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A possible coming

TIMELINE COSMIC FUTURE

Copyright 1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004 by Magic Dragon Multimedia.
All rights reserved Worldwide. May not be reproduced without permission.
May be posted electronically provided that it is transmitted unaltered, in its
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Most recently updated: 27 December 2003 [122 kilobytes].

This web page draws heavily on FACTS as listed in cited and recommended references.

This web page combines the latest scientific theories of geological and
astronomical evolution of the Earth, Sun, and Milky Way Galaxy. Just for
fun, it interleaves a few pieces of the chronology of the amazing novel
by William Olaf Stapledon [Star Maker, 1937], which
inspired young Arthur C. Clarke. The astronomical predictions cited here
assume that human beings (or our descendants) do NOT move the Earth
further from the Sun, or slow down the Sun's evolution by "lifting"
hydrogen from the sun, and banking it in artificial Jupiters, or otherwise
engaging in major Planetary Engineering. These are a kind of "default"
predictions about the very distant future.

For an analysis of the End of the World in fiction and film, see:
WORLD COMES TO AN END: no more civilization, or people, or worse...

Other sources (cited where used) include:
Bibliography (books, articles, websites)

40,000,000 AD to 50,000,000 AD Australia rams Asia
50,000,000 AD to 60,000,000 AD Africa rams Europe
200,000,000 AD to 250,000,000 AD Supercontinent Pangea Ultima
400,000,000 AD Twice Around the Galaxy
500,000,000 AD 95% of Plants Start Dying
600,000,000 AD Thrice Around the Galaxy
750,000,000 AD Milky Way Galaxy Absorbs Sagittarius Dwarf
800,000,000 AD Four Times Around the Galaxy
900,000,000 AD All Plants Die
1,000,000,000 AD Five Times Around the Galaxy
1,200,000,000 AD Oceans Start Boiling Off
1,500,000,000 AD to 2,000,000,000 AD Earth Spins Chaotically
3,000,000,000 AD Collision/Merger with Andromeda Galaxy
3,500,000,000 AD to 6,000,000,000 AD Magma Oceans Form
7,000,000,000 AD Sun is a Red Giant Star
7,500,000,000 AD Magma Oceans Start to Boil Off
7,600,000,000 AD Sun is a White Dwarf Star
10,000,000,000 AD Milky/Andromeda Absorbs Magellanic Clouds
11,600,000,000 AD to 11,600,000,000 AD Mars has a Human-comfortable Temperature>
12,070,000,000 AD to 12,100,000,000 AD Europa has a Human-comfortable Temperature
20,000,000,000 AD "Star Maker" Fictional "War of Worlds"
30,000,000,000 AD "Star Maker" Fictional "Second Galactic Utopia"
40,000,000,000 AD "Star Maker" Fictional "First Colonization of Dead Stars"
50,000,000,000 AD "Star Maker" Fictional "Supreme Moment of the Cosmos"
60,000,000,000 AD Solid Crust Forms on the Sun
1,000,000,000,000 AD One Trillion Years From Now: Stars Die
1,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Quadrillion Years From Now
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Quintillion Years From Now
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Sextillion Years From Now
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Septillion Years From Now
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Octillion Years From Now: Galaxies "Dissolve"
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Nonillion Years From Now: Supermassive Black Holes Merge
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Decillion Years From Now
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Undecillion Years From Now
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Duodecillion Years From Now
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Tredecillion Years From Now
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Quattuordecillion Years From Now: Protons and neutrons decay
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Quindecillion Years From Now
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Sexdecillion Years From Now
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Septendecillion Years From Now
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Octodecillion Years From Now
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Novemdecillion Years From Now
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Vigintillion Years From Now
(10 to the power of 66) AD 1 Solar Mass Black Hole Evaporates
(10 to the power of 69) AD 10 Solar Mass Black Hole Evaporates
(10 to the power of 72) AD 100 Solar Mass Black Hole Evaporates
(10 to the power of 75) AD 1,000 Solar Mass Black Hole Evaporates
(10 to the power of 78) AD 10,000 Solar Mass Black Hole Evaporates
(10 to the power of 81) AD 100,000 Solar Mass Black Hole Evaporates
(10 to the power of 84) AD Million Solar Mass Black Hole Evaporates
(10 to the power of 87) AD 10 Million Solar Mass Black Hole Evaporates
(10 to the power of 87) AD 10 Million Solar Mass Black Hole Evaporates
(10 to the power of 90) AD 100 Million Solar Mass Black Hole Evaporates
(10 to the power of 93) AD Billion Solar Mass Black Hole Evaporates
(10 to the power of 96) AD 10 Billion Solar Mass Black Hole Evaporates
(10 to the power of 99) AD 100 Billion Solar Mass Black Hole Evaporates
10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Googol Years From Now
10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD One Mega-Googol Years From Now: Supermassive Black Holes Evaporate
(10 to the Power of 303) AD One Centillion Years From Now

Link List for History of Science and Science Fiction

William Olaf Stapledon

William Olaf Stapledon [10 May 1886-6 Sep 1950] lectured in English Literature,
Industrial History, Psychology, and Philosophy. During World War I he
served (1915-1919) with the Friends' Ambulance Unit. He is best-known
today for his science fiction:

* Last and First Men [Cape & Smith, 1931; Dover, 1962]
* Last Men in London [Penguin, 1974; Gregg, 1976]
* Odd John [Dutton, 1936; Galaxy #8; Berkley; Dover; Garland, 1978]
* Sirius [Dover; Penguin, 1974]
* The Starmaker [1937; Berkley, 1962; Penguin]
* Darkness & the Light [Hyperion, 1974] 2 novellas
* Worlds of Wonder [Phantasy Publishing Co. Inc., 1949] 3 stories
expanded as To The End of Time [Funk & Wagnalls, 1953; Gregg, 1975]
5 novels in 1 volume (Last and First Men, Starmaker, Odd John,
The Flames, Sirius)

Olaf Stapledon became a Cambridge Professor of Philosophy, and was extremely
influential on Arthur C. Clarke and other HARD SCIENCE FICTION authors.
Arthur C. Clarke said, of "Star Maker":

"This book literally changed my life when I read it as a 14 year old. As
I've acknowledged many times, my later writing was shaped by Olaf Stapledon's
visions. Even though his history of the post-1930s world was swiftly
outdated by events (or are they happening in another parallel universe?)
his future scenarios remain awe-inspiring."

Specifically, he also had direct influence on writers as diverse as H.G. Wells,
J. B. Priestley, J. D. Bernal, Larry Niven, and John Lilly.

H.G. Wells was the first person to write a novel whose plot spanned
hundreds of millions of years (The Time Machine), Stapledon went to
billions of years, tens of billions, and far beyond.

Through his acknowledged inspiring of Arthur C. Clarke (who once said in
interview that his only two "heroes" were Olaf Stapledon and J. B. S. Haldane],
Stapledon indirectly inspired modern Hard Science Fiction authors such as
Greg Bear, David Brin, Gregory Benford, Stephen Baxter (who calls Star Maker
"science fiction's greatest ascent"), and Greg Egan.

Stapledon inspired me, and Greg Benford, and there is another connection.
I made an impact on the literature of the Far Future with my visionary
article "Human Destiny and the End of Time", Quantum Science Fiction #39,
Winter 1991/1992, ISSN 0198-6686]. This article, during my tenure as
Science Editor, was richly used by Professor Gregory Benford in his superb
novel series set near the core of our galaxy. Some of my most poetic
paragraphs were used almost in their pristine form, set in italics, for
Gregory Benford to give a Olaf Stapledon/Arthur C. Clarke sense-of-wonder
to my prediction of the ambiplasma life forms of the remote future, after
the age of planets and stars. I was also the first person to predict in
print that our entire reality was merely a simulation of those future
beings, trying to imaginatively recreate this mythical age of solid matter,
with all the worlds a stage. This is statistically very likely, in my
cosmology, at least. So, when do I get my royalties from The Matrix? [joke]

40,000,000 AD to 50,000,000 AD
Australia rams Asia

Even at the slow speed, an inch or two per year, continental drift is very
likely to move Australia closer and closer to mainland Asia, until they will
collide, creating a new mountain range as rock strata crumple upwards.

[FAQ: Gondwana, Monash University Earth Sciences]

50,000,000 AD to 60,000,000 AD
Africa rams Europe

"In 50 million years [Christopher Scotese] predicts, the Atlantic will be much
wider than it is now, while Africa will have rammed into Europe, closing
up the Mediterranean Sea and driving up a mountain range as grand as the
Himalayas."
["Hell on Earth", Hazel Muir, New Scientist, 6 Dec 2003, p.36]

200,000,000 AD to 250,000,000 AD
Supercontinent Pangea Ultima

In 226 million years, our Sun, and its solar system, will have orbited
once around the entire Milky Way Galaxy. How will things have changed?

"Christopher Scotese, a geologist at the University of Texas at Arlington...
has simulated how the continents will look in the future, assuming that
they continue their current drifting pattern... about as fast as your
fingernails grow.... If past patterns are anything to go by, small
subduction zones, where one plate dives beneath another, hold some clues."
"Existing zones on the western edge of the Atlantic Ocean should seed a
giant north-south rift that swallows heavy, old oceanic crust. The
Atlantic will start to shrink, sending the Americas crashing back into the
merged Euro-African continent. So roughly 250 million years from now, most
of the world's land mass will once again be joined together in a new
supercontinent that Scotese and his colleagues have dubbed Pangea Ultima.
Here you would be able to walk from the Americas to Africa and Europe
without getting your feet wet."
["Hell on Earth", Hazel Muir, New Scientist, 6 Dec 2003, p.36]

Looking far into the cosmic past, we note that the first stars ignited
roughly 200 million years after the Big Bang.

400,000,000 AD
Twice Round the Galaxy

In 452 million years, our Sun, and its solar system, will have orbited
twice around the entire Milky Way Galaxy, since the dawn of humanity.

500,000,000 AD
95% of Plants Start Dying

"The trouble is that over the long term the sun is getting brighter --
by about 1 percent for every 100 million years. It might not sound like
much, but as the heat is turned up, CO2 levels in the atmosphere will fall
as a result of those heat dependent chemical reactions. The 'thermostat'
will be overwhelmed."

"In about 500 million years' time, according to a climate model by James
Kastings of Pennsylvania State University in University Park and his
colleague Ken Caldeira, CO2 levels will have fallen to just over 40 per
cent of today's level." [Nature, Vol.360, p.721]

"Most plants will struggle to get enough of the gas for photosynthesis.
'About 95 per cent of plant species will start to get into trouble,' says
Kastings. Pine, fir and tropical forests will give way to grasslands,
shrubs and cacti that thrive on relatively low levels of CO2."

