The Significance Of Our Insignificance-Part 2

The Significance Of Our Insignificance-Part 2 

Right now, at this particular moment in the evolutionary history of mankind, the limit of our physical reality is the vastness and incomprehensible size of our observable universe and the complexity of its construction at the quantum level. We have mathematical equations and theoretical explanations that define our physical reality-as we know it. Think of the non-vision enabled human species standing on the shore of the ocean before him. He can hear it, he can feel it, and he can even taste and smell it. With that knowledge, he can make some inferences and deductions about its existence-but he cannot see it. He can’t tell you what color it is. He might be able to infer that there are land masses that exist within the ocean since through trial and error they have discovered an island, and if one island exists, there must be others. But he can’t see them. He cannot prove that they exist until his fellow man gets in a ship, roams around them and discovers them through exploration and accidental discovery. What we have in common with the fictional human species is that the limits of our reality are defined and confined by the tools with which we can observe it and explore it and because of that, is beyond our scale of comprehension.

The idea that we are going to grow a third eye that somehow enables us to see into the vast regions of the universe, or develop a 6th sense through which we can sense hidden universes (if there are any) is absurd fantasy. It is a fantasy not because it can’t happen, but because it won’t have enough time to happen. 3,000 to 5,000 years from now, without any technological advancement, one could argue that the evolutionary process may bequeath upon humanity the gift of remote viewing, or the ability to see the currently hidden dimensions of parallel universes. That is an absolute eternity when compared to the rapidity through which we increase our observational abilities through scientific and technological revolutions. The process of evolution bequeaths upon us the necessary tools for us to adapt and survive to an ever-changing environment, but it can’t happen overnight. Evolution occurs with minute changes over generations to adapt to conditions that threaten the survival of the species, or to adapt to changing patterns of functionary skills. Over a large period of time and due to a relatively static and unchanging challenge, the evolutionary process will recognize, adapt and overcome those challenges. In other words, the known environment within which we exist, and its challenges has to remain fixed for the evolutionary process to respond to it. The rapidity through which our observable universe is expanding due to our increasing intelligence and technological revolutions has for all practical purposes, rendered the evolutionary process moot. Put another way, evolution is no longer reactionary, but pro-active. The evolution of the human species is no longer a multi-generational response to external environmental challenges, it is the aggressive intelligent pursuit of all that is not known, and the act of manipulating that discovered information with purpose and intent. Perhaps, intelligence itself will evolve from being an analytical tool through which we process information into an observational tool through which we receive information. We have to ask –Has the natural process of evolution given way to the intelligent process of evolution, and if so, is intelligence itself the next conduit through which we receive information? It’s an interesting thread to consider, and requires further consideration that is outside the parameters of this discourse. What is pertinent is that the pace of intelligent evolution is only limited by our ability to process (and perhaps receive) the information gained through ever expanding observation. To date, our observational abilities are, well mind numbing.

Our cosmic horizon, that is to say the limits of our observational horizon is about 46 billion light years away, yielding a sphere with a diameter of 91 billion light years. Consider this analogy obtained from Charleston Lake Astronomy in order to get a sense of the scale of the observable universe:

“we can see that our earth is but a speck of dust on the side of a grain of sand (the sun), in a sandbox ( the milky way galaxy)that is about 20 feet in diameter, with the closest sandbox (the Andromeda galaxy) being about 1/3 mile away, and our local group of galaxies (3 to 5 galaxies)would be but a collection of sandboxes in a space about the size of a small city, and that there are other cities with groups of sandboxes as well, expanding out to the whole earth, with billions of other sandboxes each representing other galaxies, each containing billions of stars.” 

According to this analogy, if the planet earth is a “speck of dust on the side of a grain of sand” then the observable universe is the size of planet earth. Furthermore, a human with all of its intelligence, mathematical skills, theoretical thinking and observational tools…is a miniscule small point on the side of that speck. And yet, from the human perspective (the point on the speck), the visible universe is just as small as it is large, if not smaller. It is an absolutely stunning and awe inspiring feat that the human species has garnered the ability to observe objects and phenomena within that incredible range. To be clear, that’s just the size of the observable universe. Beyond that lays a theoretical expanse, both figuratively and literally, that will only be able to be accessed through mathematical exercise, scientific modeling and considered thought.

This is the realm of parallel universes, multiverses and branes. This is the realm of the infinite, and all things that can occur in an infinite domain. This is the realm of the cosmological constant, of zeros and non zeros. This is the realm of numbers (a 10 with 500 zeros after it) so large they cannot be comprehended. Bubble universes that are fixed and static when viewed from the outside, but from within appears infinite. This is the unapproachable ocean we stand on the edge of, and we can only ponder it’s complexity through our curiosity and our inherent drive to know the unknowable. The question becomes in the expansive and infinitely unknowable realm of our perceivable reality…..Where do we stand, and do we stand alone? 

...to be continued.
RBP/ 02/09/2018