Check out a YouTube by FermiLab (I think). The video walks back time from now until some known point, if I remember, 10 to the 14th fraction of a second after the Big Bang. The thing I found interesting is that for the first few hundred thousand years the universe was a large mass of plasma expanding and cooling. No atomic particles existed. The background radiation left over is what we can still detect and measure / map time. Great vid. Probably 20 minutes. Well worth the time.

I understand where all the pessimism comes from. We’re a fear devouring civilization right now. But if we look a what we have achieved in the last 100 years, I beg to differ. Through all the world wars and major battles we’ve still managed to progress. I think we’ll continue to learn and evolve. Solving many problems that seem to be show stoppers today. Will it happen in my lifetime? Nope. But everyday in small labs and countless universities there are breakthroughs and progress. Regardless if one country is beating the hell out of another. And it won’t stop. There will be setbacks and hurdles to cross and yet we seem to find a way. It won’t happen over night. Baby steps, and eventually we’ll be able to develop platforms and propulsion systems that don’t rely on the limiting factors those in use today suffer from. It might be completely bogus but for me the Kardashev theory resonates. Pie in the sky? Maybe. Look what they said to Orville and Wilbur. Not that long ago. Cheer up lads and lasses, the end is not here. But just the beginning. Just my humble opinion.