["Hell on Earth", Hazel Muir, New Scientist, 6 Dec 2003, pp.37-38]

600,000,000 AD
Thrice Round the Galaxy

In 678 million years, our Sun, and its solar system, will have orbited
three times around the entire Milky Way Galaxy, since the dawn of humanity.

750,000,000 AD
Milky Way Galaxy Absorbs Sagittarius Dwarf

Our Milky Way Galaxy, a vast whirlpool of 250,000,000,000 to 400,000,000,000
stars, and huge amounts of gas, dust, planets, advanced civilizations, and
dark matter, will have collided with and begun to absorb the much smaller
Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. The long, drawn out impact will produce shock
waves that appear as a continuation of the pinwheeling beautiful spiral
arms. New stars will form, and some will quickly die in spectatcular
supernovae.

800,000,000 AD
Four Times Round the Galaxy

In 904 million years, our Sun, and its solar system, will have orbited
four times around the entire Milky Way Galaxy, since the dawn of humanity.

900,000,000 AD
All Plants Die

By about 900 million years from now [CO2] levels will be too low for even
them [grass, shrubs, cacti]. The lush green Earth will have turned a
muddy brown."

["Hell on Earth", Hazel Muir, New Scientist, 6 Dec 2003, p.38]

1,000,000,000 AD
Five Times Round the Galaxy

In 1.13 Billion years, our Sun, and its solar system, will have orbited
five times around the entire Milky Way Galaxy, since the dawn of humanity.

1,200,000,000 AD
Oceans Start Boiling Off

In 1.2 Billion years, our Sun, and its solar system, will have orbited
six times around the entire Milky Way Galaxy, since the dawn of humanity.

"And it gets worse. In 1.2 billion years, the sun will be about 15 per
cent brighter than it is today. The surface temperature on Earth will
reach between 60 and 70 degrees Centigrade [140 Farenheit to 158 Farenheit]
and the chemical reactions that soak up atmospheric CO2 will be so vigorous
that almost all the CO2 will have disappeared from the astmosphere.
'There will be no more carbon dioxode to compensate for the brightening sun,'
says [Jeffrey] Kargel."

"The warming oceans will dramatically increase the humidity of the
atmosphere, compounding the problem. Water is also a greenhouse gas, but
it doesn't act as a thermostat like CO2. More water in the atmosphere
means more heat, which evaporates more water. This vicious circle will
trigger a runaway greenhouse effect. The oceans will all but disappear,
leaving vast dry salt flats, and the cogs and gears of earth's shifting
continents will grind to a halt. Complex animal life will almost
certainly have died out."

["Hell on Earth", Hazel Muir, New Scientist, 6 Dec 2003, p.38]

1,500,000,000 AD to 2,000,000,000
Earth Spins Chaotically

"Earth's spin axis starts to swing chaotically because the Moon drifts too
far away to stablize it."

["Hell on Earth", Hazel Muir, New Scientist, illustration caption, 6 Dec 2003, p.39]

Our Milky Way Galaxy is beginning to be distorted by the gravitational
effects of the larger Andromeda Galaxy, which is on a collision course with
our own.

["End of the Galaxy (but Don't Hold Your Breath", Science Editor Michael Hanlon,
Express Newspapers, 12 Jan 2000]

3,000,000,000 AD
Collision/Merger with Andromeda Galaxy

Our Milky Way Galaxy, at this time of 3 billion years from now, is
gradually colliding with and merging with the larger giant spiral Andromeda
Galaxy. Statistically speaking, almost no stars will actually smash into
each other. However, as this vast collision occurs at roughly 300,000
miles per hour, three dramatic things happen. First, the diffuse galactic
gas and dust heats up from compression. Second, the giant black holes in
the center of each galaxy, each millions of times more massive than our
Sun, whirl around each other, and then eventually merge. Third, enormous
numbers of comets will shower through the merged galaxy, many smashing
innocent planets into extinction events.

There is a chance that in this merger, the Sun and Solar System might be
flung completely out of the galaxy, and thus escape the tremendous violence
of black hole merger. Or, it might be swept into almost anyplace within
the galaxy, even into the accretion disk of the doubled black hole. For
the sake of argument, let's predict on this web page that the solar sustem
keeps roughly its current distance from the new galactic center. That way,
we can continue the geological; and astronomical predictions as below.

3,500,000,000 AD to 6,000,000,000
Magma Oceans Form

"At some point, ultraviolet radiation from the brightening sun will break
down the water in the Earth's steamy atmosphere into hydrogen and oxygen.
Earth's gravity would not be strong enough to retain the hydrogen, which
would fizzle off into space."

"But the oxygen would remain, and at these temperatures could reach
pressures of hundreds of atmospheres. 'The iron in rocks will absorb the
oxygen, and Earth will become a rusty planet,' says [Jeffrey] Kargel. It
might start to look a bit like Mars."

"Kargel also draws parallels with Venus, which is wrapped in thick,
poisonous clouds of sulphuric acid. Eventually the greenhouse effect on
Earth will have pushed temperatures up to 1000 degrees centigrade
[1800 degrees Farenheit] hot enough to melt rock. Seas of scorching magma
will form, and sulphate minerals like gypsum will break down. If a thin
steamy atmosphere remains, it will form a lethal Venusian-style cocktail of
sulphuric acid."

["Hell on Earth", Hazel Muir, New Scientist, illustration caption, 6 Dec 2003, p.38]

7,000,000,000 AD
Sun is a Red Giant Star

"In September [2003], at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in
Monterey, California, [Jeffrey] Kargel described new simulations of how the
Earth will look even further into its tortured future, after the sun has
swollen into a red giant star in about 7 billion years' time."

"No one can predict exactly how the Earth and moon will be orbiting the sun
at that point, but one possibility is that the Earth will be 'tidally locked'
to the sun. In other words, one side of the planet will be in permanent
daylight while the other side will always be dark."

"On the day side of that future Earth, says Kargel, the red sun will
appear 250 times wider than it is today, its globe looming across most of
the sky. It would light up the skies far around the planet, with only a
section about as wide as North America in true darkness at the back.
Surrounding it would be an area in perpetual twilight."

["Hell on Earth", Hazel Muir, New Scientist, 6 Dec 2003, p.38]

7,500,000,000 AD
Magma Oceans Start to Boil Off

"Working with Bruce Fegley and Laura Schaefer of Washington University in
St.Louis, Missouri, [Jeffrey] Kargel used astronomical predictions of the
sun's increasing brightness to calculate temperatures on the Earth's
sirface. They found that 7.57 billion years from now, the magma ocean
directly in the glare of the sun will reach almost 2200 degrees Centigrade.
'At that kind of temperature, the magma will start to evaporate," says Kargel."

"The temperature on the night side is less easy to predict. 'If there was
a thick atmosphere blowing around, it could carry enough heat to the night
side that even this dark side would be toasty warm,' says Kargel."

"'But if you don't have that atmosphere, then it could become extremely cold.'
The situation would be similar to that on [planet] Mercury, which has only
a thin atmosphere. Mercury's midday temperatures of 350 degrees Centigrade
[662 degrees Farenheit] -- hot enough to melt lead -- fall to -170 degrees
Centigrade [-274 degrees Farenheit] at night."

"[Jeffrey] Kargel thinks the night side of the Earth could be even colder,
at about -240 degrees Centigrade [-400 degrees Farenheit]. And this
bizarre hot-and-cold Earth will set up some exotic weather patterns. On
the hot side, metals like silicon, magnesium and iron, and their oxides,
will evaporate out of the magma seas. In the warm twilight zones, they'll
condense back down."

"'You'll see iron rain, maybe silicon monoxide snow,' says Kargel.
Meanwhile, potassium and sodium snow will fall from colder dusky skies."

"On the dark side, it could be cold enough for CO2, sulphur dioxide and
argon to freeze out into a giant ice cap, dusted with solid nitrogen
icing. Underneath that will be plain old water ice -- if any water
remains on the planet, that is. And there is a small chance that in the
twilight zone, this wild planet might retain a little memento of its
distant past: a cosy liquid water ocean."

7,600,000,000 AD
Sun is a White Dwarf Star

The sun stays as a slowly cooling White Dwarf star, with almost the full
mass that it has today, but shrunk and compressed to the size of a planet.

"White dwarf stars are extremely dense compact stars containing a stellar
mass in a volume the size of a planet. They are the final stellar remnants
that result from the nonexplosive evolution of virtually all stars having
initial masses up to approximately 7-8 solar masses. Thus one expects that
upwards of 97% of the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy should terminate their
thermonuclear evolution as these burnt-out cinders, compressed to complete
electron degeneracy by the earlier, successively alternating stages of
thermonuclear fuel ignition, fuel exhaustion, and core contraction...."

[Stars, White Dwarf, Observed Properties", Edward M. Sion, The Astronomy
and Astrophysics Encyclopedia, Edited by Stephan P. Maran, Foreword by
Carl Sagan, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992, p.802]

10,000,000,000 AD
Milky/Andromeda Absorbs Magellanic Clouds

Ten Billion Years from now, when the Earth (if its still exists)
is twice as old as it is today, the merged Milky Way/Andromeda Galaxy will
have collided with and absorbed both the Greater Magellanic Clouds and the
Lesser Magellanic Clouds, an assortment of dwarf galaxies currently
orbiting our galaxy.

[completely rephrased from facts in "A Tourist's Guide to the Milky Way",
Robert Roy Britt, explorezone.com, 5 Jan 2000]

William Olaf Stapledon [Star Maker, 1937] considers this time
to be an arbitrary moment roughly halfway between "First Interstellar Travel"
(by our remote descendants, mutated to live on Neptune) and "First
Artificial Planets (as permanent abodes).

"Interstellar, as opposed to interplanetary travel, was quite impossible
until the advent of sub-atomic power. Fortunately, this source of power was
seldom gained until late in a world's development, when mentality was
mature enough to wield this most dangerous of all physical instruments
without inevitable disaster... Actual interstellar voyaging was first
effected by detaching a planet from its natural orbit by a series of
well-placed rocket implosions, thus projecting it into interstellar space....
For longer voyages... [they would] form a small artificial sun, and
project it into space as a blazing satellite of the living world...."
[Star Maker, 1937; Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1987, pp.141-142]

Stapledon also writes of this era as the end of the "Age of Isolated Worlds"
and near the center of the "Age of Living Stars."

11,600,000,000 AD to 11,600,000,000 AD
Mars has a Human-comfortable Temperature

Between 11.6 and 11.7 Billion years, as the Sun expands, the ratio of the
surface temperature of Mars then (compared to now) will increase by a
factor of 1.29-1.43, making it completely user-friendly for humans as we
are now.

