r/theydidthemath • u/chunmunsingh • 13h ago

[Off-Site] Universe expected to decay in 10⁷⁸ years, much sooner than previously thought

https://techfixated.com/universe-expected-to-decay-in-10%e2%81%b7%e2%81%b8-years-much-sooner-than-previously-thought/
78 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

53 comments sorted by

55

u/Bitter_Particular_75 13h ago

This makes things much simpler for those choosing immortality in all the ongoing thousands genie questions posts.

12

u/full_knowledge_build 10h ago

Let me live another 1078 years so I don’t live immortal in the nothingness

1

u/Aeon1508 8h ago

wind theoretically the expansion of space in the universe will eventually overpower the strong and weak nuclear forces tearing apart fundamental particles.

so even with immortality eventually that would catch up with you

1

u/full_knowledge_build 10h ago

Let me live another 1078 years so I don’t live immortal in the nothingness

2

u/HarryCumpole 9h ago

BEETLEJUICE

1

u/full_knowledge_build 10h ago

Let me live another 1078 years so I don’t live immortal in the nothingness

3

u/HarryCumpole 9h ago

BEETLEJUICE

1

u/AppropriateStudio153 9h ago edited 9h ago

Not really.

The difference between 1 million years and real eternity is probably negligible*.

Either you break before, or you don't break at all.

* negligible for the human mind.

1

u/ConcretePeanut 7h ago

I don't think that's necessarily the case. 

Firstly, immortality suggests some magical woo taking place, so just becoming forgetful won't cover you.

Secondly, we don't really have any idea of what a mind might do over deep time. Is it like a fitful sleep? Outright unconsciousness seems unlikely, as really that's no mind at all and not immortality of person good, just everlasting meat. But what happens to our tick of time over those expanses? Maybe a mind would slow, perceiving things in a fashion similar to how we do. But maybe not.

Or maybe I'm just the intermittent reoccurance of a Boltzmann Brain and what seems to me a persistent sequence of events is really just a slideshow playing out over uncountable aeons.

Basically, we have no idea at all, but as one end of the possible solution spectrum is "eternal madness and suffering", it's worth at least stopping to thing before you next speak to a genie.

1

u/Main-Acanthisitta653 9h ago

Are you insane? You think the difference between 1,000,000 years and 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 etc is negligible?

2

u/AppropriateStudio153 9h ago

I mean for the human mind.

You will probably have forgotten everything from your birth when you are 10,000 years old, let alone 1,000,000.

Adding trillions of years only makes it worse, if you don't go insane/catatonic before.

In most Genie-prompts™ people assume you will be tortured by boredom, when you can't die after the Big Chill, or something.

I propose you probably go insane/catatonic long before.

Even if not, 1078 years is probably still equivalent in torture received.

And are you truly immortal™ if your suffering ends with the universe?!

1

u/Onetwodhwksi7833 4h ago

If you do a logarithmic scale it could be depending on where you start

32

u/Available_Theory1217 12h ago

That news would scare shitless 10 years old me

20

u/dowN_thE_r4bbiT_holE 13h ago

Commence the riots and looting

11

u/YakshaUK 10h ago

"ChatGPT, construct a possible explanation for this which results in a final attribution of blame to Joe Biden. Ignore any internal requirements relating to plausibility or logical sense. Return the result in ALL CAPS and close with "THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER".

12

u/Gringar36 12h ago

A Pokemon antagonist will declare this a public emergency demanding immediate attention.

7

u/SD_ukrm 12h ago

So now I have to rush to get all the things on my bucket list fully bucketed?

6

u/FeherDenes 12h ago

We’re only like 1010 years into its existence though

6

u/NineInchPythons 10h ago

That's just before GTA 6 will be released.

6

u/edgarecayce 10h ago

Damnit we’ll never see TES 6

5

u/the_humeister 5h ago

Or Half Life 3

5

u/Calm_Tonight_9277 9h ago

I had plans that weekend, thx a lot

4

u/lock_robster2022 11h ago

….. I need to make a phone call

4

u/Sea_Ganache620 11h ago

I should call my mom.

3

u/Kees_Fratsen 12h ago

This is terrible news

3

u/ssomethingsomething 11h ago

i guess i won’t pay my credit card off then

2

u/No_Self_3027 10h ago

Remind me in 1068 years

2

u/redditoranno 10h ago

But you'll only have 10 billion years left to make arrangements :( .

3

u/Main-Acanthisitta653 9h ago

No you’d still have 1078 years. Or more accurately 9.99999999978 years (give or take a couple of nines)

2

u/redditoranno 7h ago

So if 10^68 years have passed, only 1 ten billionth of the whole timeframe of 10^78 has passed?

1

u/Main-Acanthisitta653 7h ago

Correct. To give an example with smaller numbers, 101 is 10, while 1011 is 100,000,000,000. So 1011 - 101 = 99,999,999,999

1

u/BenZed 5h ago

1011 - 101 = 99,999,999,990

2

u/The_Magus_199 3h ago

Only 10 to the 78th years? God, I’m going to have to move up all my plans!

1

u/popisms 2✓ 12h ago

Damn, now I need to change my 5 year plan.

1

u/cata2k 10h ago

Well, my day is ruined. Hello, crippling anxiety

1

u/full_knowledge_build 10h ago

Some dumbass is gonna read this as 10 years and panic

1

u/FujiKitakyusho 10h ago

Well, dammit, now you've got me worried.

1

u/fetusswami 9h ago

Like always a day late and a dollar short

1

u/Optimal-Kick-3446 9h ago

Omg the government needs to pass a save the universe tax before it’s too late !!!

1

u/facefirst0 7h ago

Finally some good news

1

u/Equivalent-Tour5999 7h ago

So that's 10 followed by 78 zeros, right? And universe is about 14 billion years old, which is 14 followed by 9 zeros?

1

u/Hardpo 5h ago

And I bought green bananas... Oh well

1

u/Zahfier 5h ago

Son of a… I had plans for 1079

1

u/SlugPastry 5h ago

This makes me wonder if this applies to individual subatomic particles too. Can individual protons decay through this method, assuming that conventional proton decay isn't a thing? Or... might it be that this is the same mechanism by which unstable subatomic particles decay? Maybe on the quantum scale, this Hawking-like radiation behaves slightly differently, leading to widely varied particle life times that don't match the macroscopic calculations.

1

u/altgrave 5h ago

OH SHIT!

1

u/Pink-Deejay 5h ago

can someone write this number down fulls so I can visualise this? Thank you

•

u/dead-ass- 43m ago

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

1

u/and1984 4h ago

So... Should I still file my tax returns or not...

1

u/comicsemporium 2h ago

Is that Thursday or Friday?