I'm surprised we don't here about more astronomers going completely insane. You'd think that after a certain amount of time gazing into the infinite expanse of the universe and experiencing a feeling of unbelievable insignificance and fragility, you'd eventually just decide that life is completely illogical and pointless, and then your brain would explode. Because that's how psychiatry works. I mean, I get a bit uneasy just looking up at the sky at night. Can you imagine if that was your JOB? And not only that, but everyone expected you to be trying to figure out what's going on with the universe? I'm sure a lot of astronomers start out with it because they find space fascinating, which makes sense, because space is the best thing in the world, and then it slowly gets more and more horrifying the longer they study. That sounds like fun.
Really, the idea of a universe that is infinite is something that I think the human brain isn't really capable of grasping. Maybe we haven't sufficiently evolved enough to have brains that are intelligent enough to really understand everything that it implies. It is not really possible to be able to envision a limitless space. An endless expanse, where there is no limit to how many worlds there are. The stars are limitless. The galaxies are limitless. There is no "edge of the universe". It goes on forever. I am reasonably certain that that is impossible. And also utterly terrifying.
It also demonstrates that anyone who thinks that we are the only planet with intelligent life in the universe should be laughed out of every room they ever enter. That is absurd. I don't have all the answers. In fact, I have practically none. But there is just no way that this is all we're going to get. Because come on guys, how much of a freaking let-down would that be?
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