["Solar Evolution and the Distant Future of Earth", Klaus-Peter Schroder,
Robert Common Smith, and Kevin Apps, A&G, Dec 2001

12,070,000,000 AD to 12,100,000,000 AD
Europa has a Human-comfortable Temperature

Between 12.07 and 12.10 Billion years, as the Sun expands, the ratio of the
surface temperature of Jupiter's moon Europa then (compared to now) will
increase by a factor of 2.25-2.50, making it completely user-friendly for
humans as we are now.

Between 12.139 and 12.147 Billion years, as the Sun expands, the ratio of the
surface temperature of Saturn's moon Titan then (compared to now) will
increase by a factor of 3.18-3.53, making it completely user-friendly for
humans as we are now.

Between 12.162 and 12.164 Billion years, as the Sun expands, the ratio of the
surface temperature of Uranus's moon Oberon then (compared to now) will
increase by a factor of 5.09-5.66, making it completely user-friendly for
humans as we are now.

For Neptune's moon Triton to warm up by a factor of 8.44 to 9.38,
from Solar expansion, to make it completely user-friendly for humans as
we are now -- will never happen!

["Solar Evolution and the Distant Future of Earth", Klaus-Peter Schroder,
Robert Common Smith, and Kevin Apps, A&G, Dec 2001]

Looking equally far into the cosmic past, we note that the Big Bang
was 13,700,000,000 years ago, plus or minus 1%. [WMAP data]

20,000,000,000 AD
"Star Maker" Fictional "War of Worlds"

William Olaf Stapledon [Star Maker, 1937] considers this time
the start of the "Struggle for Galactic Mentality", initiated by the "War
of Worlds."

"... There followed civil wars, mass-martyrdoms of devoted pacificists,
dissension among the imperialists, a steady increase in 'lunacy' in every
world of the empire. The whole imperial organization fell to pieces; and
since the aristocratic worlds that formed the backbone of empire were as
impotent as soldier-ants to maintain themselves without the service and
tribute of the subject worlds, the loss of empire doomed them to death....
[Star Maker, 1937; Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1987, pp.162-163]

About 2 billion years later, "Symbiotics Take Charge." At roughly
25,000,000,000 AD he writes of "First Galactic Utopia."

"At first the task of establishing the galactic utopia occupied almost the
whole energy of the the awakened worlds. More and more of the stars were
encircled with concentric hoops of pearls, perfect though artificial. And
each pearl was a unique world, occupied by a unique race. Henceforth the
highest level of persistent individuality was not a world, but a system of
scores or hundreds of worlds. And between these systems was as easy and
delightful converse as between human individuals.... Telepathic
intercourse united the whole galaxy.... So far as possible it was
supplemented by physical travel. A constant stream of touring worldlets
percolated through the whole galaxy in every direction...."
[Star Maker, 1937; Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1987, pp.167-168]

"The Galactic Society of Worlds had sought to perfect its communication
with other galaxies..." [op.cit., p.180]

At roughly 28,000,000,000 AD he writes of "War of Stars and Worlds."

30,000,000,000 AD
"Star Maker" Fictional "Second Galactic Utopia"

William Olaf Stapledon [Star Maker, 1937] considers this time
about two-thirds of the way through the "Struggle for Galactic Mentality."

At roughly 32,000,000,000 AD he writes of "Second Galactic Utopia."

Stapledon invented what we call Dyson Spheres, after Freeman Dyson.
Indeed, Dyson credits the novel "Star Maker" for giving him the idea.

"Not only was every solar system now surrounded by a gauze of light traps,
which focused the escaping solar energy for intelligent use, so that the
whole galaxy was dimmed, but many stars that were not suited to be suns
were disintegrated, and rifled of their prodigious stores of subatomic
energy." [William Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker, 1937]

At roughly 36,000,000,000 AD he writes of "First Occurrence of Galactic Mind."
That brings to a close the "Struggle for Galactic Mentality."

40,000,000,000 AD
"Star Maker" Fictional "First Colonization of Dead Stars"

William Olaf Stapledon [Star Maker, 1937] considers this time
after the "Struggle for Galactic Mentality."

At roughly 42,000,000,000 AD he writes of "First Colonization of Dead Stars."
This also marks the start of the "Struggle for Cosmical Mentality."

At roughly 45,000,000,000 AD he writes of "Partial Cosmic Utopia."

At roughly 46,000,000,000 AD he writes of "First Occurrence of Cosmical Mind."

"Of living stars, very few were left in any galaxy. Of the host of dead
stars, some, subjected to atomic disintegration, were being used as
artificial suns, and were surrounded by many thousands of artificial
planets. But the great majority of the stars were now encrusted, and
themselves peopled. After a while it became necessary to evacuate all
planets, as artificial suns were too extravagant of energy. The
planet-dwelling races therefore one by one destroyed themselves, beqeathing
the material of their worlds and all their wisdom to the inhabitants of
the extinguished stars. Henceforth the cosmos, once a swarm of blazing
galaxies, each a swarm of stars, was composed wholly of star-corpses.
These dark grains drifted through the dark void, like an infinitely
tenuous smoke rising from an extinguished fire. Upon these motes, these
gigantic worlds, the ultimate populations had created here and there with
their artificial lighting a pale glow, invisible even from the innermost
ring of lifeless planets."
[Star Maker, 1937; Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1987, pp.212-213]

At roughly 48,000,000,000 AD he writes of "Death of Last Surviving Star."

50,000,000,000 AD
"Star Maker" Fictional "Supreme Moment of the Cosmos"

William Olaf Stapledon [Star Maker, 1937] considers this time
the "Supreme Moment of the Cosmos" when the Cosmical Mind (composed of all
interconnected intelligences in the universe) makes direct contact with the
"Star Maker" -- the Creator of the universe. Life falls back, enlightened
but stunned, as it seems that our is merely a prototype universe, neither
the first nor the last Creation. Thus starts the long era of "Cosmical Decline."

60,000,000,000 AD
Solid Crust Forms on the Sun

Before the Sun became a White Dwarf, much of its Hydrogen had ben fused
into Helium, and much of the Helium, to Carbon. Significant amounts of
Oxygen, Silicon, Aluminum and other elements were created by
nucleosythesis. Thus, when the Sun has cooled enough, in about 60 billion
years (more than 10 times its current age) a solid crust will probably
form.

Life may exist on the crust of the cooling sun, as first written about by
Olaf Stapledon, in his astonishing novel STAR MAKER [1937]. Perhaps even some of
our remote descendants...

But in his astonishing novel, he writes of this era as the "Dissolution of
the Cosmical Mind."

At roughly 68,000,000,000 AD he writes of "First Death of a Galaxy."

80,000,000,000 AD
"Star Maker" Fictional "Last Galaxy Dies"

Olaf Stapledon, in his astonishing novel STAR MAKER [1937]
writes of this era "Last Galaxy Dies."

1,000,000,000,000 AD
One Trillion Years From Now: Stars Die

Years = 10 to the power of 12

The lowest-mass stars from the last generation of star formation age feebly
into white dwarfs. No more brightly-shining stars powered by fusion.
["The Future of the Universe", Professor Barbara Ryden, Ohio State University;
update of 10 Mar 2003]

"Of course, stars will eventually run out of fuel and die, and the gas clouds
that give birth to new generations of stars will likewise exhaust their
resources. But the smallest stars, a little less than one-tenth the mass
of the Sun, stay much cooler than the Sun and forge helium from hydrogen at
a much slower pace. Astronomers expect these stars to keep shining for
about 100 trillion years, against which our 15-billion-year-old universe is
just a blink of an eye."
[http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/programs/html/prog-content_4-4.html]

What is the connection between a Light Year and a Trillion?
A Light Year is the speed of light (186,232 miles per second)
divided by 31,536,000 seconds in a year. So we get that a Light Year
is 5.874 Trillion miles. Since the closest star other than our Sun is
Proxima Centauri, at 4.3 Light Years away, that next star is
about 25.260 Trillion miles away.

A slightly longer unit of Astronomical distance is the Parsec.
One Parsec = 19.1735281 Trillion miles.

1,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Quadrillion Years From Now: Degenerate Era

Years = 10 to the power of 15

This age, one quadrillion years from now, marks the begnning of the
"Degenerate Era" of the universe. The stellar landscape (in virtually
every galaxy) is dominated by white dwarfs and brown dwarfs. Much of the
remaining mass of the universe is comprised of neutron stars and black holes
of various sizes. Most other stars in the galaxies have long since
collided explosively or gradually burnt out. Frozen corpses of planets
scatter across the galaxies, and the halos around galaxies, and the deep
night of intergalactic space.

More and more of these white dwarfs, brown dwarfs, neutron stars,
black holes, and forgotten planets find their way eventually into the
accretion disks of, and then into the centers of growing black holes.

Fewer and fewer new stars form, because the galaxies are "running on empty" --
increasingly devoid of hydrogen gas fuel. Less and less new fuel drifts
into the ancient galaxies from intergalactic space.

The stars of this era are more and more thoroughly fueled by dark matter,
whose properties we don't know well enough now to describe.

New life may still form inside cooling brown dwarfs and on the crusts of
cold white dwarfs.

On a very few such places, the beings develop intelligence, technology, and
dimly intuit that things were once very different. They write science
fiction about a virile and fertile young universe. Then they start to
simulate us.

[Significantly rewritten and expanded from excerpt of "The Five Ages of the Universe",
Peter N. Spotts, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 July 1999]

To put a quadrillion in Astronomical context:

One Light Year is 31.038479 quadrillion feet.
One Light Year is 372.461748 quadrillion inches.

A slightly longer unit of Astronomical distance is the Parsec.
One Parsec = 101.236229 quadrillion feet.

To put a quadrillion in World Wide Web context:

Using 37 characters (26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits plus an underscore _ ),
there are 4,808,584,372,418,000 possible website names 10 characters in length.

1,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Quintillion Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 18

Just to put "quintillion" in Astronomical context:

One Light Year is 9.4605284 quintillion millimeters.

A slightly longer unit of Astronomical distance than the Light Year
is the Parsec. One Parsec = 1.21483474 quintillion inches.

Just to put "quintillion" in Earthly context, it is estimated that approximately
a quintillion individual insects populate the Earth.

One quintillion American pennies, if laid out flat, like a carpet, would
cover the surface of the Earth twice. That would weigh 3 trillion tons,
and be worth over 10 quadrillion dollars. Those pennies could be packed
into a cube 27,300 feet X 27,300 feet X 27,300 feet. Such a cube would be
1,700 feet shorter than Mt.Everest.

There are 13.01 quintillion Planck masses in the mass of one proton.
Hence, a proton Compton wavelength is 13.01 quintillion Planck lengths.

The number of possible combinations on a standard Rubik's Cube is roughly
43 quintillion, as printed on the box, and justified mathematically
elsewhere.

We can easily reach a quintillion using the Factorial function.
20! = 2.43290201 quintillion = 20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

To put a quintillion in World Wide Web context:

Using 37 characters (26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits plus an underscore _ ),
there are roughly 177 quintillion possible website names 11 characters in length.

