So what can we say about the future?
The ongoing search for clarification of the known unknowns, the inconsistencies and paradoxes of the universe as we presently know it
In the very “short term”, we eagerly await clarification of those areas where the Standard Model has thus far failed to provide answers, for example:
|
We also look forward to the launch of the James Webb Space telescope in 2019, with its ability to look back to the moment almost to the beginning of time and the universe’s first moments, with the capacity to provide answers to the missing pieces of the puzzle of the universe as it is presently known to us.
In the “medium term”, what does our solar system have in store?
Here, we can be on more solid ground with our predictions. We will not be around to witness these events, but the news is not good. Putting aside various man-made events with the capacity to bring on the apocalypse a lot sooner than would otherwise be the case, there are various alternative and cumulative scenarios of catastrophe, all with the capacity to occur in the fullness of time, and the occurrence of any one of them will be sufficient to render the remainder redundant[1]. Thus:
In the “medium term”, what does our solar system have in store?
Here, we can be on more solid ground with our predictions. We will not be around to witness these events, but the news is not good. Putting aside various man-made events with the capacity to bring on the apocalypse a lot sooner than would otherwise be the case, there are various alternative and cumulative scenarios of catastrophe, all with the capacity to occur in the fullness of time, and the occurrence of any one of them will be sufficient to render the remainder redundant[1]. Thus:
|
And in the really longer term, what about our universe?
In this regard, what happens is largely a matter of speculation, but there are 4 major scenarios that could occur:
Brian Cox [6] has added his usual amount of his own postulates and colour to these scenarios and comes up with something akin to the following:
Either way, any way or no way, the news is not good, but only of transient academic interest to all of us here present at this time on earth.
And the really big question….
What is the point of all this and our existence? Does this mean all our searching and our quest for understanding will have been nothing but a fruitless exercise and our perilous journey and very existence on this planet, is forever doomed to come to nothing but a fruitless end?
In the memorable words of one commentator:
In this regard, what happens is largely a matter of speculation, but there are 4 major scenarios that could occur:
- Firstly, acceleration continues broadly at its present rate, leading in 30 billion years to a “cosmic redout” when cosmic acceleration pulls all other galaxies out of our view. All evidence of the big bang will be lost, and our view of space will be much the same as it was a hundred years ago when the only galaxy we knew was the Milky Way.
- Then in 100 billion years, acceleration ends and the universe will expand eternally and the last stars burn out.
- As an alternative to the above, in 50 billion years acceleration will have intensified, there will be a big rip, and dark energy will tear apart all structures, from superclusters to atoms.
- Or, as an alternative to all the above, in 30 billion years’ time, acceleration will change to rapid decentralisation and collapse. There will occur a big crunch, perhaps followed by another big bang and the eternal cycle begins all over again.[5]
Brian Cox [6] has added his usual amount of his own postulates and colour to these scenarios and comes up with something akin to the following:
- Firstly, heat death, whose genesis may be found in the second law of thermodynamics. The idea is that on a global scale, things can only get worse and become more disordered. Under this scenario, the birth of stars is slowing down, and because of the decrease in star formation, the universe will end, not with a bang, but with a whimper.
- Under the usual process of star formation, clouds of gas and dust are continually collapsing to form new stars under the influence of gravity and heat, but this process is in decline, because the universe is running out of gas and therefore the requisite heat required to form new stars. The rate of star formation is now only half what it was 10 billion years ago. The sky will eventually be full of those large black holes which exist at the centre of every galaxy. As our successors peer out into the inky blackness, they will not be able to read the history of the universe, as we now can. They will wonder where we got our evidence from. The universe will gradually grind to a halt and we will be left with a sea of cooling photos which will last forever.
- Under the influence of Einstein’s “bad idea” - vacuum energy, the cosmological constant, or a phantom dark energy forming part of space itself - call it what you will, the rate of the universe’s expansion is accelerating, all the galaxies are getting further and further from each other and from us, and, as we have already had cause to quote, the universe will eventually become a vast, empty and lonely place. [7]
- Then there is the big rip, the idea that rather than just fade away, the repulsive push which forms part of space itself will be such that the universe will eventually tear itself apart.
- And, “finally” perhaps, there’s the idea of that the universe could be in a metastable false vacuum state, many times the age of the universe: https://cosmosmagazine.com/physics/vacuum-decay-ultimate-catastrophe
Either way, any way or no way, the news is not good, but only of transient academic interest to all of us here present at this time on earth.
And the really big question….
What is the point of all this and our existence? Does this mean all our searching and our quest for understanding will have been nothing but a fruitless exercise and our perilous journey and very existence on this planet, is forever doomed to come to nothing but a fruitless end?
In the memorable words of one commentator:
“We love and suffer … and create works of inexpressible beauty, only to perish, and, with very few exceptions, to be forgotten within a few generations”. In the meantime, the question remains for us to ponder: does our existence have any meaning, or, for all our earthly preoccupations, are we merely leading a meaningless life in a purposeless existence?[8]
|
[1] Scenarios 1 to 3 as recounted by René Heller, a postdoctoral fellow at the Origins Institute at McMaster University in Ontario, in the article “Better than Earth”, Scientific American January 2015, 20 at 22. See Plant Earth in the habitable zone page.
[2] “Astronomy Question of the Week: How long will the Sun continue to shine?” at http://www.spacefellowship.com/news/art9727/astronomy-question-of-the-week-how-long-will-the-sun-continue-to-shine-.html
[3] Ibid.
[4] Latter two scenarios’ source; Nasa Deep Space Network: http://www.cdscc.nasa.gov/Pages/Archive/Dawn_NH/dawn_nh.html Comments by comments by Greg Laughlin of the University of California, Santa Cruz.
[5] Source for the the various scenarios proffered: Michael S Turner, Michael S Turner, “Origin of the Universe”, Scientific American: Special Collector’s Edition: Extreme Physics, Probing the Mysteries of the Cosmos, August 2013, 37 at 42.
[6] Brian Cox, Life of a Universe, Part 2- End of days:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-ZhS9Tya-8
[7] Brian Greene (2005), 301.
[8] Marcelo Gleiser, Imperfect Creation, Black Inc, Melbourne, 2010, Introduction, xv.