In my novel, The Messenger Within, one of the heroes, James, just prior to leaving Earth for Venus, is thinking about what he might find on the planet, and this leads to a thought that he has about understanding the universe and all that’s in it: 

“He remembered his pet Iguana, Augustus. James had a mirror next to Augustus’s enclosure. The other Iguana in the mirror had fascinated Augustus. Each day he performed the same ritual, he would hiss at it, thrust himself against the glass and wobble his head back and forth. Every day, his alter ego would do exactly the same. It was quite amusing…at least until James had a thought. He is never going to understand that this is his reflection. It is beyond his comprehension. James realized that the Iguana’s brain didn’t have the capacity to ever understand the concept of a mirror. Surely, it must be the same for humans. There must be some level of knowledge that is beyond our comprehension. Perhaps the universe is our mirror. We will stare at it forever and never understand. No matter how hard we try.”

We have a conceit; it’s engrained; that humans have the ability to understand everything and over time, any difficult concept or problem will be overcome. But we know that every species below us has a limit to their intellect and to their ability to comprehend. So why would we expect our species to be different?

We haven’t been able to develop a unified theory of the very large and the very small. We don’t understand dark matter and dark energy. Perhaps we have reached our limit of comprehension… or perhaps not. But it doesn’t matter, the joy in life, is the mystery. We work to understand what we can. And each small step leads us on to the next. It’s the journey that matters, not the destination. 

And I wouldn’t want it any other way.