Intelligence at the end of the universe

The Universe goes on expanding, and its temperature decreases inexorably. The Universe will expand forever: the amount of time in our future is infinite. Thus all processes with which we are now familiar must ultimately come to an end.

We think in timescales of a few years, maybe some centuries: 102 years. Astronomical timescales range in the thousand millions: the Solar System is some five billion (S x 109) years old. The Sun has about the same amount of time still to burn, but even these timescales are insignificant in the fading of the Universe. In 1024 years, the Solar System will scatter due to dynamical effects; in l026 years, the same fate will befall the Galaxy. Some 1028 years will pass until all black holes evaporate by the Bekenstein-Hawking process and, after 1034 years or thereabouts, protons and neutrons will have decayed into pure radiation, becoming ever more dilute as.thc Universe continues to expand.

Does that mean that the Universe will become dead and boring? Not at all. The same processes which made structure in the Universe until now, such as the freezing out of particles and the formation of complex structures therefrom, will continue. It is perfectly plausible that much, much later - maybe in 1033 years or more - new generations of very low-energy particles, and their attendant interactions, will arise. When that happens, new machines will form.

Because of the universal expansion, this will happen at very low energy scales. The machines of the future will think that what we call a proton contains a staggering amount of energy, somewhat in the way we think that a quasar is really something enormous. But new levels of complex (and possibly intelligent) machinery will keep forming, as long as the Universe continues to expand; and that, the data tell us, will be forever. Ahead of us, and of other intelligent machines, time and its possibilities are endless.