Voyage of the Stars

The hypothesis of the ending of the universe seems to be of little use to today's human beings. It seems like a false and empty theory, but in fact it is not. The development of a scientific and technological civilization is inseparable from the development of basic science, and a correct universe model is a booster and guide for the development of civilization.

It is said that the cosmological model is one of the so-called stones in the river. It will provide inspiration and thinking methods for scientists in many fields, and even allow scientists to deduce what kind of applied technology should be available at the stage of civilization.

Just like this unfinished particle collider, without a cosmological model, it would be impossible for humans to know or think of using it to collide with a cosmic environment in which the strong interaction force is not symmetrically broken, and to study it. Grand unified theory.

As for the hypothesis of the end of the universe, there are currently three mainstream views within human civilization, namely the previously mentioned Big Rip, Big Crunch, and Big Freeze, also known as the heat death theory.

The theory of heat death has been said before that there are five stages in total, the primitive period, the star-filled period, the degradation period, the black hole period, and the dark period. This is a cosmological model derived based on the third law of thermodynamics. The primordial period and the stellar period are basically similar to other cosmological models, so I won’t go into details.

The so-called third stage of degradation in the theory of heat death means that the energy of the stars in the universe is exhausted, and all the stars eventually turn into pieces of lifeless, dead nuclear material in the form of dwarf stars and neutron stars. , black holes, stars in the sky no longer shine, and the universe gradually falls into darkness.

Going forward is the fourth stage of the black hole period. The only energy in the universe is the energy of black hole evaporation. At this stage, all intelligent life that has not yet become extinct may be like homeless people, huddled together in the upcoming black hole. The embers of the last extinguished black hole absorb the last bit of warmth until the black holes evaporate.

As for the final fifth-stage dark period, as the name suggests, even the black hole has evaporated, and even the proton itself has completely decayed. There is only a floating sea of ​​photons and a thin soup of particles that interact weakly in the universe, that is, Neutrinos, electrons and their antiparticles, etc.

Of course, this idea also faces insurmountable difficulties, that is, although the size of positron atoms is comparable to that of ordinary atoms, the diameter of positron atoms in the dark period will reach 3.26*10 to the 12th power. Millions of light-years, which is millions of times larger than the visible universe measured by humans in today's starry age.

So in the dark period, even if life glows with its final spring, these new lives will be as big as the entire universe. Of course, by then the universe would have expanded to a greater extreme breadth, and it would be easy to accommodate these new life forms. But even so, these new lives will be because the positron atoms are too large, and any "chemical reactions" based on these "atoms" will also be carried out on an astonishing scale.

It is conceivable that it will be a universe completely different from human cognition.

At this time, the universe may be glowing with the last spring of life, because if time goes forward, it will be absolute thermal equilibrium, and the universe will eventually be dead. Heat death, the Big Freeze of the universe, absolute zero, a dead silence without any energy fluctuations.

Scientists speculate that the cosmic environment during the Dark Ages may have been composed of a new type of "atom" called positronium, which is composed of electrons and positrons rotating in opposition to each other.

Scientists who insist on this hypothesis believe that this kind of "atom" composed of electrons and anti-electrons may become the basic condition for the formation of new intelligent life during this dark period.

They even believe that there may be a kind of life form based on positrons in the current universe, and because of the cosmic environment, the positrons in the Star Age are not as large as those in the Dark Ages, so the positrons formed on this basis Life will not be as big as the entire universe, but will be like life composed of atoms in the age of stars.

Of course, there are differences. Based on the dark age theory of the heat death hypothesis and the characteristics of positronium, scientists speculate that life forms based on atoms formed by positronium must be completely different from the life forms that humans currently recognize. It is very likely that it is some kind of life form that is naturally adapted to the environment of the universe.

In order to make their views accepted by more people, these scientists also moved the awakeners and pioneers out of the platform. The reason is that the original awakeners and the rhombus crystals representing the pioneers have told humans the words "group technological civilization" .

Although neither of them directly said that there is a single civilization in the universe, if there is no single civilization or they have never seen a single civilization, then there is no need to add a "group" to technological civilization.

These scientists believe that the "monomeric civilization" hidden in the words of the awakeners and the rhombus crystals representing the pioneers may be life forms based on positron atoms.

Of course, humans do not know how life or even intelligent life based on positron atoms would exist in the universe in the age of stars. After all, they have never seen it. But there is no doubt that the cosmological model of the heat death theory has indeed provided scientists with such an idea, allowing humans to theoretically accept the possibility of the existence of a single civilization.

It can be seen from this that perfecting the cosmological model is not lofty and useless. On the contrary, it is very useful, but ordinary people who are not involved in scientific research are not aware of it.

Not only that, the correct cosmological model may also allow humans to deduce the destination of the so-called Great Voyage. Human scientists believe that the great voyage that left the sixth-level civilization with no choice must be related to the ending of the universe or some ultimate answer.

If the universe ends like this, where should life and civilization go?

Scientists believe that behind every hypothesis about the ending of the universe, it will directly affect the behavior of advanced civilizations. Oh no, perhaps it should be said to be the behavior of god-level civilizations.

If the universe ends as predicted by the heat death hypothesis, then no intelligent life will survive in the end, and even in the Dark Ages, no civilization will be able to survive in the form of the Age of Stars, then those who see it will What will a god-level civilization do when it ends like this?

Do they transform themselves into a form that adapts to the environment, stay in a state as close to absolute zero as possible, use a form of pure consciousness, and sacrifice the speed of thinking to survive? Or find another way to prevent the heat death of the universe?

The ending of the heat death at the end of the Big Freeze is indeed mind-numbing, but it is a problem that every life that understands the universe has to face. Perhaps only the God of Death can live forever in this ending.

Death is immortal, and death can be defined as the final cessation of processing all information. For any intelligent species in the universe, from the moment they begin to understand the basic laws of physics, they will be forced to realize that any intelligent life that the universe is likely to accommodate will eventually die.

Fortunately, the intelligent life in the age of stars still has time. They may work hard to find answers for a long time to come, to find out whether the physics of this universe allows them to continue to survive.