Paul

Erlend Loe: Supernaiivi

” Prof. Paul Davies

I am a young man and I don’t feel so good. I have a good friend and a bad friend, and I have a brother who is less sympathetic than me. I don’t have a girlfriend.
I used to be a student, but I quit. Most days I just sit in my brother’s apartment and think, and in the evenings I throw a ball against a wall and catch it when it comes back. And I have a toy that is a hammer and some plastic pegs that goes through a wooden plank, and I knock the pegs down and turn the plank around and knock them down again.
Sometimes I read a book that you have written. It is the one about time. I don’t like to think about the time that passes, and you seem to say that time doesn’t exist and that makes me glad, but I do not feel certain that I understand you perfectly well.
You also say that the universe will collapse one day.
You say so many frightening things.
I would love to have the feeling that everything has a meaning and that it will be o.k. in the end.
Right now I don’t have this feeling at all.
I would like to ask you twelve questions, and I will be immensely grateful if you answer.

Here are the questions:

1. Does time exist?

2. Does the size of the universe scare you?

3. Do you sometimes feel that everything you do is futile because the sun will be burnt out in five billion years?

4. Do you like to throw a ball against a wall and catch it again? Do you do it often? Would you do it more often if you had the time?

5. If Einstein was alive today, do you think he would be your friend?

6. How is it possible that the past, the present and the future all exist at the same time?

7. Do you sometimes wish you didn’t know all the things you know, and were free to run on a beach careless and ignorant of everything?

8. Do you think that the big bang was a coincidence?

9. I did not ask to be born. Neither did anyone else. The size and complexity of the universe makes me feel so small and free of responsibility. It only makes me feel that the only meaningful thing to do is to try and have a good time. Do you understand that feeling? Do you have it yourself?

10. Do you think that the human brain is capable of thinking an infinite number of thoughts?

11. Do you disapprove of television commercials that feature animated food, for instance biscuits that dance and jump into the cheese?

12. Do you sometimes stat to laugh because the numbers you are dealing with are so huge?

Thank you very much.”