Existential Malaise and the End of the Universe

[mjolnir]

Without being too negative (and I'm quite happy to accept a reasonable assertion), one might argue that it's not even possible, given the distances involved and the frailty and infinitesimal lifespan of humans. Faster than light travel, space-folding and hyperspace travel or any other concept that is required to make intergalactic travel feasable (or even inter-star-system travel) may simply not be possible.

Interstellar travel is not possible with our current technology, but it may be possible with future technology.

[DeterminedJuliet]

2200?  Blimey, Tank, you're an optimist. 

We do have younglings here who have got to live through the next 50/60 years. I have no idea what my grandson is going to experience in his lifetime.

You never know, we could end up like the people in WALL-E that just live in a huge spaceship 

Could be. WALL-E is one of my favourite films ever. The space dance with the fire extinguisher is just wonderful.

We watched it in my agriculture science class last year. I really enjoyed it, and it made me think about trying to help cut back unneeded waste.

It made me think about hitting the gym.

[EdgeWiseInAnnArbor]

Thank you for your responses. I think the epic scope of the universe's timeline in comparison to the transience of all life in the universe, not just mine, was what got to me. Counterbalancing it with the scope of our achievements seems to help.

One of the things that helped was watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos (on hulu.com). Season 1 Ep 13 "Who speaks for Earth?" He hand-waves some math and concludes it is very likely that the world will end in the next hundred years. Either through nuclear exchange, or climate change, or several other scenarios. You would think that would be even more depressing to me, but the ending helped a lot.

From single celled creatures to what we are now, is also epic in scope. Whether we wipe ourselves out relatively soon, or persist for as long as the universe supports life, we have accomplished a lot when you factor in where we came from. Yes, there's a lot of stupid, pointless suffering and waste, but some pretty impressive stuff too.

Who knows, maybe xSilverPhinx is right and someday we will create new universes. Or as mjolnir said we somehow sustain this one. Or humanity can escape to a parallel universe, or time travel or some such.

Thanks again for helping cheer me up.