The true sense of how minuscule we are, whether that be an individual
or entire race, is nearly incomprehensible. Dr. Hawking explains the theory
of the Big Bang which proposes that all matter was once compacted into
a small area. At some point it exploded and the universe as we know it
was created and time was started. While this may sound like cheap science
fiction, Dr. Hawking provides reasonable logic and evidence that this event
actually occurred. The numbers involved in this event is staggering. The
amount of matter, time, energy transfer, and speed of expansion contain
far too many zeros than can be truly grasped. With this in mind one gets
a sense of the sheer immensity of the universe and how minute a tiny person
in a tiny race on a tiny planet really fits into the galactic picture.
On this point, Dr. Hawking shows us the humility of our place. In a big
picture, the killing of a cat will not stop the Universe’s news presses.
Before we develop a massive inferiority complex, Dr. Hawking shows
us that a different perspective may also be taken. What the Big Bang is
to large scale, quantum physics is to small scale. Quantum physics is simply
the interactions of tiny particles. To imagine this, one can pretend to
have a microscope without limits. As you look closer and closer you see
more detail. Going beyond the atomic level and looking deeper, you would
eventually get to what is referred to as the elusive elemental particles.
Since there is no such thing as a limitless microscope, we go as far in
as we can and then theorize on why things behave as they do. You do not
have to see the moon to understand why the tides rise and fall. Neither
does one have to see an elemental particle to understand its effects on
the surrounding area. At this level, science “fills in the gaps” with theory.
Just as the big picture boggled the mind with its giganticism, the elemental
particles amaze us with the complexity and unfathomable small scale. Looking
at our dead cat in this light involves effecting a complex biological system
that contained uncountable numbers of elemental particles. These particles
worked together in such a way that produced a living, breathing entity
we call a cat. As a result, we altered a evolutionary miracle that took
billions of years of precise particle combinations to exist. On such a
small scale, we are giant miracles of the universe.
At the expense of one theoretical cat, I have shown that it depends
on how you look at the things. When compared to such immense concepts such
as the Big Bang, the start of time, the gravitational forces near black
holes, and the future of the entire universe, the demise of the neighborhood
feline might seem incredibly trivial. But Dr. Hawking also shows us that
if you think small, for the lack of a better term, you will see that such
an event, from an elemental particle’s view, is on a big scale. So the
one thing I learned from A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang
to Black Holes is that in any event, depending on what perspective
you take, one must understand that our perspective is just that: ours.
Dr. Hawking points out that there are many others.