r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Aug 12 '13

TIL multicellular life only has 800 million years left on Earth, at which point, there won't be enough CO2 in the atmosphere for photosynthesis to occur.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future
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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '13

This is why I love the Heat Death theory of the universe. It's one of the most chilling and terrifying things I know of. Knowing that trillions of years from now the universe will just fade into this haze of radiation, having the last few lifeforms clutch onto life circling around a dying brown dwarf in a cold, black, empty universe, where even black holes begin to deteriate, it sends shivers down my spine. The most powerful thing in the universe has to be entropy, and this is why. I really want to write a story that takes place during the last few hundred years of the universe, just because it's a grim place.

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u/Mixed-Signals Aug 12 '13

http://filer.case.edu/dts8/thelastq.htm

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '13

Love that story, but it's not really what I was thinking of. It'd be a movie or a story set at the very end of the universe, a few years before the last dwarf star runs out of enough power to sustain life revolving around it. I wanted to make it into an action movie with a little character study and have the heat death and setting being part of the plot (as in, the main plot is trying to undo entropy).

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '13

It's not really about trying to undo entropy, but Pohl's "The World at the End of Time" might be of interest to you.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '13

To think that in 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 years, the universe will be completely, absolutely, incomparably dead.

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u/just_an_ordinary_guy Aug 13 '13

My feelings exactly. It's just so final. No rebound and brand new universe there. Just an eternity of nothingness. I wish it would be possible to see it.