[aristofun]

You have a basic assumption through your post that any of these events actually took or take place in a straightforward materialistic/mechanistic way.

Whil in reality it’s nothing but purely theoretical mathematical models operating on such a high level of abstraction and uncertainty that it is even hard to decide whether some of your questions make any sense or not.

[zoroaster]

IMO none of this is really operating on a high level of abstraction. We can observe black holes, we can observe that they attract light and matter, etc etc.

That said - I agree w/ the point about whether or not these questions even make sense to ask when we (collectively) ultimately know so little. This is why I wanted to ask it in a public forum in the first place - to test my understanding and to see if there are others I can learn from who might have a more advanced understanding. These aren't exactly questions that people will leap to answer in the office or in daily conversation. That's why I wanted to bring it here, where I feel people are generally more thoughtful and insightful concerning existential topics.

I've appreciated a lot of the links to other resources, and pushback on some of the assertions. They have been and are helpful!