The train you’re taking to see your family is running late. What do you do?
a) Let down my braid, hoist up my skirt, and run to them as fast as I can.
b) No worries, they won’t start eating until I show up.
c) Kill time. Then there’s nothing left.
d) I don’t take a train to see my family—I walk through the woods!
The more science helps us explain the world, the less we need our imaginations. We strip reality of everything that is uncertain and intangible. Nevertheless, fantasizing is still something worthwhile—so let’s embark on a bold journey to the very edge of modern physics.
Just a few centuries ago, local villages and forests were teeming with mystical beings: house spirits and water nymphs, banshees, ghouls, and ghosts, in addition to various minor deities. Far-off lands were thought to be inhabited by bizarre creatures such as monopods and dog-headed men, and sailors returning from distant voyages spoke of encountering mermaids and monstrous krakens—provided they hadn’t fallen off the edge of the earth. The inferno of hell raged beneath our feet, while the heavens above us—divided into sublunar, superlunar, and ethereal realms—were vibrantly inhabited by the spirits of our departed, fairies, angels, archangels, seraphim, celestial thrones, and God knows who or what else. Within us, in the profound depths of our souls, flickered the faint echoes of divine wisdom and subtle whispers from muses and demons.
