Could We Accidentally Destroy the Universe?

Sep 7, 2025 Megastructures & Extreme Engineering
What if the end of everything came not from cosmic fate, but from us? This episode examines the physics, probability, and peril of experiments that could, in theory, unravel the universe.

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Credits:
Could We Accidentally Destroy the Universe?
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur
Editors: Lukas Konecny
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator
Chapters
0:00 Intro
2:38 Vacuum Decay (False Vacuum Collapse)
9:59 Strange Matter Conversion
13:09 Gray Goo Scenario (Nanotechnology Out of Control)
16:05 Runaway Energy Reaction
19:06 Altering the Constants of Nature
20:49 Brane Collision (M-Theory Catastrophe)
22:27 Time Travel or Causality Paradox
23:55 Nebula
25:20 Simulation Shutdown
27:21 Big Rip or Cosmological Instability
28:35 Baby Universe Creation or Collapse
29:51 Why It Hasn’t Happened Yet (Anthropic Principle & More)
31:49 Channel Updates