Chapter 1

Genesis

In the beginning, there was a bang. A BIG BANG.

The big bang model is the accepted model describing the beginning of our universe as we know and understand it today. The big bang refers to the minuscule, hot, dense state the universe was in approximately 13.8 billion years ago before it suddenly and rapidly started to expand. (The current best estimate of the age of the universe is 13.77 billion years, plus or minus forty million years.)

The universe was minutely small in the beginning. Much smaller than a grain of sand. Much, MUCH smaller. It was smaller even than the size of a single atom. The young universe, though only a small speck of dust, already contained all the energy and matter it still has today. Matter existed in its alternate form: energy. Matter and energy are equivalent; they are different manifestations of the same thing. Energy can change into matter, and vice versa, according to Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2 (where E represents energy, m represents matter, and c is the speed of light in a vacuum). Due to the confined space offered by the early universe to house the enormous amount of energy, it was extremely hot. And it was unstable. Then, suddenly, everything started to expand. Rapidly.

As the universe expanded, it naturally cooled down. As it cooled, it enabled the appropriate conditions and circumstances for the fundamental universe-defining processes to occur. In the very first seconds, the universe underwent phase transitions that resulted in the emergence of the familiar four forces of nature.

A recognizable phase transition is the transformation of the phases of water as it cools from a gas (steam) to a liquid (water) to a solid (ice). Analogously, the force fields that fill the entire universe went through phase transitions, breaking into the various forms that ultimately govern the dynamics of the universe. Furthermore, energy started transforming into matter.

After about three minutes of expansion, the universe cooled sufficiently for protons and neutrons to form stable nuclei. This process continued until about twenty minutes after the big bang. All the while, the universe continued to expand.

The conditions were still hostile toward the formation of stable atoms. The temperatures were too extreme for electrons to bind to protons. The universe existed in a state known as a plasma, with electrons simply moving freely around. In this state, the universe was opaque. A requirement for transparency (i.e., to see) is for light particles, called photons, to be granted free access to move around unhindered. But the plasma state did not allow for the unimpeded movement of photons, as the free electrons interfered with them. This caused the universe to be opaque to light.

One can imagine malleably hot glass. As it is being fashioned into its final form, it is opaque with a yellow-orange glow. When it cools down sufficiently, it becomes transparent. Similarly, when the universe cooled down sufficiently, after about 380,000 years, it became transparent.

The universe cooled down enough for the electrons to bind to the nuclei, forming stable atoms, enabling photons to move about freely and causing the universe to become transparent. At that stage, the universe stretched to about forty-two million light-years across. The universe continued to expand and cool. It is still expanding and cooling today. (A light-year is the distance that light travels in one year; and at three hundred million meters per second, light can go around the Earth seven and a half times each second, and it covers almost nine and a half trillion kilometers, or six trillion miles, in a year.)

It is tempting to imagine the universe expanding in empty space like a balloon expanding in the space of one’s room. But this is wrong. There is no space outside the universe for it to expand into. The universe doesn’t expand into anything. It is space itself that is expanding. Space-time, to be more precise.

Einstein forever changed our conception of space and time (amongst a vast plenitude of fundamental contributions he made to our understanding of the universe). Space and time are no longer the static background against which our stories unfold. Instead, space-time is integrated into a dynamic fabric that can warp and bend and expand—and this is the framework within which our incredible story unfolds—with space-time playing a leading role.

One is also tempted to wonder what happened before the big bang. But again, one will run into fundamental problems. The big bang is the birth of space and time (space-time). There is no “before” this event. The concept of time is undefined before this. There is no before. Because there is no time. Just like there is no outside. Because there is no space. This is the logical consequence emerging from the current best models describing the birth of our universe.

However, the models run into problems as we approach the exact moment when space-time would have emerged from nothingness (or a singularity). Time approaches zero in the models, and as a consequence, we divide by zero, causing the models to crash right before space and time completely disappears. Therefore, it is currently impossible to know what happens at that moment.

