Jetmech, as I understand it, this universe will not crunch. In fact it appears that its rate of expansion is increasing not decreasing, and based on what we've known for some time, there doesn't appear to be enough mass in the universe to cause its expansion to reverse.

That doesn't necessarily mean there couldn't have been previous universes oscillating between expanding and contracting. I have thought about it and find it somehow comforting to envision a universal collapse and rebirth as an alternative to cold death when the last star winks out in an ever expanding cosmos. Not that it will make any difference to me which way it goes.

If this universe won't crunch, I guess we are living in the last universe. It may also be the first, but for no particularly scientific reason, I choose not to think so.