Join the new world

Look up, to the sky, and you see the stars, tremendous globes of plasma burning gigatonnes of fuel each second, and you see how insignificant we all are. Each and every one of us is but a ripple on the horizon, filled with monstrous waves eddying through space-time. And what you see, is it not beautiful? To see just how tiny you really are fills you with hope, and joy, for knowing the true extent of our universe is something of a dream come true. To know that there is so much room in our universe for our children and their children and their children’s children’s children to explore is magical in itself. But wait, there’s more! We seem to believe that we live in a three dimensional world, but is that truly so? What if I were to suggest that it were in fact 11 dimensional? That mass warps space-time, causing the ripples we’re so proud to be and be part of? What if I were to say that time was a dimension, stretching off into the infinity, with our universe a cross section of a cut running deep across the infinite parental realm, moving slowly along the infinite axis of that we so readily describe as time?

We have infinity, right here, right now, or perhaps, right omnipresent would be a more apt description, even if it doesn’t quite match the term’s intended meaning. But is this truly infinity? Does the universe not end? We do not know; all we can do is guess. But say it does not end, as we all wish in the deepest recesses of our minds, what will happen? Listen to the sounds of gravity; the deep, creaking straining all powerful voice of gravity, and hear the music of the stars, hear the high pitched whining of light as it speeds past tens of billions of times faster than the fastest of our rockets; hear the roaring sound of the sun and the others around it, spitting enormous plumes of flame in every direction; then listen to the calm quiet of the empty space in between, the soft, eerie sound of dark matter on the edges of galaxies, the piercing but distant and faint sound of meteorites as they burst through space-time at speeds so fast they could shatter our planet and disperse it across our solar system in an instant. Then look back to our planet, and see our kind frolicking around like baby lambs, oblivious to the realm they live in at large. Think of how peaceful it is, how no one has a care in the world — other than those who do, of course — and think about how small and insignificant we are. How could we possibly last forever? And the truth is, we won’t. We may last for some time before a supernova catches us unaware, or another species commits xenocide against us, but that is a long time away. Even so, though we mightn’t last forever, if the universe does, life will. Infinite lives across an infinite timeline — not all humanoid, mind you.

If the universe really does last infinitely, then it also gives reason to wonder whether anything else is infinite. Now, think child. What is the one thing in this universe that we truly cannot explain? Not dark matter, nor dark energy, explanations for those will come with time. Not even the basic human brain. Consciousness. What is it, this thing that each and every one of us experiences? This thing, which we have been debating about for thousands of years, since Mesopotamia first aroused. It has been debated under the name of philosophy, science, neurology, and most recently, artificial intelligence. A computer is a machine, albeit the most powerful and adaptable one known to man. Given a set of instructions, written in the languages of logic and mathematics, it can produce results that would indicate that it is somehow intelligent. You could theoretically teach a computer how to act like a human being, in the shell of a robot; but is it truly intelligent? At what point in the long labourious process of programming does the robot become conscious? And the answer to that is, well, never. Computers as we know it simply don’t have the capacity. But then, how do we have what computers don’t? Is it possible that consciousness is caused by something from an entirely new dimension? Or is that a complete misunderstanding of what a dimension is and isn’t? Could it be that in an alternate reality — the parent reality that our universe resides in — is filled with infinite nodes that can be transferred to and from our dimension? That these nodes are what cause intelligence?

This is a theory about consciousness I once read in an amazing science fiction book, named philotic theory. The idea is that everything in our universe is made of philotes, from protons to electrons to atoms to cells. An aiùa is an intelligent philote, the unconsciousness of every living creature. Living creatures are controlled by their aiùas, at least, the conscious part of their aiùa. Philotes are connected by philotic links, exercised by contact or proximity over time. The closer two philotes (or aiùas) are, the stronger bound they are. Philotes are sourced from a realm of infinite density, the size of a geometric point. Philotes are bound to interacting in a certain way, except when under the direct influence of an aiùa. This, although likely nonsense, is a beautiful theory in the sense that it explains everything everywhere, and does away with fate and all other nasty beliefs in that it gives hope and stability to those of us who cannot stop imagining how dull and boring the universe will be, bound to a single path forever.

Even though our universe may expand beyond its capacity to support human life, there is still the possibility that other life may come into being. Giants the size of entire superclusters of galaxies over thousands of millennia may be singing songs longer than our sun’s lifetime just a few trillion years from now. All it takes is some imagination.