But we do know that space-time is dynamic and bendable (some of the details will be expanded on in later chapters) and that it can distort immensely to what resembles a singularity such as the big bang origin of the universe. We see this type of distortion scattered throughout the universe in the form of black holes. Black holes also distort and warp space-time in a similar fashion to the hot, dense state of the very early universe 13.8 billion years ago. They also cause our mathematical models to break down (even the sun visibly distorts space-time, but without causing the models to crash).

Time seemingly ceases to exist in the center of a black hole. And black holes are not mere fiction (though they might seem stranger than). They are abundant in our universe. Most, if not all, galaxies have a massive black hole at their center. The same models that predicted black holes guide our origin story.

So how exactly do we know any of this is true? Surely the distinguished reader will not simply accept an unfounded assault on their known reality. Nor should they. One must demand evidence. Always. Every good story (nonfiction), hypothesis, or theory needs solid supporting evidence to turn it into true reality. This is a valuable mechanism inherent in the scientific method.

A scientific theory must be falsifiable. It must make testable predictions. The theory is dismissed as false if the tests fail to verify the predictions. On the other hand, if the theory passes the tests, our confidence in the theory is strengthened. We can never have absolute certainty of anything, but our confidence in a theory can continue to grow as it survives more and more tests.

We turn now to only a small handful of the compelling evidence in support of the big bang theory.

First, we know that the universe is currently expanding. This fact is supported by the discovery that distant stars and galaxies are not stationary from our point of view, they are moving. And they are moving away from us.

One can determine the expansion rate of the universe by measuring how fast these distant stars and galaxies are moving away from us (one will find that the expansion is accelerating). Logic will deduce that if the universe is expanding, it indicates that everything must have been closer together in the past.

Rewinding the expansion (on computer simulations), it is determined that approximately 13.8 billion years ago, the entire universe, with everything inside, was squeezed into a hot and dense speck of dust.

Another test that the big bang theory passed with distinction is its prediction of the abundance of ingredients in the universe. The model is used to calculate the abundance of the different atomic elements one would expect to see. From the model, one knows that the nuclei had roughly seventeen minutes to form. One can further determine the temperatures involved. With the given initial conditions, based on the big bang model, and the subsequent evolution of the universe, the theory predicts the universe today to have roughly 74 percent hydrogen and 24 percent helium, with the rest of the other elements accounting for only about 2 percent. And unsurprisingly, that is exactly what we see when performing the measurements today, further lending support to the theory and strengthening our confidence in this picture of the universe.

The third, and visually most spectacular, piece of evidence, is cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. As discussed, the theory predicts the universe to have been opaque until about 380,000 years after the big bang when it suddenly (in galactic terms) became transparent. Scientists have always known that if the model is correct, this would point to an electromagnetic radiation that permeates the entire universe, visible from all directions, called the CMB radiation. This radiation was accidentally (as so many things in science happen) discovered in 1969, when two astronomers struggled to get rid of a constant static “noise” on their radio telescope. The noise was subsequently confirmed to be the remnants of the big bang, the radiation left over from the day the universe became transparent.

The curious and able reader can do themselves a favor by going on the internet and searching for images of the CMB. (One can simply type “CMB” into any search engine and look at the resulting images.) It is astonishing that we have a picture of the universe almost 13.8 billion years ago. It is marvelous to behold, and is a true testament to human ingenuity.

Each of the above pieces of evidence would be enough to convince a scientist of the legitimacy of the big bang theory. Considered in unison, it will hopefully also convince the most arduous skeptic.

This picture of the birth of the observable universe is probably correct. We can never know with absolute certainty, but we can be exceedingly confident. One can even perform a home test to further increase one’s confidence. Simply strolling outside on a clear evening and turning one’s gaze to the heavens, one will see the wonders of the stars filling the night sky.

If the universe didn’t have a beginning in time and end in space, the picture staring back from heaven would be completely different. In fact, if the universe was infinite in space and time, the night would be as bright as day. There would be a star in every direction one turns, in every corner of the sky (given an infinitely large universe). Furthermore, the light from all the distant stars would have had ample time to reach one’s gaze (given an infinitely old universe). The night would therefore be indistinguishable from the day, bright light blinding one from all directions.

