The End of the World

It's a concept that's been in my head since I read Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World...well, that one was far more personal/individual.

The question I want to ask is, can there be an impersonal end of the world? Is the end something that is transcendentally enormous, or is it only so big that it will effect the path all post-ending individual actions take?
Seems like a galaxy could be blotted tomorrow, and we wouldn't even notice it...even if it were our own. It's hard to pay attention to the destruction of something when oneself is in the process of being destroyed (and if you haven't reread The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, now is a good time to do so).

But, seriously, are we beyond caring about something seemingly too enormous for our minds to comprehend? What about the astronomers who study the beginning of the universe--where does personal interest fit in there?
People seem to be innately curious about things that don't actually relate to them: maybe this is the particular trait that uniquely defines humans (and not, as Poe would have it, conning...though there's something to be said for that, too). For instance, I'm totally into Greek & Roman history...neither of which have anything to do with my life and which I'm not even going to bother making a career out of.

I digress. This topic deserves its own place. Back to the end of the world: what would that entail, anyway? A sudden cosmic explosion renders all thoughts of relevant interest useless, as there won't be anyone left to take an interest, and even if there were some sort of god/immortal entity, they wouldn't be able to take an interest because such an event would not destroy them.
It seems, in the circularity of this logic, that perhaps the end of the world is not a possible thing to discuss. Maybe this should be limited to the universal flood...which humans (of specific religions) were only interested in because their ancestors survived....

So here's a conclusion: the only way for an event to be personal is for it to threaten the survival of the individual concerned within the limit of allowing that individual to have some chance of survival and even propagation. The end of the world, therefore, is not really personal.