Using the 26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits for a 36-character expanded
alphabet, there are roughly 131 quintillion sequences (permutations) of
11 characters.

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Sextillion Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 21

Just to put "sextillion" in Terrestrial context:

The Earth weighs 5.972 sextillion metric tons.

Dr. Simon Driver (Australian National University) estimated that there are
approximately 70 sextillion visible stars in the universe.
[General Assembly, International Astronomical Union, Sydney Australia, 22 July 2003]

Just to put "sextillion" in additional Astronomical context:

One Light Year is 9.4605284 sextillion microns.
A slightly longer unit of Astronomical distance than the Light Year
is the Parsec. One Parsec = 30.856805 sextillion microns.

One sextillion American pennies could be packed into a cube roughly
50 miles X 50 miles X 50 miles.

We can easily reach a sextillion using the Factorial function.
22! = 2.43290201 quintillion = 22x21x20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

To put a sextillion in World Wide Web context:

Using 37 characters (26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits plus an underscore _ ),
there are roughly 6.58 sextillion possible website names 12 characters in length.
There are roughly 243 sextillion possible website names 13 characters in length.

Using the 26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits for a 36-character expanded
alphabet, there are roughly 4.74 sextillion sequences (permutations) of
12 characters.

Using the 26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits for a 36-character expanded
alphabet, there are roughly 171 sextillion sequences (permutations) of
13 characters.

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Septillion Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 24

Note: at 60.2% of this age, the universe is "one mole of years old",
i.e. Avogadro's Constant number of years. This fact, so far as I know, has
never before been pointed out on the World Wide Web. Yet I have been
saying this to fellow scientists and science fiction authors for some 20
years. Thus, Your Humble Webmaster, on 10 December 2003, would like to suggest
that this age be called "The Stapledon" after Cambridge Philosophy Don and
Science Fiction author William Olaf Stapledon.

The Earth weighs 5.972 septillion kilograms.

That leads us to Isaac Asimov's recipe for Earth, or an Earth-like planet:

"Weigh out roughly two septillion kilograms of iron, adding 10 percent of
nickel as stiffening. Mix well with four septillion kilograms of
magnesium silicate, adding 5 per cent of sulfur... and small quantities of
other elements. Heat in a radioactive furnace and two mutually insoluble
layers separate. Cool slowly till the crust hardens and a thin film of
adhering gas and moisture appears. Place in an orbit at a comfortable
distance from a star and set to spinning. Then wait. In several billion
years it will ferment at the surface. The fermented portion [is] called
life." Well, I'd properly call the fermented portion "the biosphere" but
Isaac Asimov was my friend, and I never argued with him in life.

Just to put "septillion" in Astronomical context:

One Light Year is 94.605284 septillion angstroms.
A slightly longer unit of Astronomical distance than the Light Year
is the Parsec. One Parsec = 308.568025 septillion angstroms.

We can easily reach a septillion using the Factorial function.
25! = 15.51121 septillion = 25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

To put a septillion in World Wide Web context:

Using 37 characters (26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits plus an underscore _ ),
there are roughly 9.01 septillion possible website names 14 characters in length.
There are roughly 333 septillion possible website names 15 characters in length.

Using a normal alphabet of 26 letters, there are roughly 400 septillion
sequences of 26 letters (i.e. permutations of the complete alphabet).

Using the 26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits for a 36-character expanded
alphabet, there are roughly 6.174 septillion sequences (permutations) of
14 characters.

Using the 26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits for a 36-character expanded
alphabet, there are roughly 221 septillion sequences (permutations) of
15 characters.

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Octillion Years From Now: Galaxies "Dissolve"

Years = 10 to the power of 27

"Close encounters between stellar remnants within galaxies fling half of
them out of the galaxy into interstellar space. The remaining stars are
swallowed by the galaxy's central supermassive black hole, swelling it to
gargantuan size (about 100 billion solar masses for a fair-sized galaxy
like our own). Galaxies no longer exist -- stellar remnants have been
strewn throughout space."
["The Future of the Universe", Professor Barbara Ryden, Ohio State University;
update of 10 Mar 2003]

Just to put "octillion" in context, the Earth weighs roughly 5.972 octillion grams,
the Sun weighs roughly 2 octillion metric tons, and there are
approximately 56 octillion possible hands of 13 cards per player in Bridge.

A slightly longer unit of Astronomical distance than the Light Year
is the Parsec. Distances between galaxies are often measured in
Megaparsecs (1,000,000 Parsecs). One Megaparsec = 30.8568025 octillion microns.

Using the 26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits for a 36-character expanded
alphabet, there are roughly 7.96 octillion sequences (permutations) of
16 characters.

Using the 26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits for a 36-character expanded
alphabet, there are roughly 287 octillion sequences (permutations) of
17 characters.

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Nonillion Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 30

10 Nonillion years from now (10 to the power of 31):
"Supermassive black holes merge. After galaxies become unbound, flinging
their stellar remnants into space, clusters of gargantuan black holes
exist where clusters of galaxies used to be. The black holes, as they
orbit through space, radiate gravitational waves. These gravitational
waves are ripples in space-time itself; just as ripples in water carry
energy, so ripples in space-time carry away energy from the moving black
holes, allowing them to spiral in towards the center of the cluster in
which they live. Eventually, all the gargantuan black holes mrge together
to form a hyper-gargantuan black hole [about 1 quadrillion solar masses for
a cluster such as our Virgo Cluster].
["The Future of the Universe", Professor Barbara Ryden, Ohio State University;
update of 10 Mar 2003]

A slightly longer unit of Astronomical distance than the Light Year
is the Parsec. Distances between galaxies are often measured in Megaparsecs
(1,000,000 Parsecs). One Megaparsec = 308.568025 nonillion angstroms.

A unisexual organism reproducing nonstop and without hinderance every 30
hours for 4 months would have one nonillion descendants.

If you had 2 children, and each of them had 2 children, and so forth, then
in 100 generations you would have 1.267 nonillion descendants (in that 100th
generation).

Dr. Samuel Lomonaco (Professor of Computer Science and Electrical
Engineering, University of Maryland) wrote in 1997 that a quantum computer
could have a nonillion times a PC's processing power.

We can easily reach a nonillion using the Factorial function.
29! = 8.84176199 nonillion = 29x28x27x26x25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

"Nonillion" is one of a very few 9-letter English words that can be typed
entirely with the right hand in standard position on a qwerty keyboard.

Using the 26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits for a 36-character expanded
alphabet, there are roughly 10.3 nonillion sequences (permutations) of
18 characters.

Using the 26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits for a 36-character expanded
alphabet, there are roughly 371 nonillion sequences (permutations) of
19 characters.

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Decillion Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 33

We can easily reach a decillion using the Factorial function.
31! = 8.22283865 decillion = 31x30x29x28x27x26x25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

Using the 26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits for a 36-character expanded
alphabet, there are roughly 13.4 decillion sequences (permutations) of
20 characters.

Using the 26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits for a 36-character expanded
alphabet, there are roughly 481 decillion sequences (permutations) of
21 characters.

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Undecillion Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 36

What happens in the universe over One Undecillion Years? {to be done}

It has been estmated that one undecillion snowflakes have fallen on Earth
from when it first became cold enough, to the present age of humans.

Raising 26 to the 26th power, we calculate that there are approximately
6.15611958 Undecillion arrangements of 26 letters (the same letter can
occur more than once).

Using the 26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits for a 36-character expanded
alphabet, there are roughly 17.3 undecillion sequences (permutations) of
22 characters.

Using the 26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits for a 36-character expanded
alphabet, there are roughly 624 undecillion sequences (permutations) of
23 characters.

In the gambling game Keno, at some casinos, you can choose between 2 and 20
numbers to bet on, giving roughly 117 undecillion possible combinations on
which to place a bet.

In IP v.6 (the next version of Internet standards) there are roughly
340 undecillion possible internet addresses.

We can easily reach a undecillion using the Factorial function.
33! = 8.68331762 undecillion = 33x32x31x30x29x28x27x26x25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Duodecillion Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 39

What happens in the universe over One Duodecillion Years? {to be done}

We can easily reach a duodecillion using the Factorial function.
35! = 10.333148 duodecillion = 35x34x33x32x31x30x29x28x27x26x25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

Using the 26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits for a 36-character expanded
alphabet, there are roughly 22.5 duodecillion sequences (permutations) of
24 characters.

Using the 26 lowercase letters plus 10 digits for a 36-character expanded
alphabet, there are roughly 808 duodecillion sequences (permutations) of
25 characters.

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Tredecillion Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 42

What happens in the universe over One Tredecillion Years? {to be done}

We can easily reach a tredecillion using the Factorial function.
37! = 13.7637531 tredecillion = 37x36x35x34x33x32x31x30x29x28x27x26x25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

Raising 26 to the 30th power, we calculate that there are approximately
2.8131989 Tredecillion arrangements of 30 letters (the same letter can
occur more than once).

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Quattuordecillion Years From Now: Protons and neutrons decay

Years = 10 to the power of 45

"Protons and neutrons decay. Although we think of protons as being stable
particles (unless they happen to meet up with an antiproton) they are
actually subject to decay on extremely long time scales. The half-life of
a proton is uncertain (because it's so long) but it's in the neighborhood
of [10 to the power of 45] years. After this time, protons (and their
close relations, neutrons) decay into positrons, electrons, and photons.
As a consequence, white dwarfs and neutron stars (and any planets,
asteroids, and comets that are still around) will disintegrate into
expanding clouds of electrons, positrons, and photons."

"For a long time after protons and neutrons decay, the universe will be
fairly stable -- electrons, positrons, black holes, neutrinos and photons
will be spread throughout an ever-expanding universe."
["The Future of the Universe", Professor Barbara Ryden, Ohio State University;
update of 10 Mar 2003]

Other estimates put the lifetime of a proton at anywhere over 10 to the power
of 31 years.

We can easily reach a quattuordecillion using the Factorial function.
39! = 20.3978821 quattuordecillion = 39x38x37x36x35x34x33x32x31x30x29x28x27x26x25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

Raising 26 to the 32nd power, we calculate that there are approximately
1.90172246 Quattuordecillion arrangements of 32 letters (the same letter can
occur more than once).

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Quindecillion Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 48

We can easily reach a quindecillion using the Factorial function.
41! = 33.4525266 quindecillion = 41x40x39x38x37x36x35x34x33x32x31x30x29x28x27x26x25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

Raising 26 to the 34th power, we calculate that there are approximately
1.28556438 Quindecillion arrangements of 34 letters (the same letter can
occur more than once).

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Sexdecillion Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 51

The total mass of the universe is somewhere between
200 and 500 sexdecillion kilograms.

