Why I think the Universe is perfect
And That’s Not Necessarily a Good Thing.
I wrote a post on this subject a while ago, but waxed poetic throughout the entire thing, so I’m very sure I didn’t communicate anything concrete to anyone. So that knowledge, coupled with the fact that the concept of universal perfection is on replay in my head, is the reason I’ve decided to give it another go. I’m attempting a more logical delivery this time around.
So, first things first, no one knows what the universe is; anyone who says otherwise is lying, and that includes your pastor. Yes, I said it; he, or she, is lying to you and himself (or telling half truths at best). Thanks to our ability for abstraction and language, we can observe the universe. We can use tools like metaphor, simile, and mental models to describe what we think we perceive the universe doing. Further, this ability allows us come up with useful, and actionable, theories about life, living and so on. But no one knows for sure the exact details of our existence on this blue orb. That is if there is a blue orb at all.
One of my mental models of the universe is that it is an algorithm. A giant algorithm -made up of smaller algorithms- that takes in variables that come from god-knows-where, and outputs another set of variables created from the input. There’s also the machine model, i.e. the entire universe is a giant machine that is up to something unknown to us. The connecting theme between these models is that the universe is a process of things being mashed together for whatever reason. We then call the things being mashed up, the mash-up process, and the results of the mash-up, life.
Now here’s where the perfection comes in; this machine/algorithm doesn’t malfunction. It is precise. What it gives out is based on what was put in. Every outcome is the perfect result of a series of inputs. At that statement, you might call to mind all the moments you worked hard, prayed, fasted and still failed, and think “Nahhh, I call bullshit.” Your logic would be justified, but it would be wrong, because this perfection has nothing to do with right, wrong, pleasant, unpleasant, justice, fairness, equality, bad, logical or illogical. All those words are human inventions — models we use to navigate life. They have nothing to do with the universe, which from what I’ve observed is about cause and effect, input and output, and harmony on a universal scale. That harmony is the important part.
The universe acts in concert; the ‘many’ act as ‘one’, and all outputs are a result of how each input variable interacts with the other; a gigantic pot of creative soup of some sort, where every interaction and every move, has ripple effects of varying intensity. The following excerpt is from an article by Nikola Tesla, the man who invented the electric motor. I’ve added it to this piece because he explains how the movement of the heavenly bodies, objects we barely give thought to, influence our bodies, and this in turn, illustrates the greater point I’m trying to make; there’s always more to the situation than meets the eye. Everything we observe, every object we see, is being acted on by the entire universe, not just the objects in its immediate context. So, it can in turn be said that every action is an action of the whole universe. Over to you Nikola:
Note: the notes in brackets are my additions, Nikola didn’t say those parts.
“Let us consider some of the forces and influences which act on such a wonderfully complex automatic engine with organs inconceivably sensitive and delicate (he was referring to the human organism here), as it is carried by the spinning terrestrial globe in lightning flight through space. For simplicity’s sake, we may assume that the earth’s axis is perpendicular to the ecliptic and that the human automaton is at the equator. Let his weight be 160 pounds then, at the rotational velocity of about 1,520 feet per second with which he is whirled around, the mechanical energy stored in his body will be nearly 5,780,000 foot pounds, which is about the energy of a hundred-pound cannon ball.
This momentum is constant as well as upward centrifugal push, amounting to about fifty-five hundredth of a pound, and both will probably be without marked influence on his life functions (courtesy of homeostasis; your body’s ability to maintain its internal equilibrium).
The sun, having a mass 332,000 times that of the earth, but being 23,000 times farther, will attract the automaton with a force of about one-tenth of one pound, alternately increasing and diminishing his normal weight by that amount
Though not conscious of these periodic changes, he is surely affected by them.
