The Five Ages of the Universe, Fred Adams, Greg Laughlin (ISBN 978-0-684-86576-8, Simon & Schuster)

I read this book a while ago. It came out in 1999 but I came across a reference to it in another book. This book is a ‘biography’ of the universe from the beginning with the big bang until its speculatvie end after 10¹⁵⁰ years. It is based on our current understanding of the laws of physics and some assumptions about the shape of the universe based on observations. The five ages in the title are the primordial era, the current stelliferous era characterised by star formation and star light, the degenerate era when no more stars shine, the black hole era and finally the dark era. As the book progresses future and further into the future it naturally becomes more and more speculative. Still, based on current knowledge the authors have constructed what could be the future of the universe. And one interesting point they make is that even after all stars stop shining there is a lot still of activity in the vast darkness on very long timescales. I found this an interesting book because I am interested in astronomy and cosmology in general and had not heard about this concept even though the back cover says the authors captured the attention of the world with it. Personally I found the quarter of the book dedicated to the 5th age a bit overkill because it is highly speculative. Of course it also more novel compared to the primordial and stelliferous eras which are covered in many books but with so much speculation there is also not enough to say to fill 50 pages. At least that was my feeling when I finished the book. Interesting but could have been shortened a bit, now it felt like being dragged out for no reason.