No need for anxiety, because even if each bounce and repeat creates identical universes, the new identical person isn't actually you. You don't share memories, you've just had identical experiences. There's no connection between the consciousnesses, and each is only a brief blip in untold ages of time.

It seems unlikely to me that in a big bounce theory that everything would happen the exact same way - especially down to your existence + anxiety.

Are you on mushrooms or something? You should relax.

If this is what happens it's highly unlikely this is your first go round even though it seems like it is, so it doesn't matter.

You guys are cool for being helpful and kind to op. So many subs would not.

Big brains. Big hearts.

The universe is consciousness experiencing itself. There are infinite versions of you. You never end, you only learn and grow. Even the shitty stuff serves a a point of reference.

I'm not really answering your question but responding to your anxiety. As someone that has gone through multiple "infinite time loops" while having focal seizures, if you're anxious about reliving your life over and over and over, simply lead the life that makes you happiest.

Before I realized I was having seizures, I struggled with "simulation theory", the idea of reincarnation over and over in the same life, being stuck in my own personal hell-loop, etc. It seemed awful, but then I decided to do what makes me happiest (which is altruism). Now, IDGAFF if I'm repeating this life over and over, because it's a great life.

I’ve always said that even if the whole of time repeated itself over and over into infinity you would never notice the difference. This could be your first and only life or it could be your billionth go-round. How could you ever know? Just appreciate the unfathomable unlikelihood of your existence. You have somehow managed to become a part of all this you lucky bastard.

You and I know as much about the extended universe as a microbe living on a grain of sand on the sea floor knows about the ocean. It may have a vague sense of the ocean’s existence but isn’t capable of understanding the vastness. But it happily goes about it’s business. Just go with it man. You’ll be ok.

So couple of things. Physicists say if our current universe is infinite, then there are identical you's out there right now. Do you sense them? Feel their anxiety? No. So while they may be identical to you even living the same exact life as you (when things get infinite, the probabilities of this happening become very likely, infinity is big, really big). We don't know with certainly our whole universe, including the vast part we cannot every communicate with or observe, is in fact infinite, but it could be. Then this scenario likely is true probabilistically.

But you are missing something with the big bounce, it would be a mistake to assume in the next bounce that it produces a universe like ours, with our physical laws, atoms etc. It is quite possible maybe even likely that most, and am talking a very high percentage are universes with different physical laws where you literally could not exist. Change the physical laws, you get a different universe, it could be a universe that contains no atoms at all and may have something else. If conditions for life are possible there, that life would be very different, most of the them would probably not have the needed conditions. A lot of thought has been put into our universe's laws and we find them balanced in just the right way that conditions developed where life could even exist. Some physicists say our current universe may not be at is ground energy state, put simply it could be at a temporary stable state that hypothetically could drop into a lower, more stable energy state. If that would happen, our universe would be "consumed" by this new state and in the process will wipe out the current universe and all that we know would change into a universe with different key physical properties where we could not exist after being wiped out from existence. Don't worry about this because if it does happen we will not be able to see it coming at us as it would move at the speed of light, and once here on earth you would simply blink out of existence without having even a moment to think about what is happening.

We do not have the ability to tell what our universe was like at time zero, that is a singularity where our current physical laws break down and we do not have any idea for what exactly existed at time zero, we can only see so far back in time to the big bang, which is not time zero when the singularity existed. The big bang, as far as we can tell wiped out any evidence that could be detected before it happened.

So the big crunch would return the universe to that singularity. In that singularity we have no information on what the physical laws existed, as our physical laws were spawned out of the big bang. We do not have a current theory of quantum gravity that might give us some insights but we can never know time zero. So with infinite bounces, probabilities (again infinite is big, really big) some of those bounces, a very very very small fraction of which would like make another universe with the same physical laws as our current one, where as the vast vast majority of the other universes quite likely have different physical laws that precludes life of any kind forming. Another might have physical laws that allow life, but this does not mean it would be life like ours. That universe many not have atoms and all the other stuff, and have something completely different. However, infinite bounces is so many bounces that probability wise we could not only end up with a universe with physical laws exactly like this one, but infinity universes would also mean there would not only be universes like ours, but also some that play out exactly like this one right here, including making a new you, exactly as you are now, having lived the exact same life as you are now identically. However the future universe "you" will have no connection to you now in any way, even if that other you lives an identical existence. That other you may experience everything there is about your life, feelings etc., but has not connection to you now. It is a copy of you, not the actual current you, and our current understanding of how this might play out would mean anything about you, evidence you existed, your entire existence will be wiped in that crunch back into a singularity. So you would have ceased to exist, and latter a copy arose identical to you, but with its own conscious existance and no knowledge of you now, or of any of the other infinite you's that have been, or will be. Infinity is hard to mentally conceptualize, our brains cannot comprehend it beyond mathematical descriptions. So many other universes different than our own would form, but infinity being what it is, there would be infinite universes that form and develop exactly like this one with you doing the same things again in life in that universe, but also other universe where you are different and live a different life than you have led here.

