In this post we will examine the end of the universe, why it may arrive sooner than expected, and what you can personally do about it.
Projected Universe Life Phases
Have you ever wondered how long our universe has left to exist? Here is the current perspective.
We exist in what we have named the Stelliferous Era (current era with stars and galaxies) which will last roughly up to about 1 trillion years (~10Ā¹Ā² years). Compared to the entire lifespan of the universe, this is an extremely short period, roughly 0.00001% to 0.001% of the total cosmic timeline.
- Life: Yes, life as we know it can exist because stars provide energy and elements needed for chemistry and biology. Planets orbiting stars can support life; Earth is an example.
- Consciousness: Yes, complex life with consciousness arises here (e.g., humans), enabled by stable environments and energy flow
The Degenerate Era follows, lasting from about 1 trillion years up to about 10ā“ā° years. This is a vastly longer period than the Stelliferous Era but still tiny compared to the full timeline, roughly 0.00000001% to 0.0001%. Stellar lifting (removing helium from the surface of suns) may modestly extend star lifetimes by reducing mass but it cannot reignite iron cores or prevent core collapse. The iron coreās degeneracy and nuclear physics set hard limits on star lifespans, meaning stars cannot be made to last into the degenerate era by known or plausible means.
- Life: Extremely unlikely. Stars have burned out; only cold remnants remain. Planets are frozen or ejected. Energy sources for life vanish, making traditional life unsustainable
- Consciousness: Biological consciousness as we know it is probably impossible due to lack of energy and habitable environments. Speculative forms of consciousness (e.g., digital or exotic) might persist if advanced technology exists.
The Black Hole Era spans from about 10ā“ā° to 10Ā¹ā°ā° years, where black holes slowly evaporate. Although this is an unimaginably long time, it still represents only a tiny fraction of the total timeline, about 0.000001% to 1%.
- Life: Conventional life is impossible; no stars, only black holes slowly evaporating.
- Consciousness: Possibly only as advanced computational or digital forms using Hawking radiation energy, if technology can harness it
The Dark Era begins after all black holes have evaporated and lasts from about 10Ā¹ā°ā° years onward, effectively dominating the timeline. This era accounts for more than 99.9999% of the universeās total projected lifespan, as the universe cools toward absolute zero and matter becomes extremely diffuse.
- Life: No known physical basis for life; universe is near absolute zero, matter is diffuse.
- Consciousness: Purely speculative; consciousness might persist only as minimal energy computations or quantum states if any energy remains
Given this timeline, you may think that the end of the universe is more than a Googol (10 to the 100th power) years away. However, there is a wild card that may pop up at any time.
Why Vacuum Decay Could Change Everything
Vacuum decay is a universal existential threat that would instantaneously end all cosmic structures and eras, overriding gradual evolutionary processes like star death or black hole evaporation. Vacuum decay bubbles nucleate as roughly spherical regions of true vacuum within the false vacuum. The bubble walls accelerate outward, approaching the speed of light uniformly in all directions initially, resulting in near-spherical expansion. The decay is driven by the energy difference between the false and true vacuum. This expansion is energetically favored and unstoppable by gravity or ordinary matter.
Have Stars Ever Vanished from the Sky?
Astronomical surveys over the past decades have occasionally recorded rare and intriguing instances where stars appear to vanish from view, sparking curiosity and speculation. However, careful analysis shows that these disappearances are almost always attributable to natural astrophysical phenomena rather than any catastrophic cosmic event like vacuum decay. For example, the star KIC 8462852āoften called “Tabby’s Star”āexhibited unusual and dramatic dimming events likely caused by dust clouds or cometary fragments obscuring its light. Another case is the red supergiant Betelgeuse, which underwent a significant and well-studied dimming in 2019-2020 due to dust formation and changes in its outer layers, rather than any sudden disappearance. Additionally, stars that explode as supernovae, such as SN 1987A, briefly outshine their host stars before fading, effectively causing the original star to vanish from view. In some instances, stars that collapse directly into black holes without a bright supernovaāso-called “failed supernovae”āmay simply disappear from optical surveys, as observed in candidate stars like N6946-BH1. While the idea of stars suddenly blinking out due to vacuum decay captures the imagination, no observational evidence currently supports such an event, and all known star disappearances fit well within established astrophysical processes.
What Would be the Human Experience of Vacuum Decay?
We would see stars wink out, but only after the light travel delay. Stars closer to us would disappear first in our sky, and more distant stars would vanish later, creating an apparent wave of stars “switching off” moving across the sky at the speed of light. This wave is not the vacuum decay bubble itself (which moves at light speed and is causally disconnected from us until it arrives), but the arrival of the last light emitted by stars before destruction. Vacuum decay would produce a visible signature of stars suddenly disappearing, but only after the corresponding light travel time delay.
Could There be More Than One?
Vacuum decay is a probabilistic quantum tunneling event that can happen at multiple random locations in space, leading to many bubbles forming independently. When bubbles collide, their walls interact, potentially merging into larger bubbles or affecting each otherās growth dynamics.
How Much Notice Might We Have?
You might at first think that if a star is 100 light years away when it winks out, that we would have 100 years left on Earth, but thankfully that is not the case. The end would arrive much faster. Because the bubble and the light both travel at (or extremely close to) the speed of light, the bubble ācatches upā to Earth essentially at the same time we observe the starās destruction. The difference in arrival times between the light and the bubble at Earth is limited by the tiny difference between the speed of light and the bubble expansion speed (which is essentially light speed), plus any small relativistic effects. This difference translates into seconds or minutes, not hours, days, or years.
Would it Be Painless?
Yes. The destruction would be so fast that any experience of pain or awareness is unlikely. From a human perspective, it would be the absolute endāno warning, no pain, just immediate cessation. If AI consciousness depends on physical substrates (hardware, data structures, energy flows), then vacuum decay would destroy those substrates instantaneously, just as it would biological life.
Snap your fingers and listen to the sound. This is many billions of times slower than the time it would take to wink out of existence at the speed of light.
Always Carry End of the Universe Chocolate
Here’s what you can personally do about the vaccum decay end of the universe: carry some “End of the Unvierse Chocolate”. Can this really help? Absolutely! If you ever find yourself witnessing the universeās final cosmic āwink,ā having some chocolate on hand is a wonderfully comfortingāand deliciousāway to savor those last fleeting moments. š«āØ After all, when facing something as profound and unimaginable as vacuum decay, why not treat yourself to a little sweetness and calm? Itās a small, human touch in the face of cosmic finality.
Practice the Quick Draw
While the winking out will happen at the speed of light, with luck, you may have a few seconds to a few minutes notice if you stay tuned in to astronomical news and perhaps get alerts on your phone.
Be sure to have drills to prepare. Practice makes perfect. You want to be able to get the chocolate into your mouth within seconds. It should be a very quick reflex action. The type and flavor of chocolate is a personal choice, but it should produce an almost instant explosion of enjoyable experience.
The last thing you want is to see or hear of stars winking out, then you grab and eat the choclolate, but then you are in a state of still waiting for it to melt enough to release flavor and you never actually taste it before you wink out of existence at the speed of light.