The earth in its rotation around the sun carries him with the prodigious speed of nineteen miles per second and the mechanical energy imparted to him is over 25,160,000,000 foot pounds. The largest gun ever made in Germany hurls a projectile weighing one ton with a muzzle velocity of 3,700 feet per second, the energy being 429,000,000 foot pounds. Hence the momentum of the automaton’s body is nearly sixty times greater. It would be sufficient to develop 762,400 horse-power for one minute, and if the motion were suddenly arrested the body would be instantly exploded with a force sufficient to carry a projectile weighing over sixty tons to a distance of twenty-eight miles.
This enormous energy is, however, not constant, but varies with the position of the automaton in relation to the sun. The circumference of the earth has a speed of 1,520 feet per second, which is either added to or subtracted from the translatory velocity of nineteen miles through space. Owing to this the energy will vary every twelve hours by an amount approximately equal to 1,533,000,000 foot pounds, which means that energy streams in some unknown way into and out of the body of the automaton at the rate of about sixty-four horse-power.
But this is not all. The whole solar system is urged towards the remote constellation Hercules at a speed which some estimate at some twenty miles per second and owing to this there should be similar annual changes in the flux of energy, which may reach the appalling figure of over one hundred billion foot pounds. All these varying and purely mechanical effects are rendered more complex through the inclination of the orbital planes and many other permanent or casual mass actions.
This automaton, is, however subjected to other forces and influences. His body is at the electric potential of two billion volts, which fluctuates violently and incessantly. The whole earth is alive with electrical vibrations in which he takes part. The atmosphere crushes him with a pressure of from sixteen to twenty tons, according, to barometric condition. He receives the energy of the sun’s rays in varying intervals at a mean rate of about forty foot pounds per second, and is subjected to periodic bombardment of the sun’s particles, which pass through his body as if it were tissue paper. The air is rent with sounds which beat on his eardrums, and he is shaken by the unceasing tremors of the earth’s crust. He is exposed to great temperature changes, to rain and wind.”
So, you see, there are all these inputs, and every single one is accounted for in the output. Nothing is wasted, and nothing is lost. However, we don’t perceive it this way, because our individual senses aren’t designed for, much less attuned to, that level of detail. From our own individual perspectives, there’s a lot of contradiction, a lot of incoherence, and many inconsistencies. But the observable fact, so far, is, it’s all part of an algorithm that is simply accounting for every single detail; every, single, detail.
Everything happens for a reason, it’s just that most of the time those reasons have little to do with you. You might think you’re just there on your lane, but that’s not true; you’re a part of a machine that acts as a whole; everything affects everything else. Sometimes the effects are negligible, and other times they’re loud. If a baby is born with defects, there’s a reason, and it has nothing to do with God’s will, at least not the way the average Nigerian imagines. It’s just what it is, based on the continuity and nature of the variables inputted into the child’s environment (i.e. its mother’s womb, its body etc.) from the moment of the its conception (probably further back) till the moment of its birth. The manner in which any child is born has little to do with the child, unless you want to believe otherwise, which is perfectly within your right.
The universe is perfect, life is perfect, however, its perfection is found only in the whole, and has nothing to do with fairness, right, wrong, good, bad, justice, equality, utopia, love, hatred, beauty, and so on. Those are words humans use to try to cope with an inhuman universe. It’s not a comforting thought, in fact it sounds extremely fatalistic and gets worse when we consider that we don’t really know what the “whole” is up to. But hope isn’t lost, the whole won’t be the whole without its parts, and while no one knows the details, we have all observed that there are times, when circumstances align, that an individual -a part of the whole- is capable of influencing the whole and steering it in a direction that favors it, him, or her. From the research I’ve done so far, feats like this depend on the individual’s ability to see the machine’s patterns and use it to his advantage — among countless other variables of course. However, my knowledge is incomplete for now, when I get the full gist, you will be the first to get the details.
Till then, remember, it’s about the whole. When things aren’t going well, it means you can’t see the full picture, and the most probable truth is that you will never be able to see the full picture. That said, you can always hit a resolution that’s higher than your current perspective, and in day-to-day living, that’s what really matters. It’s always perfection. Peace.
