Y’all got me out here on Al Gore’s internet writing about dark matter again. I’ve tried and tried again, and for the life of me, I still can’t wrap my head around it. Just these particles that no one can seem to capture passing quite literally through us but not interacting with our world whatsoever. What is this? The Twilight Zone? How am I supposed to make sense of this?! Maybe that’s my great curse in life…I can’t stop thinking about the mystery of what exactly dark matter is even though I’m not a physicist. It’s either a curse, or it might be mental illness. One of the two for sure. Nonetheless, we have a new wrinkle in the quest to understand this phenomenon.
A big time story from Gizmodo here on this phenomenon dropped on Tuesday, and it’s keeping me up at night. Katherine Freese and Martin Winkler, two physicists at UT-Austin, are positing that dark matter just might’ve been created in a second, “dark” Big Bang. It’s a fantastic read if you’re into this stuff and are a glutton for existential dread like I am. I highly recommend taking the time to read it. And, we also start getting into the concept of the “dark world” where dark matter exists by the end of the article. It’s terrifying. I mean, hell – is the gravity of dark matter the only thing that truly is tying the universe as we know it together in its current form? What the hell’s going to happen if someone decides to turn the gravity off in the dark world? We all just going to evaporate? Or, will it be like Everything Everywhere All At Once and our consciences will be transmitted throughout alternate dimensions?
This is going to be like colonizing Mars all over again, and I can’t wait for all of the scenarios to come out – would you travel to the dark world if you could? “Be among the first humans to travel to the dark universe.” Does that sound cool? Or, does it sound ominous? You be the judge. I’ll say this, though – if I’m willing to hop on an Elon Musk spaceship and go to Mars, I can’t imagine I’d have much issue with hopping down a black hole and popping out in a parallel universe. Just saying.
Imagine scientific proof of a parallel “dark” universe (and I know I’m conflating this actual bit of science with my own speculative science fiction fantasies, but we’re just having a good time here, folks. It’s not that serious) dropping on Good Morning America. People talk about how shooketh the masses would be if the government told us aliens were real. Imagine if they were like, “yeah, for sure there’s an entire new plane of existence.” Kroger would be out of milk and bread within the hour.
But, I can’t help but wonder if dark matter truly is all around us in the things we can’t see. What if dark matter is a literal measure of those things we cannot see…therefore we don’t know how to measure them? Is dark matter our thoughts? Hot damn. I’m too drunk to finish this out coherently. But, if you like hearing me ramble about dark matter, check out our most recent episode of Phone It In, embedded below.
Listen to “Ep. 41: Dark Matter” on Spreaker.If you haven’t already, subscribe to Phone It In on Apple Podcasts, follow us on Spotify, or wherever you take in your podcasts! Image courtesy of Yong Chuan Tan on Unsplash!
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.
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