One clever way to calculate that is to consider the Schwartzchild radius
of a black hole. By Schwartzchild's formula, if you could crush the Earth
to a radius of about a third of an inch, it would become a black hole. If
you compressed the Sun to about 1.1 kilometers, it would become a black
hole. So what mass for the entire universe results from assuming that the
radius of the universe (13.7 Light Years) is a Schwartzchild radius? The
answer is in the range listed above, which also agrees with WMAP and other
obervational data. Note that at most 4% of that total mass is "ordinary
matter", greatly outmassed by cold Dark Matter (23%)and even more so by
Dark Energy (73%).

We can easily reach a sexdecillion using the Factorial function.
43! = 60.4152631 sexdecillion = 43x42x41x40x39x38x37x36x35x34x33x32x31x30x29x28x27x26x25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

Raising 26 to the 37th power, we calculate that there are approximately
22.5950796 Sexdecillion arrangements of 37 letters (the same letter can
occur more than once).

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Septendecillion Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 54

The total mass of the universe is somewhere between
200 and 500 septendecillion grams.

We can easily reach a septendecillion using the Factorial function.
45! = 119.622221 septendecillion = 45x44x43x42x41x40x39x38x37x36x35x34x33x32x31x30x29x28x27x26x25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

Raising 26 to the 39th power, we calculate that there are approximately
15.2742738 Septendecillion arrangements of 39 letters (the same letter can
occur more than once).

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Octodecillion Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 57

We can easily reach a octodecillion using the Factorial function.
46! = 5.50262216 octodecillion = 46x45x44x43x42x41x40x39x38x37x36x35x34x33x32x31x30x29x28x27x26x25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

Raising 26 to the 41st power, we calculate that there are approximately
10.3254091 Octodecillion arrangements of 41 letters (the same letter can
occur more than once).

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Novemdecillion Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 60

We can easily reach a novemdecillion using the Factorial function.
48! = 12.4139156 novemdecillion = 48x47x46x45x44x43x42x41x40x39x38x37x36x35x34x33x32x31x30x29x28x27x26x25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

Raising 26 to the 43rd power, we calculate that there are approximately
6.97997654 Novemdecillion arrangements of 43 letters (the same letter can
occur more than once).

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Vigintillion Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 63

In One Hundred Vigintillion Years [10 to the power of 65] a black hole the
mass of our Sun will have completely evaporated away into Hawking Radiation.
reference: xxx]

Since we know (as of late 2003) that the universe is 13.7 Billion years old,
let us pretend for this web page that the farthest we can see (to the "edge
of the universe") is exactly 13.7 Billion Light Years. In that case, the
total volume of the universe is 2.571353 nonillion cubic Light Years.
That equals 5.22349554 times (10 to the power of 68) cubic miles, which
is also 522,349.554 vigintillion cubic miles.

We can easily reach a vigintillion using the Factorial function.
50! = 30.4140932 vigintillion = 50x49x48x47x46x45x44x43x42x41x40x39x38x37x36x35x34x33x32x31x30x29x28x27x26x25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

Raising 26 to the 45th power, we calculate that there are approximately
4.71846414 Vigintillion arrangements of 45 letters (the same letter can
occur more than once).

(10 to the power of 66) AD
1 Solar Mass Black Hole Evaporates

By my calculations, at 1.5 times (10 to the power of 66 years),
a black hole of exactly the mass of our sun would evaporate and disappear
by Hawking radiation. That's 1,500 Vigintillion Years.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

"How long does it take for a black hole to evaporate and disappear?
The answer depends on the hole's mass. The larger the hole, the lower its
temperature, and thus the more weakly it emits particles and the more
slowly it evaporates. The total lifetime, as worked out by Don Page in
1975 when he was jointly my student and Hawking's is
[1.2 times 10 to the power of 67] years if the black hole's mass is twice
that of the Sun. The lifetime is proportional to the cube of the hole's
mass, so a 20-solar mass hole has a lifetime of [1.2 times 10 to the power
of 70] years
["Black Holes & Time Warps",Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

(10 to the power of 69) AD
10 Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

By my calculations, at 1.5 times (10 to the power of 69 years),
a black hole of 10 times the mass of our sun would evaporate and disappear
by Hawking radiation. That's 1.5 Million Vigintillion Years.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

(10 to the power of 72) AD
100 Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

By my calculations, at 1.5 times (10 to the power of 72 years),
a black hole of 100 times the mass of our sun would evaporate and disappear
by Hawking radiation. That's 1.5 Billion Vigintillion Years.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

(10 to the power of 75) AD
1,000 Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

By my calculations, at 1.5 times (10 to the power of 75 years),
a black hole of 1,000 times the mass of our sun would evaporate and disappear
by Hawking radiation. That's 1.5 Trillion Vigintillion Years.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

(10 to the power of 78) AD
10,000 Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

By my calculations, at 1.5 times (10 to the power of 78 years),
a black hole of 10,000 times the mass of our sun would evaporate and disappear
by Hawking radiation. That's 1.5 Quadrillion Vigintillion Years.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

The total volume of the universe is roughly 7.68887845 times
(10 to the power of 79) cubic feet.

(10 to the power of 81) AD
100,000 Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

By my calculations, at 1.5 times (10 to the power of 81 years),
a black hole of 100,000 times the mass of our sun would evaporate and disappear
by Hawking radiation. That's 1.5 Quintillion Vigintillion Years.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

The total volume of the universe is roughly 1.3286382 times
(10 to the power of 83) cubic inches.

(10 to the power of 84) AD
Million Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

By my calculations, at 1.5 times (10 to the power of 84 years),
a black hole of 1,000,000 times the mass of our sun would evaporate and disappear
by Hawking radiation. That's 1.5 Sextillion Vigintillion Years.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

(10 to the power of 87) AD
10 Million Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

By my calculations, at 1.5 times (10 to the power of 87 years),
a black hole of 10,000,000 times the mass of our sun would evaporate and disappear
by Hawking radiation. That's 1.5 Septillion Vigintillion Years.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

The total volume of the universe is roughly 2.17724792 times
(10 to the power of 87) cubic millimeters.

(10 to the power of 90) AD
100 Million Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

By my calculations, at 1.5 times (10 to the power of 90 years),
a black hole of 100,000,000 times the mass of our sun would evaporate and disappear
by Hawking radiation. That's 1.5 Octillion Vigintillion Years.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

(10 to the power of 93) AD
Billion Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

By my calculations, at 1.5 times (10 to the power of 93 years),
a black hole of 1,000,000,000 times the mass of our sun would evaporate and disappear
by Hawking radiation. That's 1.5 Nonillion Vigintillion Years.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

(10 to the power of 96) AD
10 Billion Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

By my calculations, at 1.5 times (10 to the power of 96 years),
a black hole of 10,000,000,000 times the mass of our sun would evaporate and disappear
by Hawking radiation. That's 1.5 Decillion Vigintillion Years.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

The total volume of the universe is roughly 2.17724792 times
(10 to the power of 96) cubic microns.

(10 to the power of 96) AD
100 Billion Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

By my calculations, at 1.5 times (10 to the power of 96 years),
a black hole of 100,000,000,000 times the mass of our sun would evaporate and disappear
by Hawking radiation. That's 1,500 Decillion Vigintillion Years.
This is the mass of a galaxy somewhat smaller than our Milky Way.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

There are roughly (10 to the power of 99) cubic Planck lengths in a cubic
centimeter. The cubic Planck length is theorized to be the smallest
possible non-zero volume. "The quantum of volume is so tiny that there are
more such quanta in a cubic centimeter than there are cubic centimeters
in the visible universe (10 to the power of 85)."
["Atoms of Space and Time", Lee Smolin, Scientific American, Jan 2004, p.71]

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Googol Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 100

Note the spelling: "Googol."
This is not to be confused with "Google," which is a trademarked corporate name.
Or, for that matter, Nikolay Vasilyevich Gogol [1809-1852],
the Russian comic writer best known for his novel "Dead Souls" [1842].

"Words of wisdom are spoken by children at least as often as by scientists.
The name 'googol' was invented by a child (Dr Kasner's nine-year-old nephew)
who was asked to think up a name for a very big number, namely, 1 with a
hundred zeros after it. He was very certain that this number was not infinite,
and therefore equally certain that it had to have a name. At the same time
that he suggested 'googol' he gave a name for a still larger number:
'Googolplex'. A googolplex is much larger than a googol, but is still finite,
as the inventor of the name was quick to point out. It was first suggested
that a googolplex should be 1, followed by writing zeros until you got tired.
This is a description of what would happen if one actually tried to write a
googolplex, but different people get tired at different times and it would never
do to have Carnera a better mathematician than Dr Einstein, simply because he
had more endurance. The googolplex then, is a specific finite number, with so
many zeros after the 1 that the number of zeros is a googol. A googolplex is
much bigger than a googol, much bigger even than a googol times a googol.
A googol times a googol would be 1 with 200 zeros, whereas a googolplex is
1 with a googol of zeros. You will get some idea of the size of this very large
but finite number from the fact that there would not be enough room to write it,
if you went to the farthest star, touring all the nebulae and putting down zeros
every inch of the way."
[Kasner and Newman, Mathematics and the Imagination, 1940]

At 1.2 times (10 to the power of 100 years), a black hole
of 200 Billion times the mass of our sun would evaporate by Hawking
radiation. That is the mass of a galaxy slightly larger than our Milky Way,
after half of its stars have diffused away and the other half fell into the
central massive black hole.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

At 1.5 times (10 to the power of 102 years), a black hole
of 1 Trillion times the mass of our sun would evaporate by Hawking
radiation. That is the mass of a typical cluster of galaxies,
after half of the stars have diffused away and the other half fell into the
central massive black hole of each galaxy, and then the galactic black
holes spiralled together and merged. That's 150 Googol Years.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

At 1.2 times (10 to the power of 103 years), a black hole
of 2 Trillion times the mass of our sun would evaporate by Hawking
radiation. That is the mass of a larger than typical cluster of galaxies,
after half of the stars have diffused away and the other half fell into the
central massive black hole of each galaxy, and then the galactic black
holes spiralled together and merged. Or the mass of a typical supercluster
of galaxies. That's 1,200 Googol Years.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

At 1.5 times (10 to the power of 105 years), a black hole
of 10 Trillion times the mass of our sun would evaporate by Hawking
radiation. That is the mass of a larger than typical supercluster
of galaxies. That's 150,000 Googol Years.
[based on Don Page's equation in: "Black Holes & Time Warps",
Kip Thorne, NY: W.W. Norton, 1994]

The total volume of the universe is roughly 2.17724792 times
(10 to the power of 108) cubic angstroms. Or we could say that
The total volume of the universe is roughly 217,724,792
googol cubic angstroms.

