Flowermountains

The Ultimate Question

If you have read Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” you will know what the Ultimate Question is. If not, I strongly advise you to go to the nearest library or book store now and start reading, because you’re really missing out on something here! However, it’s quite a read, so I’ll enlighten you in advance. I’m talking about The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Not a particular shallow and unimportant question. Some things I read lately made me thinking about this question.

In a number of the next posts I hope to discuss some parts of the puzzle, among which Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity (yeah, Einstein! I promised I would write about him, right?), String Theory, and some more philosophical aspects of these theories. If you have no clue what I’m talking about, don’t worry, I guess that’s normal. If you’re interested, I hope I’ll be able to explain some of it (also to myself). If you’re not interested, just skip these posts. I won’t be angry.

To get started already, as a small introduction, consider this. Everything in the Universe is built up out of small bits and pieces, generally known as atoms. These atoms again consist mainly of three different particles, being quarks (two types: up and down) and electrons. So, everything we know, consists of only three different building blocks! That makes us actually quite similar to trees, rocks, air…anything! So what makes the difference? Is it really just the various ways these particles are arranged that make us ‘alive’ and rocks ‘stone dead’, so to speak? I think these are quite intriguing questions…