Hello, SFIA audio listeners. In this month's Nebula exclusive, big alien theory,

we're asked at the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge.

To hear it and every episode early and add-free, plus hours of bonus content,

check out go.nebola.tv slash Isaac Arthur and use my code, Isaac Arthur.

When looking at imagery of our universe and the web-like layout of galaxies to form superclusters

and voids, the resemblance to neurons and brain cells is striking, though probably

coincidental.

But it does suggest a compelling idea.

What if the fate of our universe is to be turned into

one immense godlike mind at the end of time?

Today we'll be continuing our look at possible fates of the universe and civilizations

at the end of time that we began way back in our episodes on Black Hole Farming and Iron

Stars, and most recently in our look at the Big Rip, where expansion in the universe

occurs faster than we think, slowly tearing everything apart.

In today's topic, we will see the reverse in-time scenario,

the big crunch, where the universe eventually stops expanding and begins contracting, possibly

eventually crunching back down to a singularity, a path toward what physicist Frank Tipler

calls Omega Point Cosmology. In Frank Tipler's view,

all the matter in the universe moves towards becoming part of life and intelligence,

an ever more impressive states of it, and as the universe begins to contract, this contraction

can fuel that life and intelligence. This intelligence can survive and indeed thrive eternally

during this outcome, eventually reaching a point of godlike capabilities, what's known as the

...