The heat death may be a different situation. In that scenario the universe expands and keeps on expanding till the universe is dark, energetically homogenious without enough energy to perform any "work" in the physical sense, maximum entropy, empty, cold, not atoms as they have been torn apart by then and cold. That could be the extent of it, and it just stays that way forevere and ever. No planets, no stars, no black holes, just a very low level of energy that is too low to do any work, so it stays that way. There are some hypothesis that the heat death could allow certain quantum effects to occur that would spawn a new big bang out of that dead universe. But practically speaking we don't know if that is what would happen, or it just stays cold, dark and dead for enternity. This is assuming time still exists in the heat death scenario. One of the theories of what "time" is that it is a function of increasing entropy in the universe. If this is true (we don't know if this is what creates what we experience as time), in the heat death, entropy has reached its greatest disorder possible (more or less) and if so, does time continue to exist? Depends if the entropy changes are in fact why we experience "time" (note there are other theories). And that could be it, and it simply stays that way. A lot of what I described here is mostly hypothesis, and like a big crunch, we do not know if things will play out like this with any certainty. Just hypothesized possible ends that we can never be sure will happen. We won't be around to observe it as we would be long gone.

So don't worry, any future you's will live their own identical lives, but the current you would not have any connection with it in any way whatsoever.

This is a question no one can answer. It starts with a big if - whether there is a bounce - which is speculation at this point and then proceeds to ask a specific question about the nature of the unproven, speculative event.

Think what you want. Your speculation holds as much weight as any other or face up to the Fact there are unknowables at the heart of our existence.

Why would it form in the exact order again each time?

Also heat death is more logical anyway

No physical means we know of allows for this. You are some cells interacting until the signals run out.

Since you mentioned anxiety over your potential reincarnation, I'm gonna set aside the physics of the question (which I certainly don't understand) and address the metaphysics (which I also don't understand, but that's kind-of my point).

There's a lot about the human soul and free will that we don't understand right now. We don't even know if these are literal things in the first place, let alone how they are connected to or influenced by the physical world.

So, let's go ahead and assume the universe is operating on an infinite cycle of big bangs and big crunches and that it never loses nor gains matter nor energy in between cycles - so, eventually, it's inevitable that a random shuffling of the matter and energy will create a physical state identical to today. Whether you (for any definition of "you") will end up back here, making the same post on a new Reddit for the same reasons, is still very much uncertain.

Let's suppose that your soul - that is, the "I" in "I think, therefore I am" - is actually something firmly bound to the physical realm, created and destroyed with your physical body. In that case, along an infinite timeline of universe renewal, there may indeed be a future instance of you who lives an identical life but that wouldn't actually be you. You would have completely creased to be at the moment of your death, and the new instance would just be an entity who happens to think and operate exactly as you did when you were alive.

Conversely, let's suppose that the soul is eternal and will eventually find its way back into an appropriate body after the one it currently inhabits has perished. Yet, for whatever reason, it carries no memories from one body to the next. (Otherwise we would clearly remember our past lives, unless this just happens to actually be everyone's first life.) In this case, we're eventually going to run into a situation where "you" will be in the same body and probably under similar starting circumstances but now we've got to address the question of "free will". Is it guaranteed that you, with no memory of this life, will make the same choices that led you to the state of mind you are in today? Even if so, since you can't remember the last time you did this, is it really still the same "you"?

I think the actual answer to the question you're really asking is more philosophical than it is astronomical, and it's one that nobody today is currently equipped to address definitively. It's certainly an interesting area to explore but, absent religious faith, until we develop science and technology that can quantify the properties of the soul, there's not much we can do but aimlessly speculate.

If there happens to be such a breakthrough in our lifetimes, I'm sure that would be interesting to learn from. Until then though, focus on enjoying the life you have now and let the next one (if there is one) worry about itself.

death is not an exclusive club. we all hurtle toward fin. enjoy ur time. accept it. live in the moment you will be surprised what you may find.

