Today on arXiv I came across a paper about a model of the Universe called "chaotic cyclic cosmology" and wondered, what motivates people to come up with crazy models like this?
Perhaps because it is fun.
The many unsolved problems of cosmology make a lot of crazy sounding models possible. Sure, maybe they are unlikely, but if you can take yourself out of the equations a bit and think about what it means that they allow "eternally bouncing models to occur" - actually try to picture in your head an eternally bouncing universe - well, that is just fun.
As a scientist, at some level you have to enjoy the day-to-day - writing code, solving equations, analyzing data, reading and writing papers - but sometimes it can be tedious, dull, and lifeless. Analytical thinking requires dissecting a problem, cutting it apart and studying its pieces as it lies cold and dead upon the operating table of your mind... While getting lost in the details of problem solving and figuring out all the minutia are good for science, they are not necessarily good for your psyche.
To all scientists out there: the next time you are working on that minor contribution to science, struggling to put that next brick in the wall of human knowledge, I think it is worth it to remind yourself occasionally that
the subject of your studies is the Universe and the Universe is awesome.
[Non-cosmologists have to substitute "the Universe" for their own
subject, but as constituents of the Universe, those things are awesome
too.]
To all non-scientists: the next time you get tired of doing whatever it is that you do, ask a scientist to explain their work to you so you both get a boost from thinking about how awesome the Universe is.
