As a kid, I always had this very weird thought that would freak me out. I wondered what would have happened if there was no earth or no human beings or no God. I mean absolutely nothing. The thought was scary but this had me thinking and I started reading about it. That’s when I came to know about Cosmology.
Cosmology is like the birth story of the Universe and the time before that when (probably) the Gods existed. I was mesmerised by the fact that even after being at the zenith of technological advancement we had yet not figured out the answer to the vexed question of life!
Let’s put our imagination to test here. Think about ‘Nothing’. Can you? It’s a trick question because when you try to think about nothing it automatically becomes something. And now try to find an analogy between this thought and the beginning of life. Scientists vaguely describe this as ‘Something from Nothing’. But you cannot eat zero chocolates, right? There has to be a chocolate for you to eat. So how can something happen from nothing? Nobody could define this ‘nothing’. So some called it God (theists) and some others called it ‘energy’ or ‘force’. But where did this force come from? We don’t know.
The infamous Big Bang Theory talks about life originating from a point of infinite mass but no volume. Isn’t that trippy? No volume but infinite mass? The idea itself is bizarre. But that is our understanding of the beginning of life. I find it very amusing that we humans boast of being the most intelligent beings but our knowledge about our origin is so vague and blur.
Another question that arises from the Big Bang Theory is about the existence of the point of origination. Where did the point of infinite mass but no volume come from? Albert Einstein had been so right when he said, “The most comprehensible thing about the universe is that it is incomprehensible.” The more we think that we are closer to the answer, the more we realise that we know nothing.
In the book ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, the author Douglas Adams had remarked that the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42! When asked about the theory behind such an absurd answer he gave a theory which I found very fascinating. The theory states that if anyone ever discovers exactly what the universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something bizarre. He claims that the question of life and the answer to that question cannot exist simultaneously. He has cleverly depicted this in his book by explaining that when ‘Deep Thought’, the supercomputer, took 7 and ½ million years and gave the answer 42, it was not wrong. In reality, the beings who instructed it never knew what the question was.
In conclusion, I would like to explain why I chose the above-mentioned title for this topic. Because it’s not just Jon Snow who knows nothing. It’s the entire human race!
God Speed!
Comments