A JOURNEY THROUGH SPACE AND TIME

 

A JOURNEY THROUGH SPACE AND “TIME”

 

In the twilight of my years a lot of my philosophical musings hail from my novella—Energy & Origin—because it opened my mind to some fundamental axioms to explain life and origin and how within the vastness of space we’re nothing more than a passing phenomenon.  It is not my intent to minimize our presence but to put it in a context rooted in physics and science and that everything in and around us is the product of energy and momentum.  Space would not exist without one or the other and neither would we.  Our human minds are grappling with concepts that are extremely complex and one of them is the distinct possibility that space is a permanence that defies the human mindset (opinion) that everything has to have a beginning and an end.  It simply is and it will continue to be long after our own solar system disintegrates into space junk, joining the debris out there and perhaps morphing into new celestial systems.

NOTHING IS CONSTANT

Space is a totally uncontrolled, spontaneous process, changing from second to second, morphing and transforming.  Energy constantly bundling and releasing and none of us can predict the impact of any of these events.  We’re all part of it.  Tiny, insignificant and at the mercy of these powerful forces.  It controls us as well and determines every outcome.  What I hope to accomplish with this article is explain how we can’t control or determine the outcome of energy and momentum, but how to accept the impact with a greater degree of understanding.  We’re literally beating each other up and it accomplishes absolutely nothing.  I ended one of my recent articles with the phrase: Don’t look for answers, be the answer. 

Our planet is alive from top to bottom, inside and out, charged with energy that is vast, powerful and diverse.  Everything inside of us and around us is a constantly morphing process of energy and momentum, forming, responding and re-forming.  Spontaneous and uncontrolled.  For instance, we can observe how weather forms on the surface of the planet, but we can’t predict the exact outcome.  We’re getting better at observing and predicting, but we can’t control the weather.  There is actually very little that we do control and it seems like such a waste of effort and time pretending that we can.  Within the greater scheme of things we’re nothing more than haphazard particles, some alive, like living cells, and others dead, like matter (atoms).  It all functions for an undetermined amount of time.  Energy and momentum are not spread out evenly or fairly either, but scattered haphazardly in and around us.  Nothing is fair or based on what we consider “fair”.  Our species, and all other lifeforms, consist of living cells and life is a crapshoot from start to finish and wrought with failure.  For all lifeforms!  There are no exceptions.

Physics can explain some of the patterns that exist within energy and momentum as even these two primordial forces behave according to predictable patterns and behaviors.  Energy constantly bundles and releases, but that is the only thing we can confirm with certainty.  What we can’t determine is frequency and intensity.  More questions than answers.

NEEDS DETERMINE ENERGY BEHAVIOR

We know that we have to eat and drink in order to function.  Food and drink provide the body with nourishment to create energy and we use that energy to function; to get up and work, to partake in activities we either enjoy or reluctantly participate in.  But energy levels wear off and we constantly need to repeat the process.  Pretty straightforward under normal circumstances and what we have come to expect.  At least in our daily lives.  None of us go looking for ways to either obstruct or deny the intake of food and drink.  Here is where the example get interesting and it provides the impetus for where I’m headed with this article.  Even if you were to use the exact amount of food and drink every day and at regular intervals, what takes place inside your body is never exactly the same as the body is subjected to a host of additional factors over which we have no control: ageing, illness, sleep patterns, work, and cells never responding in exactly the same way.  It is not a guaranteed process.  THAT IS MOMENTUM FOR YOU!

Our lives, our bodies, mirror the behavior of energy and momentum.  Mostly we take it for granted, just like the weather.  We don’t pay attention to it because for most of us one day morphs into the next without much change.  Unless . . . something happens that upsets the equilibrium of day to day living, of getting by and surviving.  In the world around us all of this and more takes place on an even grander scale and I hope it explains the level of unpredictability that plays out.  We’re not in control of our own lives, so, how can we be in control of what takes place around us?  In our families, communities, nations, around the globe!

OUR MINDSET IS ABOUT CONTROL

We’re always desperate to establish some kind of control and order and the frustration hails from the simple fact that we are trying to restrain forces so powerful that they wreak havoc with our best laid plans.  Our attempts at governance mirror the haphazard behavior of energy and momentum.  As a species saddled with a slightly higher intelligence than our counterparts in nature we’re grappling with all these issues and the frustrating inconsistencies.  Rather than accepting our lot in life we have become reactive creatures replete with actions that defy a rational explanation.     

