What it means to exist is something man has bantered since the beginning of a unique idea. So we are not going to solve it in a minute with a 1000 words article but what we can do is pose a bunch of questions that will freak out both stoners and sober folk alike. So let us delve deep into our very core of our being and explore the seven mysteries of existence.
1. Why does anything exist
How did the universe begin? What was there before it? Has something always existed? If not, why did everything we've come to know suddenly spring into existence?
Physicists and cosmologists believe the idea of pure nothingness is considered unstable. But according to quantum mechanics, the idea of something being created from nothing does make sense. It tells us there's no such thing as empty space. But that it is possible for certain particles, antiparticles, and bubbles of space-time to blink in and out of existence.
Theoretical physicist Andrew Linda of Stanford University thinks that this answers our question as he believes that universes have always been springing into existence and that this process will continue forever.
2. Is the universe infinite
The two most understood endless universe speculations contend that either our universe extends to endlessness toward each path or that it winds up unending by the righteousness of the presence of parallel universes. Either way, the idea of infinity is mind-boggling because this means everything you can imagine has happened, will happen, and is happening right now an infinite number of times.
There's an infinite amount of universes where you got that dream job but you also suffer from perpetual panting maggots, an infinite number of solar systems where the Sun is called Steve and the Earth is also called Steve. This goes down to a quantum level. There's an infinite number of universes where the only thing different is the placement of a single atom or the position of a single ginger hair in a takeout cheeseburger.
The possibilities of an infinite universe are astounding. They are literally too vast for human minds to comprehend and just briefly comprehending it makes no man's sky.
3. The simulation theory
As our universe appeared to be shockingly comfortable to you, is it not a little suspicious that we exist inside the correct conditions expected to harbor life?
Are we really living inside a giant simulation?
Despite this theory seeming like the realm of David Icke and the Wachowskis, many scientific minds have debated this idea at great length. Philosopher Nick Bostrom created a paper in which argues that it's unlikely humans will ever become advanced enough to create a simulated universe or that we'd create one which mirrored our exact own history unless of course, we are already in one.
He believes one of those statements has to be true and if it's the last one and we are part of a simulation, then, who is running it? Will it reboot if we become a problem? Do we have a physical state somewhere or is our consciousness also a simulation?
4. Does God exist
Atheists and religious people, you are both wrong. Let's explain why.
If you take an atheist position and you don't believe in God, why is that? What have you seen which categorically proves that God doesn't exist? The answer if you're honest is nothing. You most likely believe in a scientific approach explaining the universe which is fine but even science hasn't yet proven beyond a doubt that some form of intelligent designer definitely doesn't exist. But equally so if you're religious, you believe in the all-powerful and righteous nature of your God. However, this also means you believe they have the power to trick you and that they are justified. If they did so, how can you be sure of their morals righteousness or their very existence has given those circumstances?
In any case, what is God?
Something we don't understand with more power than us. Then to an ant, we humans must seem like gods. Our universe could be a higher power virtual construct and that means what we call a God might be some hack coder named Chad who screws with our reality every day on his lunch break. Therefore in the absence of definitive proof, it is wrong to conclude for or against the existence of a Supreme Being. With the only logical belief stating, it is impossible to prove either way.
However, as a former wrestler and occasional starship captain, Neil deGrasse Tyson so eloquently puts it "This state of logic won't exist forever because God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller and smaller as time moves on".
5. Does free will exist
I choose to eat a grilled cheese because I'm hungry. I choose to play pokemon go in my underpants all day because I have nowhere to be and I like to scare children in the park. But did I make these decisions myself or were they made for me? If your decisions are influenced by a series of events which came before it even if you're aware of them, then, that is not free will.
Free will is defined as the power to act without the need to care about the necessity of the consequences of your actions. But according to some scientific studies, this notion simply does not exist. A neuroscientific investigation used fMRI scans of human brain activity to prove that our brains make decisions for us before we are even aware of the decision being made. Effectively, humans are being controlled by our needs for certain things in the world around us. Only for another part of our brain to make us feel like we actually had input on the decision. Whatever we do, wherever we go, and however we act, there is a reason for it. Maybe a dumb reason but it's a reason all the same.
6. Why does time slow as you age
Many psychological studies have shown that the older you are the faster you proceed time to be.
Why is this?
While the proportionality Theory claims that a year feels faster when you were in your 30s because it's only 1/30th of your existence as opposed to 1/5th of your life if you were five years old. Also when you're young, you live in the moment and encounter new experiences whereas when these things become familiar, you become bored and more aware of time passing.
Another theory relates time experience to memory claiming that we remember things that happened in last years as having occurred more recently than they actually did. Here are a few examples: The Malaysian Airline MH370 went missing and Russia invaded Crimea two years ago. Charlie Sheen was fired from two and a Half Men in the same year as the Fukushima disaster five years ago and both Pluto and Steve Irwin have been respectively not a planet and dead for freaking 10 years.
Intriguingly, we are more likely to remember and be nostalgic about experiences which helped form our identities between the age and this is called the reminiscence bump. The further we get away from that the quicker time appears to be. But people who reinvent themselves with a new career, a new home, country or some major face surgery later in life, experience this reminiscent bump a second time.
7. Where do we go when we die
We know that after death our physical bodies degrade and return to the earth unless you die in a really cool rocket explosion on your way to Jupiter.
But what about our minds? What happens to human consciousness?
Biocentrism theorist Robert Lanza believes the death of consciousness doesn't exist that it's merely a human illusion. He claims that because quantum mechanics shows that certain particles can exist anywhere, the human consciousness can also exist outside of our physical bodies.
According to Professor Stuart Hameroff of the University of Arizona, what we call consciousness is merely information stored at a quantum level information that is capable of merging into the current universe or moving through multiverses after your body's biological death.
British physicist Sir Roger Penrose supports the multiverse theory. He, the one who has worked closely with Stephen Hawking, is currently investigating a quantum theory which may explain consciousness. His team believed they've discovered that protein-based microtubules which are a structural component of human cells are capable of carrying quantum information and channeling it away after death recycling it into something entirely different.
So if you look at how the universe works, there's no reason to think that life only ever has one chance. But as with the concept of God, we cannot know either way until it is definitively proven.
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