for dust thou art

anything that is reactive has the ability to release energy. if not in light or sound, then in the form of heat. the reactivity of substances can be correlated to their ability to produce heat. coal, oil, fat, paper. there will come a time when even our earth will be completely exhausted of reactive material. elements on the left will be combined with elements on the right, and they will remain that way because no other way would result in the net release of energy. in effect, earth itself would be completely devoid of the ability to release energy. it would be a finished world. it would be chemically dead.

from a nuclear point of view it would still be alive though. consider the sun, which does not technically burn hydrogen but fuses it. it is a process which creates heavier and heavier elements until iron is formed, and fusion can no longer sustain itself. these heavy elements float across time and space, and consolidate elsewhere, forming planets and other objects like earth.

upon this earth the heavy elements chemically combine, and yet more energy is released. it would appear that even on the infinitesimal scale, things naturally complicate themselves, and in the destiny of it, release energy. most of this heat is trapped to create a comfortable environment in which to propel the reactions of the world around, and this--this i would call a chemical chain reaction. this would be life itself.

when life ends, it would be at a time when this chain reaction can no longer sustain itself, whether due to a lack of heat to self-activate, or a lack of reactive chemicals to act as the source. when reactivity ends, life ends. it would be a finished world. it would be chemically dead.

a visitor to this dead world we see the most complex compounds possible; nothing more complex could be made without the input of energy from an external source. where would this energy come from? even the sun itself is no more.

now we exit the small stage of the solar system, and consider the yet untapped resources of the entire universe which still contains pockets of galaxies and systems with the potential for energy release. and these energy sources will continue to heat the universe and cause change even at the farthest reaches.

but what happens when even the universe can no longer sustain itself? everything contained in what we call the universe would be filled with complex substances and waste heat of incredulous quantity yet insufficient to initiate further progress.

the answer must be gravity. it is the only concept which can create change without the input of useful energy which we no longer have at the end of the universe. the universe itself must come back to itself eventually because of gravitation. it would take back all that heat. and everything--everything will come back as the singularity. we all know what happens next.