Galaxies, Big Bang, possible geometries of the universe, block universe, multiverse, and Omniverse are approached here as stages in one and the same intellectual vertigo, in which science ultimately surpasses intuition and common sense. Running through the work is an obsessive question: what remains of the human when the sky no longer has a center, a purpose, or a gaze turned toward us?
“Infinity is not only the most powerful instrument of mathematical research, it is also the very reason for the existence of science.” H. Margerin
From the myth-filled night skies of the first peoples to the abstract geometries of space-time, this book traces humanity’s extraordinary quest to understand the heavens. It begins by exploring the symbolic, philosophical, and theological cosmologies through which humankind gave meaning to the universe, before following the irruption of measurement, the telescope, and modern physics, which shifted the cosmos into infinity, motion, and calculation.
“For us convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however tenacious it may be.” A. Einstein
Between cosmological rigor and existential reflection, this journey through the interpreted and measured sky invites the reader to accept the end of anthropocentrism and to look upon the universe no longer as a backdrop, but as an indifferent, vertiginous, and profoundly destabilizing reality.