# Can Mankind Survive The "Death of the Universe"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 29, 2003, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-mankind-survive-the-death-of-the-universe/191697 "2003-07-29T17:19:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-mankind-survive-the-death-of-the-universe/191697/21 "2003-07-30T19:00:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjk \* > **See Heinlein’s “Let There be Light”.** Did he really write such a story? That quote was the punchline from Asimov’s The Last Question, which is what came immediately to my mind when I saw this thread title. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-mankind-survive-the-death-of-the-universe/191697/22 "2003-07-30T20:47:27Z")
In Fred Pohl’s _Tau Zero_ some people manage to survive the big crunch by going into orbit around the monobloc (in a ramjet doing .9999… c). Don’t know how much of the physics makes sense anymore though. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-mankind-survive-the-death-of-the-universe/191697/23 "2003-07-30T21:45:46Z")
> [@](#): > > In Fred Pohl’s Tau Zero some people manage to survive the big crunch by going into orbit around the monobloc (in a ramjet doing .9999… c). Don’t know how much of the physics makes sense anymore though. Nope, doesn’t work. If the Big Crunch occurs, it’ll be everywhere, in exactly the same manner that the Big Bang was everywhere. You can’t orbit around the end singularity, any more than you can sail off the edge of the Earth. And proton decay is not something to worry about. It’s happening now at the same rate that it’ll ever happen in the future, and the current rate is so slow that I don’t think a proton decay has ever been observed. So every few aeons, you’ll lose a proton, and then just take another bite of your sandwich to replace it. The real problem is where you’re going to get your useable energy. It’s conceivable that you might be able to slow down asymptotically in such a way as to use a finite total energy and yet think an infinite number of thoughts, but there’s no known way to put that into practice. And it’s conceivable that entropy might be reversible, but we’re even more clueless on how, if at all, that can be done. ---
**Author:** ![gorillaboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dc4da7/32.png) [@gorillaboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gorillaboy)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-mankind-survive-the-death-of-the-universe/191697/24 "2003-07-30T22:16:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ralph124c \* > \*\*I have read that according to cosmologists, the stars will begin to exhaust their hydrogen , and billions of years from now, the universe will get blacker and blaker. The stars will burn out, and life will cease. Lateron, an even more insidious threat-the actual matter we are made from (protons actually) will decay! > My question: can man escape the death of the universe? Can we construct life systems independent of the stars (and hide out on a white dwarf, for example)? > How can we cope with proton decay thought? Should I be worried about all of this? Of course, we have plenty oftime to plan a strategy-what CAN we do to insure that the human race survives the running-down of the universe?:eek: \*\* There’s a book called “The Five Ages of the Universe” that deals with this in detail. [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743237722/qid=1059603827/sr=8-1/ref=sr\_8\_1/104-0586663-0685547?v=glance&s=books&n=507846](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743237722/qid=1059603827/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/104-0586663-0685547?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) Highly reccomended. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-mankind-survive-the-death-of-the-universe/191697/25 "2003-07-30T23:53:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Keeve \* > \*\*Did he really write such a story? That quote was the punchline from Asimov’s The Last Question, which is what came immediately to my mind when I saw this thread title. \*\* Insufficient data for meaningful answer. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-mankind-survive-the-death-of-the-universe/191697/26 "2003-07-31T02:16:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ranchoth \* > \*\*Insufficient data for meaningful answer. \*\* ROFL! Thanks, I needed that! ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-mankind-survive-the-death-of-the-universe/191697/27 "2003-07-31T03:08:51Z")
Damn, **Keeve** , you’re right. It was Asimov’s story. Google would have found it. I blame it on posting from memory too late at night. I’ll go away now, hanging my head in shame. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-mankind-survive-the-death-of-the-universe/191697/28 "2003-07-31T05:11:58Z")
A lamer version of the “Tau Ceti” solution - just accelerate to the speed of light. As I understand it, the passage of time would stop for you, subjectively - so in this timeframe, you would still exist for an infinite amount of time. Of course, since the passage of time has subjectively stopped, you’re frozen in one instant and can’t do anything, even think - everything has stopped. So this isn’t actually a “useful” solution, and from the standpoint of the rest of the universe you’ll still be destoyed with everything else. _shrugs_ Maybe someone will invent time travel? This begs the questions of how come we haven’t been visited by time travelers if the technology will be invented - but maybe they’ve simply decided to move in time AND space, traveling back a few billion years from the end of the universe and also to “a galaxy far, far away”. _shrugs_ ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-mankind-survive-the-death-of-the-universe/191697/29 "2003-07-31T06:03:31Z")
Time travel is the best bet. The only answer to the paradox is that you can only travel back as far as when the machine was first invented. Since it hasn’t been invented yet, they can’t travel back to now; thus, no visitors yet. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-mankind-survive-the-death-of-the-universe/191697/30 "2003-07-31T13:01:38Z")
Time travel is a bad option. As soon as the first time machine is invented we will be swamped by refugees from the heat death and the mass of the present universe will increase till it collapses. Unless you carefully manage the mass balance to create a steady state universe- like these guys [the Chronomegists](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Chronomegists&btnG=Google+Search%5B/url) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-mankind-survive-the-death-of-the-universe/191697.md?page=1)