The Future Universe

A multiplicity of questions can be asked about the future of the universe, and have been explored by many to a greater or lesser extent. These include questions around our knowledge of the universe and its composition, and how the universe will continue to unfold.

On the first issue, it seems likely that over time, if humanity proves stable enough to still exist, our understanding of the world around us will continue to blossom. We will reach a full understanding of all subatomic particles, we will understand how gravity functions and we may even understand how many dimensions there really are in the world. Competing theories will fall away or unify into one, or perhaps will each be valid for different regions of space in infact 'co-exist'. String theory may be proved or disproved should we be able to perform experiments on its theories,

Intriguingly, we may solve the question as to what dark energy and dark matter really is. We may work out whether the Big Bang could really be the start of everything, whether it was one in a large cycle of Big Bangs, or perhaps purely describes the creation of our universe from a sea of perhaps infinite universes (the multi-verse) in the sea of multi-verses, in the sea of n-verses, in the sea of...

Or perhaps the Big Bang will be proved an incorrect or over-simplified theory. Personally I favour this option. Whilst it may be largely true, we are bound to find at least some subtle imperfections with the theory that radically alter our understandings of the origin of matter. Can something really come from nothing - or can at least that much come from nothing, being one of the key questions up for debate.

In terms of human interaction with the universe - will we be able to explore brave new worlds, meet and co-operate with other species or fight stunning interstellar wars that are the subject of great fantasies? What do you think, let us know!