{"id":5778,"date":"2022-07-08T12:41:22","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T16:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=5778"},"modified":"2022-07-10T04:29:20","modified_gmt":"2022-07-10T08:29:20","slug":"why-there-is-a-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2022\/07\/08\/why-there-is-a-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"Why there is a Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>We go about our lives understanding almost nothing of the world. We give little thought to the machinery that generates the sunlight that makes life possible. To the gravity that glues us to an Earth that would otherwise send us spinning off into space. Or to the atoms of which we&#8217;re made, and on whose stability we fundamentally depend.<\/p><p>Few of us spend much time wondering why nature is the way it is, where the cosmos came from, or whether it was always there. If time will one day flow backwards, or whether there are ultimate limits to what humans can know. What is the smallest piece of matter? Why do we remember the past, and not the future?<\/p><p>&#8230;And why there is a universe.<\/p><cite>Carl Sagan<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Pnks_88XQnY?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We go about our lives understanding almost nothing of the world. We give little thought to the machinery that generates the sunlight that makes life possible. To the gravity that glues us to an Earth that would otherwise send us spinning off into space. Or to the atoms of which we&#8217;re made, and on whose&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2022\/07\/08\/why-there-is-a-universe\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Why there is a Universe<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[511,129,63],"class_list":["post-5778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","tag-abstract","tag-music","tag-quotes","entry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-1vc","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":263,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/10\/14\/japanese-name-generator\/","url_meta":{"origin":5778,"position":0},"title":"Japanese Name Generator","author":"Keith Survell","date":"October 14, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Heh... enter your name (first and last) and whether you are male or female. And then, get a name! Whee!!","rel":"","context":"In &quot;fun stuff&quot;","block_context":{"text":"fun stuff","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/fun-stuff\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2885,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2010\/01\/12\/dear-tsa-stop-keeping-secrets\/","url_meta":{"origin":5778,"position":1},"title":"Dear TSA: Stop Keeping Secrets","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"An open letter to the TSA asking them to stop being so secretive - because it's not helping anybody.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Rants&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Rants","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/rants\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":542,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/06\/14\/redefining-sexual-torture\/","url_meta":{"origin":5778,"position":2},"title":"Redefining &#8220;Sexual Torture&#8221;?","author":"Keith Survell","date":"June 14, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The way to think about this issue is to put yourself in the shoes of the prisoner.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":552,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/06\/21\/shooting-down-the-breakfast-club\/","url_meta":{"origin":5778,"position":3},"title":"Shooting Down the Breakfast Club","author":"Keith Survell","date":"June 21, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"This brings back some memories. To this day I still have a hard time \"getting going\" in the morning - though I could've told you that it has nothing to do with whether I ate breakfast that day or not.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;personal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":830,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2006\/12\/26\/weather-oddities\/","url_meta":{"origin":5778,"position":4},"title":"Weather Oddities","author":"Keith Survell","date":"December 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"So, back home it hasn't snowed yet but here in Australia it was a white Christmas for some people (though not here where I am; it was just the coldest Christmas in 13 years).","rel":"","context":"In &quot;personal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1374,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/10\/16\/necessity-and-tyrants\/","url_meta":{"origin":5778,"position":5},"title":"Necessity and Tyrants","author":"Keith Survell","date":"October 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I was reading a discussion related to a story about how soon every email in the UK will be monitored by the government, and someone brought up this quote: \"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}