• Godort@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    I’m not worried about this specific apocalypse, if only because there is literally nothing that can be done to prevent it nor stop it if it starts.

    I’m far more worried about more localized, preventable, human-caused apocalypse like climate or nuclear war.

    • Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk
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      4 months ago

      Also, we won’t see it coming and won’t feel it happen. As far as deaths go, it’s about as easy as it gets.

    • Tower@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Exactly. Same energy as worrying about Earth being hit by a gamma ray burst - 🤷‍♂️

    • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      I would be very glad if it was something only destructive to humans, and not the planet(s ecosystems).

      • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
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        4 months ago

        The dowvotes signal a trend against misanthropy, which is the only logical conclusion.

        Let me test this theory: We are a virus. An STD that is always lethal and should be eradicated for the planet’s good.

        But also let me quote Dostoyevsky to end my point positively:

        “I have seen the truth; I have seen and I know that people can be beautiful and happy. … I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind.”

        • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          The dowvotes signal a trend against misanthropy, which is the only logical conclusion.

          Thx, those are surpassingly comforting words, will use them as headcanon in such irl situations.

      • CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world
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        3 months ago

        Not all humans are bad and destructive, nor is the collective human race universally destructive. We have saved species from extinction and made great strides to protect ecosystems. Don’t damn the lot of us for the crimes of the worst of us.

  • Xanthrax@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Wikipedia:

    "threat

    If our universe is in a false vacuum state rather than a true vacuum state, then the decay from the less stable false vacuum to the more stable true vacuum (called false vacuum decay) could have dramatic consequences.[5][6] The effects could range from complete cessation of existing fundamental forces, elementary particles and structures comprising them, to subtle change in some cosmological parameters, mostly depending on the potential difference between true and false vacuum. Some false vacuum decay scenarios are compatible with the survival of structures like galaxies, stars,[7][8] and even biological life,[9] while others involve the full destruction of baryonic matter[10] or even immediate gravitational collapse of the universe.[11] In this more extreme case, the likelihood of a “bubble” forming is very low (i.e. false vacuum decay may be impossible).[12] "

    Also, of course there’s a Kurzesagt

    • xthexder@l.sw0.com
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      4 months ago

      I’m going to file this under the category of philosophy similar to “what if we’re living in a simulation?” and “parallel universe” theory. As far as I’m aware we have no evidence that there’s even such thing as a false vacuum, so this is all just speculation based on some theories.

      • Klear@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Yeah, if you need existential dread, a gamma-ray burst could end us in an instant too and they’re confirmed to exist and much more likely.

    • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      didnt need the wikipedia page. soon as I read a couple pop sci articles on this I was like “welp this shit sounds dangerous it was nice to know you all”

      • Comment105@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        I’m about as worried about this as I am about galaxy eating monsters. Not at all, really.

        I’m more bothered by our apparently non-existent ability to detect and divert asteroids. More than that, I’m terrified of our habit of using global cataclysm as a strategic threat. But at the same time I feel like a species that acts like this probably should end themselves like that. Russian civilians consent to nuclear apocalypse.

        So yeah, not very bothered by idea of false vacuum.

  • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Luckily, this is the epitome of that Epicurus quote:

    Why should I fear death? If I am, then death is not. If Death is, then I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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      4 months ago

      It’s not the death I’m worried about. I just don’t want to suffer leading up to it or put my family through some long drawn out ordeal watching me die.

    • threeduck@aussie.zone
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      4 months ago

      You know how when you get put under for anaesthesia, and you don’t notice the time you were gone? It’s like a cut in the tape of life.

      What if death is like that, and BAM your consciousness re-emerges billions of years in the future the moment you die.

      But your consciousness is alone. And in pitch black nothingness. Forever.

      • Famko@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Entropy would end up taking your consciousness as well, so I doubt you’d be there, 14.3 billions years later, forever.

      • Radioactive Butthole@reddthat.com
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        4 months ago

        This is what I think happens. You don’t experience death, you just reemerge on the other side, no matter how long it takes.

        The chances of your brain being created were infinitely small before you were born, but it still only took 14 billion years for it to happen.

    • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
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      4 months ago

      Well, maybe it’s because we mostly fear the WAY towards death, not the end of being a thing that is. Unless we get hit by a moving train…

    • jwt@programming.dev
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      4 months ago

      Why should I fear death? If I am, then death is not. If Death is, then I am not

      Death will be, so we will cease to be. Sounds like he is was whistling past the graveyard with that quote…

          • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            When I was younger one day I was thinking about death and I suddenly truly understood the concept of nothing after death. When you die, the entire universe might as well go with you. Once you spend enough time with that realization, you’ll also realize it’s pointless to fear it. Or at least, I did. Hopefully it’ll work for you too.

  • ZkhqrD5o@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    If our particular bubble of the universe has remained unmolested for 13.8 billion years, it is safe to assume it will continue to be for the next 1000 years.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Also it’s not like assuming it will collapse in the next decade will make any difference other than having a harder time enjoying the time before then.

    • BellaDonna@mujico.org
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      4 months ago

      Until we build a particle accelerator that does something novel that even the rest of the universe never managed to do

    • markinov@lemmygrad.ml
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      4 months ago

      i don’t know quantum mechanics or much about particles. I watched a video on False vacuum decay, and it says if higgs change state it might change the laws of physics

      So can’t it be that the universe had change of states of other particles maybe in past (billions year before life) that changed the laws of physics and so on.

    • jabathekek@sopuli.xyz
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      4 months ago

      I’d much prefer death by a solar system wide tsunami of highly energetic particles then the slow, agonizing death march we’re currently doing.

      • metaStatic@kbin.earth
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        4 months ago

        I was gonna say it might be worse if you’re on the opposite side of the planet that gets hit but I’ll give you that one.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    4 months ago

    I believe that it is possible that false vacuum decay has already begun, but so far away that it might not ever reach us.

      • ace_garp@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        He is exceptional at writing hard sci-fi that unnerves you.

        I’m moderately certain, whichever future timeline we move to, there will be aspects of Egan’s works.

        Modern day Jules Verne, recommended to read at least one book of his.