Month: September 2018

What makes up our universe, and where are we located within this universe? Although running through the multiple components of our immense universe may be rather hard to accomplish in a few sentences, I will certainly do my best.

Let’s start out with the section of our universe that we know the best, our solar system! Our solar system is one of 100-400 billion solar systems in the milky was galaxy. Along with the Andromeda Galaxy and more than 50 dwarf galaxies, we can be found in the local group, (the end of our postal mailbox). The local group spans about 10 million light-years in diameter and is part of hundreds of galaxy groups which make up the laniakea supercluster. This supercluster is one of billions in the observable universe. This may seem like a lot of information to take in all at once, but to get to the point, our universe is unimaginably massive.

Now what if I told you that the boundaries of human exploration are limited to the local group. We are confined to a small section of our universe that currently makes up 0.00000000001% of our observable universe.

How can this be true? Can’t we simply advance our technology far enough to travel and explore the distant reaches of our galaxy? Unfortunately not… The reason we are bound to such a microscopic fraction of our universe is because our universe is constantly expanding.

The reason for our universe’s constant expansion is derived from the beginning of our universe, or in other terms, the big bang. The best way I can explain the big bang is telling you to picture the entire universe inside a small marble approximately 13.8 billion years ago. Within fractions of a second, this marble started expanding to transform microscopic distances to galactic distances.

Gravity tried its best to hold the entire universe together within a compact area, but the big bang was far too powerful. The universe is now ever expanding since its initial creation while carrying the billions of galactic clusters with it. Gravity managed to hold together these billions of galactic clusters, however the distance between these galactic clusters is constantly increasing at an unimaginable rate while our universe continues to expand.

This bind-boggling information unfortunately tells us that as we remain isolated within the local group, the dark energy (nothingness) between the local group and other galaxy cluster continuously expands. We can attempt to travel through this dark nothingness of our universe in the far future, however, we will never reach another galactic cluster other than our own.

Another rather sad truth is that the galactic clusters that we can currently view in the night sky will one day disappear. The universe as we know it will recede from view. A being born in the far future will assume that our galactic cluster is the only place to explore in the universe. When this being looks far into the empty space, they will only see more emptiness and darkness.

This may seem like a dark and rather unappealing future, but thankfully there are billions of unexplored planets and solar systems within our local group that we still have not come close to exploring. For now, be grateful to have the incredible luck to be able to look into space and view our extraordinary past in the galactic clusters that currently fill our night sky.

Never stop Questioning.

Imagine if the world has finally discovered extraterrestrial life on Titan, an orbiting moon of Jupiter! This discovery consists of bacteria as well as fossils and remains of a past civilization. We should start celebrating right? We have finally answered the question that we are not alone in the universe! The cold truth is that if this discovery actually happened, the inevitable extinction of humanity shall soon be upon us…

Hold up, how in the world would discovering undeveloped life in our galaxy result in our extinction? Proclaiming that humanity’s extinction is looming in our near future is an extremely bold statement that would prove to be true during the discovery of extraterrestrials due to the theory of The Great Filter.

The Great Filter theory states that the reason our galaxy is not teeming with a constant flow of life is due to a filter or theoretical barrier that every advancing civilization shall inevitably encounter. This filter shall lead to the advancing civilization’s demise and will terminate all evidence that this civilization has ever existed. In short, The Great Filter theory claims that all lifeforms in our galaxy can only become so advanced until they die off.

Since humanity currently seems to be the only advanced civilization inhabiting our galaxy, one of two possibilities revolving around the Great Filter theory can be assumed.

The first possibility benefits the overall existence of humanity. This possibility claims that humans are the one unique civilization that has surpassed the Great Filter. We have successfully crossed the filter and shall remain the sole civilization to spread through and inhabit the galaxy! Although it is nearly impossible to interpret what the Great Filter was that humanity potentially surpassed, some possibilities include the beginning stages of life or the advanced development of brains over survival skills to form the creation of an intelligent species.

