In the centre of the universe there is a super-massive black hole sucking up all the other black holes and solar systems. Ever since the big bang, the universe has been expanding and stretching outwards. When it finally succumbs to the law of physics, it will snap back to the black hole at the centre.
Our universe will implode and end.
Which is why I say "fuck it" a lot.
It's a bit of a flip excuse I know. I mean for a start, our Sun will burn out long before that happens, then it's bye bye Earth, not to mention the Solar System and it's definitely bye bye humanity. No way around that.
Not that I think we'll be around by the time the sun goes supernova; just on probability alone, chances are we'll be long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long gone by then.
Now you might think I'm exaggerating with all those longs, but I'm not. I'm using understatement here.
Once you start looking at it, you realise just how BIG things are, how long it takes the universe to do stuff. How stupidly short-lived we are. Obviously I mean how stupidly short-lived we will have been as a species. Not us as individuals. No, that's not even worth commenting on, no, that's just laughable.
Humanity is laughable and you're not worth a mention.
Don't take it too hard, none of us are. None of us are so important as to last forever, none of us so great, so wise, we'll make it to the end, be immortal, be remembered forever.
Forever is a long time. Just before the universe implodes to be precise and believe you me, nothing you know now, nothing you remember, will make it to that day. Not Shakespeare, not the Beatles, not JFK, not even Jesus H Christ with or without his bike.
Nothing will be remembered when forever runs out.
Our species will have been extinct for millennia anyway. It's tough I know, but you know extinction, it's the norm not the exception. It doesn't matter how clever we are, how many gizmos, gadgets and gimmicks we make, one day we'll be gone. The universe won't care and any species that outlives us won't care. We won't be able to care; we'll be extinct.
Some of you might think, "well yeah, humanity's got it coming, we'll do it to ourselves, we are doing it to ourselves, we deserve it," and God bless you, you're my kind of people.
Others might not think humanity deserves it or worry about what we're doing to the planet. Don't worry too much. We don't really need the planet. I mean don't get me wrong, it is pretty important, it's nice and all and we should look after it, but it's not necessary, and I choose the word carefully, to our survival as a species.
Terra forming and the colonisation of planets might seem a long way off, but in the scheme of things, in the grand scheme of things, if you'll pardon the cliché, it's not that far off. We are working on the technology. We are making good progress.
That might make some of you optimistic. We could in theory survive a planetary extinction level event. Especially if humanity has stretched out across the solar system. Don't take too much comfort from that though. Even if we survive to leave home planet, guess what, we're still gonna be extinct. It's not about the planet see; it's just the way it is. The norm, not the exception.
There are those that have faith. They might cling to it, but it won't do them any good. Context again, time frames, history, logic really.
I mean look at the biggies; they've been dominating for the last two thousand years and no real competition. Maybe we're due a new religion. Jedi, anyone?
Yes, you can cling to your faith if you want, if you have any, just don't throw it my way. To me it's just mythology, doesn't make much sense. I mean, no one expects Zeus to save the day, he went out of fashion about two thousand years ago, got replaced by some old dude with a beard…hey hang on a minute…
Mind you Zeus had a good innings. He was talked about for a good few thousand years before the upstarts hit the scene. I wonder why that is? Does it go in cycles? I don't know.
I do know that people have been living on this part of the planet for seven hundred thousand years. How do I know? They found a hand-axe that old. Someone on this island, someone in England, made that axe, used it, and lost it seven hundred thousand years ago.
Ask yourself what his ancestors had been talking about for the two thousand years before that, then talk to me about your faith. I won't be listening, but talk to me about it if it makes you feel better.
Zeus might be long gone, but the constellations are still up there, still have their Greek names. Well, some of them might still be up there. Apparently we can still see the light from stars that are long dead.
One day all the stars will be gone, their light burnt out.
On that day you could stand on the Earth, and you would be alone. We are all alone in the end, but you would look up and see nothing. Imagine how that will feel.
Utter darkness and cold, cold silence. Imagine that.
It makes my brain ache, all this universe stuff; it blows my mind. I'm amazed that there are people who understand it, wrestle with it. The ancients worked out something called precession, a way of watching the stars move around the Earth for twenty-five thousand years and realising that the Earth tilts. The brains on them. No computers, no calculators, no electronics, just bare wit and the evidence in front of their eyes.
Now we can see beyond Pluto, chart the expansion of the universe, see Solar systems beyond our own, calculate the numbers of galaxies, nebula, everything out there, out there in the vastness. It's big, it's too big to understand in a real way.
The universe is like life in that sense. It's big and you can't really understand it, but people keep trying. People keep trying.
In '78 when I was eight and thought that a year was a long time, we learnt about a thing called the future and talked about what life would be like in the year 2000 AD. In 1978 that was still more futuristic than any of us could imagine.
I'd worked out I'd be thirty years old then. To me that was the biggest leap of imagination, the hardest thing to grapple with. More than a seven hundred thousand year old hand-axe, more than the billions of years the universe has had and will have, before the super-massive black hole in the centre of the universe implodes and hits the reset button.
At eight, thirty seemed impossibly old, a number of years I couldn't imagine.
I'm five years past thirty now and can easily imagine the next ten years flying by in a blur, then the next ten, and the ten after that.
I can too easily imagine not making another ten years. Too easily.
I've been worrying about the end, but I shouldn't, it's pointless.
Besides, when it comes down to it, all endings are the same.
Which is why I say "fuck it" a lot.
