General Question

luigirovatti's avatar

Would a organism able to live forever survive the extinction of the universe?

Asked by luigirovatti (2927points) 2 weeks ago

I imagine this question can be considered from various angles; I’ll just try to add my 2 cents to it. Most of this you already know, but it’s to make you understand what I know.

First of all, we’re made of energy. Energy can be converted to other forms of energy; for example, potential energy can be converted to kinetic energy, chemical energy can be converted to thermal energy, and so on. Each time, these transformations occur; however, some part of this energy is lost. It disappears and can’t be used in the physical world ever again. This condition occurs everywhere in the world, heck, everywhere in the universe, and it’s called entropy. The point of all this is, when the entropy reaches a certain level, the universe will cease to expand, and will contract itself to a ball of compressed energy, after which, who knows?

This condition is the main reason why man becomes old and dies after 80—? years, by the way. We’re unable to access forms of energy that help us sustain our life indefinitely. If, however, a living organism was able to access some other forms of alternative energy, it could potentially live forever. It’s not so outlandish, there are organisms that are proof of that, for example, Turritopsis dohrnii, Hydra, and bacteria. Henrietta Lacks herself had her blood taken, and the HeLa cell line was created.

In any case, the question stands. If a person was able to live forever, (ie, using some form of inexhaustible energy), would it be able to survive the extinction of the universe?

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15 Answers

flutherother's avatar

It’s another form of the old question what would happen if an irresistible force met an immovable object. The answer is that in a universe in which an irresistible force was possible there could be no immovable objects and vice versa. It’s a question of language and definitions rather than of science.

LostInParadise's avatar

There is no inexhaustible energy. Im our universe, the total energy is constant. Increasing entropy eventually spread the energy so it is unusable.

And humans do not die due to entropy.

ragingloli's avatar

There are 3 hypothesised ways the universe will end.
1. The big freeze. After all the stars have died, and all black holes have evaporated, the universe will be at absolute zero.
2. The big rip. Dark energy will become so powerful, that even atoms will be ripped apart, and the universe will be an ever expanding homogenous field of elementary particles.
3. The big crunch. The universe will collapse in on itself and form a singularity, maybe followed by another big bang.

This hypothetical organism could only survive in scenario 1, if it somehow manages to harness the quantum vacuum fluctuations to power itself, which itself is likely impossible.
In the other 2 scenarios, the organism will be destroyed inevitably.

gondwanalon's avatar

We are part of the universe. Organisms that have the potential for immorality are part of the universe. If the universe goes away then so does everything else within it.

zenvelo's avatar

Your premise is false, so your whole question falls apart. The tota of energy and matter is constant, so it is not dissipating as you seem to believe.

People don’y die at 80 because of the inability to access energy. They die because their systems can’t repair themselves. Old people that get cancers demonstrate the body is still able to harness enough energy to create new (yet dangerous) tissues such as tumors.

Dutchess_III's avatar

According to Dalton matter can be neither created nor destroyed . But matter is not the same as a whole organism.

zenvelo's avatar

^^^ That theory lost its cachet after Einstein’s Theory of Relativity demonstrated E=MC^2.

Dalton also said an atom cannot be reduced any further. I guess he didn’t understand electrons, protons, and neutrons, nor the use of neutrons to split an atom.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Energy is mass x the speed of light squared. How did that debunk the matter theory?

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Yes if it can escape to the multi-verse.

MrGrimm888's avatar

^I thought all universes, began, and (if they end) will end at the same “time.”

The universe won’t “end.”
It would just “change.”
The organism, would have to be able to survive, likely in some form of hibernation, for potentially hundreds of millions or even billions of years, until there would be something worth waking up to do.

It may have already expanded, and contracted, an unknown number of times.
Likely, nothing survives, each time.
Then it all happens again. Like another day, at work.

seawulf575's avatar

I’ve heard this all before. It starts with the claim that we are all energy. Matter is not energy. It can be turned into energy, but is not energy itself. If we were all energy, we should be able to go faster than the speed of light. In fact the speed of light would be a meaningless term. Normal gravity would have little effect on us. Nuclear power plants all around the world would be inoperable and would, in fact, never have been created.

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