azted wrote:
The solution is that humanity will adapt to whatever we need to, to survive. Lower standards of living, wars, nuclear attacks, etc., until some cataclysmic event causes our total destruction. Then somewhere, in a galaxy far, far away, lightning will hit a puddle, and wham, the whole thing will start again!
Yes..in the end...none of it matters.
What's fascinating is that we are the very first people in the history of the world that finally has a grasp on our universe.
How it works...how it began...where it is headed...and what our part in it all is.
Just a hundred years ago...the consensus was we lived in a single galaxy with an empty static universe around us.
Now we know there are 400 BILLION galaxies...and the universe is expanding and accelerating.
We know that if we could magically make everything we see as the universe disappear instantly...everything...
The amount of space and energy that would be removed from the universe would be about... 1%.
99% of the Universe is made up of dark matter and dark energy.
If we poured the ENTIRE universe into a giant bucket everything that we perceive as 'the universe' would be but a bit of pollution film lying on the top of the water...we are that insignificant.
What are we then?
We are lucky is all...we get to at least witness a process that has nothing to do with us...indeed all evidence indicates the universe for our purposes...is 100% pointless.
We are just here...and by a random chance.
The amazing part really is...
In 2 trillion years...there will be stars...there will be galaxies...completely isolated galaxies...unaware of other galaxies due to acceleration. Every galaxy will believe as we did 100 years ago...that we are alone in a singular galaxy. They will all be wrong and never know it.
We will be long gone...no trace...but there will be civilizations none the less...different from us...unaware we ever existed.
It's not about us...and that's okay. We at least get to contemplate it.