The Cosmic Thinker’s and Essayist’s Notebook

🪐 A Questioner for the Survival of the Universe
📖 Reading to grasp the axis of history,
📜 Designing the future of civilization through policy,
🔭 Sowing seeds of thought that will endure even 100,000 years from now.

“The universe continues to expand, and so does my thinking within it. To be alive—this itself is my mission.”

“Welcome to a small planet for those who question life and civilization from a cosmic perspective, and for those who share the curiosity.”

about

🪐 A Questioner for the Survival of the Universe 📖 Reading to grasp the axis of history, 📜 Designing the future of civilization through policy, 🔭 Sowing seeds of thought that will endure even 100,000 years from now. “The universe continues to expand, and so does my thinking within it. To be alive—this itself is my mission.” “Welcome to a small planet for those who question life and civilization from a cosmic perspective, and for those who share the curiosity.”

12/14/2024

I am a thinker.

Yet my aspiration within the field of physics education—and my reason for teaching physics at Weizmann—is, in the words of translator Park Byung-cheol, to fulfill my duties as a cosmic being while steadily cultivating the capacity for survival.

New wisdom is always born at the boundaries of knowledge. Physics stands at the farthest edge of that frontier. Wisdom exists to transcend, reconstruct, and enrich knowledge; therefore, I welcome—indeed, must welcome—every new system of understanding. This is also why I study the universe deeply while teaching physics.

The cosmos is strewn with unresolved mysteries: the early universe and primordial black holes, dark energy and dark matter, the graviton and the inflaton, the underlying reason for the structure of the Standard Model. The most advanced framework in physics today—M-theory—offers mathematical responses to these questions. This is why I focus on M-theory as a possible foundation for a new cosmology.

But one truth must be acknowledged: there is a vast difference between cosmic theory and cosmic development. Humanity can conceive infinity, and thus we can describe the universe mathematically without limitation. Yet space development must proceed in full recognition of our finitude—practically and materially. Theorizing the cosmos consumes only a single mind; proving it, or going beyond, demands immense tangible and economic resources. For this reason, space development must be preceded by sustainable development, and even then it may require no less than a century to realize.

In this sense, what is needed is the integration of cosmic thought and Confucian thought—a posture that can hold in balance the far left and the deeply conservative. If cosmic thought is embodied in M-theory, then Confucian thought is expressed in self-cultivation, family regulation, governance of the state, and bringing peace to the world (修身齊家治國平天下). This, I believe, is the end of knowing, the balance of living, and the essence of wisdom: to contemplate the universe while thinking and acting in harmony with oneself, humanity, life, nature, and the cosmos. This is the modern form of wisdom.