listened to EP 81 again and did some pondering. With the constant (apperant) expansion rate, attractivly bonded systems wouldn't break apart as I thought before.

With the constant expansion of space "pulling" these items apart as space expands between 'em they are moving toward each other due to gravity, thus negating the rip-effects of the accelerating expansion of space in relation to distance since they won't be farther apart.

With my shrinking analogy, assuming a shrinking rate of 1BW/minute/2 BW, only non-locked systems would eventually lose the ability to exchange information). The only way for systems to be torn apart (either gravitational or nuclear) there would have to be a constantly increasing rate of acceleration, ie: 1BW/minute/2BW/minute or whatever timeframe.

In line with the inflation model where at 20 km/sec/megaparsec attractively force-locked objects would not be ripped apart since even as space between them expands, through their path of orbits that expansion and their attraction remains constant so they're kind of spiraling in as space expands. For the "big rip" to happen, that accelerated expansion rate would have to be increasing and be something like 20km/sec/megaparsec/year or whatever timeframe.