The Universe and The Mind

When I got to college, I thought that my professors would hand me the keys to the universe. I expected them to be able to definitively answer my questions. I thought that we knew so much more than we do. In my opinion, we have not advanced very far beyond the ancient Greeks in terms of what we know about our universe, at least not as far as I think we should have in the expanse of time since then.

Since I graduated, I have continued to seek the answers to my questions. One question, which I believe that many of us share, has to do with why we are here. The closest thing to a definitive answer that I have found for that question is that we are the manifestation of the universe's attempt to understand itself. Consider the following image:

While I am not at all suggesting that our universe fits neatly among many others within the brain of some random organism in an alternate universe somewhere, I do think that it is interesting to contemplate the similarities.

The more I learn, the more questions I have. Is our universe just an illusion? Could it be a hologram of some sort? Is it all just information? These questions seem to fit more readily within the realm of metaphysics rather than astrophysics. That's one of the interesting things about my experience. I always seem to be teetering on the edge, between the physical and the metaphysical, and between the universe and the mind. It is an interesting vantage point from which to contemplate our existence and I am looking forward to seeing where my search will lead me in future.