Propose and test; this is how things are handled in science. He is your father? You have to prove it in science. Faith is not a dear neighbor for a scientific person or for a scientific perspective. How does science face the end of time? Are there even end-time concepts in science? Can science predict a time frame for the end of the world with evidence to support the claim? In fact, there are factors and elements that can lead us to an end time time frame. The scientific end-time perspective might come with more detailed and proven evidence, but not yet; not in our generation or in some generations to come.
The end of the world and the end of humanity must first be defined to get a scientific perspective. You have to define things to deal with them scientifically. The famous example is that the bat is not a bird because it flies. We first develop definitions and then classify the elements. First we have to define our query. Our consultation is the end of time. According to science, there is no end of time. Time is an entity that has no foreseeable end. There is no evidence to see where time ends. There have been conceptual proposals for the end of the universe where time as part of the universe would end. These concepts are still in development stages. Testing these concepts would require a better understanding of the formation of the universe. As scientists have yet to come to a clear and proven understanding of the beginning of the universe, the end of the universe is just a theory to follow later. So, at the moment, there is no clear explanation from a scientific perspective about the end of time literally as it is.
If we take the phrase as a reference to the end of the earth, then the story takes another path. The earth was formed from dust and gases in stellar space. The earth has a history of formation and many of the properties and components of the earth have been studied and understood. Then it is possible to see what will happen next. The earth experiences reactions of its own, as well as interactions with others in the star system, the galaxy, the galaxy cluster, and also the entire universe. According to the internal properties of the earth, the rotation speed of the earth is increasing. In other words, the length of an Earth day continually decreases. As the rotation speed increases, the magnetic and gravitational forces will differ in different places on Earth. The tropical and polar regions will behave differently when these forces differ.
External causes, such as solar radiation and coronal mass ejections, are increasingly heating the earth. The core of the earth is already hot and is made up of various materials. The core of the earth heats up as the surface of the earth heats up. External causes also include gamma and X rays from other celestial events such as supernova explosions. The alignment of planets, stars and other galaxies towards the Milky Way will also result in different forces for the earth. All these events lead to changes on planet earth.
The calculations and magnitudes differ, but all scientific research on the subject reaches the same conclusion. And the bottom line is that the earth will become unstable and habitable due to higher temperatures. Eventually the earth will turn into a ball of hot liquid and then it will break apart into gases. This is the scientific perspective of the end of time if the phrase meant the end of planet earth.
If the end of time meant the end of humans, then give another perspective. Humans, from the point of view of science, are a species. A species has a unique set of chromosomes that contains a unique set of DNA called a genome. A species, by definition, is a group of organisms that can reproduce genetically identical and fertile offspring. We are one species and we reproduce genetically identical fertile offspring. So the end of humans would be the day when there are no more members left in the species.
You may have heard of the Dodo birds that became extinct in Australia because their last member of the species died in Australia. This in the scientific perspective is the end of Dodos. The end of humans can turn out in different ways. All humans can die, or the human race can evolve into some other species. There is even a third option lurking on the horizon now that humans would integrate with machines to form transhumans.
The death of all members of the species could result from natural disasters and natural means if we live long enough until the earth becomes hostile to natural life. Millions of years would pass from now. Of course, the most feared causes of possible human extinction are nuclear wars that could happen. Humans have the power to destroy our own species; a quality that no other species has had. We can literally wipe humans off the face of the earth in a single day. It took us several million years to distinguish ourselves and speak. It took us centuries to learn the things that we have understood now. And it took us a long time to come up with the brilliant idea of developing nuclear warheads and maintaining them “in case” we had to fight each other. If there were a nuclear war between all nations, we would have several nations with a nuclear arsenal that is sufficient to bring us to the end.
Another way the human race could see an end is evolution. If we live long enough on the planet, we will naturally evolve into multiple species. We will transform into other forms of life. We have had the lesson in the past where our evolution has had monkeys in us. We could transform and become some other species. And one day, there would be no member of our current species left and that would mark the end of humans. For this to happen, we may have to wait thousands, if not millions, of years. The problem is that there is another form of extinction that is increasingly possible now.
Transhumanism is a term used to refer to the transformation of man into a mixture of man and machine. We have all experienced and used the reliability of machines in terms of speed, strength and consistency. We have had computers that have ushered us into the information technology age. Now the thoughts are to bring computers into the brain so that our brains are more capable like computers. Since machines made of metal are stronger, now people want to have those machines built into humans so that humans are stronger. These are not science fiction; problems are already being experienced. There is a group of scientists who are testing and discovering ways to achieve this. The first stages of this are the applications of Brain Computer Interfaces on computer controlled devices. People use only their thoughts to control machinery. People have chips and transmitters inside their skull. People are partly becoming machines. Now they are becoming partial machines that there will come a time when you cannot tell an entity like a human or a machine. There will be characteristics of both in one being; that’s the stage described as transhuman. When this happens; what seems to be more than possible a century from now, there will be no human being left. This will mark the end of humanity as we know it.
On the other hand, if the term end of time meant the end of the entire universe, then there is a lot of time left. There is probably no calculation yet to understand when the universe would end. Only a small part of the universe is known to exist that scientists have to call it the known universe. There is much unknown in the known universe and less known in the unknown universe. People will first have to define the properties of the universe to understand how it started and is working so they can predict how it would end.
Science has no definitive answers on how and when the universe will end. Apparently, we will end science the day the universe has to end. However, in theory, since the universe was born through an event and began to react from then on, there has to be an end.