Take twelve minutes and find out how of little consequence we are. I do not say this in a cynical way. I find comfort that all our thrashing about is lost in the design of the Universe, which tells me (though I am unable to articulate just why) that we are, in essence, infinite and shall never die.

What we don’t know and we CAN’T understand because our feeble brains are too young, in a cosmic sense, is enormous. Yet we consider ourselves paragons of intellect.

Man’s hubris knows no bounds.

“Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the Weather.” - Bill Hicks

I've always been fascinated by the largeness and smallness of things. Especially when into perspective in a way we can (kind of) understand. To add "life" into this subject is hard to grasp.

“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
― Carl Sagan

Back in 1993 I met Carl Sagan at a book signing. For his appreciation of me standing in pouring rain for hours just to get a glimpse of him and shake his hand, he indulged me with this quote.

A very long time ago I started my university career in astrophysics. I went through two semesters of being totally confused before failing every single final exam.

You need to be wired slightly differently to really not just understand what is being presented but to be able to take the next leap in the thought process.

I couldn’t make the leap. I just don’t have the imagination gene.

Mind-bending stuff. Physicists at Oxford University have estimated the total diameter of the Universe at 23 trillion light years, which is 250 times the radius of the visible Universe.

We will talk in the foundation of waves.
Everything is waves.
Waves are a constant, even in their every permutation.

Much like matter/energy.

The physical can be understood in waves and waves can be understood in the physical.

This is the eternal "Rosetta Stone".

(and, no/yes, I was/was not mad even when a child and tried to explain/understand it)

“…Until nothing is able to happen again…”

Mind-blowing stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by mttaylor1066:
“…Until nothing is able to happen again…”

That's where Roger Penrose’s Conformal Cyclic Cosmology model comes into play.

As the Universe reaches this point of complete dissipation, time ceases to exist. As Penrose says, the Universe reverts to a state with "no clock" and it is from this state that things go "bang" again and matter comes into existence, expands, and the cycle starts once again, as it has for all eternity.

Penrose even demonstrates that we can see echos of the previous Universe in the cosmic microwave background radiation, which is just, wow.

I watched this one the other night.
Big Think has some excellent lectures on what we know.

Now I've been watching this one at night.
Does a good job of explaining why we're utterly alone in the universe.