Title: Supergravity, Dark Energy and the Fate of the Universe

Abstract:

I will briefly describe the status of inflationary theory and its "alternatives", such as the pre-big-bang theory and the ekpyritic/cyclic scenario. Then I will discuss the present stage of late inflation (acceleration) of the universe. This stage may continue forever. However, there is a broad class of models of dark energy, including some models based on extended supergravity, that lead to a global collapse of the universe 10-20 billion years from now. I will discuss the possibility to find our destiny using cosmological observations.