Therefore, the assumption of an infinitely large and old universe must be false. The fact that we are not blinded when we venture outdoors at night suggests that the universe had a beginning not too long ago.

Chapter 26

The Meaning of Life

“What is the meaning of life?”

“Why are we here?”

“What is the purpose of existence?”

These are some of the most substantial questions we have all contemplated at some point in our lives. These questions essentially pertain to the significance of existence. Our own existence and the existence of the universe. And we are confident that there must be a definitive answer to these questions. Surely the universe was created for a reason. Surely there must be a point to all of this. We feel like we need an objective purpose to give meaning to our lives and that a lack of such purpose would render our lives nonsensical.

There is no lack of prophets claiming to know the ultimate purpose to all of “creation.” But we should not seek solace in the transcendental just because we are unsure. We should not give into supernatural explanations just because we do not know where else to look. Our best approach is to trust in what we know. Trust in what science can reveal. It is dishonest to look for meaning anywhere else, especially in the dark and empty voids of the unknown.

No matter how strong our insistence upon purpose, we must own up to the fact that the notion of “purpose” has the same fate as that of “life,” “free will,” and “money” (this seems to be a recurring theme in the book). These are all human constructs that only exist in the collective world of our minds.

Purpose is not inherent in nature. It is not a fact of nature. Nature does not owe us any explanations of purpose. An animal is born. It struggles for survival. It eats, sleeps, and reproduces. Then it dies. Its offspring has the same mundane existence. This cycle continues. What is the point to all of this? All animals (including us) are mere products of evolution. We are not created for anything. There is no purpose. If anything, the function of life is the replication of DNA to ensure the survival of the genes. In the case of humans, the notions of purpose and meaning are mental constructs that we use to make sense of and navigate our complex environments to ensure the survival of our genes. As such, we strive for meaning in the meaninglessness of the universe.

In our collective mental worlds, the notion of purpose, or meaning, is real. It is as real as money. It is common to think of and talk of the purpose of things: the person making a fire does so purposefully, to warm his hands; the spider spins its web with the purpose of catching prey; the purpose of the heart is to pump blood through the body; the purpose of a traffic light is to direct traffic. Purpose in the world makes sense. It makes sense in our mental world. In our human umwelt.

Ascribing purpose and intention to others is a way of making sense of our complex environments. We attribute this notion to other people to make sense of their intentions. We attribute the notion to animals, and even to inanimate objects, like traffic lights. We are always looking for the purpose of things.

It is second nature to attribute purpose and intention. So much so that we want to find purpose in everything. Even outside our approximate world of the mental. We want to attribute purpose to the entire universe. And this is when we desperately invent omnipotent and omniscient deities and transcendental tyrants in search of an ultimate purpose.

But if we grow up and purge ourselves of supernatural explanations, what is left? Is it at all necessary to expect there to be an ultimate purpose to the universe? Should we expect a notion that developed inside the universe, inside an evolved arrangement of atoms, inside our mental world, to be applicable outside of it? To be applicable to everything—the whole universe? This is a narcissistic, human-centered delusion. Even though it feels so natural. We cannot expect the entire universe to comply to the made-up notions we use to navigate our ephemeral lives in an insignificant part of the universe. It is irrational.

We need to divorce our search for meaning from an ultimate (transcendental) purpose. Stick to the facts. Accept that the world is absurd. But life is incredible. Nay. It is unfathomably spectacular! We are lucky to be here, against all the cosmological and biological odds. We are not simply pawns in the universe. We are the universe. We are the universe that somehow emerged from the darkness. We are a specific configuration of the universe that is capable of experience. (We are just a very particular arrangement of the fundamental particles that constitute the universe—we are a moment of complexity on the palette of the universe.) We are the universe experiencing itself.

As far as we know, we are the only part of the universe capable of contemplating itself and its own existence. We are a part of the universe that ponders its beauty and wonder. We are a part of the universe that seeks to understand itself.