EVERYTHING TAKES PLACE WITHIN A CONTINUUM  

Evolution is all about the possible, not the impossible.  Life can and will emerge under the right circumstances and a flourishing will take place if optimum conditions are met.  Humanity’s presence as an impactful force is but a blip in cosmic time.  We’re a burb, a hiccup, within the greater scheme of things.  Life on Earth has emerged time and time again, billions of years of evolution, of adapting to changes.  We’re living in a continuum and it never pauses or stops.  We’re passing through and the persnickety part lies in the fact that we’re saddled with an awareness that is absent in the solar system that we’re a part of.  We’re on our own dealing with this phenomenon and we’re struggling.  Trying to explain ourselves without reference points or comparisons had led to some astounding hypotheses.  Most of our approbations excel at giving us far more credit than we deserve, but there again, there are no other parties present to contradict our assumptions.  To correct us!

We only pay scant attention to evolution because it taxes our powers of observation and patience.  Life needs but a few basic fortuitous elements to get started and to stick with something all of us are familiar with I will give as an example the May 24 long weekend frenzy of putting in our flowers and gardens.  In Canada that is.  Water, heat and soil, that’s what it takes to grow things.  Very basic.  In the tropics an overabundance of the above leads to a flora and fauna that is absolutely astounding.  Not as much so in the artic.  For starters, soil is missing.  Plenty of water in the form of ice, but very little heat.  It has made life possible, but it is totally different from that of milder climates.  It is all about circumstance and opportunity and it plays out all over the world.  The struggles we engage in are all about opportunity.

We know from fossil records that millions of species have come and gone.  Extinction is part of life as adverse conditions create adverse outcomes.  Bit of a heads up here to all the climate change deniers and what is even worse, all of us who deny humanity’s disastrous impact on the planet.  The planet can cope with a bit of extra heat and extreme weather, but not with the onslaught of human impact and how we literally devour and destroy the planet.  Between numbers and impact we’re in the process of creating a perfect exit.

SPACE IS ETERNAL, TIME IS US

Space is a continuum and time is nothing but a quantitative element that humans try to attach to everything.  Within the context of space, time is irrelevant.  The continuum of space is driven by energy and momentum and it never pauses, stops, or repeats itself.  I will try to illustrate the impact and consequence with an example all of us are familiar with.  Morning ablutions.  For convenience sake let’s take my morning ritual as an example, slightly exaggerated, but conducted like a science experiment.  I get up exactly at 7.01 am every morning to urinate and I repeat this process faithfully every day.  As an experience it is routine and the same.  However, minute changes have taken place and mostly we’re not even aware of them.  Minute physical and chemical changes.  We’re also another day older.  Cell behavior is never the same as is every single process that takes place in our bodies, but the real biggie!  It is another day and that day will never come back.  Ever!  And that is the continuum of space we live in.  No control.  We have absolutely no say in this.  Within the continuum of space, energy and momentum decide everything.  No turning back and isn’t that a bummer for all the science fiction lovers!  No time machines that allow us to go back and forth. 

AN ALMOST INFANTILE NEED FOR ANSWERS

And yet, we’re the only species that tries and tries again.  Day after day.  Looking for order.  For control.  For answers.  Beating our heads against the wall with one scheme after the other.  Look at our silly attempts to “conquer” space.  At great expense we have had limited success landing on the moon and returning a crew back to Earth.  Star Trek-like ambitions coupled to that dreaded human imagination that stubbornly rejects the obvious limitations.  Space is not only vast, it is insanely inhospitable and dangerous.  Forget Star Wars.  Within billions of miles, lightyears away, there is not a single planet out there where we could walk around without wearing lifesaving spacesuits and oxygen tanks.  From extreme cold and heat to radiation and poisonous gasses.  Space will kill us in an instant.

If space were like a walk in the park, with wonderful trails and marvelous vistas, we would be out there in an instant and never look back.  But, without trying to burst your bubble and to put it to you as gently as possible; there is no easy way out and we lack the technology, now, and probably forever, to even consider wide-ranging space exploration.  This is it.  Get used to it and stop throwing away and wasting billions and billions of dollars on mission impossible.  A conventional approach—with rockets and spaceships—won’t work.  The only viable option is transforming matter into antimatter and quite literally beam ourselves through space.  It would require not only technological sophistication that would stretch the boundaries of the possible, it would also require a celestial space infrastructure that would take hundreds if not thousands of years to install.  I have tackled this subject intensively in my novel: They were like angels.  But—I love my buts—even at the speed of light (as far as we know this is physically the highest obtainable speed) space travel would still be a daunting task to get from point of origin to destination, especially if the desired planet is several lightyears away!

