I met with Brian Cox this evening. The other one. The nuclear-active ivory-bashing unconditional lover of black holes, Brian Cox. I was out walking my dog and he was picking up a kebab, a copy of Reader's Digest and a box of Polo Mint holes. I did not know one could buy those, but apparently once they press the holes out of Polo Mints, they keep them as a by-product for sale to astronomers.
We spoke about the Fermi Paradox. This is about how vast and expansive the universe is, or appears to be, yet we have no evidence of alien life, even after nearly 3 billion years. We spoke about how large the Milky Way is. It is our Galaxy, yet there are hundreds of billions of Galaxies out there. We spoke about Mars and how our closest planet to us is perhaps where humans may go to work, rest and play. Since the 'big bang', matter has been expanding outwards, from the largest pinwheel star formations down to the molecular level.
Yet, we both agreed, despite the expansion of the universe and human growth and evolution Curly Wurlys have definitely got smaller, their holes have got bigger and we are paying more to buy one. It was then I knew this guy was really on to something. But what he said next really made me sit up.
He said "Kovus, do you love cheese?"
"Yes" I said. "I love cheese very much".
"Well", said Brian, "You need to understand that cheese obeys the universe". He continued "Cheese explains, not only how we got here, but why we are here. More so, it explains our destiny."
He said this: "The more cheese we have, the more holes there are. If we have more holes, we know there must be less cheese. So, if we have more cheese we must therefore have less cheese."
I am in awe.