A dog never contemplates its existence. It never tries to understand the universe. Nor does a mountain or a galaxy. But we can. And we do. We are the universe experiencing itself. This is a truly remarkable fact. And this is something tangible that we can ground a sense of meaning in. Forget about the vague notions of some or other transcendental purpose to life. We need something we know. Something we know is true. Something we can see and know for a fact. And all we know is human experience.

Everything we know, we know through experience. Everything happens in experience. So why not make that the foundation of our meaning? The meaning of life is in our experiences. Conscious experiences. We want to maximize our range of conscious human experiences. Expand the scope and scale of human experiences. There is no purpose or goal we are working toward (no eternal life we are chasing). There is only the journey of life. And we can find meaning in the journey itself, in the experiences of everyday life. In every moment. There is meaning in every moment.

We can expand the scope and scale of conscious experiences through art, science, and technology. There is no purpose inherent in art except for the experience it invokes in the admirer. But we know it to be meaningful. The experience itself is meaningful; it is the meaning. Furthermore, we can use technology to further enrich our experiences. The feeling of awe when looking up at the night sky is exaggerated by the knowledge that there are trillions of fiery balls of gas staring back. This is the gift of science. The gift of technology. It enables understanding. It expands the scope and wealth of experiences. But it also helps to free up time for more and richer experiences. We have more free time for leisure (and thus experiences) than any other time in human history—thanks to appliances such as dishwashers and washing machines. We have more time for a variety of experiences. And it is all about the quality and quantity of the experiences one can accumulate.

Just ponder the remarkable fact that we are the universe experiencing itself. It is almost a necessary duty to strive for more and richer experiences. Novel experiences. All types of experiences. And in the process, we will gain better understanding of the nature of the universe.

The value of experiences doesn’t necessarily depend on the circumstances of one’s life, but on one’s attitude. In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was punished by Zeus for his trickery and deceitfulness by being forced to roll an enormous boulder up a hill in the depths of the underworld. Every time Sisyphus neared the top, the boulder would simply roll back down to the bottom and he would need to go down and start the arduous task again, rolling the heavy boulder up the hill, repeating this mundanity for all eternity.

But as the philosopher Albert Camus notes, “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” Sisyphus, like us, must find meaning and enjoyment in everyday life. In every moment. In every experience. And this can and must include discomforting experiences. It is discomfort that provokes the most vivid and lucid conscious experiences (familiar and routine experiences become automatic, unconscious). Many immensely profound and intense experiences are only found in agony and suffering. There is a realm of dark and demonic experiences that are reserved for those at the limits of despair. Some excruciatingly painful and intolerable. But there is meaning in these experiences. There is meaning in suffering. The meaning is in the intensity, lucidity, and desperateness of the agonizing experience itself. Such miserable experiences of inner torment and dark conflict can in many cases be the greatest source of inspiration for the most spectacular creativity. One can channel the darkest voids of depression into powerful art or other valuable worldly contributions. In the clutches of suffering, despair, and anxiety, there is meaning. This realization can offer temporary salvation from misery. There is meaning in every moment, in every experience.

It is important to develop the necessary capacities during childhood for complex, rich, and varied experiences. This again underscores the importance of early childhood development. Development during the foundational years determines a person’s capacity for and quality of experiences. It also determines a person’s affinity for specific experiences. We won’t all enjoy the same experiences. We are not all fond of theater. We don’t all like classical music, surrealist art, or golf. So, the question is not what is the meaning of life, but what is the meaning of my life?

We must all be free to choose our own meaning. Our own experiences. Live authentically. Be true to oneself. Find a worthwhile goal fitted to one’s own likes and preferences, and pursue it. Find something that is worth getting up for in the morning. Something that is worth the suffering and depression that inevitably accompanies life. This view presents a liberating opportunity to take responsibility for the meaning of one’s own life. One can find meaning and fulfilment in a plethora of activities such as art, music, nature, gardening, science, philosophy, generosity, relationships, love, etc. Don’t passively wait for universal or divine meaning to be discovered and presented on a silver platter. Go out and create meaningful experiences.

