see also landis's haunting piece "the melancholy of infinite space" [http://www.geoffreylandis.com/infinite.htp http://www.geoffreylandis.com/infinite.htp], whi

see also landis's haunting piece "the melancholy of infinite space" [http://www.geoffreylandis.com/infinite.htp http://www.geoffreylandis.com/infinite.htp], which starts off: We live at the very beginning of the Universe. As we peer back with our telescopes toward the beginning of time, and measure the age of the universe, we are beginning to find that the universe is closer to ten billion years old than to fifty; that the oldest of the stars we see around us are, in fact, as old as any star can be; as old as the universe itself. Looking outward, we are finding that the gravity of the universe is not enough to pull it back together in some future cataclysmic big-crunch. The universe will expand forever. Ten billion years. A mere eyeblink in cosmic time. We stand at the beginning of time, looking outward into the void of infinite time.