2001connections-article0012 Don't worry too much about the distant future.

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2001connections-article0012
Don't worry too much about the distant future.

No doubt you have come across a number of news items warning us about some impending doom from an oncoming asteroid from space. Seriously, we are better off paying more attention to other more immediate dangers, such as global warming. I don't say ignore the peril of the distant future. But keep it all in perspective. The cosmic hazards will probably be handled quite effectively by one of the future generations when the time comes.
    Some popular films about space travel also present a danger of diverting your attention from the present day. But remember, if you allow yourself to get too caught up in the events of the next several centuries or even later, you risk neglecting your own day-to-day existence, here and now. Here’s a typical warning sign that you may be taking this futuristic stuff to seriously: waiting for hours on end to buy tickets for the premiere of some high profile movie whose theme takes place centuries from now or even later. If additionally, you are perceived or described as unsociable, withdrawn and so forth, you might need to re-evaluate your overall situation and direction in life. Some re-focusing may be in order.
    Disclaimer: I do not hold a degree in sociology, psychology nor any other relevant or irrelevant field. Nor is it ever my intention to wrongly or mistakenly create the impression of holding a degree or any official qualifications. The info contained on this page may be characterized as practical tips, ideas and observations at the most, and is in no way intended to provide professional advice of any sort.

At the risk of digressing even more scarily onto a lofty intellectual plane, allow me to postulate: perhaps even the laws of physics themselves are not eternal. Perhaps these universal principles are, or will be, as much subject to change and revision as are man-made laws. Particularly as we discover new frontiers, new secrets of the universe. Because the very definition of laws of any kind presupposes that someone, at some time, decided to enact these rules. Therefore, rules which at some point in the past, started to exist, could also, at some point in the future, cease to exist. And, importantly, I re-emphasize, these ideas apply to both natural and man-made laws. Spooky stuff, some readers might say. Maybe so.
    Here’s another eerie abstraction. Can you handle it? All right. Consider that eventually, time itself could stop. Or slow down. Or just the opposite: accelerate. Sure, why not? To the best of my understanding, time as we know it started to exist about 14 billion years ago, perhaps with a wide margin of error. I make this statement in good faith, based on science shows which I have watched on TV, among other sources. Please contemplate: if at one point in the very distant past there was no time, but then it came into being, and began counting, seconds, minutes and so forth. Perhaps this cosmic clock which once started, could also once stop? Who knows? But consider the analogy of a motor vehicle in motion. If you see a car rolling along, you know it was not always moving. Previously, it had been in state of rest, totally stopped. Then it started moving. And you know that the vehicle can also stop moving, typically as a result of applying the brakes. Do brakes exist for the cosmic clock as well? If so, will the stopping mechanism ever be applied? When? By whom? Or by what? And should it ever be applied, if there exists a choice of whether or not to do so? Who will decide, and how? Good questions, no doubt. Regrettably, I do not have all the answers.

The above deliberations can also be considered as a prediction of what material to expect to see covered in greater detail in the near future in films, on TV shows and in print media and other forms of communication. So there you have it. An advance warning of sorts, you could say. No doubt, these topics will be used, sometimes even exploited, to sell more books, magazines, movie tickets and so on. So why not plan ahead of time, to avoid getting carried away too much in futuristic notions and ideas. And make a conscious decision to devote sufficiently enough time and energy to your present everyday existence. Maintaining an overall balance is the key idea here. Try to keep a reasonable, healthy sense of equilibrium.

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2001connections-article0012
Don't worry too much about the distant future.

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