Thanks to somewherein72 who originally posted this image on flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/somewherein72/1184637118/#/
Time is infinite. An infinity before us, an infinity after us. Even when (and if) our own universe ceases to exist, the cycle never stops. There may well be a number of universes approaching infinity alongside our own. Our whole solar system, huge by our perceptions of size on earth, is but less than a grain of sand in the size of our humongous galaxy. That is less than a grain of sand in the size of the universe. ~5 billion years ago there was hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosophorus, sunlight, water on earth. There was thunder and lightning. Reactions created organic molecules - not alive by our definitions, but our ancestors - the very atoms themselves. Over a great many millions of years these organic molecules evolved into bacteria and the cell. Now here we are. I have no doubts just as there is life here there is life at countless locations approaching infinity, in space and time, before and after us. As such I think that when we die, eventually we will exist again. Our consciousness will incarnate again. Memories and such obviously cease to exist with the brain... I hold confidence in reincarnation, as a certainty, a logical and rational one. Don't misinterpret - I don't mean reincarnation as minds on our planet have traditionally thought of it, I mean a statistical inevitability that any given consciousness will reoccur due to the huge scale of existence, the infinity of time, the constant, endless cycle, of everything - As an inevitability because space and time are infinite. I don't assume that this is the first time my conscious mind has existed. Time approaching infinite length has been before this point. Infinite time remains after this point in time. I have existed, I do exist and I will exist. Between death and life time will exist but when there is no conscious one does not experience that 'gap'. As such, we are constantly conscious.
Reincarnation isn't new age bullshit or whacky magic (like for examples the religions created by our ancestors in their powers games/ need to explain our existence). It's a philosophical certain, a scientific and statistical inevitability. 99.999%. Why don't I just jump off of a bridge tomorrow? That other 0.001%. The instincts I have inherited, which we have evolved with - to survive. But I no longer fear death because I'm certain it is not the end, it cannot be - time is infinite.
I continue to exist on this rock in this part of the universe and at this point in time. As so do many of us. I look at existence as a realist. Not a nihilist (although I can't claim to know what the purpose of it all is or if there even is one), not a pessimist or an optimist. I look at the world and do experience melancholy for corporations have much of the power, religious (and other forms of) extremism are rampant as are war and genocide and death and poverty and disease and starvation. The Sumerians had wondrous civilization, agriculture in 5000 BC (Over 7000 years ago). Technology was developing very fast. Their civilization fell to ruin and they were at a stage approaching where we were 1000 years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer
We could be 5000-6000 years more advanced as a race, more developed.
While I said I am not a nihilist (because I can't claim to know the purpose of everything, the outcome, or even if there is either) I don't know those things. Perhaps we're just more life (evolved from the atoms themselves and just as common as the atoms, having no more impact - ultimately) but I couldn't possibly know that. I don't think anyone on earth could possibly know these things, beyond speculation and theory. We can use our technology to look at things at the subatomic level and even manipulate, we can look out to the stars at distances further than ever before. Yet we have no more answers than our ancestors did thousands of years ago. More educated guesses & theories, more speculation.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/farthest-galaxy.html
1.26.2011
Astronomers have pushed NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to its limits by finding what is likely to be the most distant object ever seen in the universe. The object's light traveled 13.2 billion years to reach Hubble, roughly 150 million years longer than the previous record holder. The age of the universe is approximately 13.7 billion years.
Despite all of this around us many humans on our rock seem to think that their own personal power and gain matters. They hold our whole species back from development to fill their pockets. What will that have been worth when they die, when they cease to exist? Time is linear and the chemicals in our brain giving us pleasure are a delusion. If anything an intelligent person would seek to advance our species as a whole. That extends with the linearity of time, to whatever lies in the future of our planet, the future of our species or that which we will evolve into. Everything else is temporary - experience, memories, sensations...
I know my own existence is temporary, I know I'm insignificant and I wonder what's coming next for me. I do experience these temporary things of life - desire, emotion, sensations... As much as I wish to. Death is the only enlightenment from these things... Onto the next existence of consciousness, almost certainly...
I am curious to see what becomes of this little rock but of course the next incarnation of my conscious mind could be anywhere in space or time (perhaps even in existence outside those, we can't know). I will only see what happens here in this incarnation of my conscious mind. The next incarnation probably onto one of an infinite number of life inhabited planets in the universe/s (or even other forms of existence, which we can't know exist or do not). Fear of death is primitive, emotional. Emotions are chemical baggage we have evolved with, delusions. Partly to will our instinct to survive, to procreate, to develop.
The earliest TV broadcasts didn’t have enough energy to pass through our planets ionosphere (a layer of charged particles, high in the atmosphere). Radio signals would face a similar problem, since they are the same thing - low frequency electromagnetic radiation. One of the earliest TV broadcasts with enough energy to be detectable from an extraterrestrial location was the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. It may be that pictures of Hitler are one of the earliest things life in other parts of our galaxy are seeing of us. With 1936 as our beginning, radio signals will have been moving out through space at the speed of light since then. Light travels at about 300,000 km/s - 18,000,000 km/min, 1,080,000,000 km/hr - 25,920,000,000 km/day - 9,467,280,000,000 km/year. During the 72 years since the Berlin 1936 Olympics the signal has travelled around 681,644,160,000,000 km (or 423,554,044,000,000 miles or 72 light years). This is far enough to have reached some of the closest stars including many stars that have solar systems around them. As the signals spread out their energy spreads out. Think of ripples in a huge pond – they will be big at the source - that which causes the ripples then as they spread out the height and length of the ripples gets smaller and smaller. For aliens to detect our signals they would have to be relatively very close - or have very much more sensitive equipment and technology than we currently have available on Earth. If alien life was to detect these signals and send a message back, it would take just as long for the reply to reach us. For example, if a message was detected 50 light years away (very small distance in comparison to the size of the galaxy), then the signal would have taken 50 years to get there and the reply would take another 50 to return, giving a round-trip time of 100 years. Century long conversations...
Does anyone have anything to add? Your own rational thoughts and speculations, processes of logic... What do you think?
