In the post from which this one sprung, we questioned the act of questioning. Why do we abstract from the physicality of existence to figure out how we should live, and maybe even why? But what I want to know is why do we like thinking about the universe? Why are there thousands of scientists right now working under the ground between the borders of France and Switzerland? And why has the world been anxiously waiting for them to turn on their particle accelerator for the past 2 years?

I find it fascinating that I am fascinated by the universe. The universe has nothing to do with my life. Sure I live in it, and so do all my friends, family, and things, but besides offering me some leased land it rarely interjects in the way I run my life. And yet, I love thinking about big bangs, the speed of light, and dark matter. But why? I like thinking about higher dimensions and string theory but I have no conceptual idea of what those really mean or how they work. They just are. I like thinking about infinity and the big bang. But think about them too long and they become morbid and we become small. It's not a good feeling, but we humans keep returning to the universe, for all it's emptiness and for all its mysteries, we keep returning with all we have, a combination of biological processes and laundromat tickets.

So why? It's like asking what makes us human or what is science. We like the dark because we want to fill it with light. We explore the universe to make sense of it so we can make sense of ourselves. We think God is hiding out there behind the nebulae and the stars and we will do anything to find him. The search for knowledge is the greatest agent of change that the world has ever known. It has built cities, destroyed them, built religions, destroyed them, built communities, destroyed them, and yet the act of questioning has never been destroyed and, I think, can never be destroyed. The people searching for the answers off this planet are the ones who aren't looking for answers to big questions, they are the ones looking for the bigger questions that we haven't even contemplated yet. There is no end to knowledge, it's as infinite as our universe among a universe of universes, a megaverse.  

Maybe we are attracted to the mysteries of the universe because it represents the biggest mystery, the one furthest from our grasp and the one which we will possibly never ever get even close at understanding. But on the offchance that we do, (roughly the same offchance that our universe exists in the firstplace) wouldn't that be the end all point for the brilliance of man? After that couldn't we all lay down to rest forever, happy that we figured out the best puzzle in the universe before our annihilation?