18) Destroying The Universe
Perhaps the most “ultimate” question regarding energy is “how much energy is required to destroy the Universe?”. It’s an intriguing question, but getting the answer is incredibly difficult. For instance, one would have to know the true size of the Universe. Currently, it is believed that the Universe is several billion light-years across. However, this is the measured size of the visible Universe, which may, in fact, be a great deal smaller than the actual size the of the Universe. The Universe might potentially be infinitely large, in which case, no amount of energy could destroy it.
Another problem is the shape of the Universe. Although it is generally accepted that space-time is curved, the exact form and topology of the Universe is under much debate and we lack sufficient data to come to a final conclusion on this matter. This curvature of space-time could greatly affect the energy requirements for destroying the Universe, so information of this type is vital.
Perhaps the most problematic issue that arises from this question is the properties of space-time itself. How much energy would be required to destroy a given amount of space-time? Can space-time even be “destroyed”? So far as we can tell, the only affect that energy has on space-time is that it changes its curvature. The more energy there is, the more curved space-time becomes. It has been theoretically proposed that at high enough energy levels, space-time breaks down into a chaotic, bubbly state called “quantum foam”. However, the space-time technically isn’t “destroyed”, even at these energy levels.
Also, assuming that one can have enough energy to destroy the Universe, where would one get sufficient amounts of it? The Universe already contains all of the energy that exists, and it is not destroyed by this energy, so where would one get any extra energy? One could argue that extra energy exists in parallel universes, but this is unproven and ways of extracting this hypothetical energy have not been found.