We can further use the meaning of experiences as the root for morality. There is no objective and universal morality. Just like there is no objective and universal purpose. Rather, the aspects of morality should be a continuous rational dialogue informed by our current understanding and science. Morality should be grounded in society’s shared goals and its common pursuit of the good life. Each person will have their own conception of the good life informed by his or her own preferred experiences and meaning. And the surest way to achieve meaning in one’s own life is as part of a community where every individual plays a valuable part.

Humans living and working together can achieve more than any individual—and this includes the attainment of richer and more varied experiences. Communities ensure that an individual can specialize according to their preference and focus on their role, enabling every individual to maximize their preferred experiences and not have to deal with all the basic needs of life. And as social animals, our enjoyment of experiences are amplified in groups, as part of a community. We can build moral systems on the back of this view of meaning if shared by all. We can make our moral systems be conducive and supportive of individual experiences by respecting individuals and their dignity, by not harming others and preventing them from creating their own meaningful experiences (given that their experiences do not infringe on others).

Humanity must cooperate in its quest for richer, deeper, and fuller experiences. This can offer individuals the freedom to be their authentic selves and find their own meaning. Meaning in every moment.

Chapter 42

Death

Death is a natural part of life. To live is to die. It is unavoidable. Inevitable. Immanent. And we must accept this discomforting fact in the amor fati tradition—with enthusiasm.

We must face this reality squarely, without a rebelling heart. Death is not the ultimate evil. It is not something to be feared and avoided at all costs. Death holds no terrors. In fact, sometimes death can be a deliverance from pain and suffering and therefore, something to be yearned for.

We will all die. That is a fact (for now). We will all at some stage in the future go to sleep, never to awaken again. But death itself is nothing to fear. Ceasing to exist is indistinguishable from being unborn. Subjectively, it is indistinguishable from deep and dreamless sleep. It is peaceful.

Life is a precious gift we were all fortunate enough to receive. Since the beginning (the big bang), our universe has been expanding and evolving, increasing in complexity, guided by the second law of thermodynamics.

Then, suddenly, after many billions of years, as if by a magnificent accident, we come into existence from nonexistence. But only fleetingly. Living our lives, for a little while, on a mote of dust in an unremarkable part of the universe. And then we will return to our state of nonexistence for an even longer time in the lifetime of the universe.

Entropy is always victorious. We will all eventually decay into disorder, into a state of equilibrium with our surrounds. We shall return to the earth from which we came, resting indistinguishably from the plants that once nourished us. Entropy is the ultimate enemy and will not only consume us, or our solar system (in about another 5 billion years), but eventually, everything in the entire universe.

Everything is slowly heading toward atomic chaos, toward total disorder, with all matter and energy uniformly distributed throughout the universe. Everything is ultimately a victim to the supreme power of the second law. This is scientific fact. But it is not to be feared.

Our eventual doom takes nothing away from the brilliance and splendor of our ephemeral time of conscious existence. All our precious moments and experiences are forever immortalized in the very structure of the four-dimensional block universe at a specific location in space and time. Each moment is immortalized. Each moment exists for all eternity.

Our incredibly brief appearance in the universe and visit to planet Earth makes life, with all its experiences, so much more precious. It makes our triumphs so much more meaningful. Our loves so much more wonderful. It fills each experience, each moment, with so much more awe and wonder. And appreciation.

We have only this one short life. This one short cameo in the universal drama. There is no second chance. No afterlife. No second life beyond this one. Therefore, it is important to concern oneself not about life after death, but rather about life before death.

There is no utopia with virgins lying waiting on beds made of clouds on the other side of death. One should not minimize the value of this life because of a futile hope for something better hereafter. That is an utterly appalling thought. One must liberate oneself from the (nonexistent) utopic beyond and open one’s eyes to the present.

Anyone that rationally interrogates the idea of an afterlife for the briefest of moments will realize that it is totally nonsensical. There is no immaterial and permanent self (soul) that can continue any form of existence detached from the physical. The essence of any person is not captured in an immaterial soul or even in the specific atoms that make up their bodies, but rather in their idiosyncrasies, their quirks, their knowledge, memories, and personalities. And these are captured in a physical substance, in biological tissue, in the unique wiring patterns of their brain.

