In the past few months I have found myself struggling to comprehend my own existence. What am I? What are you … our descendents long into the future ... our ancestors long into the past … ?

This is all due to the recent discovery of the Oort Cloud Object 10558 AL 89 , nicknamed Olodumare after the god that breathed life into humanity in ancient Yoruba mythology. The name was chosen because of the electric field surrounding the object, which contains all the necessary information to create the human genome.

Until now, we thought we had our place in the world all figured out, ever since Charles Darwin first came up with his revolutionary theory of evolution, after replacing that theory with a new and improved theory of evolution, the discovery that we are primates---close relatives of the ancient gorillas and chimpanzees that once roamed the sub-Saharan forests and jungles of Africa. The missing link thought to be found long ago in the hominid fossil record. It wasn't missing, it was just yet undiscovered.

But was that “link” really a link at all?

I'm starting to have my doubts. The universe is all about coincidences: The size and distance of the Moon from Earth to allow for humans to have enjoyed the view of a perfectly eclipsed Sun during our planet’s prime; the imbalance between matter and antimatter; every physical constant in the universe that allowed for it to look and work as it does today; the fact that us humans are alive at just the right time to experience all of the wonders that the universe has to offer …

Maybe not that last one. I and several other scientists are struggling to accept this discovery as a mere coincidence. Maybe the fact that we discovered it was, but the implications? If the human genome wasn't so large and unimaginably complex we might be more willing to accept it as mere coincidence that a seemingly random object surrounded by a seemingly random electric field containing the exact information to create the human genome would exist at the edge of our very own solar system. While this discovery makes us extremely uncomfortable, it may have a silver lining in that it might open the door to absolute control of human genetics. Many of us feel that this is everything but random, and that leaves us with the question, Who or what created us? That then leads to a scarier question that I fear we may not want the answer to: Why?

It almost seems as though there really is a creator that gave life to humanity. As crazy as it sounds, maybe God was a planetoid orbiting the sun in the Oort Cloud all along, and with each glance through our telescopes we were unknowingly staring into his face, until the day we finally defiled him by sending a space probe to inspect him because of his having such an odd shape for his size.

At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, I fear that we may have angered this God by observing him. Perhaps we were never meant to discover him, or the electric field containing our genome. I say this because ever since the discovery I’ve felt like I’m being stalked. I tell myself several times a day that it’s just my own imperfect human mind playing tricks on me---after all, the brain does love to make things up. That’s why we have science, so that our brains can’t interfere with our understanding of the universe. I’ve never been a believer in the supernatural, but I know strange things have been happening around me since the discovery of Olodumare. Maybe I’m paranoid. Maybe, if there is something here, it’s trying to communicate information rather than malice. I don’t know what to think anymore. I don’t know what to believe anymore. I’ve fallen into an existential crisis and I’m afraid for my life.

Everything is connected. In this universe of coincidences this discovery has proven to us that us humans are in fact the exception and not the rule.

Best regards in our shared endeavors in Science,

Dr. Johan Björklund