Human life is a staggeringly strange thing. On the surface of a ball of
rock falling around a nuclear fireball in the blackness of a vacuum the
laws of nature conspired to create a naked ape that can look up at the
stars and wonder where it came from.
What is a human being? Objectively, nothing of consequence. Particles of
dust in an infinite arena, present for an instant in eternity. Clumps of
atoms in a universe with more galaxies than people. And yet a human
being is necessary for the question itself to exist, and the presence of
a question in the universe any question is the most wonderful thing.
Questions require minds, and minds bring meaning. What is meaning? I don
t know, except that the universe and every pointless speck inside it
means something to me. I am astonished by the existence of a single
atom, and find my civilisation to be an outrageous imprint on reality. I
don t understand it. Nobody does, but it makes me smile.This book asks
questions about our origins, our destiny, and our place in the universe.
We have no right to expect answers; we have no right to even ask. But
ask and wonder we do.
Human Universe is first and foremost a love letter to humanity; a
celebration of our outrageous fortune in existing at all. I have chosen
to write my letter in the language of science, because there is no
better demonstration of our magnificent ascent from dust to paragon of
animals than the exponentiation of knowledge generated by science. Two
million years ago we were apemen. Now we are spacemen. That has
happened, as far as we know, nowhere else. That is worth celebrating."
