#9 The Big Four

#9 The Big Four

Every now and then, we’re going to remind ourselves about the main purpose of our journey so that we don’t lose sight of our bigger goal as we dig down into the details of our quest. The key motive of our exploration is to find answers to the big questions of life in a coherent and logical manner: Where did we come from? What are we here for? Where are we going?

We spent the last few blogs commencing the first part of our journey from a purely scientific perspective. We started off with collecting unbiased and incontrovertible data from the world around us – from the inherent characteristics of our universe to our observations of the natural world we live in. We needed this information to kick off discussion around the first segment of our quest: Where did we come from?

Having collected our observations of the world in which we live, we are now in a position to begin exploring the mysteries we seek to unravel.

November 1, 2024November 1, 2024

#8 The Finely Tuned Universe

Have you ever tried balancing arbitrarily shaped rocks on top of each other? Kind of like what Luke was trying to do practicing his Jedi skills with Yoda in the Return of the Jedi. But, of course, without the use of the Force.

Many of us have challenged ourselves, at some point in our life, to balance as many rocks on top of each other as possible. What was your highest tally? Depending on the type of rocks used, my guess is anywhere from five to ten would be the maximum score for most people.

October 25, 2024October 25, 2024

#7 The Perfectly Balanced Universe

#7 The Perfectly Balanced Universe

The dazzling sun rises up gloriously every day and sets down calmly at dusk. The glowing moon glides gently through all its phases every month. The fresh air around us fills our lungs with the essential oxygen we need to breathe. The water-laden clouds spray our lands with pure rain to nourish our farms and animals. The luxuriant vegetation reinvigorates our atmosphere every day with fresh air. The spirited birds fly effortlessly through the air without dropping to the ground. It appears that the natural world around us is in a delicate balance and equilibrium. But is this observation a fact or is it just a mirage?

We’ve seen that our universe is highly structured in its physical composition – down to the most basic level. But just because its material constitution is extremely intricate and precise doesn’t imply that our universe will necessarily function as such. We can have all the parts of an automobile precisely constructed but they will be of no use unless they are assembled together perfectly to work in unison. In a similar way, do the highly intricate physical structures of our universe interact and work with each other to produce smooth and meaningful results? Or do they exhibit less than perfect behavior?

October 18, 2024October 19, 2024

#6 The Highly Structured Universe

#6 The Highly Structured Universe

Trying to understand a complex problem requires a methodical approach. One of the first steps after defining the problem is to gather sufficient information about it to understand the context and nature of the issue we are dealing with.

Attempting to crack the biggest question of all – the meaning of life – requires a similar approach. We started by gathering information and data about the issue. We began our quest by observing the natural world and understanding the environs we inhabit. The planet we live in, it turns out, is not a run-of-the-mill place. It is a special one-of-a-kind heavenly body that fulfills all our exhaustive needs. It gives us much more than we would expect and enriches our lives beyond our basic needs.

Our observation of the natural world does not stop with our planet though. There is still a lot more information, knowledge, and observation that we can collect about the world we are part of. Specifically, there is insightful information embedded into the framework of the universe we find ourselves in. This data set provides us with an immense wealth of knowledge that will guide us through our journey. This blog, and the next couple of succeeding ones, will deal with such observations about our universe.

October 11, 2024October 11, 2024

#5 The Resourceful Planet

Over the past few years, national space agencies, private aerospace corporations, and space scientists have shown active interest in exploring the possibility of human settlement on Mars. Unmanned rovers have successfully landed and begun exploring the planet. Human Mars missions are in the plans. There are many challenges though: subfreezing temperatures, radiation exposure, toxic soil, lack of water, lack of food, etc. To compensate for some of the obstacles, the plan is to take as many assets from Earth as possible and build up a mechanism to generate such resources on Mars continually. Unlike Earth, Mars is not a naturally resourceful planet for hosting life. It must import resources from Earth to enable humans to become self-sufficient on the red planet.

October 4, 2024October 4, 2024

#4 The Habitable Planet

Every once in a while, scientists – cosmologists in particular – claim that they have found a potentially habitable planet in some distant part of our galaxy. What do they mean? Do they mean there is a good chance that life exists on that planet? What drives them to declare such a strong hypothesis? And what kind of life are they talking about? Is it the kind of life we see on Earth – plants, animals, humans? Or are they talking about the presence of any kind of life – even if it is just microbial life?

September 27, 2024September 27, 2024

#3 Connecting with Nature

The task of trying to figure out the meaning of life is a daunting one. There is so much that has been discussed, debated, and presented on this subject that one may be tempted to give in to the chaos and noise at the very onset. From mythology to religion to philosophy to science, it is easy to get swayed and pulled over this way or the other. Everyone is clamoring for attention. The ones with the loudest voices who convince the masses with confidence have the ears of many. In this sea of madness, how do you keep your senses and navigate through the mess? How do you find your own convincing path out of this chaos? How do you begin your journey of self-exploration on a sensible footing?