Ramblings about Cosmology and Quantum Mechanics

When Caius is alone at the helm at night he muses about a wide variety of subjects, some of which deal with oceanography and the sea or maritime history but others of which wander more far afield into questions relating to the origins and fate of the universe and the nature of ultimate reality. These segments of the text are shaded (these are thoughts in the dark). Some readers have suggested that the segments about cosmology and particle physics should have been deleted, being too far removed from the main issue at hand, sailing a boat around the world. But for me crossing oceans on Piscataway was not just about sailing. It was also about thinking, and out in such remote places as the middle of oceans under star-filled skies there was a tendency to think expansively. In the course of the journey around the world I realized that I do not want to die without having arrived at some sort of understanding of basic reality or what is also referred to as a “theory of everything.” As a non-scientist I cannot expect to master the math and chemistry and physics needed to arrive at such an understanding. What I was striving for was arrival at a broad concept, satisfactory to me at least, if not the scientific community, of what reality consists of. I made some progress while musing at the night helm and I am still working on it.