The fact that the discovery indicates that we are almost certainly safe from a fiery death in a Big Crunch has turned out to be cold comfort.IX The alternative to recollapse is eternal expansion, which, like immortality, only sounds good until you really think about it. On the bright side, we’re not doomed to perish in an apocalyptic cosmic inferno. On the, well, dark side, the most likely fate for our universe turns out to be, in its own way, much more upsetting.
