Saturday, December 14, 2013

The Universe and Us

"...The tiny space I occupy is so small compared to the rest of space, where I am not and where things have nothing to do with me; and the amount of time in which I get to live my life is so insignificant compared to eternity, where I've never been and won't ever be... Yet in this atom, this mathematical point blood circulates, a brain functions and desires something as well... How absurd! What nonsense!.."       -Bazarov from Turgenev's novel Fathers and Children    


This video shows how insignificant and small we are compared to only the known part of the universe. Our day to day problems and our mundane daily routines are simply nothing.... but then again we have to continue living. The universe is so vast and complex for us to comprehend. There are many reasons to live...succeeding and leaving your mark in this small planet earth...helping others...eating foods....making difference...changing the world....etc etc etc etc etc etc and it is impossible to say which one of the reasons of living is the correct one. Maybe religion could give some answer... but if you are not strict religious then definition of meaning of life has to come from within us. In my view, we define our existence, we make goals and we strive for it. And that makes our lives interesting to live and that makes us to exist in this world. Like Bazarov said (quote at the beginning), we are insignificant but our functioning brain desires something. Those desires and experiences, gives one chance to create his own meaning. (Ex: a kid liked to play soccer and really enjoyed it. He defined his goal to become the best soccer player and starts working hard to fulfill his goal) And of course it doesn't have to be one big goal and it doesn't have to be a firm unchangeable goal, person's taste, desires and goals can change overtime. And that and that and that.... still it may seem pointless in the long run. What is the point of fulfilling our goal if we were to wither away and be forgotten after a century or two? The good thing is all of us will wither away in the long run, so you are not the only one. The bad thing is, it is true that we will all wither away. Even the greatest scientists, leaders and any person of consenquence will become insignificant after couple of centuries... no fame is eternal. The only solution to get rid of this problem is to accept that nothing is eternal and try to live. Set goals and dreams and try to fulfill. If you succeed then you can be proud of living meaningful live following your dreams and fulfilling your goals; and even if you fail, you can be proud of living the life you wanted to live and did what you wanted to do. People may debate here and there about this issue but let's save that debate for another day.

And now some thoughts about the universe. Let's assume after some years we have solved all global poverty, inequality problem and became truly globally peaceful civilization. (truly a utopia, no violance and let's assume that there is machine that can give us anything that we want, so all people became equally rich. We have abundance of everything and we can cure every disease..... let's just go with this conditions for a bit) Then what will be our goal of living? It seems to me in that case, there will be only three goals. One is to just enjoy ourselves and become hedonistic. Second option is to pursue artistic career and write poems, songs, direct movies, design things etc etc. Third option is to pursue scientific curiosity. The last option is the most appealing choice for me. Discovering why we exist and what caused our existence will be the big question to solve. You may ask what will be point of knowing all of that? The answer will be of course that is the point. Well, if our universe is part of other big universe then so be it. If our universe was created out of just randomness then so be it. If our universe was made by some great being then so be it. The point is to find out the answer and depending on the answer we can continue to pursue further. But what will be our next move if we finish finding all the answers for everything? I think then we may have finished this game. Just like any free roam RPG video game, you have finished every quest, got every achievement,collected all items and you beat all bosses. Now your video game character can just roam around the game for no purpose or repeat certain quests again and again that you have already finished or just exist the game.

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