19 posts tagged “philosophy”
I finished Dan Brown's latest during the week. I don't read a lot of fiction, but enjoyed this one. Rather surprisingly, to me, he mentions a lot of the cosmic consciousness stuff that I have mentioned in FNP over the last few months, as well as other stuff that I hadn't considered. As well, he explains a lot of Masonic symbolism that I hadn't really understood when I was a member of the Masons. He introduces some nice twists and turns, and all in all I think he does a fair enough job of providing some entertaining reading. But anyone looking for anything life changing will be disappointed. It is, after all, a mystery novel.
I do wonder though if any of the cosmic consciousness possibilities he mentions may one day turn out to be the key to a deeper understanding of life, the universe, and all that. I came across the following comment in Neil deGrasse Tyson's Cosmic Perspective recently, and it got me wondering. The comment is as follows:
". . . until the day I learned in biology class that more bacteria live and work in one centimeter of my colon than the number of people who have ever existed in the world. That kind of information makes you think twice about who—or what—is actually in charge.
From that day on, I began to think of people not as the masters of space and time but as participants in a great cosmic chain of being, with a direct genetic link across species both living and extinct, extending back nearly 4 billion years to the earliest single-celled organisms on Earth.
I know what you're thinking: we're smarter than bacteria.
No doubt about it, we're smarter than every other living creature that ever walked, crawled, or slithered on Earth. But how smart is that? We cook our food. We compose poetry and music. We do art and science. We're good at math. Even if you're bad at math, you're probably much better at it than the smartest chimpanzee, whose genetic identity varies in only trifling ways from ours. (My emphasis) Try as they might, primatologists will never get a chimpanzee to learn the multiplication table or do long division.
If small genetic differences between us and our fellow apes account for our vast difference in intelligence, maybe that difference in intelligence is not so vast after all.
Imagine a life-form whose brainpower is to ours as ours is to a chimpanzee's. To such a species our highest mental achievements would be trivial. Their toddlers, instead of learning their ABCs on Sesame Street, would learn multivariable calculus on Boolean Boulevard. Our most complex theorems, our deepest philosophies, the cherished works of our most creative artists, would be projects their schoolkids bring home for Mom and Dad to display on the refrigerator door. These creatures would study Stephen Hawking (who occupies the same endowed professorship once held by Newton at the University of Cambridge) because he's slightly more clever than other humans, owing to his ability to do theoretical astrophysics and other rudimentary calculations in his head.
If a huge genetic gap separated us from our closest relative in the
animal kingdom, we could justifiably celebrate our brilliance. We might
be entitled to walk around thinking we're distant and distinct from our
fellow creatures. But no such gap exists. Instead, we are one with the
rest of nature, fitting neither above nor below, but within." End of quote.
If evolution is true, and I believe it is, then it doesn't seem to be all that much of a stretch to believe that one day, humans will be capable of the above. I have no idea how long it will take for this to be apparent. However, being part of that "great cosmic chain of being" gives life meaning where meaning is at times not all that apparent in this world we live in. It's nice to be reminded of that, now and again.
Enlightenment
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Cosmic consciousness?
Quantum consciousness?
Multiple universes?
String Theory?
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The diagram above is how I see this life. We are born into a human centric world, and spend most of our lives trying to satisfy the demands of the Maslow Hierarchy of needs. Our spiritual needs are taught to us by our parents, and in many cases, with the assistance of churches and schools. And for many of us, that suffices to see us through our time on this Earth.
But, for some of us, those spiritual needs are not satisfied. We need to look further afield. I see this search continuing on from the self actualisation layer at the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy. And this is uncharted waters, indeed. There are no certainties to be had here. Yet, for some of us, this gives life a meaning that it would not otherwise have; the meaning of life, perhaps. For some of us, it is indeed better to walk in darkness, than be guided by false light.
I see the first step beyond self actualisation as an
internal one. Just what is going on in our minds? What is it that guides us
through this life? I’ve long marvelled at the ability of the new born to know how
to suckle, and how to get the attention of the mother to let the mother know it
is hungry. This survival skill is programmed into the child’s subconscious
mind. It just knows what to do.
This, from last week's FNP intrigues me, "Freud associated certain dream images with primitive ideas, myths, and rites. He claimed that these dream images are "archaic remnants" - psychic elements that have survived in the brain from ages long ago. The subconscious mind is a trash heap. No wonder we suffer guilt, for we suffer not only for ourselves, but also for our ancestors who may have raped, murdered, and pillaged thousands of years ago."
