Into the Black Hole: The Quantum Singularity in Omega by Epica and Netflix's Dark

This article brings forward my parallax inception about Quantum Singularity as described in Epica’s new album Omega and Netflix’s acclaimed TV series Dark. The cornerstone for the comparison is the Omega Point hypothesis, as defined by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French priest and philosopher.

Inception

Teilhard de Chardin placed man at the forefront of life. Yet, humanity is “folding in upon itself” and hastening the Apocalypse by pushing the same forces that created our world into a downward spiral leading to catastrophic events.

The creators of Omega and Dark seem to follow in the French philosopher’s footsteps as he reminds us that humans, albeit their higher consciousness level among sentient beings, must not forget they are connected to all things and to the universe itself. We exist within, not outside the universe; we are stardust atoms and molecules in the never-ending cycle of life and death traveling through the incommensurable labyrinth of time.

We are dust from dead stars and to the stars we shall return.

“The beginning is the end, and the end is the beginning,” this is the pivotal point around Omega by Epica and Netflix’s Dark. That’s the reason why in the series, Martha tells Jonas that she’s going to help him find the origin — “The one thing that’s the beginning of everything in your world and mine.” The source is the Singularity event, which Epica’s new album calls the Ωmega, a universal trigger that will reshuffle all things.

Comparative review: Dark Vs. Omega

This analysis will demonstrate how we can’t change anything unless we manage to rise above ourselves into more sentient beings, and look past singularity to further understand our humanity.

Hereunder, I will follow the tracklist from Epica's latest album, Omega, and each song (marked ♾) will be analyzed from the perspective of a quote from Netflix acclaimed series Dark, hence promoting a mind-bending parallax effect:

♾ “Alpha — Anteludium”

“Maybe the Big Bang is nothing more than God’s act of creation.” — quote from Dark

In his 1988s book, A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking seemed to accept God's role in creating the universe. But later, in a new text, The Grand Design (2010), he disputed that idea:

“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.” (…) “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”

The Omega Point signals the world’s end both in the series and in the music album. Dark and Omega creators are aware of Teilhard de Chardin’s theories, just like Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein, and all the brilliant minds renowned for their work around relativity, cosmology, and quantum gravity.

However, for every omega, there’s an alpha and vice-versa in a continuous chain of events during which Time itself plays God. The Big Bang is the Alpha for the Omega Point. And so it begins!

♾ Abyss of Time — Countdown to Singularity”

“There is no such thing as magic, just illusion. Things only change when we change them. But you have to do it skillfully, in secret. Then it seems like magic.” — Mikkel Nielsen, quote from Dark.

Netflix’s Dark secretly turns the wheels and cogs of time around humanity’s power to master its destiny and change the tide of events leading to the Omega Point. Epica’s new album finds solace in the same quest, as Simone sings in “Abyss of Time.”

“One thought that grows in the abyss of time

Fills up the vast space with matter and life

Free of the darkness that fetters the soul

Find at the source the end of your goal”

Meanwhile, we hear Dark’s gloomy “Tick Tack. Tick Tack.” counting down to Singularity.

♾ “The Skeleton Key”

“Our thinking is shaped by dualism. Entrance, exit. Black, white. Good, evil. Everything appears as opposite pairs. But that’s wrong.” — H.G. Tannhaus, quote from Dark

Dark and Omega address the private obscure side dwelling on the human mind. The lyrics of this song resonate intricately with the Netflix series leitmotivs.

Life, like the universe, has many layers that bewilder our 3-dimensioned mindset. We need to ascend to a higher plateau for a change in perspective. Nothing is merely black or white if we look beyond the canonical moral codes.

♾ “Seal of Solomon”

“We all face the same end. Those above have long forgotten us. They do not judge us. In death, I am all alone, and my only judge… is me.” — Martha, quote from Dark

The Omega point is the Sphinx’s ultimate enigma. The one who holds Salomon’s amulet will yield the power of transmutation to reach the pivotal moment where the end becomes a new beginning. The Stranger says it in Dark: “Yesterday, today, and tomorrow are not consecutive; they are connected in a never-ending circle. Everything is connected.”

