This little video by Neal deGrasse Tyson, who is the new Carl Sagan in that he’s a scientist who can still speak Normal, is the tip of the iceberg, part of a larger project in which thinkers in various fields (a lot of physicists but also anthropologist Jane Goodall and nazi hunter Elie Wiesel) answer the question “Is there a meaning to the universe?”
“The Love Embrace of the Universe,” by Frida Kahlo. If the universe has to have a meaning, I nominate this one.
Tyson’s answer, although you should watch his video because he says it much better than I can, is essentially “Not bloody likely and if there is it probably doesn’t have anything to do with us.”
That is a sentiment that I basically agree with as far as it goes, and as far as it goes is right up to about now. The way I see it is this. There are billions and billions and billions of planets in the universe and undoubtedly some of them have species who are smarter and/or more technologically advanced than us but we haven’t met them yet and until we do, we are still the smartest creatures in the universe that we know and therefore it is up to us to assign meaning to the universe.
We’ve been doing it for hundreds of thousands of years, ever since we first domesticated fire, because fire is something to sit around, and whenever people sit around a fire, somebody starts telling stories. We created spirits, gods, and then God, and made it all so convincing that huge swaths of the modern populace, despite the world of information at our fingertips and blasted out directly at our eyeballs and into our ear canals, believe in these campfire constructions quite literally.
The question is, now, what do we want the purpose of the universe to be. Forget trying to understand what the purpose of the universe is. If there is a god, he apparently is not dealing us into the game and seems rather indifferent to the ultimate fate of mankind.
So, do we want the purpose of the universe to be a never ending quest for knowledge? To glorify a deity, whether we’re sure it’s real or not? To fine tune our spirits to live in harmony with the universe? To expand our consciences to the point where we become one with the universe? To explore new worlds, seek out new civilizations and boldly go where no man has gone before? Or just to get everything we can and the hell with the rest?
What do you want the meaning of the universe to be? Answer in the comments.
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