Mind Blow

How about a not so little thought experiment?  One that will leave you not only questioning your being, but the existence of everything that there ever was.

Take the smallest things in the known universe; the molecules, atoms, protons, quarks, bosons, muons, and those that are still not known. Now grow them into peptides, proteins, RNA, and DNA capable of replicating themselves in cells which divide and multiply to form life-forms of all kinds, some with seemingly infinite complexity.  This is you (though you probably don't think of yourself this way).  You (we) are nothing but an assemblage of chemicals that have gained consciousness of themselves and their surroundings; having gained consciousness, we are able to think, ration, and reason.  Formed from the Universe's common elements, we have come to dominate the tiny dust spec that we inhabit.  Because of our self-consciousness and our pretend dominance of Earth, we deem ourselves kings of our dominion.  The one and only intelligent being.  Masters of the Universe. Humble yourself.  Look skyward.

Those dots you see are other stars.  Starting to feel small?  If you live in the right area, you may see what appears to be a strip of clouds.  That is an arm of the ten billion year old Milky Way, our Galaxy, and there are many like it in our Universe.  It is even suggested that there are many universes!  Fifteen billion years ago events, as we know them, were set into motion that lead to life as we know it.  Though it likely exists, the laws of physics may prevent us from ever knowing if life exists elsewhere (it likely does--although it may not be as we know it).

Why did it happen?  Where did the original matter for the Universe come from?  What was going on before that?  When does it end?  Where does it end?  What about the other universes?  Can we find another suitable place to continue our menial and ultimately doomed existence?

It has taken us about five billion years to get here, and if our species lasts that long, we will have about five billion more to figure it out.  It will take our descendants 30,000 years to travel to what is thought to be the next nearest habitable corner of the Universe.  The odds that we would come to exist were staggering, but the odds of something like us not existing somewhere else are even more staggering, but can we make it there?
Suddenly our understanding and mastery of our surroundings seems horribly lacking.  Pathetic.