The Universe is Dying

According to this article, the universe as we know it is dying [h/t Jack]. Stars are burning out and energy is being dispersed.

New data further confirms [sic] that our 13.8 billion-year-old universe is well past its prime, and is slowly fading out.

The Australian-led project known as Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) has been measuring the energy output of stars for the last few years, and the team of 100 scientists discovered that the output is only half what it was 2 billion years ago.

“The universe has basically sat down on the sofa, pulled up a blanket and is about to nod off for an eternal doze,” said Simon Driver,  a leader of the GAMA project ... and a professor at the University of Western Australia, in a press release.

When Jack sent me this link, he added,

But for those of us who believe our personal ‘100 years’ is all there is, it’s a yawn ……..

My response, somewhat expanded here:

Like you, I believe that our personal "100 years" or so is all there is. I guess that means I can probably accept my own mortality with at least some equanimity.

 

But you know what? For some dumb (?) and inexplicable reason it saddens me that the earth will likely be demolished in the next 5b years, if not sooner. 

 

I seem able to accept my own mortality, but  to accept the mortality of all human life on earth and, what's more, of the universe as we know it??? I understand the silliness of this, but it creates a sense of loss for me.

 

Why do I find this so frickn difficult, even infuriating? If the universe is going to end, why "on earth" was the universe (as we know it) even created? Are we just some game or toy for something/someone else in a multi-verse?

 

 Or is this all some randomness in which time and space are both non-Euclidean and non-linear?

 

And this question leads to one of Ms Eclectic's favourite questions, "Why is there anything?"

 JR (my favourite drug dealer) added (with less whimsy than it might initially seem),

[Our] universe is expanding, communicating with other universes ([via] black holes), and who knows, it might even procreate by fission or budding or by exchanging universal fluids with another universe one day:  this sounds like living more than dying.

 

What would Jonathan Livingston Seagull do?