Is Predicting the Future of the Universe a Waste of Time?

[ergospherical]

If you have half an hour to spare... I found quite a cool video.
(sprinkled with David Attenborough, Brian Cox, NdGT soundbites hehe)

my favourite bit's at around 17:00... when black hole go "brrrr"

 

[Tom.G]

Very interesting! Thanks.

Too bad that whoever did the sound mixing flunked Audio 101. I had to kill most of the audio bandwidth to catch the commentary.

 

[PeroK]

Coincidentally I watched this recently. What is the point of it all, one wonders?

 

[Filip Larsen]

Coincidentally I watched this recently. What is the point of it all, one wonders?

If you are thinking about what the point of the universe is, then apparently the scientists here suggest it could be to allow sufficiently intelligent life an incentive to make a baby universe. Not a bad purpose as purposes come, but as an engineer I foresee this will either require some extraordinary skillset and finesse, unless of course it happens as an unintended consequence of some advanced science experiment. Kind of like it can happen for humans after a drunken night in town. But that is purpose too, I guess.

 

[berkeman]

Kind of like it can happen for humans after a drunken night in town.

That made me laugh!

 

[fresh_42]

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

 

[256bits]

So as the universe expands forever, the temperature drops to 0K and all matter and energy cease to exist.
Seems like the universe in this progression suffers a decrease in entropy along the way.

 

[James William Hall]

Are we done now with predicting the future of the universe? Did Frank Tipler in his book, The Physics of Immortality, waste his time on the premise of a closed universe? If we do discover in the next billion years or so that the universe can be made to close because we prefer that outcome (which we will do as it is beautiful) will his book be any more relevant or will it remain in the trash bin for bad physics, or well, you know for what other reason.