………..

Brings to mind Douglas Adams’ description – in ‘Hitchikers Guide” – of an interstellar restaurant temporally positioned at about a half hour before the universe’s death.

The pan-galactic elite of our era pay astounding fees for time phasing transportation to the restaurant.

There they witness the final cataclysm from behind the safety of a force shield while enjoying theme drinks and gourmet food.

Of course, there’s a long waiting list.

Humans thrive on other people’s misery. The basis of humour can also be explained this way (I believe).

If the universe were sucked into a transdimensional black hole tomorrow the human race would be the ones arguing over front row seats

………..

Undoubtedly, there’s a strong element of that: using destruction as a means of going from invisibility to blazing visibility at a single go.

Putting aside for a moment the moral and political considerations (e.g. destruction as an instrument of dominance as appears to be the case with both the US’ invasion of Iraq and the terrorist/insurgent bombings of real and perceived internal foes) it may be that our fascination with large scale catastrophe – both engineered and “acts of God” – is an extension of that part of our evolutionarily determined reflex to turn our head towards, and gaze attentively at, a source of danger (as even domesticated pets such as cats and dogs will intriguingly do; an alert stillness that’s fascinating to watch).

Instead of a predator on some broad savanna it’s a thermobaric explosive liquefying a building.

The universe is a spectacle in its enormity. Star systems coalesce, asteroids smatter the surface of planets larger than our capacity of scale can comprehend, suns blink out and scatter their debris across depths of space bigger than our perceived realities. This is nature, beautiful beyond all measurable scale. ‘God’s’ playground.

To watch on as enormous acts of destruction unfold before your eyes, to know that consciousness itself (whether an ancient dinosaur; an alien intelligence; a ‘democratic government’; a terrorist organism) can have such effects on the universe – this is where the awe arises.

Destruction is a consciousnesses way of saying ‘Hello universe / Hello God. Look at me!’.

It’s pretty cool being self aware.

alright, I’m posting this on my own blog.

What I said:

>It is almost they who did it, but we who wanted it.