Also, about heat death: the jury's still out, but there's reason to think we can beat this one. Freeman Dyson speculates (with a lot of math) that our collective future living entity can 1) slow its metabolism and 2) hibernate such that no matter how slow and cold the universe gets we can become (essentially) slower and colder, so that our subjective experience of time remains both constant and infinite.

Details (with a lot of math) are here (http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Global/Omega/dyson.txt). A very short summary is on Wikipedia, of course (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson%27s_eternal_intelligence).

Dyson's ideas are old and may not fit with the latest evidence and theories. But there's still hope. See here (http://www.imminst.org/forum/index.php?s=&act=ST&f=89&t=725&#entry14836) for much much more on the topic from many many other smart people.