The second possibility that unfortunately has a greater chance of happening will soon lead to humanity’s downfall. This possibility proclaims that humanity is nearing the Great Filter throughout our society’s advancement. We assume that all lifeforms who have inhabited the Milky Way Galaxy prior to the existence of humanity have reached the Great Filter, and we are soon to be the next ones to go. Examples of a filter for this possibility can include annihilation by nuclear fallout or using the entirety of our planet’s resources before having the possibility to inhabit other planets.

Let’s go back to the statement that finding extraterrestrial life would ultimately lead to the extinction of humanity. This statement, due to the Great Filter theory, proves to be true. The more common advanced and complicated life is in the universe, the more likely the Great Filter is in front of us rather than behind.

The best situation humanity can surprisingly hope for is that our galaxy is sterile. The vast number of planets that could potentially inhabit life remain inactive waiting to be discovered and inhabited by us.

Never stop Questioning.

Here is a link that further explains the Great Filter Theory!

Take some time to think about the world around you. Think about the towering cities around the world all the way down to every single blade of grass on our entire planet… Now imagine the blue sky in its vastness, and imagine the limitless space surrounding our planet that encompasses our universe. The billions of galaxies that are spread throughout the universe and the quintillions of planets that compose each galaxy.

Huge huh? An unfathomable amount of detail is found throughout our universe… Now what if I told you that this was all part of a simulation. That we were only digitally created codes of memory that simply believe we exist, but in reality, we’re nothing more than a Sims video game character. Imagine that the entire human race and the vast universe we live in was all part of a virtual reality.

Seems almost like the plot to the next Matrix movie, right? Just continue reading, and I’ll explain to you why this theory just may prove to be more realistic than it seems.

To begin explaining how this theory is even feasible, lets travel 40 years back in time to the first video game created, Pong! Who didn’t love pong, a one-pixel dot bouncing back and forth against two boards with the end goal to score more points than your opponent. Now let’s travel to the present-day video game experience. With virtual reality games becoming more popular and the advancing graphics that are getting closer to looking unrecognizable from real life, if progress drops 1000 times slower with video games advancing, we will still reach realistic graphics in the relatively near future.

So how do video games relate to our universe living in a virtual reality? Their progress shows that with advancing technology, humans will eventually have the potential to copy the trillions of neurons in the human mind and upload them into a massive machine known as a quantum computer. This will essentially cause this person to consciously believe he is living within that computer’s digitally created universe. (One interesting fact is that we have recently uploaded a worm’s consciousness into a computer and caused it to believe it was simply living in a realistic environment. Click HERE to check the worm video out).

There is a common argument that our planet does not contain enough energy to process a quantum computer. If this is the case we will have to branch out in our galaxy to inhabit and utilize other planets or even suns for their energy, but we shall approach this issue when the time comes to build a quantum computer.

With our approaching ability to create our own virtual realities, the question arises, what if we are already in a virtual reality? Whose to say a higher being has not already created billions of virtual universes and we just happen to be one of them. Deciding whether we are living in a virtual reality based on these statements becomes more of a dart throwing game where we’re hoping to land on “actual reality” rather than the millions of virtual realities.

Supporting the case of virtual realities, Neil DeGrasse Tyson believes we have a 50/50 chance of living in a virtual reality, while Elon Musk claims we only have a one in one-billion shot at living in an actual reality over virtual. To further Elon Musk’s claims in virtual reality, he claims there are three courses that human existence can pursue. The first is if the human existence gains the potential to create a virtual reality but we decide this action is immoral and choose to refrain, the second is that human existence hits the “great filter” (I will discuss this in another blog) and becomes extinct, and the third is that we are living in a virtual reality. Musk believes the third course is without a doubt the most likely.

Although I can easily dive deeper into the theory that our universe is inside a virtual reality by incorporating how the arguments of a higher being come in to play and the fact that our universe has mathematical laws of physics similar to video games, my blog would seem as endless as the universe itself! So, on this note I leave you to ponder over the theory of living in a virtual reality. Perhaps the creator of this virtual reality is focusing on you right now, or perhaps we may one day possess our own virtual realities and achieve the status of gods? Never stop questioning.

Click HERE  for an interesting video on our universe living inside a virtual reality as well as further explaining subjects I mentioned in this blog.