|
Excellent post Alex
Whilst I have always struggled with size and distances in the universe, I find it much easier to tackle the time side of it.
Almost every physical thing I have encountered or read about in my finite physical life has a beginning and an end, not always first or final though as things can be formed from something ( beginning ) and change to something ( end ) and so on it goes.
The time related to this seems to me to be the the big ticket.
In less than than a week, this Thursday night I drive back to Brisbane to see my new grandchild and then bring my better half back to the coast before this Sunday. It is not the distance that is relevant to me but the time it takes.
If I owned a Lear jet on a property that had an airstrip and likewise the same for my son in Brizzy, I would be there and back every 2nd weekend, with just a few hours each way travel time against 9-10 hrs driving.
What has changed, not the size of distance, but the means that we compress travel time between the two locations.
I spent near 38 years commuting to and from Sydney at a general minimum 3.5 hours door to door per day. What a difference had I been able to step through a portal to work. No distance or size but the time it takes for a step each way.
I have not been able to find it since, but quite a few years ago I read a news paper extract of an article that I think was called ‘ Curtains of Perception ‘
In short and from memory, it goes something like this.
Early in human history a tribe lived in a large valley and knew nothing beyond its ridges. One day one of the tribe walked over the ridge and met an unknown tribe member from the other side.
Their perception of their worlds changed at that point for ever.
We move onto horse, boat, plane and rocket to find out just how big our world is and how small our perception was.
This pails into insignificance though when we discovered the electromagnetic spectrum and the means to read and use and measure it. Newtonian telescope to radio astronomy and computers to master them.
Is the universe very big?, I just am marvelled when each curtain of perception is rolled away to reveal just how big my world really is and how small it really was.
Next curtain!!! gravitational waves perhaps!!! Surprise me.
That’s why I look at the stars and wonder and wonder and wonder.......
|