We can easily reach a googol using the Factorial function.
70! = 1.19785717 googol =
70x69x68x67x66x65x64x63x62x61x61x59x58x57x56x55x54x53x52x51x50x49x48x47x46x45x44x43x42x41x40x39x38x37x36x35x34x33x32x31x30x29x28x27x26x25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16...x3x2x1

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD
One Mega-Googol Years From Now: Supermassive Black Holes Evaporate

Years = 10 to the power of 106

Supermassive Black Holes Evaporate. After this mind-bogglingly long period
of time, the hyper-gargantuan black holes finally evaporate [from Hawking
Radiation] The universe now contains electrons, positrons, photons, and neutrinos
(none of which are subject to decay, as far as we know). The density of
the universe is so staggeringly low that the electrons and positrons never
have an opportunity to collide and annihilate."
["The Future of the Universe", Professor Barbara Ryden, Ohio State University;
update of 10 Mar 2003]

By my calculations, from Don Page's equation, a black hole with mass
20 Trillion times that of our Sun would evaporate in 1.2 times
(10 to the power of 106) years, thus confirming Professor Ryden's result.

The actual formula for the lifetime of a black hole is
T = (G^2 M^3 / hbar c^4)
[S. W. Hawking, Commun.Math.Phys. 43 (1975)199]

"At the end of its life, every black hole emits about 10^31 erg of
high-temperature radiation. The cold expanding universe will be
illuminated by occasional fireworks for a very long time."
["Time Without End: Physics and Biology in an Open Universe";
Freeman J. Dyson, see below]

"The apparent poverty of this distant epoch is most likely due to our
difficulties in extrapolating far enough into the future, rather than an
actual dearth of physical processes."
["Physics offers glimpse into the dark side of the universe",
Sally Pobojewski, The University Record, University of Michigan, 21 Jan
1997]

I believe that it is overwhelmingly likely that we live in a simulated
universe created by ultra-diffuse ambiplasma (electron and positron) beings
of that perpetual era. Freeman Dyson was the first to predict such
beings, and suggest that, by slowing their subjective time and reducing
their energy expenditures, they could have a literal infinity of thoughts
with finite energy in the cosmology decsribed on this web page.
["Time Without End: Physics and Biology in an Open Universe";
Freeman J. Dyson, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey;
originally presented as four lectures, the "James Arthur Lectures on Time
and Its Mysteries" at New York University, Autum 1978; edited for
Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol.51, No.3, July 1979]

However, according to Professor John Baez at the University of California
at Riverside, and Keith Ramsay: "Everything is really doomed to eventually
ionize and/or sublimate.... [This puts] a rather sad spin on the latest
discoveries about the cosmological constant. Freeman Dyson had this rather
appealing picture of the ultimate fate of the universe, assuming among
other things a slower expansion which would allow a society in principle
to get in contact with an endlessly widening sphere of other societies,
and a temperature going to zero in such a way that in theory an infinite
amount of information could be processed, by using ever-smaller amounts of
energy to do it."

"With an expansion accelerating as it appears to be doing, though, the
local cluster [of galaxies] will become entirely isolated from the rest of
the universe after awhile. This would still be sort of okay, except that
with the temperature having this (small) positive lower limit, all the
usable energy will supposedly be exhausted. The authors said Dyson was
still hoping there was a way out of it, though...."

"... They're talking about the analog of Unrah radiation due to the
cosmological horizons that exist in deSitter spacetime. This would give a
positive limiting temperature... very low indeed. In order to survive for
a googol years, as previously planned, though, it has to get colder still.
To us, it's a phenomally low temperature, but to our hypothetical
descendants at a point when it becomes noticeable, it would be this
annoying source of heat that slowly degrades your friends' brains bit by
bit, like a cosmological fever."
["Re: Expansion of the Universe and Ionization, sci.physics.research.
7 Aug 2000]

(10 to the Power of 303) AD
One Centillion Years From Now

Years = 10 to the power of 303

We can easily reach a centillion using the Factorial function.
169! = 42.6906801 centillion =
169x168x167x166x165x164x...x3x2x1

Raising 26 to the 215th power, we calculate that there are approximately
16.5679896 Centillion arrangements of 215 letters (the same letter can
occur more than once).

"Haught develops a kenotic form of process theology with a metaphysics
grounded in the future.... He recognizes the possible challenge to
eschatological purpose posed by the Big Bang cosmology, but claims that
'the cosmological features of modern science are no less assimilable to a
deep religious trust than were the cosmologies of the past.' Gloomy
scenarios of the cosmic future were based on 'emaciated mathematical
abstractions that ignored the contingent openness of nature's de facto
historicity'.... Instead, Haught points to the new sciences of chaos and
complexity as rendering 'the process of a precise scientific prediction of
final cosmic catastrophe... shakier than ever.'"
[http://www.counterbalance.net/rjr/besch-body.html]

"Two lights for guidance. The first, our little glowing atom of community,
with all that it signifies. The second, the cold light of the stars,
symbol of the hypercosmic reality, with its crystal ecstasy. Strange that
in this light, in which even the dearest love is frostily asserted, and
even the possible defeat of our half-waking world is contemplated without
remission of praise, the human crisis does not lose but gains
significance. Strange, that it seems more, not less, urgent to play some
part in this struggle, this brief effort of animacules striving to win for
their race some increase of lucidity before the ultimate darkness.
[Olaf Stapledon, "Star Maker"]

Link List for History of Science and Science Fiction

Useful Reference Books and Web Sites
Beyond the World Wide Web... there is the library of old-fashioned books
printed on paper. I strongly recommend that you start or follow-up your
explorations of this web site by consulting any or all of these outstanding
sources:

Bibliography (books, articles, websites)
This web page draws heavily on FACTS as listed in "The Timetables of Science",
by Alexander Hellemans and Bryan Bunch [New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988].
It does not merely copy the TEXT of that fine and recommended reference, and has
value added in correlating the scientific and literary production of the
century, and in hotlinking to additonal resources.

Other sources (cited where used) include:

"Geological Time Scale"

"Life's Origins Get Murkier and Messier", Nicholas Wade, Science Times,
The New York Times, 13 June 2000, p.D1

"Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness" by Ian Tattersall, 1997

"Climate Forcing and the Origin of the Human Genus", Steven M. Stanley, Johns Hopkins U.

"Daily Life in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Scotland", Kevin L. Callahan,
Anthropology Dept. U. Minnestota

"Neogene Ice Age in the North Atlantic Region: Climatic Changes, Biotic Effects, and Forcing
Factors", Steven M. Stanley (Johns Hopkins) & William F. Rudderman [U.Virginia], in
"Effects of Past Global Change on Life" [National Academy Press, 1995]

Jay Cross' attempt at all-embracing chronology
(fun, but lacking any citations or crosslinks).

Another source of facts (not text) is "The 1979 Hammond Almanac" , ed. Martin A. Bacheller.
et al. [Maplewood New Jersey: Hammond Almanac, Inc., 1978]
Selected References on Human Evolution and Paleoanthropology

Smithsonian's bibliography on human evolution

Staff in the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology have prepared
the following teacher bibliography on human evolution as a result
of the many inquiries they receive in this broad area of research.

Table of Contents:
Introductory Readers
Textbooks
Advanced Reading
History
Fiction
Biographical
Teaching About Evolution
Student Bibliography

Introductory Readers

American Museum of Natural History. The First Humans
[volume 1 of The Illustrated History of Humankind].
Harper Collins, 1993.

Andrews, Peter, and Christopher B. Stringer. Human Evolution:
An Illustrated Guide.
University Press, 1989.

Berger, Lee. "The Dawn of Humans: Redrawing Our Family Tree?"
National Geographic 194 (August 1998): 90-99.

Bordes, Francois. A Tale of Two Caves. Harper and Row, 1972.

Caird, Rod and Robert Foley, scientific ed.
Apeman, The First Story of Human Evolution.
S&S Trade, 1994. Based on the A&E television series.

Cartmill, Matt. "Lucy in the Sand with Footnotes,"
Natural History (April 1981):90-95.
Places the writing of LUCY within its historical context
and explains the theoretical issues the book raises.

Diamond, Jared. The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future
of the Human Animal. Harper Collins,1992.

Edey, Maitland A. and Donald C. Johanson.
Blueprints: Solving the Mystery of Evolution.
Viking, 1990.

Gore, Rick. "Dawn of Humans: Expanding Worlds."
National Geographic 191 (May 1997): 84-109.

Gore, Rick. "Dawn of Humans: The First Europeans."
National Geographic 192 (July 1997): 96-113.

Gore, Rick. "Dawn of Humans: Tracing the First of Our Kind."
National Geographic 192 (September 1997): 92-99.

Gore, Rick. "Neanderthals." National Geographic 189 (January 1996): 2-35.

Gowlett, John. Ascent to Civilization; The Archaeology of Early Humans.
2nd ed. McGraw, 1993.
This heavily illustrated book gives up-to-date coverage of
human development from the earliest evidence to the beginnings of cities.

Isaac, Glynn L., ed. Human Ancestors. Scientific American. W. H. Freeman, 1980.
Selected significant articles from Scientific American from 1960-90.
Includes "The Food-Sharing Behavior of Protohuman Hominids" by Glynn Isaac,
reviewing evidence that early erect-standing hominids made tools and
carried food to a home base.

Johanson, Donald, Lenora Johanson and Blake Edgar. Ancestors.
In Search of Human Origins. Random, 1994.
Companion volume to the NOVA television series.

Johanson, Donald C. and James Shreeve.
Lucy's Child: The Discovery of a Human Ancestor.
Repr. ed. Avon: 1990.

Johanson, Donald C. and Maitland Edey.
Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind.
S&S Trade, 1990.
A highly readable book that describes the finding and
significance of Lucy and her contemporaries.

Johanson, Donald C. From Lucy to Language. Simon & Schuster, 1996.

Johanson, Donald C. "Dawn of Humans." National Geographic 189 (March 1996):96-117.

Jones, Steve, Robert Martin and David Pilbeam, eds.
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution.
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994.

Konner, Melvin. The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit.
H Holt & Co, 1990.
Konner, an anthropologist, explores the biological
aspects and determinants of human behavior.
Human thought, mood, and action are explored on many
levels based on insights from the social sciences and
the humanities.

Lambert, David and the Diagram Group.
Field Guide to Early Man. Facts on File, 1987.

Leakey, Meave. "Dawn of Humans." National Geographic 188 (September 1995): 38-51.

Leakey, Richard. The Origin of Humankind.
(Science Masters Ser.) Basic Books, 1994.

Leakey, Richard and Roger Lewin.
The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Human Kind.
Doubleday, 1995.

Leakey, Richard and Roger Lewin.
Origins Reconsidered in Search of What Makes Us Human.
Doubleday,1993.
Concentrating on the hominid line and his own point-of-view,
this work is written in easy-to-read conversational style
with colored pictures and diagrams. It traces human evolution
and the physical and behavioral adaptation reflecting our
social and cooperative nature.