BACK ON EARTH

Back on Earth, whether we like it or not, energy and momentum will continue to wreak havoc, especially when the most troublesome species to ever emerge, is of grave concern to the overall wellbeing of the planet as well.  Not only are we in trouble, we’re dragging all other lifeforms along with us, unfortunate victims and casualties of our indiscriminate choices and way of life.  Nature contributes.  We consume and destroy.  Nature tries to adapt and we’ve become experts at stopping nature dead in its tracks.

Nature is a marvel of symbiosis, of adapting and preservation.  Nature’s longevity and endurance over billions of years is astounding.  We have blinded ourselves to the importance of biodiversity and the interactive relationships that exist.

AWARENESS, ALL LIFEFORMS USE IT!

Nature explains life, we constantly challenge it!  One of things that all lifeforms have in common is a sense of awareness.  Awareness is crucial to survival, from the tiniest microscopic species to the largest.  Biologists have made us aware of the fact that trees in the forest communicate through their vast network of roots.  They have observed how trees and plants react quickly to potential threats of disease and danger.  From storms to invasive species.  All lifeforms are sensitive to imminent changes in their environment and it is all about survival and protecting themselves.  It could be a sensitivity to atmospheric changes, energy fluctuations, scent.  Fish communicate.  Flowers will close up or bend away from a storm.  Awareness mirrors energy and momentum in that it reacts spontaneously and its intensity cannot be predicted or measured.  Especially in case of risk, or risk taking, or when a threat is suspected but not identified or quantified.  Everything we engage in is based on self-preservation.

A desperate and hungry lion will take much greater risks in a hunt than a well-rested and well-prepared troop of lions setting out on a regular hunt.  The latter will be much more risk averse than the former.  Energy needs or a lack of energy will determine levels of vulnerability or unpredictability; of risk taking!

Awareness plays a huge role in all human interactions as our “need levels” are huge, complex and demanding.  As a species we’re incredibly sensitive to any threat to our comfort levels.  The greater the needs of a species, the less likelihood there is of sharing, compassion or cooperation, especially with members that don’t belong to the same tribe or nation.  Nothing in the human world is divided evenly and fairly and energy shortages in all its forms lie at the root of most conflicts and wars. 

WHEN ENERGY GETS NASTY

Human energy resembles the nature of energy and momentum and how it behaves.  War is the extreme of human energy bundling and not unlike energy it has to be released and dispersed.  In most cases it is not over until one or both sides are totally exhausted and are unable to continue the conflict.  Look back on any war or armed conflict and you realize that it has nothing to do with common sense, ethics or morals.  Once we tap into this negative form of energy we’re often unable to extract ourselves and it has little to do with pride or regaining our senses.  Energy by definition is aggressive.  Energy and momentum are not benign forces even if they are essential to explain origin and existence.  We’re all aware of weather and what it can do but are at a loss explaining the why and how it will play out.  War must fall into the same category, because it too lacks a rational explanation.  We appear unable to stop the momentum of conflict.  Rhetoric escalates, swords and arguments are sharpened and pleas for calm fall on deaf ears.

I don’t believe in divine origin because it defies everything we do and engage in.  We’re fractured souls; easily confused, led, manipulated and distracted.  We are what we are and when it comes to life and all its ups and downs, we’re flying by the seat of our pants, keeping our fingers crossed that most of the bad weather will fly over or pass us by.  Our greater level of awareness has given us the dubious distinction of being able to interpret life and all its vagaries to a much wider extent than our counterparts in the natural world.  Ours is an interesting journey but there are times when I wish that we’d never left the jungle in search of a different existence, walking on two legs instead of all fours, because it does make swinging through the trees much more hazardous and less fun.

My writing is intended to provoke critical thought and thinking.  As I writer I observe and interpret and that is what I like to share with my readers.  Mine is a restless, introspective mind, more concerned with consequences than answers.  Opinions and isms frighten me as quite often they turn out rigid and limited in scope.  It is the shared journey that fascinates me.  I love to listen and learn, driven by an insatiable curiosity that travels like a bobbing lantern in front of me, illuminating the path ahead.