a world in a grain of sand

I’ve decided to begin a blog devoted to the many weird, wonderful, twisted, and imaginative ideas, suppositions and philosophies that until now have only existed within my mind. The reason I have embarked upon this dubious venture is thanks to one of the poor souls that has had the fortune (or misfortune) to be ear bashed by the aforementioned content: my friend Kevin. He has incessantly hounded me for the last two months or so to put my thoughts down in writing as he has begun something quite similar with his own blog. Frankly, I think he just wants someone to hold his hand as we both journey deep into the unmentionable depths of our respective psyches. Anyway, enough about the whys, it’s time to cross the point of no return and start this crazy venture.

Tonight’s discussion was brought to you by: http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/feelnikon/discovery/universcale/nano.swf
courtesy of Kevin. If you take a look at the above link from the Japanese company Nikon, it’s basically a flash presentation put together detailing the relative sizes of various objects, living things, structures and astronomical phenomena when compared with each other. The site was really meant to be viewed going from the largest (Outer limit of the universe) to the smallest physical objects (protons and electrons) to give some idea of the sheer magnitude of the variations between them. However, as usual, it sparked off my philosophical side and I said to Kevin, “Funny how they named the largest thing the ‘outer limit of the universe’, it should have really been named ‘limit to which our conventional telescopes have viewed the universe which could be for all we know limitless’”. Pedantic I know, but I said this for a reason: who are we to impose limits on something that could be infinite? Who knows what lay beyond our primitive and frankly infantile methods of observing our universe? For that matter, is what we are able to observe even a real reflection of what lay ‘out there’?

The fact is, for all our science and technological achievements we truly don’t know what we are observing with regard to our universe (or should that be multiverse?). It’s all theoretical and as everyone knows, theory has a tenuous relationship with truth. For example, the long held theory in ancient times that the Earth was flat. To give scientific theories the respect you would apply to a universal truth such as ‘we will all die someday’ is in my opinion tantamount to destroying the mystery and excitement that are the life’s blood of the philosopher and the poet, while doing exploration of both the physical and metaphysical worlds a great disservice.

Time to dive right into the crux of the topic: What lay beyond our levels of observation? Does the universe actually have an edge akin to a giant interstellar waterfall that results in interlopers being washed away to their oblivion? Or is it modeled after the inside of a sphere; if you kept traveling in one direction would you sail through the stars like an interstellar Magellan and end up back where you departed from? Do other universes exist in tandem with our own, floating in some kind of cosmic soup? Consider something even more disturbing: even if any of these are the case, what kind of environment lay beyond the universe? What physical laws would hold sway in such a fantastic realm?

One concept I have toyed with is the theory that the universe may well not have any conventional ‘end’. Let us suppose for a moment that the universe is spherical. Outside this ‘sphere’ are other ‘spheres’ or universes traveling in orbits around a central point which may govern properties like physical laws, levels of energy, or simply keep the ‘spheres’ in place. Now let us suppose again that this environment is nearby to and joined via some kind of field or property to other ‘sphere systems’ numbering in the hundreds, in effect creating a multitude of similar universes that perhaps differ slightly in some way when compared with each other. These hundreds of ‘multiverses’ (let’s call them molecules) collectively are themselves an object: a grain of sand. This grain of sand lies on a beach among trillions of other grains of sand. The beach is on a planet (let’s say the Earth) orbiting a star among thousands in a collective grouping of stars known as a galaxy. This galaxy is itself one of millions within a universe. Therein lays my theory: the possible true meaning of an ‘infinite universe’ – much like the ancient symbol of a snake eating its own tail known as ‘Ouroboros’. I like to think that maybe this is what William Blake was getting at when he wrote the poem ‘Auguries of Innocence’:

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

Something for all of you to ponder…..