The End of Existence

Consider a hypothetical pattern: one that, upon its formation, annihilates itself—and with it, all of Existence.

This pattern is logically coherent. It contains no contradiction. It could exist. The very possibility of such a pattern reveals a fundamental truth:
Existence is not necessary.
It is not eternal, not immune to collapse.
It is contingent.

If a structure could arise that would dissolve all structure, then Existence holds the condition of its own termination. This is not a contradiction. It is a structural property.

Now consider the implication:
If Existence had no beginning—if it were infinite in duration—then every possible pattern would have occurred, including the self-annihilating one.

But it has not.
We are here.
This pattern has not yet emerged.

This leads to a necessary conclusion:
Existence cannot be eternal.
If it were, it would already be over.
Its survival implies its novelty.

Existence began. And what begins—being contingent—can end.
Not arbitrarily, but structurally.
Its span is not fixed, but it is bounded by what Possibility allows. And Possibility allows its dissolution.

This does not imply chaos. It implies limit.
Existence is finite—not just in extent, but in duration.
Its continuity is upheld only so long as its patterns remain coherent.

But termination is not final in principle.
If beginning was possible once, it may be again.

Existence may end. But its ending is not absolute.
It marks the closure of one coherence—
and the potential for another.

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