This article about a physicist's theories about the creation of the universe and the existence of human life completely blew my mind. I don't fully understand it--I had to look up how to spell "physicist" right now so I'm obviously not that smart--but it has some really crazy concepts. I can't even think about the universe and the potential meaning of human life for more than about five minutes without feeling a panic attack coming on. I have real issues with the idea of infinity or anything lasting forever. But there were some things that I thought were awesome about this article. This part was especially baffling, but somehow kind of comforting to me, too:
"Of course, most people think that there must have been a previous event that caused whatever event we're talking about. But this is simply not the case. We now know that time itself is part of the physical universe. And when we talk about the big bang in a simplified model, then we're talking about not only matter and energy coming into being, but space and time as well. So there was no time before the big bang. The big bang was the origin of time.

People want to ask, what happened before the big bang, or what caused the big bang? But in a simple picture where there's just one universe, the big bang can be the ultimate origin of space and time as well as matter and energy. So unless the universe has always existed, you're faced with the problem that time itself comes into existence. And any attempt to talk about causation has to be couched in terms of something that comes after the beginning and not before the beginning ... because there was no before."

I can't wrap my brain around it. And this part was cool, too:
"...you say that all these explanations about the universe are probably wrong, and "Perhaps we have reached a fundamental impasse dictated by the limits of the human intellect." Do you think future scientists will ever resolve these questions?

If future scientists are human beings, they may be stuck with the same problems that we have. The way we think, the way we like to analyze problems, the categories that we define -- like cause and effect, space-time and matter, meaning and purpose -- are really human categories that cannot be separated from our evolutionary heritage. We have to face up to the fact that there may be fundamental limitations just from the way our brains have been put together. So we could have reached our own human limits. But that doesn't mean there aren't intelligent systems somewhere in the universe, maybe some time in the future, that could ultimately come to understand. Ultimately, it may not be living intelligence or embodied intelligence but some sort of intelligent information-processing system that could become omniscient and fill the entire universe. That's a grand vision that I rather like. Whether it's true or not is another matter entirely."

That makes a lot of sense to me, too. I guess I just don't think that we ever are supposed to figure it out. We're just not smart enough to do it. No one is smart enough to do it. This gels well with my religious beliefs, too. There is some sort of meaning/purpose to our lives (if you want to call it that) and there is some sort of higher power/force, but we're just not smart enough as human beings to ever understand it all.

So yes, I'm sitting here reading this article while watching reruns of Laguna Beach on television. Interesting juxtaposition.

I worked today, but I have the next two days off. Tomorrow I'm going to a 4th of July barbecue dinner thing at the country club with my family and a bunch of people from work. Then Wednesday I tentatively agreed to go on a date with that guy that I wrote about yesterday. Tentatively.

Speaking of which, I leave you with another example of what a tool my brother is. He was making fun of me yesterday for the whole cake thing, and I don't really blame him because I was making fun of myself. But then tonight at dinner my Dad was talking about the guy again and mentioned what he does for a living. His job is sports-related, and my brother is a complete sports fanatic, so when Dad mentioned some people the guy knows, my brother said, "How does he know all those guys?" and my dad said what his job is, and my brother like, sat straight up in his chair and was like, "Whoa, really?! That guy is the [insert job title here]!?!?" and my mother and I died laughing. Yesterday he was a lame ass that bakes carrot cake, today my brother and his friend were begging me to start dating him, get in really good with him, and stay with him through at least the college football season so that they can reap the benefits. I pointed out that we haven't even been out together yet and it's entirely possible that I'll end up hating him, but apparently my feelings on the matter are no longer important.

Also, my brother's lamest friend (my sister will know who I'm talking about, even if none of the rest of you do) just burst in the front door and the very first thing he said was, "Hey, *A*, are "assert" and "accuse" synonyms, or is one like, stronger than the other?" Lord.