Imagine traveling to a far away country, like on the opposite side of the globe.

You've been pumped, you've been prepping for this trip, you've got your passport,

you've got your extra underwear, you have your snacks for the flight, the whole deal.

What do you expect when the plane lands and you finally arrive after a million hour flight? At least you have a

decent podcast to listen to to past the time, but you finally land, the doors open, you walk off,

and what do you expect? You expect it to be exotic,

right? And foreign. Maybe it's warmer or maybe it's colder. There's, the people should be

different. The language should be different. The money should be different. Even, even the cheese

should be different. Imagine traveling all day, landing, getting off the plane, and it's the same.

The people look the same.

The air smells the same.

The buildings look the same.

Everything's in the exact same language where you left.

It's like you never left at all.

How could two cultures separated by thousands of miles and oceans and mountains and

unnavigable rivers end up being exactly the same.

If this were to happen to you, you would face what cosmologists call a horizon problem.

How could a culture beyond your horizon end up looking the same as your own.

In order for that to happen, there needs to be contact, there needs to be trade, there

needs to be a lot of time for the two cultures to interact, to meld together into a single

unified culture that despite their differences,

their distances, they are essentially the same. That takes time. When we look out at the universe,

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