A freeze, rip, or crunch are the most popular hypothesis. Even if you have a crunch, that doesn't mean there is a bounce. Even if there is a bounce, that doesn't mean matter is going to be arranged again in the exact same way. Even if it's arranged in the exact same way, that doesn't mean that the person who represents you would truly be you in that you feel like you are having an experience right now. Someone else would be having that experience.

Long story short, there are plenty of things you could have anxiety about, but this isn't one.

Bro this is like the 3rd time I'm seeing this post from this name I dream about this!

Well, assuming you're right then what if all of this has already happened? Without conscious awareness of multiple existences, it would look like the first and only time from our perspectives. Hope this helps your existential anxiety.

This is pretty silly conjecture. I used to worry about this scenario after I watched kpax when I was 12 or so. Try focusing on more relevant questions to ask yourself and then refine them until you arrive at a comfortable grounded clarity instead of delusions of grandeur.

I think Eternal Return with variation is a distinct possibility. There may be infinite lives in which you don’t have the anxieties you experience now.

Assuming the big bounce is real: No, even if the post-universe evolved identically to the pre-universe down to all of the same exact quantum outcomes, you won't be your you-prime, you will no longer exist, and instead, it will be you-prime's turn.

Same concept applies to teleportation, fyi.

You seem very young given how you’ve worded this. If it helps ease your mind, your suffering and anxiety is meaningless and utterly insignificant in the face of the universe. The things you are anxious about have been felt by millions and millions of people over history, all of them now dead and gone, your experiences are not unique in any sense of the word. The world does not care about your problems, because they are teeny teeny tiny. You are a blip of a blip of a blip. Think about that the next time you’re concerned about something that is entirely in your head. Nothing is worth being concerned about that isn’t just to make you happier. Nothing else matters, because anything you possibly do, even if you do something great, will be washed away with time. Find your fellow humans that you want to hold close, and do what you can to make your brief, insignificant ride through existence enjoyable for you and yours. That’s all you got.

I’ll like to address the first question, the universe’s fate looks more likely happen in heat death according to multiple astronomical observations.

For rest of the questions, it’s difficult to produce a factual statement, but I’m happy to toss two cents here. If we have a Big Crunch, it wouldn’t be same as before, it’s like a scrambled egg, the fundamental force will be same but matters and energy will be all over different place. It’s very to difficult to understate an infinite time in “Big Crunch” universe because it becomes stupidly, geometric exponentially long to see every pieces in universe fall in exact order just enough for a conscious being to experience same anxiety twice or more. If we shuffled a pack 52 (52!) cards randomly, we will see every possible sequences than experience the same inescapable anxiety in “Big Crunch” universe. Basically, an odd for this to happen is next to zero, but very small sliver odd though.

I hope it’s big bounce so I can see my grandpa again…

You've already got a lot of good answers, so I'll just add my 2 cents.

First, as far as we currently know, it's impossible to tell. So don't worry, be happy.

Second, do you remember any alternate yous? No. So even if somehow there was an exact copy of your current existence, you'd never know. So don't worry, be happy.

You are asking an existential question best answered by religion or metaphysics. My suggestion would be to live this life to its fullest as best you can.

I can’t decide if you actually have 1 short life until the universe and all of its atoms eventually dissipate into a quiet empty death, or if the laws of the universe require you to experience some kind of other consciousness after death. I imagine death might be like being under anesthesia; just a deep unconscious deep sleep without pain or reality. Who knows?

I have a feeling there'd be more pressing questions if we somehow came across something that made that certain or even likely.

Suck, squeeze, bang, blow. The basic cycle of an internal combustion engine. So, the universe may be in the midst of millions upon millions of cycles. So? Can't know, don't care.

No need to worry once your time is up you will never get another chance, use this one wisely ;)

Bruh, world is a horrible place to deal with at a daily basis as it is. Why make yourself more anxious by thinking about thing that would be absolutely out of your control anyway if it was true?

Most likely, imo none of them. The universe is probably continuously created and destroyed.

There is no repeating events even if time is infinite. However time and space are related, you cannot have one without the other.

Or we are all living in a computer game, and it's all just for fun.

Glad to see someone asked the same question. From what I can figure, Nature will repeat each aeon, but with subtle changes in a fractal pattern. So one aeon, you may be asian. Another aeon, you may be white. Basically, every single infinite variation that can happen will happen. How it progresses, though, or how each change is decided, is likely beyond our ability to figure out.

Literally everything in nature is fractal. Even the universe itself. Plot out the universe from Big Bang to big contraction (at the very end when the black holes all evaporate) and repeat it--it looks like a sine wave. Just look at Banach Tarski. The universe will continue to generate an infinite number of probabilities, each and every time--forever. We had this conversation the last aeon--don't you remember? Only, I think it was on that aeon's version of Facebook. lmao

no it's not really possible. there is randomness in the processes.