Information is always instantiated in a physical substance. A person cannot escape their physical instantiation (the brain). Death for us humans is nothing different than death for a dog, a cockroach, or a tomato plant. It is the cessation of bodily function, including consciousness. It is an elimination of order. An elimination of the unique information that makes a person who they are. It is a state of thermodynamic equilibrium. We don’t imagine a tomato plant enjoying eternal life in tomato heaven. And our fate is the same as the tomato plant when our information-carrying substrate lies rotting six feet under.

When one dies, the particles and molecules making up their body will return to the world, reconfigured in many other instances, both animate and inanimate. Some particles will continue a new life in the foot of an elite soccer player, in the coffee mug of a future novelist, or in the skin of a tomato slice on a sandwich. One’s basic building blocks will live on and have many more lives, as they have already had.

But a person is more than mere particles. The essence of a person is something we struggle to define, something that is unique to them and therefore irreparable. It is captured in the way they smile; the way one eyebrow raises when they are confused; the way their tongue peeks out between their lips when they concentrate; the indistinguishable hand gestures they make when annoyed; always having the need to start a deep conversation in the middle of the movie; not wanting their vegetables to touch the meats; their laugh; their walk; their stare. It is all their peculiarities. All their memories and knowledge. We will all eventually perish, but we don’t have to stop living in the minds and hearts of our loved ones.

One can prolong their life beyond their own physical body by making forcible and lasting impressions in the memories and hearts of others. But more importantly, in the minds of others. We are all, to some extent, amalgamations of the voices, influences, and habits of all the people that we encountered during our lives. And so, one can live on through others, for many generations, by making positive and lasting contributions to their lives. By passing down one’s knowledge and skills and quirks. By touching the lives of others in meaningful ways. There can be no greater eulogy for any person than to have his or her essence continue down generations because of its enduring and profound impact.

So, go out and live with heart. Find what matters most and dedicate one’s life to it. Live a life of meaning. Make an impact; make a difference, even if it is in the life of a single starfish.

It is not so much that our time here on Earth is short, but rather that we waste a lot of it. So, make the sunny days plentiful and the dark days few. Don’t let the sands of time slip through one’s fingers. Don’t delay till tomorrow, Monday, next week, next month, or next year. Live now.

This life, this moment, now, is all we know, and all we have for certain. Enjoy each breath, each sound, each mundane task as if it is one’s last. (It might be.) And remember, from a cosmic perspective, looking down from the edges of the Milky Way, nothing in an individual life is of any great importance, whether fame and riches or failure and misery. The only thing that really matters are the experiences.

We are the universe experiencing itself. The outcome of life is not important. What is important are the individual moments, the individual experiences. Focus on the richness and fullness to be found in every moment, in the immediate present. There is beauty, complexity, profoundness, wonder, and awe to be found in every experience, sometimes more so in moments of misery and suffering. Live in the present. Invest all passion and fervor in each moment. Each moment is an eternity captured in space-time.

Time is our most valuable commodity. One must not deprive oneself of the joys and meaning of this life due to an obsession with death or an afterlife. Fill one’s life with an abundance of novel, meaningful, and pleasurable experiences.

Research suggests that the brain calculates the passage of time based on events, and a life packed with new and meaningful events will seem longer and more fulfilling. When on one’s deathbed, reflecting on one’s life, best not to look back at a list of regrets, but instead at a fulfilled life overflowing with rich experiences.

Live sincerely. Live in the present moment. Always be kind and considerate of others. Be decent. We are all connected, living in a complex, deterministic, and interdependent universe. Each action has an effect in this large, chaotic system. Each word spoken has a remote consequence in another’s life, in tomorrow’s governmental policies, in next week’s weather, in faraway galaxies outside our Milky Way. Live life as if it matters. It does.

• Update #2 - Thank you! April 4, 2025

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