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Our universe is not the first one, the only one, or the last one

Recently, the scientist Roger Penrose, winner of a Nobel Prize, indicated that our universe arose from a previous universe and that some of the "ruins" of that other universe still exist in ours. In other words, our universe is neither the first nor the only one, nor will it be the last.

Almost immediately all sorts criticism emerged against Penrose, telling him how wrong he was since, according to other scientists, there is no evidence for a universe before ours, nor would there be evidence that a new universe will emerge after the universe ends in the that we now live in, nor are there parallel universes.

Obviously, I do not have even the most minimal knowledge related to cosmology to begin to understand who is right, if Penrose, who maintains that our universe is only one in a circle, or his opponents, who maintain that our universe is the only one that exists.

But I can say the following: all novel scientific ideas (and the same could be said for philosophical, artistic, and spiritual ideas) were initially rejected by the "experts" of the time when those ideas were presented. Also, we humans have always liked being the only ones and being at the center of the universe.

When several centuries before the beginning of our era Aristarchus proposed that the earth revolved around the sun and at about the same time Eratosthenes measured the circumference of the Earth, neither the heliocentric theory nor the roundness of the Earth were accepted. In fact, it took two millennia before heliocentrism was accepted.

And then for centuries and centuries the Milky Way (our galaxy) was considered to be the entire universe. In fact, it was only in the 20th century that Andromeda was determined to be another galaxy. Still, it was said that there were no planets in other stars, until exoplanets began to be discovered. They said the Earth was the best planet for life, which is no longer the case.

Time and again humans look for excuses to place ourselves "in the center" or to be "unique", perhaps to satisfy our irrational need to believe ourselves special or to believe that we have a special place in the cosmos. And now we believe that our universe is the only one, when it possibly is not.

But, just as the idea of cyclical universes is now rejected (a widely accepted idea in ancient times), at the time the idea that germs caused disease, or that washing hands helped prevent contagion, or something else was denied. heavy that the air could fly, or the idea of continental drift. 

In other words, we live addicted to what we know, and we cling with all our strength to a fictional place of humanity in the cosmos. But the more we know, the more aware we become of our own littleness.

We are so small that it seems the only thing we can leave to the next universe is the ruins of the current one.

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