We Found a Loophole to Survive the End of the Universe

Key Concepts

• Heat death of the universe
• Dyson's Cold Thoughts
• Energy harvesting
• Mind uploading/Virtual minds
• Hibernation/Cooling cycles
• Subjective experience of time
• Quantum noise
• Proton decay
• Dark energy temperature limit

How to Outlast the Stars

The video explores a hypothetical scenario where a future civilization, the Noxans, survives the heat death of the universe by exploiting a loophole in physics related to energy consumption and temperature.

• The Problem: The universe is destined to become a cold, empty void as stars die, galaxies dissolve, and black holes evaporate. This poses an existential threat to any surviving civilization.
• The Noxans: A highly advanced civilization 100 trillion years in the future, possessing knowledge of physics far beyond our current understanding.
• Energy Harvesting: The Noxans initially harvest energy from the last stars, building massive battery complexes. While this provides power for hundreds of trillions of years, it's not a permanent solution.
• Dyson's Cold Thoughts: The core concept is that the lower the temperature of a thinking entity, the less energy it requires to perform computations (i.e., think). This is based on a simplified interpretation of a paper by Freeman Dyson.
  • Example: A brain at 310 Kelvin (near human body temperature) might require 20 joules to think a thought in one second. At 155 Kelvin, the same thought takes two seconds but only requires 10 joules.
  • Implication: By continuously cooling down, a civilization could theoretically extend its lifespan indefinitely, as energy requirements decrease proportionally.

Thoughts Cold as Ice

This section details the process of cooling down and the implications for consciousness.

• Mind Uploading: Biological brains cannot survive extreme cooling. The Noxans must transfer their minds into artificial brains or become completely virtual minds within a digital world.
• Cooling Process: The Noxans use a simple method: switching off their brains to radiate heat away, entering a state of hibernation.
• Cosmic Days and Nights: The Noxans cycle between periods of activity ("days") and hibernation ("nights").
  • Days: The Noxans are awake, engaging in activities like socializing, simulating universes, etc.
  • Nights: The Noxans are switched off, experiencing nothing while their brains cool down.
• Scaling of Cooling: Cooling from 300 to 299 degrees takes less time than cooling from 100 to 99. As the Noxans cool, the hibernation periods must become exponentially longer.
• Subjective Time: As the Noxans cool, their thoughts and the world around them slow down at the same pace. This means they don't perceive the slowing down; their experience remains fluid.

How Long Could the Noxans Actually Do this?

This section explores the potential limitations and the scale of time involved.

• Scale of Time: After 100 trillion years of cooling, the Noxans might only be at 230 Kelvin. A simple thought takes 1.3 seconds, and each cosmic night lasts 400,000 years. Yet, they've experienced the equivalent of 76 trillion years of life.
• Detachment and Adaptation: The video acknowledges the difficulty in comprehending such vast timescales and suggests that the Noxans might adapt by deleting memories, creating new worlds, or entering permanent states of bliss.
• Cosmic Evolution: As the universe continues to decay, the Noxans persist, cooling further and further.
• Extreme Cold: At 10 quintillionths of a degree above absolute zero, a thought takes a trillion years. They spend almost all their time hibernating, but their subjective experience remains fluid. They have experienced the equivalent of 4,000 trillion trillion years.

Can The Noxans Actually Live Forever?

This section discusses the ultimate limitations to the Noxans' plan.

• Temperature Limit: Dark energy might impose a temperature limit on the universe (e.g., one nonillionth of a degree above absolute zero). The Noxans would reach this limit after a googol years, after which they can no longer cool down and their energy will eventually run out.
• Quantum Noise: Random quantum fluctuations could eventually destroy their brains.
• Matter Decay: All matter might decay into iron, or proton decay could destroy all atoms.
• Even if not forever: Even if true eternity is impossible, the Noxans could experience the equivalent of two trillion, trillion, trillion years of subjective time within a googol years.

Conclusion

The video concludes that while true immortality might be unattainable due to unforeseen physical limitations, the laws of physics, as we currently understand them, do not necessarily forbid life from adapting to and surviving even in a completely dead universe. This possibility suggests that life and consciousness could be the ultimate inheritors of the cosmos, giving the universe meaning and purpose.