Quote Originally Posted by CrownySuccubus View Post
No, that is DIRECTLY engaging with the questions raised by those races. And by doing so, show why said questions are stupid.
No, I don't think it is. We might be talking past each other. The Plenty never saw their decision to die as a "problem" to be "solved" in the first place. They were happy, content, and had nothing left to do or strive for. To them, dying was to be a beautiful and novel experience.

The question being asked by The Plenty is not "how could they have prevented their deaths" but "why should they?"

As for the Ea, you're right in that plenty of philosophies have engaged with inevitability and futility without directly addressing the heat death of the universe. The scientific aspect of the question is really just window dressing for what is really being asked - why bother living if everyone and everything we know is going to die and be forgotten anyway?

Maybe you have answers for those questions, maybe you think they're silly and easy to answer. Plenty of characters in the story do too.