@oratio I am not referring to devolving or total disappearance of humanity in particular, I am referring to the death of the universe. The universe is expanding at an ever increasing rate, which means a few hundred million years from now we will be unable to observe any celestial object currently moving away from us. There will be no trace left, as they will cross an event horizon, leaving only our local cluster which is too tightly bound by gravity.
It has been shown that because of this event horizon, future generations will be unable to detect the expansion of the universe, because all the effects of this expansion will be in an unobservable region of the universe. Other phenomena, such as the acceleration of the expansion, would not have been observable in earlier times. Therefore we live in a special time – the only time in history when we may be scientifically certain of both the beginning and the end of the universe.
I agree that it is likely that intelligent life will be around for many millions of years more, but eventually the universe will kill us all.