Parallel Universes May Be the Only Hope of Surviving the Death of the Cosmos

While the little that we know about the universe usually leads us to more questions than answers, the philosophy governing the universe is full of so much intrigue that we can't seem to help ourselves. Renowned futurist, physicist, and bestselling author Dr. Michio Kaku takes a moment to explain the end of the universe on Big Think's YouTube channel.

Kaku introduces the concept of a Big Freeze, in opposition to another popular theory, the Big Crunch. He suggests that due to the current rate of expansion, where the universe is actually accelerating further apart,  the universe may experience a period of complete and utter darkness. It would be impossible to see anything in any direction because everything would be too far apart.

But rest assured, unless you intend on living for hundreds of billions of years, you won't experience the day that everything, as Kaku puts it, "becomes totally black." He says that this moment in the history of the universe would be full of lonely neutron stars, black holes, temperatures near absolute zero, and no existing consciousness.

However, let's say that you do intend on living for hundreds of billions of years — what could you do to survive? Kaku says that if humans harvest something known as Planck energy, an energy that was essential in the Big Bang, we may be able to manipulate space itself so that we can transcend the planes that separate differing universes. He says, "The energy needed to reach a parallel universe would be the Planck energy, ten to the nineteen billion electron volts." He continues, "I would suppose that, trillions of years from now, intelligent life, facing the ultimate demise of the universe itself, might decide to leave the universe."