It Is No More Likely

Perhaps The Most Majestic Feature Of Our Whole Existence Is That While Our Intelligences Are Powerful Enough To Penetrate Deeply Into The Evolution Of This Quite Incredible Universe, We Still Have Not The Smallest Clue To Our Own Fate.

The Seemingly Insuperable Difficulties Of Deep-space Travel Suggest An Intention To Keep Us Fixed At Home In Our Own Solar System, And The Physical Nature Of Our Part Of The Universe, As Well As The Basic Rules Of Physics And Chemistry, Have A Warning Look About Them, Like Barriers Designed To Isolate Intelligent Life. This Means That For Us, Unlike The Situation For Humble Microorganisms, Deep-space Travel Is Probably A Stark Impossibility.

There Are Many Ways Of Knocking Electrons Out Of Atoms. The Simplest Is To Rub Two Surfaces Together.

A Common Sense Interpretation Of The Facts Suggests That A Superintellect Has Monkeyed With Physics.

On Scientific Grounds This Big Bang Assumption Is Much Less The Palatable Of The Two. For It Is An Irrational Process That Cannot Be Described In Scientific Terms. . . . On Philosophical Grounds Too I Cannot See Any Good Reason For Preferring The Big Bang Idea. Indeed It Seems To Me In The Philosophical Sense To Be A Distinctly Unsatisfactory Notion, Since It Puts The Basic Assumption Out Of Sight Where It Can Never Be Challenged By A Direct Appeal To Observation.