There's a Planet Stuck to The Bottom of My Shoe And I Can't Get It Off
The tyranny of interstellar distances. A quote from one of the books in Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos where humans have populated a large part of our spiral arm of the galaxy, referring to the collapse of an interplanetary society after the sabotage of their versions of star-gates. Every planet suddenly in isolation, travelers marooned hundred of light years away from home with no means of returning.
As an unqualified cosmology enthusiast, this line has stuck with me since I first read the books in the 90s. I sometimes feel trapped on earth in spite of not having seen 99.9% of this beautiful rock, but more on this later.
I have often caught myself where it feels like the universe has some built-in mechanism to deliberately isolate and prevent possible civilizations from making contact. Thoughts like these are immediately quelled of course because there exists absolutely no evidence for it and it is impossible to prove.
The universe seems at times to be deterministic and to people with limited knowledge about the natural order of things, it is easiest to take this as an axiom. In fact, more than half the world's population believe it to be so.
But take a mathematical and scientific look and it is obviously random with no evidence of any outside directive. In fact, our universe does not allow for anything to enter or to leave. It is an isolated system, completely self-contained and its total energy is the same as it was a nanosecond after the Big Bang and will always be the same, even if protons started to decay after trillions of years, each spread far apart by the expansion of space.
Then there is entropy. A highly underrated physical law to the person on the street. To most, it is a synonym for disorder and decay. It is indeed, but it also drives and facilitates complexity. It allows for an isolated system such as the universe to consist of energy dense open subsystems with room to move, where it then acts like a power supply for amazing things to happen.
Take our sun; it is currently in quite an ordered state, but it's the slow death of our local star, the transition from order to disorder, which drives smaller systems of great complexity (life on earth comes to mind). We are powered by decay.
Regarding living systems, it's algorithms all the way down. We also have a host of other immutable laws and constants and weird uncertainties, but the big picture tells a story of a universe that is creative in and out of itself and by chance. If it was created with intent, it's definitely a set-and-forget project with no interference so far.
And that concludes my argument against a deterministic universe to those who are still reading. The distances between worlds is a result of us being tiny. And that stupid governor better known as the speed of light. And to make things even worse, The Hubble Constant where space is expanding and of course it doesn't end there because the expansion is actually accelerating!
I would really like to experience much more of the universe. The shit out there must be insane. Lifeforms adapted to completely different conditions. Even non-living systems. Imagine beholding the biggest star in the known universe?
How about visiting the relatively nearby Trappist system with its seven terrestrial planets. It's only 40 light-years away, yet impossible to ever reach. All sci-fi films and series employ the deus ex machina of the warp or jump drive. I don't see such technology to ever exist. Maybe in a century we can power a ship to 10% of the speed of light. That could come in handy within the confines of our own solar system, but would still take 400 years to get to Trappist. And if you get there, any communication with earth will have an 80 year delay.
But here I am, stuck as part of a very peculiar species. Evolved from the dirt of planet earth and adapted to it and it alone. I am grateful though for my human brain. It can take me anywhere when I'm in the right mood or engrossed in some hard speculative sci-fi.
Still a bummer to only experience an immeasurably small fraction of reality.
Mind blowing. Yet Something from nothing seems a little hard to swallow.
That is the big problem, right. No evidence for what caused it.
Thank you for your input @zeitlini. It's very hard to swallow. That's why it's open for discussion. I think my friend was just expressing his view to make clear his wonder at it all. Sometimes it's so mind blowing to really consider that. It feels good to talk about it. I don't think he was trying to start arguments over anything. And we'd both be receptive to any respectful conversation on varying viewpoints. That's what makes this existence even more beautiful. We all draw our own conclusions. We're so diverse. There's beauty in that. (That's how I see things.) I see good in us all. Your view is valid and I would never be so rude to tell you otherwise. It's personal.
So totally a bummer. I agree. We agree. It's real big-like, in'nit? Something I'll never fully understand and everything that I'm made up of and the reason I breathe. Yet, I'll forever be perplexed. And that's why we invoke a God. I get why anyone would. It's comforting. It's an answer to and excuse for intellectual laziness. It's just another thing that's entirely human of us to do. But - I rather like the questions and the wondering. I'd like the wandering even more. If we only ever could. But then, do we really want to do that? Hm. Might be the death of us, but I doubt that's really worth worrying about at this point since we seem to have already taken care of that problem. The human problem. Humans are a problem aren't we? What are we good for, afterall? Wondering...and then we die. Shall I share the song now? I think I will:
Totally not a cynic. That's a happy song.