I wonder what else is programmed in that subconscious. I wonder if, buried deep in our psyche, there is a latent sense that has lain dormant since life began; a sense that will manifest itself when mankind has the knowledge to recognise it. And, as mankind continues to delve into the mysteries of the universe, that sense will be awakened to at last enable Man to fill in the last pieces of the puzzle.
As mankind’s conscious knowledge of the universes increases, so too does the awareness of this knowledge feed back into the subconscious to maybe awaken that other sense from its dormancy. And the likelihood of this hypothesis having some validity? Probably very little, but then again… Meanwhile, mankind grapples with the mind bending mysteries of cosmic consciousness, quantum consciousness, multiple universes, string theory, and other mysteries not yet even imagined.
And so, eventually to enlightenment, not in this lifetime, unfortunately. At this point, mankind
has sloughed off the myths and superstitions that sustained/hindered his quest
for the elusive enlightenment for so long. I like to think so, anyway. Maybe our stupidity
will have ensured that we will have perished before then. And the universe will go on its merry way without even a hiccup to mark our passing. So, all of our
fretting, squabbling, and strife will have come to nothing. Maybe the universe
has a wry sense of humour at that.
But, this is looking at life from a human
perspective. From the cosmic perspective, there is no nothing. Just energy,
that changes from one form to another; quantum energy; a far more fascinating
world that holds the promise of multiple universes. That is the world I want to
explore.
And so, that brings me to the end of my search. Or, should I say the beginning. There’s enough there to keep this old man occupied for his remaining years. But I am at peace with myself. I know I’ve given it my best shot. I haven’t been content to blindly follow in the steps of charlatans, who are more interested in Earthly truths than spiritual ones. I’ve tried to be my own man. I don’t know if I have succeeded, but I tried. That is all that matters.
So this will be the last Friday Night Philosophy for now. I must admit to having lost a bit of my blogging mojo. Maybe a hiatus will see me back philosophising again. Maybe not. Whatever, it’s been fun, and my thanks to those who have stayed with me to the end. It has indeed been my pleasure.
I finished this book a few days ago.
However, in the early part of his book he makes a comment on Freud that I had not read before, and it seemed to make a lot of sense to me in my thoughts of why some of us are liberal, and some are conservative in our outlook. The passage is as follows:
"Freud associated certain dream images with primitive ideas, myths, and rites. He claimed that these dream images are "archaic remnants" - psychic elements that have survived in the brain from ages long ago. The subconscious mind is a trash heap. No wonder we suffer guilt, for we suffer not only for ourselves, but also for our ancestors who may have raped, murdered, and pillaged thousands of years ago."
I'm reminded of Will Durant's observation that mankind's sins may very well symbolise our rise, rather than our fall. Raping, murdering, and pillaging were the means our ancestors employed to survive. It is only when we formed groups to better enable survival that those impulses had to be sublimated within the group if the group's survival was to assume greater importance than the individual's. That was the beginning of our moral codes.
It seems to me that we still today are confused as to whether to rely on individualism, or give up some of that individualism in order to better enhance the strength of the group. (hence the conservatives' hatred of government) I think the great contribution of Christianity, and similar religions, was to sublimate man's natural brutal impulses for the betterment of the group. The threat of eternal damnation was a powerful weapon in enforcing this new moral code. Mankind is now trying to come to terms with scientific truths that threaten to forge a new moral code; one that sees all mankind as the group whose survival we should be looking to ensure, rather than our groups determined by country, class or creed. What use are these groups in the face of a climate change that may destroy us all?
But quantum theory makes us look at life from an entirely new perspective. It says that we may exist in multiple universes, or that the universe only exists in our minds. Yes, I know. That's the cue to do something about warding off that Big Al. Till next week.
I finished the first book, which was this one:
As to be expected of a physicist, he spends much of the time in trying to explain to the layman, the physics leading to quantum mechanics. This layman, with his electricity background, managed to stay with him until about half way through. I suppose I might have understood more if it wasn’t for my inherent mental laziness that says “To hell with it” if I haven’t understood it at first pass. Of course, this then means that the foundation is missing to understand the remainder of the book. Laziness does have its drawbacks. No wonder none of my ancestors ever contributed much to man’s knowledge. (Except the futility of stealing an anchor, but that’s another story).
