Fredrik Möller

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

Human fascination with the universe and our desire to explore and understand its origins, its forces, relates to our search and questions about ourself. Where do I come from? What's my purpose?

The idea to seek, conquer and colonise outside our own planet is old, but the progress has just begun and is still in its infancy. Very exciting times lie ahead of us, if we only pass “The Great Filter”, i.e. that point where we as a species has reached far enough in our technical development to destroy ourselves but before we've reached far enough to secure our own survival.

I open my scuttle at night and see the far-sprinkled systems,

And all I see, multiplied as high as I can cipher, edge but the rim of the farther systems.

Wider and wider they spread, expanding, always expanding,

Outward and outward, and forever outward.

My sun has his sun, and round him obediently wheels,

He joins with his partners, a group of superior circuit,

And greater sets follow, making specks of the greatest inside them.

This day I looked at the crowded heaven,

And I said to my Spirit,

When we become the enfolders of those orbs, and the pleasure and knowledge of everything in them,

shall we be filled and satisfied then?

And my Spirit said,

No, we but level that lift, to pass and continue beyond.

Excerpt from "Song of Myself, 45 & 46" by Walt Whitman - 1819-1892