Food for Thought

Let not those few who have dismissed the possibility of our long-term survival become our prophets of doom.

Food for Thought

Let not those few who have dismissed the possibility of our long-term survival become our prophets of doom.

Perhaps it was an uncommon swirl of cream in my morning coffee, or perhaps it was the gossamer swirl of altostratus wisps in a blue sky, observed as I entered the on-ramp of the local bypass. Who knows? Maybe it was even the missed breakfast, the one I didn't have time to prepare.

I've written a lot of things, all of them products of observations, past experiences and a productive imagination. I've been advised by one who is more experienced than I that I should write something every day. I can't; maybe I'm different, but for my part I must have something in mind about which I feel an overpowering need to write. And yet, for some time, possibly for all of my life, I've felt that there was something to be written for which I had to prepare. I've waited, puzzled and wondered if there was anything of substance behind the notion, or if it was only vanity. This morning, some of the pieces seemed to fall into place. I began to think about the meaning of infinity - the “physical” kind of infinity, rather than the mathematical.

   It isn’t something I think about constantly, although the staggering expanse of the universe, of which we are a tiny part, enthralls me every single day.

     Recently I watched a documentary about the Hubble space telescope, an amazing technological achievement with a difficult beginning. Some time after it was made functional, its full attention was trained on a seemingly blank portion of the sky for an extended period of time. The objective was to find out how many stars were actually in that space, however distant, that the Hubble might possibly detect over that period. The result: three thousand previously unseen galaxies. That effort was upstaged a few years later, with an image revealing ten thousand. Said one authority, “It was looking at one small piece of the sky, the equivalent of the view through a soda straw.” Well folks, that’s what is out there. I admit, I’m a dreamer; but consider the odd similarity of atoms to solar systems. Tell me, is it just a fractal-like repetition that goes on forever, or might electrons actually seem solid, if one could exist at that level? What if, just what if, there is no end to the levels, such that our solar system is an atom in a much larger existence? And that the beings and planets and stars of which that is a part, are also atoms? Well okay, maybe I’ve carried the imagination thing just a bit too far. How very unscientific of me.

      But what if I haven’t?

      Might such a realization alter your perception of the meaning of “infinite?”

       By whatever means necessary, we believe, we will eventually crack the code. We will advance to a full understanding of physical existence. An object with the predicted properties of the Higgs boson, sought for so long and at such massive expense, has been found. The Standard Model suggests that this object is responsible for all mass in the universe, prompting some to refer to it as “the God particle.” And I must agree with the viewpoint that we shall prevail, given that we will survive as a species for a sufficient period of time.

      So. We dare to imagine a God particle. Imagine that. And I realized, there is nothing, nor could there ever be anything, that humans will not dare.

       Having reached that realization, I checked my watch, noted my progress on the highway,  and re-entered my bubble of thought, which had inevitably been invaded by consideration of the human condition.

      We dare. How magnificent that is! But that “sufficient period of time” haunted me, as it always has. Would that a similar expenditure of human endeavor be applied to ensuring our survival as a species. Extinction of species appears to be an entirely natural process, and that needs to be addressed. By any true measure, we are gods; and yet, many of us cannot even keep food on the table. We are at the very mercy of our home planet. We are certainly not the masters of it, by any stretch of the imagination.

     To those among us who have succeeded in acquiring an excess of money and of possessions, be advised...we are, at least, masters of our fate, not individually, but as a whole. There will be nothing for your heirs if our species does not survive. There are steps to be taken.  You must measure your wealth and determine what portion of our rescue is yours to assume. It seems to me, education could be the fallback priority. To those among us who have not acquired wealth, you have a stake in this that is not one whit smaller. There is something for every individual to do. If there is nothing else you can do, please allow me to suggest that education might well be the fallback priority; any kind at all for anyone at all, including you.

     And there you have it. The realization for which I had been waiting seems so simple to me now. It will never do for just one, or ten, or a hundred or even a million to come to the same realization. Let not those few who have dismissed the possibility of our long-term survival become our prophets of doom. There is a massive, beautiful universe out there to be discovered, and explored, and populated. There is treasure in knowledge and understanding. None of that will have any value at all to a species that has ceased to exist.

     So perhaps it was the swirl of the cream in my morning coffee. Or perhaps it was the gossamer swirl of altostratus wisps in a blue sky. But whatever it was, perhaps, just perhaps, it led to a realization that should not be ignored. Perhaps there is someone, out there, who has been watching, and waiting for it to come.

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