Please read Infinite Butterflies first, for this blog post builds upon what I discussed there.
I always feel somewhat silly discussing theories regarding the building blocks of the universe, given that I’m a twenty year old student writing on a laptop in his bedroom in 2015. But hey, the mind is a universe in and of itself. Think outside the planetary box.
One thing that always bugs me is when people decide to harp on about how “small and insignificant” we are. This is usually preceded by some reminder as to the grand scale of the universe, our planet’s size versus the sun, the sun versus larger stars, galaxies, so on and so forth. People like to look up at the stars and think, “Damn, I am nothing compared to this.” And it’s always fanciful, too. Is it just a way of rationalising your own mistakes or previous wrongdoings? Is it a genuine statement of sorrow and existentialism? I don’t know.
But I know that I don’t agree.
Look at ants. They’re tiny. They’re not as intelligent. To us, they’re nothing. Step on an ant and you’re not going to hold a little funeral with its little ant friends, weeping and discussing its little ant life. And perhaps this isn’t the most sensible comparison to make, since ants aren’t sentient beings. But they live their lives on their own scale. To them, we’re giants, but so long as they can avoid us they go on with their own ant lives. Maybe they even hold little ant funerals, heck I don’t know, I’m not an expert.
Look at mayflies. They typically live for less than a day. Many of us may look at them (or squint in their general direction) and think, what’s the point? Why live for a day? But maybe they perceive time differently to us. What is a day for us is a lifetime for them, and maybe they perceive it for as long as we perceive our seventy our eighty years (should we be so lucky).
So why am I rambling about ants and mayflies? Because if you look a little closer, there’s a lot more to them. Like I said, I’m no expert, but they have intricacies that many people will say can’t be random chance and have to be design. We are just as intricate, just on a different scale. Size means nothing. You may think we mean nothing in the grand scheme of things, but maybe that’s simply because we can’t see the influence we exert in our own personal time frames.
Even more importantly, why the heck are you worried about the grand scheme of things anyway? We do not live our lives in the grand scheme of things. We live in a focal point, in social circles, and that is where you matter. You exist in the hearts of others, in their laughter and smiles and hopefully not in their tears. That may be a poetic way of putting it, but it’s damn true. And if you’re worried about the grand scheme of things, hold on to your seats, because there’s a reason I referred back to the Infinite Butterflies post.
Everyone you know knows somebody you don’t. And that somebody you don’t know knows somebody else your friend doesn’t. We’re all linked in this way, and I’d be shocked if there was a single group of humans on this planet that wasn’t, barring undiscovered tribes in woods or something. But if you make people happy, then they’re likely to make somebody else happy. You can inspire people in ways that change lives. Your presence on Earth is a footprint that cannot be erased by anybody, as every action you make has consequences, no matter how little, that ripple through time. The Butterfly Effect.
That sounds an awful lot like I’m trying to rationalise a reason for life, but I’m honestly trying to think about this logically. What was the process of events that inspired somebody to create that TV show Scrubs? Because, despite it being a comedy, that’s where I first learned about the Butterfly Effect. And that sat in the back of my mind for a few years until it matured into the thought processes you’re reading now. And if you take something away from this blog post, then it’s continuing the chain. If you don’t? It’s still continuing the chain. The time you spent reading this may delay you a few minutes to miss a tragic event, or meet somebody you otherwise wouldn’t, way down the line.
Perpetually Perturbed 