A Question Of Time

"My fate is the same fate of the physical world. That we coud have come from nothing and return to nothing, this is entirely possible. But lets us enjoy our illusions of immortality." -Anne Rice, The Vampire Lestat

We all have a fate. Whether it's simple or complexe, we will eventually cease to exist in the "earthbound" way we exist right now. We can speculate about what may come thereafter and we can hope that our spiritual beliefs hold true once all the lights burn out, but while we hope and speculate, we should always strive to learn and seek different perpectives, even though time seems to set certain limits. Even our lives rush by us, because in many ways, we're too "busy" to pay attention. There was an experiment done whereby a group of people over the age of 60 were asked to count down 1 minute, and a group of people under 40 were asked to do the same. The people over 60 always over-counted their minute by about 10 seconds, while the younger group always undercut their minute by about 10 seconds. The constraint of time seems to be much less of an issue when we get older. Do we begin to accept our fate or do we simply begin to realize what matters most? It's probably a combination of both, although I tend to believe that our minds eye gets a clearer, more intrinsic view of who we are and what it means to exist as we age.

But what is time? This question has been on the minds of humans for over a thousand years. Did time commence with creation, or has time always existed? Logic tells us that if time had a beginning, it should have an end. In Christianity, time is said to have orignated at the moment of creation (Genesis), although for Buddhists, their belief is that the universe is timeless, without either beginning or end. The Quantum Theory has not been able to answer this question to date, but it does have a theory on time, represented by the following scenario, seperated into five ages or eras:

First, the Primordial Age. This age is the age of the Big Bang and the beginning of what we know as time. This stage lasted about 350,000 years. We now take a huge jump to right now, about 13.7 billion years after the Big Bang, to the second stage which is called the Stelliferous Era. This is the epoch which has brought us not only the stars and planets, but also every bit of matter that surrounds us today. We now move to about 100 million, million years from now in which the universe experiences its third stage, the Degenerate Age. This is the age when the last stars burn out and die. An age where the planets fall from their orbits and in the darkness of space, matter begins to decay. The only things left are black holes. On we go to an age which will far surpass all the time that has passed since the Big Bang till present day. In this fourth stage, the last remaining black holes disappear, devouring the last bit of existing matter, giving way to the fifth and last stage, The Photon Age. This is the age where time fragments into total disorder. All that remains of our cosmos will be invisible, low energy light particles.

In this Quantum scenario, we begin to see that time evolves. If we are able to be around in the last stages of the universe, we may not even recognize it as time at all. It has been proven that particles can in fact be in two places at once, so we might uncover that there are many universes, each with a time of their own. Ultimately, this time that we feel passing, that we know and trust, may be somewhat of an illusion; an illusion that allows us to make sense of our place in this tiny corner of the cosmos.

Perception Is A Hell Of A Drug

When I started to get into astronomy, I had no idea it would completely redefine my perception and perspective on life. When I dug a little deeper into that world, some other worlds became visible to me - those of physics and particle physics. It sounds all smarty fiddle diddle and all, and to be honest, I understand NONE of the math behind it. Reading about people whose day job is to figure out how life came about is overwhelming to say the least. These physicists and scientists have the arduous (some say impossible) task of making sense of the universe and all the mind boggling material in it. It's fairly unanimous among scientists that we came from star dust. Isn't that just the most rad-awesome thing you've ever heard? Well, maybe it's just me. My nerdy-sense is tingling.

Scientists (by this I mean everyone involved in the science world from theoretical physicists to particle physicists) usually separate things into two worlds. There is the world that is governed by the theory of relativity, the theory of the large. From apples to the most distant star systems and planets, this theory explains how they work. Then there's the world of the very small. This would be the microscopic world, the world of atoms, protons and neutrons. Here, another theory/formula rules and it is called the quantum theory. When Einstein passed on, what was to be his most crowning achievement was left unfinished. He was working on what scientists today like to call, "the theory of everything." This theory would unite both the theory of relativity with the quantum theory. These theories are in a constant battle with each other. There is no harmony between them, although there should be according to scientists. At the instant of creation, the big bang, microscopic particles were present which after millions of years of cooling, starting forming planets, stars and billions of years later, us. So why would we need to separate governing theories to explain our universe and the things in it if we ultimately come from creation?

One of my favorite physicists is Dr. Michio Kaku. He's a theoretical physicist who works on something called "String Theory," which right now is the leading candidate for a theory of everything. Don't hold your breath. It's not even close to being proven. If it is proven one day, let me just say this: it would mean that there are other dimensions AND other universes. Amazeballs.

A lot of people say, "Yes, that's all trippy and interesting, but it's never going to affect any of us in our lifetimes, so this information, although interesting, serves no purpose." To that person I say: you're right. It changes nothing...FOR YOU.

Instead of taking all this science talk literally and trying to quantify what it means to you, (hint: you'll never be able to quantify our universe and its beyond-words grandeur) I'd like to make what I think is an important parallel.

I mentioned that the world of the very small was governed by a different theory than the theory of the very large. Well, I think that what's inside us, the "microscopic particles" that make up our heart, mind and soul is indeed governed by a different theory than the outside world in which we live and interact. I think it's important to remember that our internal physics, our internal existence, will always be in conflict with the outside world. Like the quantum theory, our internal world is not fully understood, and in my opinion, will remain as such. A unification of the inner and outer world sounds very attractive and harmonious, but there is something to be said about the solitude of the inner world. It makes each of us different and ultimately, allows for each of us to live through our own, unique inner universe.

Most of us don’t take the time to explore our inner universe and I believe that to be a real shame. Just like astronomers have built powerful telescopes to peer into the cosmos, we should also build our own mental and spiritual tools to look further inward. The vastness of the universe can only be compared to one thing: the vastness of our inner selves. Scientists have recently discovered new planets, twins to our blue planet, and have just recently landed on Mars, giving us unprecedented views and insight on its makeup and origins. Our inner universe is waiting for us to explore it for the same reasons. Don’t look for answers! Look to explore, period. A trip to Mars can take up to 8 months of space travel at a speed of 20,000km/hour. If we compare that to how long it takes to take a trip within yourself, well, you know what I’m getting at here.

The outside world will never acknowledge your existence. It’s about time we acknowledged our own existence, because as the only known species in our observable universe to possess a consciousness, we’d be huge dumbasses not too.

 

Any of you ever sing Yankee Doodle out loud before going to sleep? Give it a shot. Most of you won’t do it, but for those who do, you’ll probably laugh your nipples off, but realize this: that was probably the first time in a long time you did something outside your routine. And, in that moment, you thought of nothing else except of how ridiculous you sound. To me, that would mean I’m one step closer to discovering a new planet in my inner universe.

I leave you with this stellar quote from Mr. Stephen Crane:

A man said to the universe: "Sir, I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation”