossible to even imagine where conscious life would be at that point, if it exists at all.
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#103What is it that I’m late to every party?
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#104Earlier 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.
Thinking about this stuff is what prompted my thinking about things like suicide. The Universe is so vast. So much space, most of it with only the barest wisp of gas. Most of the solar systems we see in the night sky may not have life (we don't know yet). And yet here we are, a rare event in a vast Universe. In the end it doesn't matter what you do. What you accomplish or did not accomplish. What awards were won or l…
It helps to think of time as a dimension. Sure, you, anyone or anything will not last measured on this dimension. But it still has a span. You would not call objects meaningless or less beautiful just because they physically end at some point in space. Why is time so different? It is just the fourth dimension of their shape, giving them a more unique character.
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#105So the universe is just biding it’s time to die? This is it, no more creation, no more new platforms for biological miracles. Interesting, so while humans figure out how to navigate the universe, many planets/stars would simply die and we will not even know.
Conceptually I have a hard time imagining that the universe could not 'restart' ... otherwise how could it 'start' at all.
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
"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.
Albert Camus wrote a beautiful (IMHO, at least) book about it, The Myth of Sisyphus . His point, as I understand it, is that nothing matters in the sense that the universe is vast and empty does not care what happens to you or me. But that also means we get to choose what matters to us . Life has no meaning, but it has meaning to us , and we can, in a way, choose what we want it to mean. I agree, I find this perspect…
In this framework, Stalin and Kim Jong-Il created their own meaning and no one has a basis for saying what they chose is worse than anyone else's choice.
To many of us, that is horribly demoralizing.
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thinking about this stuff is what prompted my thinking about things like suicide. The Universe is so vast. So much space, most of it with only the barest wisp of gas. Most of the solar systems we see in the night sky may not have life (we don't know yet). And yet here we are, a rare event in a vast Universe. In the end it doesn't matter what you do. What you accomplish or did not accomplish. What awards were won or l…
It helps to think of time as a dimension. Sure, you, anyone or anything will not last measured on this dimension. But it still has a span. You would not call objects meaningless or less beautiful just because they physically end at some point in space. Why is time so different? It is just the fourth dimension of their shape, giving them a more unique character.
I love this take. Very Vonnegut.
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#108Wikipedia 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.
Chances are it is a simulated universe, so no need to be so grim. (No sarcasm.)
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#109This dramatic visualization of the timeline for the rest of the universe is well worth a watch to get a feel for what we believe the future of the universe to look like [TIMELAPSE OF THE FUTURE: A Journey to the End of Time] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD4izuDMUQA However, when you get to the end (which is perhaps a little depressing!), I'd recommend learning a bit about what we think could come 'after' this peri…
Obligatory link to Isaac Asimov's wonderful short story "The Last Question" which explores this topic: https://www.physics.princeton.edu/ph115/LQ.pdf
Another great one dealing with this topic is Exhalation by Ted Chiang. Less cosmic, more provincial, but still beautiful.
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#110Wikipedia 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.
If this is all we get, if there's no point of life outside of life, it's all the more important to treat it preciously. If someone ends your life or abuses you, you don't get a second round.