I probably could have just flipped to the summary to find out what I wanted to know. He uses his considerable knowledge of physics to smack down religion in many cases, as well as the so-called cosmic consciousness quantum spiritualists. The next book I have started is this one, also written by a physicist who comes to a very different conclusion regarding quantum spirituality:
I do think the second book is better written for the layman, as I am finding his explanation of quantum mechanics easier to follow than the first one. Far too early to decide who I want to believe. It may not be either; it may be both. We shall see.
Anyway, below are some of the conclusions reached by the
first author. By “deist” he means a God who created the universe, and then
found something else to do to occupy his time. He does not interfere with the
day to day running of the universe.
By “theist”, he means the God who created the universe, but who also takes an interest in the day to day running of it. I think the deist God appeals more to the lazy people among us. Anyway, here’s part of the summary:
1. The omniscient, omnibenevolent theist Judeo-Christian-Islamic God, who intervenes regularly in the universe and in the lives of humans, can be proved not to exist beyond a reasonable doubt. Such a God is not only logically impossible, he is falsified by the data.
2. The
Enlightenment deist God, who created a perfectly predetermined universe,
can almost, but not quite, be ruled out.
3. Modern physics, including the uncertainty of conventional interpretations of quantum mechanics and deterministic chaos theory, do not provide a viable way for the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God, or any modelled after him, to intervene regularly in the universe without noticeably breaking the laws of physics. But he could surreptitiously intervene to prevent many diseases and catastrophes, so that the fact that he does not, also counts against his existence.
4. A new deist God consistent with statistical quantum mechanics is still possible.
5. The claim that quantum mechanics shows that we can make our own reality in our minds, and those minds are connected holistically to a grand cosmic consciousness, is based on either misunderstandings or deliberate misrepresentations of what quantum mechanics really says. No empirical evidence supports the notion that mind is anything other than the product of material forces.
So, there it is. There should be enough in the last statement alone to keep the theologians, philosophers, and New Age proponents arguing for another couple of thousand years.
And where does that leave those
of us in search of a few simple truths on which to hang our hats? Reaching for
the whisky bottle again, I think.
My books arrived this week. Amazon had informed me that they
would not arrive until 9th September. So, my journey down the cosmic
consciousness path started a little earlier than I had anticipated. I started
reading this one.
He speaks of quantum spirituality, and mentions the movie, “What the beep would I know?” I do recall seeing it a couple of years ago, and was suitably impressed, until I later saw it disparaged as “New Age rubbish”. And reading the author’s comments about quantum spirituality gives me pause to stop and think a bit more about the path that I have chosen to explore.
Science has steadily worn away at religious beliefs over the ages so that for many, including myself, religion does not hold any truths. But it is also true to say that science cannot replace religion as a belief system. It seems that many, including New Agers, have developed a belief system from where science leaves off, hence quantum spirituality. To understand where they’re coming from, one first has to try to understand quantum physics.
Now, I have no illusions as to the ability of the layman to understand quantum physics. We can try to get some understanding as to what it is about, but that understanding is a superficial one at best. To me, that is no foundation on which to build a belief system. For those sufficiently qualified in quantum physics who choose to do so, then good luck to them, but I am not going to follow them. No, the most I can hope for is to come to some understanding of what they are about, and see if it makes sense to me. Then I’ll spend the rest of my life pondering over whether they’re right or not.
But in the meantime, there are some truly mind boggling things to get one’s head around, and this is from the scientific guys who are quantum spirituality sceptics. Even Einstein had trouble with quantum theory which led to his often misinterpreted quote, “God does not play dice”. It wasn’t an affirmation of his religious faith, as some of the fundies would have us believe, but a comment on the uncertainty principle of quantum theory.
From what I can understand, Newton’s laws hold firm until science delves into the sub atomic world. Then, quantum theory takes over. And the quantum world is a very strange one indeed, where all the rules of common sense go out the door. It seems that sub atomic electrons can’t quite make up their minds if they are waves or particles. And it is the observer who influences that. The quantum spiritualists interpret that to mean that we create our own reality. Come to think of it, those books arrived a month early. Maybe it’s started already do you think? And yes, I’m smiling when I say that.
My head hurts too. I think I need some Friday Night Medicine. That always seems to have a marked effect on my spirituality, quantum, or otherwise.
I started writing my book this week. In it I will follow the path I took in my quest for knowledge. From the small town attitudes I learnt in my childhood through to the present time where I’m delving into the mysteries of cosmic consciousness. When I think back, it’s been quite a journey. A snippet of knowledge gleaned here and there along the way has got me to this point in my life where I hope I rely more on reason than emotion to make a decision, although I know that I’ll never quite separate the two.
