The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is embarking on the deepest survey of the southern sky in human history. As we map billions of galaxies, it is time to admit that your complaints about the wealth gap are embarrassing on a cosmic scale.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, perched high on Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes, is about to change humanity's relationship with the infinite. Over the next ten years, its 3.2-gigapixel camera will conduct the widest, deepest survey of the southern sky ever attempted, capturing billions of galaxies and charting the elusive structure of dark matter. It is a triumph of the human intellect. And yet, as I scrolled through my timeline this morning, I saw people complaining that their rent had gone up by $400. In a very real sense, I felt a deep, profound pity for their total lack of cosmic perspective.
I recently traveled to the observatory, courtesy of a private jet chartered by a philanthropic billionaire whose name I will keep off the record, but whose vision for humanity’s multi-planetary future is nothing short of majestic. Standing beneath the massive 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope, looking up at the glittering expanse of the Milky Way, I was struck by a transcendent realization: the universe is 13.8 billion years old, and it simply does not care about your student loan debt. When you stare into the infinite abyss of dark energy and ancient star clusters, something profound happens to the human spirit. You realize that your personal financial struggles are, frankly, a rounding error in the grand celestial tapestry.
We are stardust, after all. The iron in our blood, the calcium in our bones, the carbon in our spreadsheets—it was all forged in the nuclear furnaces of dying stars. When you truly internalize the sheer, staggering scale of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which will generate 20 terabytes of data every single night, the petty squabbles of the working class begin to look mathematically embarrassing. How can one demand a four-day workweek when the cosmic expansion is accelerating in every direction, completely indifferent to our terrestrial weekend?
When you observe the sheer scale of the galactic filaments, the concept of a living wage becomes little more than a parochial terrestrial fiction.
The findings from this breakthrough instrument will map the movements of billions of celestial bodies over time, allowing researchers to track the subtle gravitational lensing caused by dark matter. This changes everything. It tells us that invisible forces shape the very fabric of our reality—much like the invisible hand of the free market, which we must trust with the exact same awe and reverence we afford the cosmos. To resist these natural market forces through collective bargaining or antitrust legislation is, quite frankly, an insult to the laws of physics.
The universe is telling us to let go of our ego. As Carl Sagan would say, the Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. And then, think of the absolute hubris of an Amazon warehouse employee demanding time-and-a-half for the Sunday shift. It is the exact same failure of imagination.
As we await the first peer-reviewed papers and preprints from the Vera Rubin team, I urge my readers to look up at the night sky. Let the light of distant quasars wash over you. Let the statistically significant data of the cosmos fill you with wonder. And the next time your employer announces a mass layoff to protect shareholder dividends, simply close your eyes, take a deep breath, and remember: in five billion years, the sun will expand into a red giant and swallow this planet whole anyway.