The Evolution of Our Cosmology

Every class in the history of physics makes the point.  The history of our cosmology is the story of man growing further and further from the center.

The earth stood literally at the center.  Then we realized that the earth revolves around the sun.  Then that each star represents a separate sun.  Then that there are more stars in our galaxy than grains of sand on the beach.  Then that this galaxy -- the Milky Way -- is but one dot among billions.  Then that the greater universe comprising the billions of dots is expanding, so that its scale gets larger with every day.  And then that the "cosmic inflation" right after the Big Bang represented a bubble, and that the math implies that such bubbles must arise repeatedly, an infinite number of times in fact, so that there must be a world identical to this one except that this blogpost was not written.

Is this the final frontier? Does this complete the picture? Not if other entire dimensions, heretofore unknown to us, are intruding on our own, and dimensions that are populated by higher intelligences.

This last step, though, would be different from the others from a philosophical point of view.  All of the others fed nicely into the strict materialism of a Daniel Dennett or a Sean Carroll or a Neil de Grasse Tyson insofar as they underscore for us our own insignificance.

With the last step, though, finally the two fingers at the pinnacle of the Sistine Chapel -- the Finger of God and the Finger of Man -- may at long last touch (or not).  The possibilities are endless you might say.