Inspiration

I recently had an extremely inspiring English lecture for my science fiction course. In short, we marveled over the ability of science to be the language by which we see the wonder of our universe. I was quite moved because it was exactly what I always feel when I talk about some cutting edge science. Sometimes I am viewed as slightly ecstatic in my constant emotional swings about how great the world is, but I really do wish to share this feeling of awe that I have about life, the universe and everything.

It really dawned upon me when we first learned about chemical reactions that we know so much about how atoms and molecules work, but at the end of the day, the atoms and molecules don't think for themselves no matter how we try to personify them. We can calculate the equilibrium points and rates of reactions for various solutions, but when you get some lead nitrate and potassium idodide in solution, they just REACT. Things just happen, sporadically, by chance, but on the macroscopic level we see not such randomness  but the overall trend. To even think about two atoms and the unlimited amount of environmental influences on them to react inside a solution... well we may never be able to fully consider EVERYTHING.

Perhaps size is the ultimate reason for the sublime nature of science, probably why I still sometimes spend hours starting at this: http://scaleofuniverse.com/

Why I love the world:

• We will never be able to full understand all of it
• No matter how big we go, there's always something bigger
• No matter how small we go, that had to also have been made up of something
• We don't know if the past ends or the future ends or if there's something completely different
• The thrill that already we know so much of it
• We've mapped out the majority of our world now pretty well
• WE MADE COMPUTERS
• It might all just be due to chance! Our entire existence might be due to chance!
• Most people find this thought disturbing, but I think that it just makes life that much more unique
• I mean consider the odds that allowed for you to be here right now
• And the fact that you beat the odds! 
• Statistically speaking life is a rarity

In the end, I marvel at the eons that caused everything amazing that exists today. Perhaps because it serves as a reminder that I'm insignificant in the broader world, but at the same time, the world would not exist without the masses of fellow insignificant dots like myself.