Broadcasts from Deep Space 001: 8,000,000,000 / Fear of the Unknown

Have you ever really thought about how big a billion is? The human brain is good for a lot of things, but processing huge numbers like that is not one of them. For perspective, if you lived in an average household making the median American income (~$70,000), it would take you 14,286 years to make one billion dollars. Now multiply that by eight, and you have the world population on November 15th, 2022. Does that trip anyone else out? How do that many people live their own distinct, unique lives, filled with all the intricacies of life? How are there that many consciousnesses floating around out there? Even one person can have layers and levels that can take years to fully understand. And yet there's eight billion of us?

Total transparency, I thought of this idea last night but was far too tired to write it down then. Out there lies an alternate universe where this post makes much less sense (but is probably more entertaining). But another thought that crossed my mind while semi-conscious last night: how have we not figured anything out? Don't get me wrong, modern technology and science has progressed to an incredible level. Medicine, transportation, entertainment, they've all reached amazing heights. Yet, and I hate to sound corny, but we still don't know our purpose. Why do humans exist on this perfect one-in-a-trillion planet that can support us? What is the idea of "time," and when did it start? Has it always existed? Maybe one day it will end, and nothing will be left. But how can "nothing" exist? Maybe I'm just not paying attention, but I feel like grand and existential topics rarely get acknowledged, and we put our focus on more menial things. None of us want to ask when time started, or how life first came to be, or why the Browns are so bad, because at the end of the day we might never know the answers, and there's an inherent fear that comes with not knowing something. Fear of the unknown and our constant focus on our own, ever-changing lives are natural, but how and when do we finally acknowledge the elephant? As many have said before me, and as many will continue to say, only time will tell.