The Magic of You
Isn’t it a wonderful thing — to be ALIVE! Just being alive, you are a miracle. The magnum opus of the universe.
The big bang, the great expansion, the formation of galaxies, are but a back story. Stars had to be born. In their hearts, atoms needed to combine. Hydrogen & Helium had to become Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen. These had to become Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium. Onwards & upwards to Iron. Nowhere else would this deed be possible. Nowhere else could such energies be summoned. The stars, the eternal cosmic explosions, were the only furnaces capable of creating this substrate that you would one day call yourself.
Once the deed was done & the purpose of the star fulfilled, it would explode one final time. A dazzling display of light & energy. The force of the supernova starts the epic journey of this substrate, this stardust. For millennia over millennia, they would travel, over a great many light-years, crossing ancient constellations which no longer exist. It would be a perilous journey and much of this stardust would be lost into oblivion, in the space between stars. The trace remaining, just enough, would find their abode in an infant star system.
Over time, the star system would grow up. Planets will form around stable orbits. In one of these planets, among eight in the system, among millions across the galaxy, and uncountably many in the universe, in the primordial soup of water, elements & energy, a miracle will happen. Life.
This life will develop something not seen anywhere else in the universe, before or after. Sentience, consciousness, qualia, an internal experience. The touch of god itself. Such were the reverberations of this development, it changes the fundamental nature of the universe. No longer do things just exist and events just happen. Now, things are felt and experienced. Events happen for a reason. There is logic and meaning and imagination. And art. There is joy, sadness, beauty, disgust, adventure, and fulfilment.
The epitome of this miracle of life would be a two-legged animal with opposable thumbs. Homo Sapiens. Us. Our species would develop language and start contemplating our own existence and that of the universe. We will develop civilisation & culture. We will learn to tame the forces of nature — fire, electricity — and develop technology.
Time will march on, leading to this moment. Of you reading this sentence.
This epic cosmic tale now concludes, in this moment within you. And a fresh tale starts anew.
What happens next, Stardust?
(Inspired from talks and writings by Big History, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Yuval Noah Harrari)
