Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe

by Brian Greene

Thinkers as far back as the ancient Hindus, Egyptians, and Babylonians imagined that instead of a beginning, middle, and end, the universe, like days and seasons, might go through a sequence of dovetailing cycles. In the not too distant future, data collected by gravitational wave observatories may reveal whether this pattern is embraced by the cosmos itself.34

Across the infinity of universes and the vastness of timescales, random quantum fluctuations will produce far more fake capsules than our descendants will be able to produce real ones, ensuring that any reliable imprint of who we are and what we have accomplished will be lost in the quantum noise.

Life and thought here in our universe, in what we have long considered the universe, will likely draw to a close. Perhaps there is consolation in knowing that somewhere in the vast reaches of infinite space, well beyond the boundary of our realm, life and thought may persist, conceivably indefinitely. Still, even though we can contemplate eternity, and even though we can reach for eternity, apparently we cannot touch eternity.

Sensitivity to pattern is, in part, how we’ve prevailed. We look for connections. We take note of coincidences. We mark regularities. We assign significance. But only some of these assignments result from considered analyses delineating demonstrable features of reality. Many emerge from an emotional preference for imposing a semblance of order on the chaos of experience.

Not that we spring to our feet each morning wailing “Carpe diem!” but the deep-seated knowledge that there are just so many mornings when we will rise at all instills an intuitive calculus of value, one that would be very different in a world with unlimited do-overs. The explanations we give for the subjects we study, the trades we learn, the work we pursue, the risks we take, the partners we join, the families we build, the objectives we set, the concerns we entertain—all reflect the recognition that our opportunities are scarce because our time is limited.

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