Lewin, Roger. Patterns of Evolution: The New Molecular View. WH Freeman, 1996.

Lewin, Roger. The Origin of Modern Humans: A Scientific American Library Volume.
W. H. Freeman, 1995.

Lewin, Roger. Human Evolution; An Illustrated Introduction.
3rd ed. Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1993.

Lewin, Roger. Thread of Life: The Smithsonian Looks at Evolution.
Smithsonian, 1991.

Lewin, Roger. In the Age of Mankind: A Smithsonian Book of Book Evolution.
Foreword by Donald C. Johanson. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.

Maitland, Edey and Donald C. Johanson.
Blueprints: Solving the Mystery of Evolution.
1st ed. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1989.

Pfeiffer, John.
The Creative Explosion: An Inquiry into the Origins of Art and Religion.
Harper and Row, 1983.
An excellent summary of the place of art in Upper Paleolithic life,
and its relationship to the development of our own species.

Pinker, Steven. How the Mind Works. W. W. Norton & Co., 1997.

Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct. Harper Perennial Library, 1995.

Potts, Richard.
Humanity's Descent: The Consequences of an Ecological Instability.
Morrow, 1996

Reader, John. Missing Links; The Hunt for Earliest Man.
Little, Brown, and Co., 1981.
The story of the search for human fossils, from the discovery of
Neandertal to recent finds in East Africa. Color photographs.

Rensberger, Boyce. "Facing the Past," Science 81 (October 1981):40-53.
Describes how Jay Matternes puts muscle and flesh to a Neandertal skull.

Schick, Kathy D. and Nicholas Toth.
Making Silent Stones Speak, Human Evolution and the Dawn of Technology.
Simon & Schuster, 1994.

Shreve, James.
The Neandertal Enigma: Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origins .
Morrow, 1995.

Shreve, James. "Erectus Rising," Discover (September 1994):80-89.

Smithsonian Timelines of the Ancient World:
A Visual Chronology from the Origins of Life to A.D. 1500.
Chris Scarre, editor-in-chief. Smithsonian Institution and
A. Dorling Kindersley Books, 1993.

Solecki, R. S. Shanidar:
The First Flower People.
Alfred A. Knopf, 1971.
An account of the excavation of this important Neandertal site.

Tattersall, Ian.
The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know
About Human Evolution.
Oxford Univ. Press, 1995.

Tattersall, Ian.
The Last Neanderthal: The Rise, Success and
Mysterious Extinction of Our Closest Human Relatives.
Macmillan, 1995.

Tattersall, Ian.
The Human Odyssey. Four Million Years of Human Evolution.
Prentice Hall, 1993.
Based on the new hall of human biology and evolution
at the American Museum of Natural History.

Thomas, Herbert, Paul G. Bahn (translator), Sharon Avrutick (editor).
Human Origins: The Search for Our Beginnings.
Harry N. Abrams, 1995.

Trinkaus, Erik and Pat Shipman.
The Neandertals: Of Skeletons, Scientists, and Scandal.
Vintage Books, 1994.

Weaver, Kenneth F. "The Search for Our Ancestors," National Geographic 168(5),
November 1985, pp. 560-623.
An overview of the fossil finds and the paleoanthropological
research that has contributed to our knowledge of hominid evolution.
Includes photographs of nine fossil hominid skulls and illustrations
by Jay H. Matternes distinguishing the physical characteristics of
these hominids.

Wolpoff, Milford H. and Rachel Caspari.
Race and Human Evolution: A Fatal Attraction.
S&S Trade, 1997.

Zihlman, A. L.
The Human Evolution Coloring Book.
HarperC, 1982.
Introduces earth history, evolution, genetics, anatomy,
primates, and human evolution with an easy to understand
text and diagrams that are an effective teaching aid.
Textbooks

Boaz, Noel T. and Alan J. Almquist. Biological Anthropology:
A Synthetic Approach in Human Evolution.
Prentice-Hall, 1996.

Brace, C. Loring. The Stages of Human Evolution. 5th ed. Prentice-Hall, 1994.

Brace, C. Loring, Harry Nelson, Nel Korn and Mary Brace. Atlas of Human Evolution.
2nd ed. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1979.
Descriptive guide with excellent drawings of important representative
skulls from the fossil record.

Campbell, Bernard and James D. Loy, eds. Humankind Emerging.
7th ed. Addson-Wesley Educ., 1995. See also teacher edition.

Fagan, Brian. The Journey from Eden: Peopling of Our World. Thames and Hudson, 1990.

Fagan, Brian. People of the Earth: An Introduction to World Prehistory.
7th ed. Add-on-Wesley Educ., 1995..

Feder, Kenneth L. The Past in Perspective: An Introduction to Human Prehistory.
Mayfield Pub., 1995.

Howells, W. W. Getting Here: The Story of Human Evolution.
New ed. Compass Press, 1997.
Advanced Reading

Aiello, Leslie C. and Phillip L. Wheeler. "The expensive tissue hypothesis:
the brain and the digestive system in human and primate evolution,"
Current Anthropology 36(2):199-221, 1995.

Aiello, Leslie C. and Christopher Dean, eds. An Introduction to Human Evolutionary Anatomy.
Academic Press, 1990.

Akazawa, Takeru, Kenichi, Aoki, and Ofer Bar-Yosef, eds.
Neandertals and Modern Humans in Western Asia.
Plenum Publ. Corp., 1999.

Brain, C. K. ed. Swartkrans. A Cave's Chronicle of Early Man.
Transvaal Museum Monograph 8; 1993.

Brain, C. K. The Hunters or the Hunted? An Introduction to African Cave Taphonomy.
University of Chicago Press, 1981.

Brown, Michael. The Search for Eve. Harper & Row, 1990.

Byrne, Richard. The Thinking Ape: The Evolutionary Origins of Intelligence.
Oxford Univ. Press, 1995.

Campbell, Bernard. Human Ecology:(Foundations of Human Behavior Series).
2nd ed. Aldine de Gruyter, 1995.

Cartmill, Matt, William L. Hylander and James Shafland. Human Structure.
Harvard Univ. Press, 1987.

Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi and Francesco L. K. Cavalli-Sforza.
The Great Human Diaspora: A History of Diversity and Evolution.
(Foundations of Human Behavior Ser.) Add-on-Wesley, 1995.

Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi, et al. The History and Geography of Human Genes.
Princeton Univ. Press, 1993.

Clark, J. Desmond. The Prehistory of Africa. Thames and Hudson, 1970.
(outdated but only publication on this topic)

Ciochon, R. L. & J. G. Fleagle eds. The Human Evolution Source Book.
(Advances in Human Evolution.) Prentice Hall, College Div., 1993.

Ciochon, Russell L. and John G. Fleagle, eds. Primate Evolution and Human Origins.
Aldine de Gruyter, 1987.

Conroy, Glenn C. Primate Evolution. W. W. Norton & Co., 1990.

Day, Michael H. Guide to Fossil Man. 4th ed. Univ. of Chicago Press, 1986.
A handy reference to early human fossils organized by country
and sites where the fossils were found. Includes descriptions
and often photographs of the fossils.

Deacon, Terrance.W. The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language
and the Brain. W.W.Norton & Co., 1997.

Delson, Eric, et al., eds. Paleoanthropology Annual. Vol. 1. Garland, 1990.

Delson, Eric. Ancestors: The Hard Evidence. Alan R. Liss, 1985.

Durant, John R., ed. Human Origins. Clarendon Press; Oxford Univ. Press, 1989.

Falk, Dean. Braindance: New Discoveries About Human Brain Evolution.
Henry Holt and Co., 1994.

Foley, Robert. Another Unique Species: Patterns in Human Evolutionary Ecology.
Longman, 1987.

Gamble, Clive. Timewalkers: The Prehistory of Global Colonization.
Harvard Univ. Press, 1996.

Gibson, Kathleen R. and Tim Ingold, eds.
Tools, Language, and Cognition in Human Evolution.
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993.

Goldsmith, Timothy H. The Biological Roots of Human Nature:
Forging Links Between Evolution & Behavior.
Oxford Univ. Press, 1994.

Harding, Robert S. O., and Geza Teleki. Omnivorous primates:
Gathering and Hunting in Human Evolution. Columbia University Press, 1981.

Hay, Richard L. and Mary D. Leakey. "The Fossil Footprints of Laetoli,"
Scientific American 246(2):50-57, 1982.
Interesting, well-illustrated article reporting the discovery of
fossilized footprint 3.6 million years old indicating that
hominids walked erect a half of a million years before previously believed.

Holloway, Ralph L. "The Casts of Fossil Hominid Brains," Scientific American (July 1974).
Important article discussing the brain structure of the
australopithecines as studied from endocast material.

Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer. The Woman That Never Evolved. Harvard University Press, 1983.
Hrdy, a sociobiologist, focuses on nonhuman primate behavior,
particularly monkeys, to demonstrate the wide diversity in
primate social structure and behavior. According to Hrdy,
primate social systems are dictated by how females space
themselves and by the hierarchies they establish that are
determined by the availability and utilization of resources.
Her observations demonstrate that most female primates are
more assertive and sexually active than previously supposed.

Ingold, Tim. Evolution and Social Life. Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Isaac, Glynn L. The Archaeology of Human Origins: Papers by Glynn Isaac.
Cambridge Univ. Press,1990.

Isaac, Glynn L. "Aspects of Human Evolution," In Essays on Evolution;
A Darwin Centenary Volume, edited by D. S. Bendall.
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1983.
A review of the major trends and transitions that have characterized human
evolution with an emphasis on the changes studied by archeologists.

Isaac, Glynn L. and Elizabeth McCown. Human Origins: Louis Leakey and the
East African Evidence. W. A. Benjamin, Inc., 1976.

Klein, Richard G. The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins.
2nd ed. Univ. of Chicago Press, 1999.

Lahr, Marta M.
The Evolution of Modern Human Diversity:
A Study on Cranial Variation.
(Studies in Biological Anthropology, no. 18.) Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996.

Lieberman, Philip. The Biology and Evolution of Language. Harvard Univ. Press, 1984.

Lovejoy, C. Owen. "The Origins of Man, " Science 211:341-350, 1981.

Megarry, Tim. Society in Prehistory: The Origins of Human Culture.
New York Univ. Press, 1995.

Mellars, Paul, ed. The Emergence of Modern Humans: An Arch¾ological Perspective.
Cornell Univ. Press, 1991.

Mellars, Paul, ed.. The Emergence of Modern Humans: An Archaeological Perspective.
Edinburgh Univ. Press, 1990.

Mellars, Paul and Christopher Stringer, eds. The Human Revolution: Behavioral
and Biological Perspectives on the Origins of Modern Humans.
Princeton Univ. Press, 1990.

