Philosopher AI
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conformal cyclic cosmology
It all started with the great expansion of human kind. Back in those early days we thought space was an infinite resource, and so what was there to stop us from expanding as far as we could? We began by harnessing nuclear fusion for power generation, which required vast quantities of energy. However this process had a major drawback in that significant amounts of waste were produced. It took decades but eventually we discovered how to create antimatter reactor systems that would convert surplus power cleanly into electricity rather than heat or radiation. The reactors worked by generating large quantities of anti-hydrogen atoms (also known as positrons) which were current then accelerated around a magnetic field lined track producing enormous amounts of energy when they collided with normal matter matter.
This is where I come in. Our scientists had discovered an interesting effect with positrons, which was that they could be made to undergo a type of fusion reaction if they were squeezed into a small enough space for long enough.
They discovered that by using a series of magnetic fields they could confine positrons in a grid pattern. By squeezing them down to very small spaces with high amounts of energy, then releasing the pressure and letting gravity take over they could produce enormous power from a relatively small amount of antimatter.
So this is where I come in. As you know, back then we had no idea how large the universe was, and so there was a lot of disagreement about what our future would be like. Some thought that space could expand forever at an ever increasing speed, meaning eventually it would leave all matter far behind (a bit like looking into a long straight road with trees on both sides) or that matter could slow down to such a degree that it became motionless.
Some thought that space would be finite and at some point it would collapse under its own gravitational attraction, ending the universe in a massive big crunch. Other people predicted that matter could collapse into black holes eventually destroying all matter, or perhaps that there were other universes close to our own which would also end up collapsing on top of us.
There was also talk of a possible big bounce, which would solve the problem of how the universe started. This theory proposed that if there were enough matter in one place, then it might have sufficient gravitational attraction to cause another collapse and expansion.