We Are Almost Not Here

I find it utterly amazing that every planet, star, nebula, gas cloud, and galaxy - everything that we can see in this Universe - only adds up to a mere 5% of the total STUFF that makes it up. It's not as if we simply can't see the remaining 95% of stars, galaxies, nebulae etc. We CAN see nearly ALL the stars, nebulae, galaxies etc in the Universe ... it's just that they all add up to a mere total of 5% of EVERYTHING.

The remaining 95% of the 'stuff' of the Universe is something utterly mysterious. We simply don't know what it is. We give it the labels 'Dark Matter' and 'Dark Energy' simply because we don't know what else to call it.

Furthermore, we don't know why there is even 5% of 'normal' matter at all. Why isn't there 100% Dark Matter and Dark Energy, and 0% 'normal matter'? Of course, if there were, we would not be here to talk about it anyway.

This is just one respect in which 'we are almost not here' at all, existent in this Universe. There are many other reasons as to why we are only JUST here.

Almost not being here at all in this Universe provides us with a very humbling perspective that lends itself to a deep appreciation of existence itself, and a profound insight into just how rare and precious this Earth, with all it's fantastic diversity of life, really is.

This is the main theme of this video. I hope you enjoy it.