The other day I saw a bumper sticker that said: "Everything is Connected." It immediately reminded me of the discussion I had with a science major friend from college about the makeup of the world on the smallest level.
You see, according to the current understanding of particle physics, individual particles never touch. Even when two electrons "collide" it doesn't involve actual contact between the two electrons. Instead, they come within a certain proximity before the repelling forces intrinsic to their very existence force them apart. So when you lay your hand on a table, and you feel the grain of the wood, you aren't touching the table. On the subatomic level, it just doesn't happen. Instead, the pressure from the repelling particles acts on your skin and your nerves recognize this and send messages to your brain about the sensation.
The statement "everything is connected," then, is apparently very, very false. It would be more accurate to state "everything is out of reach."
But then it's not even that everything is drawn together (though Einstein's theories about gravity and relativity suggest that they are), because the stuff of space itself is expanding, pushing everything away as fast as it can.
So really, a good description of our universe is "everything is being separated."
Ouch.
Changing tack, I recognize "Everything is Connected" for the philosophical statement that it is. It's a bit of a New Age way of saying that your actions have consequences and your nonaction has consequences and six degrees of separation and the fact that there's more eyes on Earth than a paranoid schizophrenic wants to know about. From the philosphical perspective, I don't necessarily disagree with the statement that everything is connected.
And yet, even on a metaphysical level I still feel the resonance of the science telling me "everything is being separated." Because this universe we're in is broken.
That's an interesting statement, too. Very opinionated. I wanted to try to avoid that on this blog, but after two posts full of leading questions I think I've realized that I can't really talk about the things I think about during the day without a bit of the Declarative.
To say that the universe is broken is a value statement. It's saying that there's a way the World should be, and that the World is not that way. That's what I believe. I'd say I feel it in my bones, and some would say that's just superstition or wishful thinking. Or something.
Not everyone feels pangs of melancholy thinking about how the universe is pulling itself apart at the seams. I mean, it's not like it's going to affect the human race in this generation. Or the next. Maybe when we're a different species it'll look a bit different.
Or. Or maybe everything has been dying for a long time, and all that is brilliant and beautiful in the universe is fading away. Eventually, light will spin out its last wink of energy, the last atom will be pulled apart by the bulging of space stuff, and all that will be left will be a great emptiness. Expanding forever. And people can feel it. They can see it. And they can try to come to terms with it.
If you aren't interested in what is beautiful or what is true, then I'm not sure we have anything to say to each other. Or maybe you should read my blog and I'll try to show you the way I look at the world.
I sing when the sun sets. But that's a topic for another day.