Mellars, Paul. The Neanderthal Legacy: An Archaeological Perspective
from Western Europe.
Princeton Univ. Press, 1995.

Minthen Steven. The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art,
Religion, and Science. Thames & Hudson, 1996.

Phenice, T. W. and N. J. Sauer. Hominid Fossils: An Illustrated Key.
2nd ed. William C. Brown and Co., 1977.
Handbook to the fossil record with excellent outline drawings of various fossils.

Potts, Richard. Early Hominid Activities at Olduvai.
(Foundations of Human Behavior Series)
A. de Gruyter, 1988.

Potts, Richard. "Home Bases and Early Hominids," American Scientist 72:338-347, 1984.
Discusses new views about the earliest archeological sites and interpretations
about early human behavior.

Smith, Fred H. and Frank Spencer, eds. The Origins of Modern Humans:
A World Survey of the Fossil Evidence. Alan R. Liss, 1984.
A technical review of human evolution from 300,000 to 10,000 years ago,
specifically the transition from archaic to modern Homo sapiens.
Covers the fossil evidence and major interpretations of the fossils
from Europe, the Near East, Africa, and Asia.

Smith, Fred H. The Neanderthal Remains from Krapipna:
A Descriptive and Comparative Study.
Repr. ed. (Univ. Tennessee, Department of Anthropology, Report of Investigations Series,
no. 15.) Bks Demand.

Stringer, Christopher and Clive Gamble. In Search of the Neanderthals.
Thames & Hudson, Ltd., 1993.

Tattersall, Ian, Eric Delson, John Van Couvering, and Alison S. Brooks, eds.
2nd edition Encyclopedia of Human Evolution and Prehistory.
Garland Publishing, 1999.

Trinkaus, Erik, ed. The Emergence of Modern Humans: Biological Adaptations
in the Late Pleistocene. (School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series)
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990.

Trinkaus, Erik. "The Neandertals and Modern Human Origins."
Annual Review of Anthropology 15 (1986):193-218.

Vrba, Elizabeth S., et al., eds. Paleoclimate and Evolution,
with Emphasis on Human Origins.
Yale Univ. Press, 1994.

Wolpoff, Milford H. Paleoanthropology. 2nd ed. McGraw, 1996.
College-level text about the evidence for human evolution with
emphasis on the fossils and their interpretation.

Wood, Bernard A., et al., eds. Major Topics in Primate and Human Evolution.
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1988.

History

Landan, Misia. Narratives of Human Evolution. Yale Univ. Press, 1991.

Lewin, Roger. Bones of Contention: Controversies in the Search for Human Origins.
Simon & Schuster, 1987.

McCown, Theodore D. and Kenneth A. R. Kennedy. Climbing Man's Family Tree:
A Collection of Major Writings on Human Phylogeny, 1699 to 1971.
Prentice Hall, 1972.
A chronological collection of classic writings "dealing with
the initial discoveries and descriptions of human fossils,
the ideas concerning human antiquity and place of origin,
and the philosophical speculations about man's place in nature."
Each section is prefaced with an essay that clarifies the major
concepts involved.
Fiction

(more Science Fiction {to be done}

Auel, Jean M. The Clan of the Cave Bear. Crown Publishers, 1980.
Sequels: Valley of the Horses, 1982. The Mammoth Hunters, 1985.
Crown Pub. Group.
Tells the tale of a band of Neandertal gatherers-hunters
living on the Crimean peninsula near the shores of the Black Sea.
The band adopts a 5 year old Cro-Magnon orphan. With many exciting
passages the book captures the essence of that great and subtle
gap between Neandertals and their successors. (high school)

Crichton, Michael. Eaters of the Dead. Ballantine 1988.

Golding, William. The Inheritors. Pocket Books, 1981.
A novel about Neandertals and their terror of the "civilized" invaders.
Also could use Lord of the Flies to discuss what are human characteristics
and how much a social organization is necessary for altruism. (high school)

Kurten, Bjorn. Dance of the Tiger: A Novel of the Ice Age. Univ. of California Press, 1995.
A very engaging novel about the co-existence and possible fate of Neandertals
and Cro-Magnons between 40,000 and 25,000 years ago. KurtŽn provides excellent
background details on the flora and fauna of the time from his background as a
paleontologist. The dialogue is well paced and you quickly become engrossed in the
plot. He intermingles the ideas of Hultkrantz, de Lumley, Solecki, Trinkaus and
Howells in a very convincing manner. (high school)

Thomas, Elizabeth Marshall. Reindeer Moon. Simon & Schuster, Pocket Books, 1991.
Biographical

Leakey, L. S. B. By the Evidence: Memoirs, 1932-1951. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1974.
Memoirs of his middle career discussing anthropological finds, African wildlife,
and Kikuyu tribal customs. Very readable.

Leakey, Mary Douglas. Disclosing the Past. Doubleday, 1985.
A fascinating autobiography which reveals much about Mary Leakey's
personal life as well as her archaeological discoveries,
told in a dramatic and highly readable style.

Leakey, Richard. One Life: An Autobiography. Published by Salem House Ltd.
Distributed by Merrimack Publishing, 1984.

Morell, Virginia. Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family & the Quest for
Humankind's Beginnings.
Touchstone Books, 1996.

Willis, Delta. The Leakey Family: Leaders in Science for Human Origins.
(Makers of Modern Science Ser.) Facts on File, 1992.
Teaching About Evolution

National Academy of Sciences.
Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science (140 pp.)
Available from the National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Ave., N. W.,
Box 285, Washington, DC 20055; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313.
Also available online at
Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science
Chapters include: Why Teach Evolution?, Major Themes in Evolution,
Evolution and the Nature of Science, Evolution and the
National Science Education Standards, Frequently Asked Questions,
Activities for Teaching, and Selecting Instructional Materials.

Student Bibliography

Collins, Desmond. The Human Revolution: From Ape to Artist.
Phaidon - E. P. Dutton, 1976.
Excellent illustrations.

Cornell, James. Where Did They Come From? Scholastic Books, 1978.
Dramatic reading about human evolution from the search for
Peking Man to the seven cities of gold. Some outdated information.
(junior high)

Day, Michael H. Guide to Fossil Man.
4th ed. Univ. of Chicago Press, 1986.
A short introductory booklet on the subject, good for secondary school students.

Early Humans. Eyewitness Books. Alfred A. Knopf, 1989.
Very well-illustrated with photographs.

Elting, Mary and Franklin Folsom. The Wild Mammoth Hunters.
Scholastic Books Services, 1968. (Jr. H.)

Higham, Charles. Life in the Old Stone Age.
(Cambridge Introduction to the History of Mankind Series.)
Cambridge University Press, 1971. (high school)

Johanson, Donald C. "Ethiopia Yields First 'Family' of Early Man."
National Geographic (December 1976).
Well-illustrated article describing the discovery of associated
fossils representing adults and children --
possibly a 'family' 3 million years old.

Leakey, Richard. Origin of Humankind. HarperC, 1996.

Leakey, Richard and Alan Walker. "Homo Erectus Unearthed,"
National Geographic 168(5), November 1985, pp. 624-629.
Discusses the 1984 find at Lake Turkana of the most complete
early Homo skeleton thus far discovered
(approximately 1.6 million years old).

Lewin, Roger. Human Evolution; An Illustrated Introduction.
Blackwell Scientific/ W. H. Freeman, 1984.
Covers Aegyptopithecus, Ramapithecus, Sivapithecus, and
Australopithecus and Homo. A very readable book.

Man's Place in Evolution. British Museum (Natural History):
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1980.
Written in connection with a museum exhibition, this clearly written and superbly
illustrated book discusses how human beings are related to primates and to various
"fossil men."

Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw. Evolution Goes on Every Day.
Holiday House, 1977. (junior high - 10th)
Patent's overview includes discussions of genes,
DNA, mutations, formation of new species, natural
and artificial selection, viruses, bacteria, human
effects of evolution and even sociobiology. Adequately illustrated.

Wolf, Josef. The Dawn of Man. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1978.
Tells the story from apes to modern humans with many illustrations. (high school)

ANTHROPOLOGY OUTREACH OFFICE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1999

NOTE: This publication [bibliography above, only) can be made available in
Braille or audio cassette. To obtain a copy in one of these formats,
please call or write :

Smithsonian Information
SI Building, Room 153
Washington, DC 20560-0010
202/357-2700 (voice); 202/357-1729 (TTY)

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A possible coming

TIMELINE COSMIC FUTURE

Australia rams Asia

Africa rams Europe

Supercontinent Pangea Ultima

Twice Round the Galaxy

95% of Plants Start Dying

Thrice Round the Galaxy

Milky Way Galaxy Absorbs Sagittarius Dwarf

Four Times Round the Galaxy

All Plants Die

Five Times Round the Galaxy

Oceans Start Boiling Off

Earth Spins Chaotically

Collision/Merger with Andromeda Galaxy

Magma Oceans Form

Sun is a Red Giant Star

Magma Oceans Start to Boil Off

Sun is a White Dwarf Star

Milky/Andromeda Absorbs Magellanic Clouds

Mars has a Human-comfortable Temperature

Europa has a Human-comfortable Temperature

"Star Maker" Fictional "War of Worlds"

"Star Maker" Fictional "Second Galactic Utopia"

"Star Maker" Fictional "First Colonization of Dead Stars"

"Star Maker" Fictional "Supreme Moment of the Cosmos"

Solid Crust Forms on the Sun

"Star Maker" Fictional "Last Galaxy Dies"

One Trillion Years From Now: Stars Die

One Quadrillion Years From Now: Degenerate Era

One Quintillion Years From Now

One Sextillion Years From Now

One Septillion Years From Now

One Octillion Years From Now: Galaxies "Dissolve"

One Nonillion Years From Now

One Decillion Years From Now

One Undecillion Years From Now

One Duodecillion Years From Now

One Tredecillion Years From Now

One Quattuordecillion Years From Now: Protons and neutrons decay

One Quindecillion Years From Now

One Sexdecillion Years From Now

One Septendecillion Years From Now

One Octodecillion Years From Now

One Novemdecillion Years From Now

One Vigintillion Years From Now

1 Solar Mass Black Hole Evaporates

10 Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

100 Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

1,000 Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

10,000 Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

100,000 Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

Million Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

10 Million Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

100 Million Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

Billion Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

10 Billion Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

100 Billion Solar Mass Black Holes Evaporate

One Googol Years From Now

One Mega-Googol Years From Now: Supermassive Black Holes Evaporate

One Centillion Years From Now

Where to Go for More

Selected References on Human Evolution and Paleoanthropology

Introductory Readers

Textbooks

Advanced Reading

History

Fiction

Biographical

Teaching About Evolution

Student Bibliography

Compiled by Magic Dragon Multimedia

2 Responses to “A possible coming”

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