The Theory of Everything
In the 4th Century B.C., the Greek philosopher Aristotle established a geocentric universe in which the fixed, spherical Earth is at the centre, surrounded by spheres of planets and stars.
He stressed that it exists unchanged and static throughout eternity.
For thousands of years this geocentric model of the universe was the only widely-accepted theory in most societies. This persisted until Galileo Galilei made a series of observations that rendered Nicholas Copernicus’ proposed theory of a heliocentric model (meaning the sun at the centre of the universe), plausible.
And then everyone realised that the ancient people were highkey dumb, and that the Bible didn’t make sense anymore. And then nothing was real, and the whole world was thrown into chaos.
This has probably happened to a lot of people as a part of growing up, except, instead of proposing theories of how everything interacts in the wider universe, this has been about themselves and how other people relate to them in their everyday lives. Growing up involves the continual formulation of theories, and the disproving of old ones, because it is a process of renewed understanding.
The Theory of Everything
In this proposed theory, each human exists within a universe in which they are the Earth and the other aspects of the universe — the sun, the stars, the planets — are all the other aspects of their life namely acquaintances, family, friends, institutions. The process outlined in this theory is something that every single human experiences as a part of growing up because it allows the continued functioning of the person in his or her life.
There are three dynamic stages to a functioning universe:
1. Realisation that the world does not revolve around you (the disproving of the geocentric model),
2. Building upon this new understanding (the formation and the gathering of evidence to support a new model of the universe)
3. Putting your new understanding into action and coming to terms with your new place in the world. Aka. “No one cares.”
1. Realisation
This process of growing up is sometimes the hardest because it shakes the very foundations of your understanding of the world. It happens at a different time for every person, because it requires a catalyst.
It is, very commonly, the realisation that other people have lives that are just as complex as your own, meaning that your needs will be sidelined sometimes.
This can come at any moment in life; you could be in a customer service line, getting angry about the long wait time (‘how dare they’), when you realise that they weren’t trying to spite you; there are just too many other equally-as-indignant customers to serve.
Or it could be about someone close to you: realising that your friends have just as much of a life as you, so they can’t drop everything to hang out with you - their absence is not simply because they can’t be bothered. Even your parents at times cannot stay up all night to keep the monsters away, because they’re tired from the life that they’re living, the job that they’re working.
This is the time when your previously accepted geocentric model, in which you were the Earth that the universe rotated around, is disrupted by a singular, catalytic observation.
All of a sudden the world doesn’t make sense.
2. Evidence and Formation
This next part is a very passive process.
You’re probably still confused. After realising that not everything revolves around you, you now have a completely new understanding of how life works.
This is when your new understanding, will lead you to new observations.
You might notice things more; all of a sudden you can start to consider other reasons that people might be doing the things they are — that not everyone is out to spite you. Someone might be distracted when you are talking, not because they hate you or think you’re unimportant (probably), but they may have things weighing on their mind from other parts of their life.
But if other people, the other planets, don’t revolve around you, the Earth, what do they revolve around? How does everything exist from now on?
This part is hard. It was some time around this part when Galileo and Copernicus both faced the opposition of the Church and basically the whole world — people couldn’t come to terms with a new understanding after centuries of believing in their own importance in the world.
This is the part with the largest potential for error, because you can choose so many different paths from this point onward — you can choose to ignore everything you’ve learnt until this point, regressing to be childlike, selfish and self-centred or you can choose to keep learning, hypothesising and building your place in this new world.
No one can be blamed for choosing the first option because ignorance is bliss and not growing up is a selfish dream that most people have. Nevertheless, it can lead to alienation and pain caused to other people, and if shutting-in goes too far, you can turn yourself into a black hole, sucking life from every other part of your universe.
However, if the second option is taken, suddenly a WHITE HOLE is formed. Something that spews matter and light materialises in the universe, and you see yourself giving more to other people, additionally, being more empathetic and more importantly, less of a little turd.
Eventually, all understandings gained from your new outlook can be gathered and tested, and you form a new model of the universe.
3. Formulation of a new model
That’s right, the final point of the process of growing up.
This is when you form your own understanding, live your own life, and stop being a sheep.
You’ll gather all the knowledge you have gained, compile everything, and come to peace with yourself because you are an adult.
All until something in your life changes, everything goes to shit, and damn, it’s happening all over again.
Takeaway
Sometimes it gets hard when you remember how unimportant you are in the grand scheme of things, but it’s at those emo moments when we have to realise that an Earth, is still a pretty important part of a universe. We can’t forget the sacrifices that people have made for us, because they decided that we were important enough. It’s like all those years ago, when some little bit of bacteria (or something), chose the Earth to be host to a whole range of life. You are the Earth, and you have so much life around you, so many people choose you to be something in their universe too, and that should mean something about you as a person.
Honestly, growing up never stops, we never stop changing as people. These three steps will just repeat themselves over and over again to make us who we are — different as individuals, and also different from who we once were at every point in our lives.
So find yourself — never stop introspecting, never stop reflecting, never stop trying to understand.
Because, honestly, that’s the only thing that makes us different to all the primates and monkeys and dwarf people that we descended from.
Sadly enough, it’s not our inferior physical bodies, or our war-waging, racism, hatred or general stupidity; it’s the fact that we never stop trying to understand what we are, and trying to find our place in this universe, a universe that we may never fully comprehend.
So, the take away message is: keep an open mind, and everything else will follow.
TLDR: We’ll never really know anything.
