Dust

Night 1

Throughout our lives, we constantly think, as normal as it seems, that is a feat of its very own, an achievement of cosmic proportions if you will. You see, we come up with perplexing questions for our own contemplation, and to what avail? For we cannot even begin to answer some of the most dire questions of our very existence; perplexing indeed are such thoughts. But really, the real miracles of thought come from its very origins.

Cosmically speaking of course, we are only dust. Coagulated star bits that grew into consciousness, and now ponder about themselves. Thinking about anything consciously just continues this utter amazement, that we have the ability to hold memories, thoughts, or even achieving self awareness. While such accusations of conscious minds cannot be directly proven, that fact alone is one of great mystery, a story of how exactly we think. How did these bits of imploded star form into such complex structure? And how, in turn do we achieve self awareness in machinations? These obviously have at least an attainable answer, because chance already pioneered such answers directly, and how they would discover themselves. But how exactly did that come about?

I'm not claiming to have answers to such questions, as they involve a certain degree of philosophy that I don't possess. Simply stating such questions for the thoughts of others, likewise expressing my own concerns and awes about our universe as both a whole, and with applied reductionism.

As much as we wouldn't like to admit, scientific principle is not infallible by really it's very definition (depending upon your own). As such, we have to pioneer before explanation, imagine before discovery, breakthrough before journey. In essence, we can't always be gradual, often times we just have to leap and let our minds catch up later. Two steps back and three forward can make a world of difference. The acceptance of this conclusion comes at a cost. The advancement of the human race, for the abandonment of our ideals. Is this really such a good thing? Is it really such a bad one? The answer lies in your own beliefs and interpretation. Another price to pay for such advancement.

As much as we have progressed as a human race, our answers only ever lead to more questions. This creates an interesting phenomenon of the fact that the more we know individually, and likewise as a species, the more that we, in turn, know that we don't know. This realization is one that is fairly widely thought out. While it may seem as if depressing that we will always know that we know much less than we know we don't know, it can also be an exciting process, showing that there is always more to know. If there's one quality that can be used to characterize humans as a race, it's always been the thirst for knowledge, and learning has been a main drive of humans for as long as we can trace backward in time. From the knowledge of fire starting and tool creation, to the one of our own creation, humans have always strived to know and understand things as much as possible. So to know that this process has no seeming end is an exciting prospect for some, and frightful for others. From the dust we begin as, to the dust we will eventually return in state to, we will always have something to think about.

But, I digress. So, you want to technologically advance the human race eh? Well, to what extent? Human bionics? Or maybe new energy sources, perhaps? Well, these both bring up two more questions that tend to bring most people back to their morals. First of all, when does a human cease being "human"? This is yet another question of perspective morality that halts the human race today. If we were to abandon all moral ties, and decide as a human race, to allow technology to advance unsullied by such subjectivity, would we be able to recognise ourselves as living anymore? The human race is a critical tipping point as of late, in which a constant battle of morality and advancement is waged, but which way is of more benefit to us? Is it human fate to destroy itself by it's own advancement? But on the other hand, halting scientific progress might not be wise, as breakthroughs come about, why not expand life expectancy at the cost of humanity? Conquering over death is a feat of its own, why care about such petty questions of humanity? These are completely subjective questions, that must be answered by our species to continue itself. (I completely lost where I was going here, oh well, not exactly an organised piece) And energy sources, as distant as the possibility may seem, similarly, when do we call our planet off limits? Specifically, where do we stop expanding ourselves? New energy will just again encourage human expansion, so, when do we reach maximum capacity? More about this later, maybe.

Complexity is the necessity of life progression. As our lives mature and gain complexity , so do our relations and existence. This same principle applies to the supposed origin of everything. Matter. Matters beginnings, whether it be an explanation of universal duality and space, one of repeated measure, or one of divinity, as many humans may believe, the full reality of it is that we start as collections of quarks and photons, and through events still evading quality explanation, end up with a consciousness of our very own, to actually attempt to bring understanding to these concepts that have seemed to govern our universe as a whole. And give speculation about explanation to these events, is amazing in its own right. Hell, "understanding" itself is another concept itself that starts and ends with humanity.

Infinity is a powerful concept. One that will always evade understanding, through its very nature. And our mind, as complex as it may be, has a hard time accepting forces with no limits, hell, all that we know has a limit, how can something not? A universe without us is one that we cannot grasp ourselves, as consciousness is all that we know, but I digress. It is the very nature of infinity to be, well, infinite. This means that things that seem unlikely, however they may be, will eventually happen, as infinity dictates chance over an infinite space such as the cosmos as we know them. If it is truly infinite, then quite literally all imaginable scenarios have and or will happen as the timeline stretches toward infinity. Now, back to humans thinking, we, as a coagulation of star dust, have the ability now to attempt study upon the mysteries of our space, for instance, of the question of infinity, and its effects. If existence is truly infinite, just how long will it take for another enzymatic cess pool to develop consciousness? Biology itself is another evident amazement in the history of our space, the very fact that we now have another study to simply understand living organisms. A study created by us, to understand what makes us. Interesting, no? And if our cosmos are truly infinite, then this study will again be developed elsewhere at some point. Really though, why even try?

It's easy for us to step back and think upon our insignificance in the grand scheme of things. This prospect is one that may scare most people, it's likewise another reason for our tendency for worship. It gives us a higher status then we currently see for ourselves, and quells the minds of those who happen to be phobic of their own insignificance. The only thing to remember here is that we, as beings, are the only known organism to show a general need to understand things, so it's really all we can do to make sure to make understanding a goal in our lives. For what is humanity, without knowledge?

(This really is going nowhere, this is of course, a WIP, so more will be added at my leisure, thanks for the read!)