♾ “Gaia”

“Life is a gift… for those who know how to use it.” — Adam (Jonas) quote from Dark

Gaia is the life force that spawns from the Big Bang. That force is running to its doomsday, as humankind increases the entropy levels by harshly harvesting Gaia’s resources, thus bringing more chaos into the system. The power of Gaia can seal humanity’s fate if yielded wrongfully.

♾ ”Code of Life”

“Life is a labyrinth. Some wander around until their death in search of a way out of it.”— Adam, quote from Dark

We are all wanderers since the moment we were born. Our genetic code is the road map for our existence, and life is the maze. Those we get lost can’t find themselves or the exit and will never see the light of day.

♾ “Freedom — The Wolves Within”

“Good and evil are a question of perspective.” — quote from Dark

Hell and heaven are but two hypothetical after-lifeworlds in an infinite Multiverse of possibilities. Good and evil are moral tropes that can be easily transposed by shifting the perspective.

We all carry our demons and angels alike. We can read it in the scriptures, as like Legion, we are many, and everything that dwells inside us will play a part in our nature. “Hell is empty, and all the devils are here,” as mentioned by Eva’s Son in Dark.

“(…) Choose

Between hungry wolves

Between lies and truth

Only one of two will be strong and rule

Choose

Between hungry wolves

Between light and gloom

Only one of two has to starve and lose (…)”

♾ ”Kingdom of Heaven, Part 3 — The Antediluvian Universe”

“Death is incomprehensible but one can reconcile with it.”— Adam (Jonas), quote from Dark.

The centerpiece of Omega addresses the question of life after death and the great beyond. Death is the alpha and omega for Dark’s narrative; we find the same leitmotivs in this song by Epica.

♾ “Rivers”

“We’re wanderers in the darkness.” — quote from Dark.

“Rivers” is a beautiful ballad about the flow of time, hence the river metaphor. The river is life, and while some go with the flow, others try to fight the tide and chase their dreams.

(…) “Break loose from the chains

Rise above the waves

Fighting in the darkness

Dancing in the light

Break out of your cage

Turn another page

Drowning in the river

Swim against the tide of life (…)”

♾ “Synergize — Manic Manifest”

“The mistake in all of our thinking is that we each believe ourselves to be an independent entity. While in reality, we’re all just fractions of an infinite whole.”— Eva (Martha), quote from Dark

I sense subliminal connections at play here, as Epica’s Omega and Netflix’s Dark send a message about how humanity needs to synergize right now! This seems to be another missing link between the song and the show.

♾ “Twilight Reverie — The Hypnagogic State”

“What we know is a drop; what we don’t know is an ocean.” — quote from Dark

I’ve noted how our mind has multiple dimensions. This song shows us that lucid dreaming is like time-traveling—a path into our psyche’s obscure fields of the Nephilim.

♾ “Omega — Sovereign of the Sun Spheres”

“But everything that once lived lives on forever. In the eternity of time.”— Old Tanenhaus's Father — quote from Dark

This is the final premise of Dark and Omega. Time is the ultimate sovereign and he rules almighty in various dimensions. The end is but a new beginning.

Epilogue

Teilhard de Chardin’s theories about the Omega Point were later developed by John von Neumann when he described the “singularity” hypothesis in a technological context. Afterward, I. J. Good’s “intelligence explosion” model predicted that a future superintelligence would trigger a singularity. In 1993, science fiction author, Vernon Vinge, popularized the concept in his study The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era.

Omega and Dark urge us to take action and save our world if we want to save ourselves. Regarding this topic, Vinge wrote: “Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.” The author penned the ominous harbinger in 1993...

Tick Tack. Tick Tack.

“We will soon create intelligences greater than our own … When this happens, human history will have reached a kind of singularity, an intellectual transition as impenetrable as the knotted space-time at the center of a black hole, and the world will pass far beyond our understanding.” — Vernor Vinge

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-Rui