I thought Hawking's alien quote was more like "If aliens ever land on Earth it would be like Europeans landing on America, which didn't work out too well for the Native Americans". In that I think he has a point. But he also said that "If humans ever invent artificial intelligence it will kill us all".
That article you linked to, that statement he made, all these things, they are designed expressly to sell his new book. I wouldn't give him any more publicity. Not for free anyway. If he wants me to republish his nonsense pronouncements he can pay me, same as any other advertiser.
I'd go see a movie with the Hawk. As long as he didn't accidentally hit his keyboard and talk during the movie.
1. From what is being described, it's not a black hole: If we have found the Higgs Boson (are they 100% sure), it indicates the Universe is a false vacuum. 2. China is building huge particle accelerator to produce power-levels greater than the LHC
Well, we just have to avoid shunting more than 2 Billion EVs into breaking any Higgs Bosoms, and we should be fine, right? Unless some insane genius has already done so in another distant galaxy, and an ever-expanding wave of zero/pure vacuum is already speeding towards us at the speeds of light, waiting to rip us apart. I don't suppose there is theoretically any way to contain pure vacuum if this is the case? And yeah, I would listen to Hawking about no longer sending out any signals into space (well, at least no more than we can help), at least until we have defenses against an invading fleet. Unless Solar Warden is actually real. Maybe the reason that we aren't sensing any signals is that they are using neutrinos or tachyons anyways, and those that are at our level of technology are conquered, or wiped out, and their planet colonized, or by some miracle, survive, and become xenophobic hermits.
I kind of like the idea that the universe could randomly end at any moment with a very low probability of doing so. It makes the universe more interesting. I also like the fact that the same people who scoff the loudest at religious doomsday prophecies get the most worked up about scientific doomsday prophecies. How would it affect your life if you knew there was an expanding bubble of nothingness just five million light years away? Somebody should write a novel.
ABOUT NOTHING by Isaac Asimov All of Earth waited for the small black hole to bring it to its end. It had been discovered by Professor Jerome Hieronymus at the Lunar telescope in 2125 and it was clearly going to make an approach close enough for total tidal destruction. All of Earth made its wills and wept on each other's shoulders, saying, "Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye." Husbands said good-bye to their wives, brothers said good-bye to their sisters, parents said good-bye to their children, owners said good-bye to their pets, and lovers whispered good-bye to each other. But as the black hole approached, Hieronymus noted there was no gravitational effect. He studied it more closely and announced, with a chuckle, that it was not a black hole after all. "It's nothing," he said. "Just an ordinary asteroid someone has painted black." He was killed by an infuriated mob, but not for that. He was killed only after he publicly announced that he would write a great and moving play about the whole episode. He said, "I shall call it Much Adieu About Nothing." All humanity applauded his death.
Plenty of stories have been written about mankind preparing for certain imminent destruction, but I mean one about the absolutely certain end of everything, set thousands of years in the future. Far enough in the future that nobody living now will be affected by it, but close enough to say, with absolute certainty, the legend of mankind and its sapience will have no continuity beyond the next several lifetimes, and zero chance of sapient aliens raising the flag elsewhere. And not in some grand explosion or collision, all of the matter that makes us up will just suddenly come unbound.
As you said, plenty of stories have been written. So what is it, exactly, that you are looking for? Poul Anderson's TAU ZERO comes pretty close to ending everything. A Bussard Ramjet starship has an accident, the result of which puts the crew on an inescapable journey towards the "Big Crunch," the cyclic "ending" of a Big Bang universe. The crew literally watches all the stars and galaxies age and snuff out, almost approaching a "heat death" scenario as all the matter of the universe collapses back into a singularity. Talk about a ship of lost souls—"surviving" the end of the universe to have nothing left is worse than dying with it.
I might've done WHAT?! Hey on the other hand, if it's a form of destructive energy, energy is energy. Maybe some crazy genius can save the universe by building a giant containment thingy, and use it to power everyone's homes! Yeah, I know, how unrealistic!
Hey, I heard about that story in a book about space and theoretical physics. Funny how they manage to make it through the universe bouncing back, and finally managed to get their ship under control after all that time. Oh, and I can imagine some of the wealthy jumping ship in secret like rats from a sinking ship for some reason. Or trying to. Maybe some idiot decides to try using anti-matter, but the containment isn't sufficient, and they all go <BOOM!> Or they get lost in space, when their navi computer malfunctions.
Oh, and yeah, I'd imagine society would just, break, down. I don't think society could function, knowing that not only would all life on this planet, but all life everywhere for that matter, was hopelessly doomed. Though I'd like to think that we'd bravely soldier on till the bitter end.
Feh. "Restaurant at the End of the Universe" by Douglas Adams. He takes the horror of the lost souls at the end of everything that you're talking about, and turns it into dinner theatre.