GENS4010 Week 14

I think speculating about the end of the universe is really fascinating. It's almost like gazing into the deep depths of ocean where you're not sure what lies underneath, or looking into the sky where you don't know what's beyond the dark matter. I was also quite surprised that there're actually established theories on how the universe will end, such as the Big Crunch of Big Freeze.

The two theories mentioned above seem most prominent amongst other theories regarding the end of the universe (in scientific arena, that is). So to clarify to myself, below is a brief outline of how those 2 theories work:

Big Freeze

I think the Big Freeze theory is based on the 2nd law of thermodynamics, which claims that, when seperated from other influences, complex things will break down into smaller things. This may be what's happening with the universe. If it continues to expand, then there might be no more energy left to sustain both life and light, which means the universe will just become - in my own analogy - a gigantic freezer.

Big Crunch

On the other hand, the Big Crunch theory states that the universe may actually reverse its expansion and start contracting, drawing many galaxies together close enough that the gravitational force will pull them into each other, resulting in a great collision amongst stars and planets and eventually destroying everything.

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In regards to religion, Christianity believes in what I think can be called a judgement day, where Jesus will return back to Earth and grant a life of eternal peace in heaven for those who believe in God, and cast the faithless into fiery pits of hell. Below is a diagram from the lecture material that I found very useful and easy to understand.

One suggestion from the lecturer was that perhaps the new age of God's Kingdom shown above in the diagram represents heaven. Being a non-Christian, I have my doubts in that regard, but it's nevertheless amusing to wonder what it would be like on the judgement day. Would people literally ascend or descend to heaven or hell? Or would those realms turn out to be just metaphorical? Or would they not exist at all? It's a shame that we can't ask the dead.

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The readings for this week was very interesting as well. It was written by Paul Davies called The Last Three Minutes, which explored the idea of human survival in a very long-term projection. Some of the ideas suggested were space travel and planet colonisation, and I really do believe such science fiction can come true one day. It only makes me wish that I was born a few million years later so that I could witness what it would be like to live in the age of space travel.

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As a final note, while I was searching for something that might easily explain some of the theories regarding the end of the universe, I found a very fascinating documentary about the end of Earth on YouTube that I would recommend others to watch. It talks about the collision of objects from space into Earth and how such collision can happen again in the future.

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However we might end, the truth of the matter is that the end of universe isn't something that is widely talked about now, and with good reason. There is nothing to indicate that our existence will end any time soon, and it is not a thought that occurs in my mind before I go to bed in the evening or when I wake up in the morning. But this is not to say that we should grow detached from the idea because it is nevertheless a fascinating topic to discuss.