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1 " If the standard model is correct, the universe started in a state of high density and temperature, with all matter and radiation forming one great continuous mass. It is very remarkable that this undifferentiated soup should have the intrinsic property that in due course of time it develops into galaxies of which at least one creates life with such staggering complexity, subtlety and diversity and often such stunning beauty. It also creates thinking and feeling beings which in turn can contemplate the universe and study its properties and which can love and hate. "
― Jamal Nazrul Islam , The Ultimate Fate Of The Universe
2 " It is clear that there is a very great deal to be learnt about the universe and the endless subtleties of its various manifestations. What about the moral side of man, or what people with a religious bent of mind would prefer to call the spiritual nature of man? How will this develop in the endless aeons of the future? Perhaps in most of these questions like Newton we are still standing on the shore while the great ocean of knowledge lies ahead. It is significant that after more than two centuries of the acquisition of knowledge eminent men of science still have similar feelings. "
3 " Supposing a new era begins after the big crunch, will the number of protons (or baryons) be the same in the next cycle? Will the protons retain a memory of their previous life in the earlier epoch of the universe when deciding to decay or not to decay? Will there be subsequent cycles of big bangs and big crunches? If so, will proton decay affect the cycles of the far future? There exist no answers to such questions at present. "
4 " Why should one bother about the ultimate fate of the universe? One answer to this question is similar to the answer to the question about climbing Mount Everest: because the problem exists. It is in the nature of the human mind to seek incessantly new frontiers of knowledge to explore. "
5 " Some people, including Hawking, think that we may be able to understand the big bang or the big crunch (in particular, whether time has a beginning or an end at these events) when we have a satisfactory quantum theory of gravitation. "
6 " The urge is irresistible to ask, are we an essential part of the plan and architecture of the universe? Is there a purpose to the universe? Of course one can immediately counter such questions by asking what one means by 'essential part' and 'purpose'. Perhaps such questions are improperly posed and should not be asked, but it cannot be denied that these questions arise in the mind. "
7 " It is irrelevant whether or not there are other forms of life in the Galaxy or in other galaxies. The fact that we are here provides an 'existence proof as it is called in mathematics. To say that we are an accident of nature is to miss the point. The laws of nature are presumably eternal and immutable. They do not change in mid-stream and suddenly acquire the ability to create a pretty toy if circumstances arise. "
8 " There is very little hope for life of any kind surviving the big crunch in a closed universe. However, one cannot be dogmatic about this as one does not know the limits of human ingenuity. If indeed the universe is closed, we probably have tens of billions of years to think about how to survive the big crunch, if it is not against the laws of nature that something should survive. "
9 " Indeed, it is not clear whether it is meaningful to talk about 'after' the big crunch, just as it is not clear whether it is meaningful to talk about what happened 'before' the big bang. These questions are not necessarily meaningless, but the fact is we simply do not know. "
10 " One of the most intriguing problems is to understand the precise nature of time, especially with regard to the big bang, the big crunch and the long-term future of an open universe. "
11 " One way in which a recurrence of life can occur is in the event that the cycle of the big bang and final collapse is repeated, and if galaxies are born again and again conditions for the existence of life may develop in some regions. Whether or not this can happen (assuming that the universe is closed) is, of course, not known. "
12 " It is possible that those strange sentient beings of the far-future cold universe will find contemplating a warm universe such as ours not very pleasant, much as a nocturnal creature shuns daylight. But the more speculative amongst them may look back to our universe and to the Earth as an ideal world full of sunshine and a supply of adequate energy to last for billions of years, a dream world which will have passed away never to return. And what do we human beings do with this ideal dream world of ours? We oppress each other, build nuclear weapons for each other's destruction, and plunder the resources of the Earth! "
13 " The study of the universe as a whole is a unique enterprise. At least in one sense one is seeking to understand the totality of things. We, as thinking beings, are as much a part of the universe as are neutron stars and white dwarfs and our destiny is inextricably bound up with that of the universe. "
14 " The steady state theory is aesthetically and philosophically pleasing to many people, to whom it is a matter of regret that observations indicate that it is not the correct model. "
15 " If all astronomical processes cease, how will the passage of time manifest itself? It is doubtful if vacuum fluctuations can provide a clock for the recording of time. Will time itself come to a stop? Is this a meaningful question? Such questions are difficult to answer. "
16 " The human mind has a different attitude towards 'time' and 'space' as regards the survival of the human race. "
17 " Could the emergence of intelligent beings like us be one of nature's plans for the eventual survival of life through various extreme conditions? "
18 " One of the most intriguing things about the universe, which probably cannot be explained by scientific investigations, is that it exists and we, who are a part of the universe, are able to contemplate and study it. "
19 " Doubtless there is a desire in human beings to exist everywhere in space, but there seems to be a much stronger desire to exist everywhere in time, or at least in future time. "
20 " It is perhaps worth noticing that we have arrived 'on the scene' at a fairly early date. By this I mean that the time scale that it has taken nature to create us is of the same order of magnitude as the age of the universe. The universe is about 10-15 billion years old, and the Earth about 4.5 billion years old. Life is supposed to have begun on Earth about 3 billion years ago. It would not have been possible to evolve life, because of the hostile conditions, in the first few billion years after the big bang. Thus we have been created almost as soon as the universe was in a position to create us. It is an interesting question how long the universe will continue to create entirely new forms of life, assuming that it is open. "