And on listening (if you're still listening):
You see the problem here? If we're all working five jobs and raising little Einsteins and plugged into the matrix 24/7...how are we ever going to stop long enough to listen? We won't. So they do. I'm thankful for that. Not that hopeful, but you never know. And that's the point. We don't know -till we find out. Highly doubt we'll last long enough, but oh how amazing it all truly is. My awe is always followed by that feeling of angry sad at our damned and doomed reality, though. I miss Carl Sagan. He got it.
(Nice writing, btw. Totes worth my two, err, one cents. It makes cents. Your writing makes cents. Don't feel bad. That's a compliment.)
You get it. I wasn't trying to be clever. It was just a slightly bloated piece on what you are describing above. Never being able to know WTF is going on. The cosmic joke.
Elton John manages to elevate bleak futility into an ode to acceptance. Carl Sagan changed my world too.
That was genius gold and I smiled my first smile since last night. Just please note that it wasn't the resort man from the Virgin Islands who put me in this mood. I'm not petty like that. It's more a question of having been hit by a bus yesterday and while I'm lying in agony, a bee comes along and plants his ass in my nose.
I feel happy for anyone who comes along and views this post after all this. Turning out to be pretty funny. I think we've proven a point too. Ponder your existence and ye shall go mad. Join us? Anyone? That's when they all go running the other way.
I think its better for everyone if we focused on what we're good at. It is obviously not sciency stuff, even though my post was purely philosophical
Your post was wonderful. Wtf are doing taking it down? Criticism will come. It makes the post more interesting.
No one even cared to look at it and I'm in no mood for debates in the comment section. I'll restore it for what it's worth with some redactions. I made it clear that I'm unqualified to speak with authority, but the theories I invoked are the best ones we currently have, with the most convincing measurements and evidence.
There is also a lot of religious people on here who may take exception to the inherent nihilism of my post and that I could never reconcile this reality with the gods of men.
Have you ever heard the saying opinions are like assholes? They are, everyone has one and most of them stink. I think his points were valid. He was just rude about it. That last sentence you just wrote says it all, too. Any time you approach this subject there's going to be someone argue "scientifically" what's really just a ruse for their religious hope. I still liked your post. Do you know how many times I've second guessed myself from doing something because I was afraid it wasn't perfect? Way too many times. Don't be like that. You write better than I do and know more than I do too. I can tell you do.
You want me to delete my comments too? I can.
No, I'm just going through a rough patch. This article is about me being frustrated at being infinitesimally small and thwarted by the laws of the cosmos, preventing me from experiencing the whole thing. It was late and I was losing concentration and one paragraph came out a mess.
You communicated that very well. He was just looking to split hairs. Which is fine, but that wasn't your aim. I got that. I appreciated it for what it was. I'm no Stephen Hawking, either. None of us are. (And, fun fact, even Hawking says he doesn't quite know. He also says we're all doomed.) I think we plebeians should be allowed to discuss these things too. I've had an ivy league snot try to put me in my place on here too. Dealt with it all my life and probably always will considering I'm an autodidact and unashamedly so. Maybe that could be a subject of a post. Everyone blabbing about freedom on here. Freedom from class distinction in these subjects of debate, that would be revolutionary. But you see it follows...even here. Get back to work and wash my windshield, poor man. Don't let it get you down.
Have you ever had Spam? It looks like rancid bologna in a can with garbage juice inside.
We have a product called Bully-Beef which I think is corned beef, whatever that means. Not great. I don't know the product Spam, but it seems to be a pinker version of Bully-Beef. The latter is pretty awful, but nothing good ever came from a pink meat product...
Parts of me might take offense to that, but such thoughts remind me...it's prolly past my bedtime. Butts gonna be shitty. Bully-Beef is a pretty apt name in this case. "Hey bully, you gotta beef with me?" Naw, just some spam. Proceeds to comment - bloviate - opinions.
Hahaha, you are revealing more and more of your amazing wit.
I must reserve a little mystery. Gotta keep my ass covered. Wouldn't want you to see how smart it is.
Hahaha. No, actually. I don't think I have. This wasn't spam. He's a great writer and he let that goofy guy make him feel bad. Help me kick his butt lol.
How I feel about it. Goodnight, and good luck.
What the hell, actual decent music still being produced today? I gave up some years back. This actually says something and with surprising technical twists in the production.