How to Survive the End of the Universe (In 7 Steps)
I love the title of this article from Discover Magazine, written by Michio Kaku. It is adapted from his book 
Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos. The article is tightly packed with astrophysics -- so much so, that to really get it all, you either buy the book or research the details on the internet -- either option is tantalizing if you have the time and find the topic engaging. To begin with, back in 1998, astronomers concluded that the universe is open. It's expanding rapidly and the rate of expansion is increasing. Whatever is aiding the expansion has been label "dark energy" and "dark matter" -- dark, cause we can see it, but the math says it has got to be there -- or our models are wrong -- a possibility. To make matters (pun intended) worse, as the universe expands, there appears to be more dark energy present to make it expand faster. Current estimates from the WMAP analysis suggests that 73% of the universe is made up of dark energy, another 23% of dark matter and only 4% is made up of the stuff we know -- the stars, the planets, the gas clouds, etc.
Eventually, the universe will run out. The density will be so low, that it will become dark, cold and lonely. The stars will flicker out of existence and the most advanced civilizations will have nothing but Hawking radiation from black holes to keep them warm -- and eventually, that will run out too. With temperatures hitting absolute zero, everything will die. Even the machines. That may be millions or trillions of years away. Before we reach that end, we will first have to survive ourselves here on planet Earth. Stop killing each other, the planet and cure all diseases. As well, we would have to be capable of interstellar travel in order to escape from our solar system 5 billion years from now when the Sun goes boom. If we survive all that and make it to the end of the universe, we'll want a way out, and the only place to go will be to another universe.
Parallel universes was an idea Andrei Linde proposed, built from Alan Guth's inflationary theory. Linde suggested that inflation may not have been a singular event, but may have created a parent universe that spawned baby universes, each baby universe itself a parent universe that spawned other baby universes, and so on, in a never-ending cycle. To get from one universe to another, one would have to hop a ride through an Einstein-Rosen bridge -- a wormhole. This is not science fiction. Scientists are searching for evidence of parallel universes, perhaps existing no more than a millimetre or atomic distances away from ours.
Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos. The article is tightly packed with astrophysics -- so much so, that to really get it all, you either buy the book or research the details on the internet -- either option is tantalizing if you have the time and find the topic engaging. To begin with, back in 1998, astronomers concluded that the universe is open. It's expanding rapidly and the rate of expansion is increasing. Whatever is aiding the expansion has been label "dark energy" and "dark matter" -- dark, cause we can see it, but the math says it has got to be there -- or our models are wrong -- a possibility. To make matters (pun intended) worse, as the universe expands, there appears to be more dark energy present to make it expand faster. Current estimates from the WMAP analysis suggests that 73% of the universe is made up of dark energy, another 23% of dark matter and only 4% is made up of the stuff we know -- the stars, the planets, the gas clouds, etc.Eventually, the universe will run out. The density will be so low, that it will become dark, cold and lonely. The stars will flicker out of existence and the most advanced civilizations will have nothing but Hawking radiation from black holes to keep them warm -- and eventually, that will run out too. With temperatures hitting absolute zero, everything will die. Even the machines. That may be millions or trillions of years away. Before we reach that end, we will first have to survive ourselves here on planet Earth. Stop killing each other, the planet and cure all diseases. As well, we would have to be capable of interstellar travel in order to escape from our solar system 5 billion years from now when the Sun goes boom. If we survive all that and make it to the end of the universe, we'll want a way out, and the only place to go will be to another universe.
Parallel universes was an idea Andrei Linde proposed, built from Alan Guth's inflationary theory. Linde suggested that inflation may not have been a singular event, but may have created a parent universe that spawned baby universes, each baby universe itself a parent universe that spawned other baby universes, and so on, in a never-ending cycle. To get from one universe to another, one would have to hop a ride through an Einstein-Rosen bridge -- a wormhole. This is not science fiction. Scientists are searching for evidence of parallel universes, perhaps existing no more than a millimetre or atomic distances away from ours.
The Seven Steps
(1) To get anywhere close to escaping the end of the universe, an advanced civilization will have to discover the laws of quantum gravity -- basically, find a theory of everything. The leading theory we have today is string theory or M-theory. String theory proposes that all subatomic particles are different vibrations on a tiny string or membrane that exists in higher-dimensional hyperspace. Our universe might therefore be a huge membrane hanging in 11-dimensional space, and could be one of many such membranes, existing enticingly close to each other -- and to get from one to another, we would simply have to find a bridge.For further exploration of some of the topics raised by this article, check out the links below:
(2) Find a naturally occurring wormhole. The Big Bang released an incredible amount of energy -- this may have left behind all sorts of weird things, such as cosmic strings, false vacuums, negative matter or energy, and wormholes.
(3) Black holes may be another way of escaping the universe, and the good news is, there are lots of them. The bad news of course is the event horizon. While it is theoretically possible to pass through a black hole, we would have to learn a lot. One tantalizing prospect is that of a Kerr ring -- a mathematical proposal by Roy Kerr that a rapidly spinning black hole will collapse not into a singularity, but a ring due to centrifugal force. The possibility of a Kerr ring serving as an elevator shaft running through floors that are each a universe brings up interesting possibilities.
(4) Create a black hole in slow motion to study them, wormholes and space-time.
(5) Create a wormhole using negative energy/matter. In 1988, Kip Thorne and colleagues showed that by using negative energy/matter, a wormhole could be created to allow travel between vast distances. To do this, we would have to create negative energy/matter in vast quantities -- today, in the lab, the Casimir effect has produced detectable amounts of negative energy.
(6) Create a baby universe ourselves. The amount of matter required to create a baby universe isn't that much -- maybe a few ounces. The big problem comes in being able to force that matter into a small enough spot to create a false vacuum. Two options of doing this are: a) using powerful lasers -- although each laser would have to be powered by a nuclear bomb; b) use a cosmic atom smasher -- think of a particle accelerator with the diameter of our solar system.
(7) If we find out that only atom-sized particles could travel through a wormhole, a future civilization would have to send a nanobot through to recreate the entire civilization. Think of it as colonization the way Arthur C. Clarke envisioned it 2001: A Space Odyssey. The nanobot would have to be able to replicate itself, and then have stored in it, the DNA, personality and memory of every person alive in colonizing civilization.
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) -- analysis of cosmic background radiation Dark Energy [PDF] and Dark Matter -- the stuff we can't see Einstein-Rosen bridges [PDF] -- or wormholes Alan Guth [PDF] -- inflation theory Andrei Linde [PDF] -- extension of inflation theory; a review of the multiverse concept [PDF]. Gravitational Physics [PDF] The Universe's Unseen Dimensions Large Hadron Collider -- searching for exotic particles [PDF] that may indicate parallel universes in higher dimensions Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) -- searching for gravity waves Nikolai Kardashev -- classification of civilizations [PDF] based on their energy consumption Roy Kerr -- mathematical possibility of a Kerr ring [PPT] from a rapidly spinning black hole Kip Thorne -- creation of a wormhole using negative energy [PDF] Hendrik Casimir -- the Casimir effect [PDF]
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