Couple of nights ago, I actually decided to go star gazing. Not as romantic as it sounds though. The stars in Singapore aren't brilliant, and those that we see are the feeble few that shine through the layers of haze and air particles that clog the night sky. Neither was I in a romantic place, watching what I could of the stars from the balcony window where, if I looked down, I could see my neighbour's lone Golden wandering around the road, perking its ears up to the occasional slam of the dustbin lid as someone out there tosses out the trash.
Yet this sight of the stars never fails to ignite, in me, a form of existential crisis. Suddenly it seems like all my problems are insignificant, because truthfully, they are transient problems. They are things that are limited by time. So much so that in fact, as existential as that moment might be, I'm actually happy, because it puts into perspective how I should be thankful that my issues are merely a drop in the vast ocean of nothingness.
And so is everyone else's, apparently. If each star reflects within in it a single individual's problems and turmoils, then we would need more than 6 billion stars, which might seem like a substantial number until we look beyond that star, and we realise that that star and all the stars which represent mankind are literally, specks amongst the entire galaxy. Even beyond that, there are millions of galaxies, each holding millions of stars... suddenly, the human race's status is utterly diminished. In fact, such a thought is often quite frightening. Who are we to think of saving the earth, venturing into neighbouring planets in the hope of finding extraterrestial creatures, when we are but such a tiny speck? Such attempts are, to me, an utter mockery of mankind- man who think we are so important as to host a meeting with beings we have completely no idea about? Speaking of which, I was recently reading an article about the Fermi principle- the idea that if, mathematically, there were a million different galaxies, then technically, wouldn't at least one have some form of intelligent life on a planet, just like we do? That article generated so many different responses from so many different scientists that perhaps such a question just isn't meant to be answered. Maybe what mankind is assuming as intelligent life isn't even intelligent to begin with, maybe our forms of intelligence is merely the infant stage of an even greater intelligence that we have yet to even begin discovering. Maybe we have been searching for signals from extraterrestrial beings in the wrong place to begin with. Maybe our technology is, like our intelligence, in far too primitive a stage to even begin picking up non-human signals. Maybe such beings do not even communicate via signals, maybe they have discovered a whole new method of communication that signals are archaic to them. You get the idea. Either way, as I once read, whether or not there are beings out there or not, both thoughts are equally frightening.
Right now, its odd how the mere sight of stars is able to ignite such thoughts. Or perhaps, a more human approach to it would be, What-am-I-doing-with-my-life now that I've realised the minority which we are? Perhaps this was just what the human race was meant to be, that in the larger scheme of things, we are no more than the animals that roam this planet, this ability to plan for the future that human so excitedly claim is a sign of 'intelligent thought' isn't actually a sign of true intelligence, that we are but a product in the process of evolution which is meant to eventually produce a form of true, pure intelligence that we are far from attaining. Humans have animalistic instincts- we rage, we kill when in a frenzy, we desire happiness, we love, we fight, alongside our supposedly more logical ones. The true intelligence which lies perhaps millions of years from now may never possess any of these animalistic desires, because they perhaps have learnt or evolved to live completely on rational and logic, and would perhaps no longer need to fulfill the human, animal instinct that we humans still need to fulfill today. Because perhaps we are , really, nothing. Nothing significant. Perhaps just possibly, that we are just like the millions of stars in the night sky that our naked human eyes today fail to see, because just like the stars,the human race is indeed a feeble one which would die out even before it has a chance to shine.
Yet this sight of the stars never fails to ignite, in me, a form of existential crisis. Suddenly it seems like all my problems are insignificant, because truthfully, they are transient problems. They are things that are limited by time. So much so that in fact, as existential as that moment might be, I'm actually happy, because it puts into perspective how I should be thankful that my issues are merely a drop in the vast ocean of nothingness.
And so is everyone else's, apparently. If each star reflects within in it a single individual's problems and turmoils, then we would need more than 6 billion stars, which might seem like a substantial number until we look beyond that star, and we realise that that star and all the stars which represent mankind are literally, specks amongst the entire galaxy. Even beyond that, there are millions of galaxies, each holding millions of stars... suddenly, the human race's status is utterly diminished. In fact, such a thought is often quite frightening. Who are we to think of saving the earth, venturing into neighbouring planets in the hope of finding extraterrestial creatures, when we are but such a tiny speck? Such attempts are, to me, an utter mockery of mankind- man who think we are so important as to host a meeting with beings we have completely no idea about? Speaking of which, I was recently reading an article about the Fermi principle- the idea that if, mathematically, there were a million different galaxies, then technically, wouldn't at least one have some form of intelligent life on a planet, just like we do? That article generated so many different responses from so many different scientists that perhaps such a question just isn't meant to be answered. Maybe what mankind is assuming as intelligent life isn't even intelligent to begin with, maybe our forms of intelligence is merely the infant stage of an even greater intelligence that we have yet to even begin discovering. Maybe we have been searching for signals from extraterrestrial beings in the wrong place to begin with. Maybe our technology is, like our intelligence, in far too primitive a stage to even begin picking up non-human signals. Maybe such beings do not even communicate via signals, maybe they have discovered a whole new method of communication that signals are archaic to them. You get the idea. Either way, as I once read, whether or not there are beings out there or not, both thoughts are equally frightening.
Right now, its odd how the mere sight of stars is able to ignite such thoughts. Or perhaps, a more human approach to it would be, What-am-I-doing-with-my-life now that I've realised the minority which we are? Perhaps this was just what the human race was meant to be, that in the larger scheme of things, we are no more than the animals that roam this planet, this ability to plan for the future that human so excitedly claim is a sign of 'intelligent thought' isn't actually a sign of true intelligence, that we are but a product in the process of evolution which is meant to eventually produce a form of true, pure intelligence that we are far from attaining. Humans have animalistic instincts- we rage, we kill when in a frenzy, we desire happiness, we love, we fight, alongside our supposedly more logical ones. The true intelligence which lies perhaps millions of years from now may never possess any of these animalistic desires, because they perhaps have learnt or evolved to live completely on rational and logic, and would perhaps no longer need to fulfill the human, animal instinct that we humans still need to fulfill today. Because perhaps we are , really, nothing. Nothing significant. Perhaps just possibly, that we are just like the millions of stars in the night sky that our naked human eyes today fail to see, because just like the stars,the human race is indeed a feeble one which would die out even before it has a chance to shine.
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