There Will Come a Time - Orbital, Prof. Brian Cox

There are few certainties in science, but one fact of which we can all be

certain is that one day we will die

Our atoms won’t disappear, they will return to the Earth.

Some will become

parts of the living future.

But they will carry no imprint, no memories,

no knowledge of the pattern once known as you.

In five billion years our Sun

will cease to shine.

Our planet will die in the searing heat, engulfed by the

dying star.

The atoms once known as you will be ejected out into space.

In billions of years they may become parts of new solar systems with their own

stories to tell

The great cycle of stellar death and rebirth offers a sort of limited

immortality.

Whether that’s comforting is up to you.

But ultimately nothing

will survive.

It will all be gone

In the far future there will come a time when time has no meaning as the

Universe expands and fades.

Our descendants isolated on an island drifting in

ocean of dark will watch as the galaxies evaporate away

How does that make you feel?

Yet something remains in the darkness.

An idea.

Science is the ultimate

exercise of reason.

And our reason confirms deep down what we’ve always known.

Whether human or star, life is precious and fleeting

We are collections of atoms that can think who discovered this deep truth.

We must understand the Universe will spend an eternity in darkness after a

brief period of light

Meaning is not eternal.

And yet meaning exists today because the Universe means

something to us

We must understand that life is precious and fleeting.

In doing so we will come

to recognize the true value of ourselves, our fellow humans and our

civilization

The choice before us is not between immortality and eternal darkness.

The laws of nature have made that choice.

But we do get to choose how long we

want to survive.

How long do you want the human race to survive?

There will come a time when we’re forced to choose: do we destroy our planet or

protect it?

Do we live together or fight amongst ourselves?

Do we expand,

explore, do we carry our shared hopes and dreams outwards to Mars and the

moons of Jupiter and Saturn and onwards to the limitless stars or do we avert

our gaze from the Universe beyond and allow all memory of our world will be

lost too soon?

Do we close our minds and seek refuge in the ingorant dark of the cave or do we

embrace curiosity and love of knowledge of our fellow humans, of our rare world

and of the infinite and wonderful things yet to be known?

That time is now