{"id":1646,"date":"2014-02-17T17:54:32","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T22:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planetsusan.org\/?p=1646"},"modified":"2014-02-19T09:18:48","modified_gmt":"2014-02-19T14:18:48","slug":"new-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.planetsusan.org\/?p=1646","title":{"rendered":"New Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems to me that writing is like exercising.\u00a0 Once you start and get in the habit, the words and the reps just flow.\u00a0 But get out of the groove, and to begin again is to fear pain.\u00a0 My thighs always hurt after I restart the exercise bike.\u00a0 And my brain hurts thinking about stringing words together to try to say something cogent.\u00a0 But Michael wrote a lovely piece about the Marlins, which oh by the way got ‘retweeted’ by the Marlins announcer, so Wow!\u00a0 If he can find time amongst his heavy school load, I will make time and gird my fingers and brain to write again.\u00a0 It’s good therapy anyway – just like riding the stationary bike.<\/p>\n

So this is what I’ve been thinking about today –\u00a0\"Cosmology<\/a> Cosmology…and the meaning of life.\u00a0 Trivial subjects suitable for my Facebook page, you say?\u00a0 Well, I never denied being a nerd, and enjoying being a nerd.\u00a0 So there!\u00a0 \"meaning<\/a><\/p>\n

So what’s this all about Alfie?\u00a0 Re-reading sections of Michio Kaku’s book Visions<\/span>, and watching Stephen Hawking on “The Meaning of Life” from his Grand Design<\/span> series, available on Netflix.\u00a0 I also went back to Arthur C. Clarke’s original short story from 1951 “The Sentinel”, which formed the basis for Stanley Kubrick’s immortal 2001 – A Space Odyssey<\/span> released in 1969, I think … wait a sec, I’ll check.\u00a0 Hold please…nope – 1968.\u00a0 Guess we didn’t see it until a year later…well, we were very poor in 1968.<\/p>\n

Back to Cosmology and the Meaning of Life…Chapter 15 of Kaku’s Visions<\/span>:\u00a0 Toward a Planetary Civilization”, starts on page 322.\u00a0 This is assigned reading so read and we’ll discuss.\u00a0 Just kidding.\u00a0 Kaku is a master at making very complex subjects fairly understandable for us non-physicists.\u00a0 I could describe it in detail, but I’d rather share what I found to be mind bending in this chapter:<\/p>\n