#1: Heat death currently seems like the more likely answer - the universe seems to be expanding at a faster rate as time goes on.

#2: Assuming no true source of randomness other than initial circumstances, I fear you'd be right. Even if there are infinite ways that an initial big bang can happen, over enough iterations we would fall into a cycle. One universe would lead to another that eventually leads back to the start of the cycle (simply by virtue of these cycles existing, not being infinitesmally unlikely, and enough iterations happening). However, don't despair. Even if this is true, it wouldn't be you, it'd be a clone. And the clone might take dozens, hundreds, or millions of universes to finally happen again.

#3: Assuming there is a source of true randomness (as there seems to be in the quantum foam), nah. Chaos reigns over such large timescales, so one quantum fluctuation going wrong at t=1 second makes the universe not resemble anything we're used to.

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I don't think the Big Bounce theory says anything about the universes being the exact same. Just that a universe is born, grows, eventually collapses, and then a new one is born again.

Closest I can think of is the multi-verse theory. Like there's a universe where your life is the exact same, but instead of making this post you went to take a piss instead.

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The existence of entropy seems to discredit the idea that a big bounce would be an exact replica of the universe. But I have honestly no idea.

Why have I never heard of a big bounce before? I will look it up but if someone can TLDRELI5, it would be dope.

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We bounce, but every time there is one more person and we all have one less finger on each hand.

Man, you should have seen the first one. One dude, so many fingers...

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Anyone here see The Late Phillip J. Fry episode from Furutama? If Matt Groening accurately predicted all of existence in a cartoon... Well I wouldn't be that shocked.

30 years ago no one even remotely thought about this type of thing no one had anxiety over it because no one thought about this. Every once in a while you might have thou, “gee I wonder what would happen if a meteor hit earth?” Then as quickly as you thought about it you’d forget about it . You would just go in living your life. I’m convinced with the advancement of technology,internet, and all the tv shows & information about space is the cause. Sometimes what you don’t know won’t hurt you.

Get a trial of Hulu and watch Devs. You're welcome.

Don't worry about it. Chances are we're just a simulation - you didn't exist a moment ago, your memories are fabricated, and it will be shut off randomly in the future.

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This new universe is about 10 feet lower than our old one.

I had similar anxiety problems for this reason, nowdays this is probably gonna hit you as silly proposal, but I cope with most of it becoming somewhat religious. I just choose a version (or many) of the universe where that is not happening and people do actually have free will.

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So this means I will see my mom and dad again alive but won’t have the memories I have of them now being dead, so I won’t truly appreciate them when I see them again? Ugh

Given infinite time and infinite universes, all possibilities will occur. If in fact your "soul" is plucked out of oblivion repeatedly, and forced to live out lives you never asked for, you may end up living every iteration of every life.

If that is true though, its true for all of us.

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Even if it does happen, the new "you" won't be actually you from now. You will not share consciousness, it is just a copy of you, maybe with exactly same experiences, but still not you from now. That consciousness is unique to every human and can't be copied.

Wouldn’t be consecutive. If the Universe contracts and bangs again, the random assembly of atoms wouldn’t be identical, the following time, or the one after and so on. But in an infinite number times, it’s bound to happen again. As in the molecular make up may look identical to the one we have now, but I doubt the individual consciousness’ or experiences they have would be. Take your current trajectory. A simple choice a few years ago would/could have you somewhere completely different than you are now. To say it would assemble and play out identical to the one we have now feels more like magic than physics.

Probably not, since the current structure of the universe was caused by non-deterministic quantum fluctuations during the big bang, and will never repeat again.

It is absolutely not necessary that in the next universe physical constants will have the same values, not to mention such subtle structures as the fate of people.

Of course it's hard define what is 'you', and gets harder if we're talking about a theoretical case where the excact same atoms happen in the same configuration in a new universe 'cycle' etc, but the reality is this:

Even if it was 'you' (whatever 'you' means), reliving your life mulitple/infinite times, what difference does it make?

You're imagining it from the perspective of someone having to relive their life, but has memories of their older life (or lives)...this could be you 57,367th repeated life, and you wouldn't know it from your 1st or millionth, if it happened like that.

Honestly, who knows? But I like to live my life as if, when I die, I'm born back into that same life again and just replay it over and over... Bit like Groundhog Day for life.

Make the most of it, just in case this is all there is.

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This is kind of fun to think about if your a simulation theorist

I mean, we have no clue what happens. Anxiety, please continue.