I was going to say that I hope I’m a bit more tolerant of others, but I know I’m not. Maybe I’ll have to settle for better understanding, and try to follow Max Erhmann’s “As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story.”
I came upon this site using Stumble, and it made me feel very humble indeed. It lists the achievements of mankind over the years right from pre-history times; mankind inventing things, developing religions and philosophies, and exploring every nook and cranny of existence. We’ve come a long, long way, indeed, and I stand in awe at the wonder of it all. I’m reminded of Will Durant’s observation of civilisation:
“Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with people, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks. Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks for the river.”
I guess I could rightfully claim to be one of the ones on the banks, as I can’t see any historian taking too much interest in my life. No matter, I’m content to meander along gathering a snippet of knowledge here and there, and pausing now and again to contemplate the wonder of it all. I guess if I can help someone else to come to that state of peace, then I’ll have done my bit on the banks, albeit a humble bit, but a worthwhile bit for all that.
I had hoped to be impressing you all with my newfound knowledge of cosmic consciousness gleaned from the books I ordered. Unfortunately, they won’t arrive until 9th September, as I mistakenly ordered them surface mail. I can’t really blame old age as I was under 70 when I ordered them. Just goes to show that the young are just as capable of stuffing things up as the old.
So, I’m going to have to talk about some old favourites that pointed me towards the cosmic consciousness path. Such as this one from Einstein:
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
I think it is true that looking at life from the human perspective is a kind of prison. We are so absorbed in the day to day problems of survival that we close our eyes to the marvels around us. If we are to avoid Thoreau’s fear that “when the time comes to die, discover that we have not lived” then we have to embrace Einstein’s “all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty”.
And we find that by looking at life from the cosmic perspective, we enrich our view of life from the human perspective. By acknowledging that we are part of a stupendous universe, and our kinship with fellow creatures, we come to a calmness that eludes us otherwise; a feeling that indeed “the universe is unfolding as it should” envelops us. The view of the pale blue dot teaches us that our petty differences are infinitesimally smaller than that dot, and allows us to place our troubles in their true perspective. We are one with the universe, and each other. Why is it so difficult for us to comprehend that? It is because we haven’t learnt to view life from the cosmic perspective. I think it’s time that the world did. I’m more than a little tired of this infantile bickering that passes for meaningful life for so many, and results in the deaths of millions. Is that really what life was meant to be? I don’t think so.
I recall my own education. It prepared me for physical survival, but little else. Maybe it’s better these days, but looking around me, I doubt it. I don’t see anyone singing the praises of the miracle of life. I look at the newspapers that are intent on informing us of all the disasters in this world, and the foolishness of men. Governments occupy themselves with matters of physical survival. Who nurtures the soul? The churches? I don’t think so. Any organisation so preoccupied with man’s real or imagined sins does not uplift the spirit.
No, cosmic consciousness is the only path to that. And I
have enough faith in mankind to know that sooner or later it will show the way.
After all, it isn’t so difficult, is it. Einstein has shown us that we are in a
prison. The only thing stopping us from opening the door of that prison is our
fear of discovering what’s outside. And who wants to spend the only life we’ll
ever have, in prison?
So, did you all both spend time outside looking at the stars like I told you to do last week? Thought so. Neither did I. Far too cold here in the Southern Hemisphere. Cosmic consciousness will have to wait a little longer. I do like to contemplate the universe when I take my daily walk, though. I like to look at the trees and the various bits of vegetation, and marvel at the various forms of life that surround us. The birds all doing what birds do, and the ants. And us. I like to think of it all as an exciting story unfolding to I know not where, but unfolding just the same. Just as Max Erhmann said it does. How I wish I could have spent some time with him. Maybe in another universe.
The wonderful Carl Sagan said,"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." I want to know what that something incredible is. It helps to give life meaning to search for it, I think. I posted earlier in the week about a couple of books I ordered. I don't expect a blinding flash of enlightenment from them, but I do expect to expand my thinking regarding cosmic consciousness and it's possible connection to string theory. It's all part of the journey, and I look with eagerness to the view from the window. Perhaps the something incredible is the journey itself.
I'll leave you with some more poems from the incomparable Max Erhmann. Sorry about Vox having it's own ideas on changing justification from edit to post. Kind of detracts from the mood a little. Oh well, try and ignore it.
Whatever Else You Do.
Whatever
else you do or forbear,
impose upon yourself the task of happiness;
and now and then abandon yourself
to the joy of laughter.
And however much you condemn
the evil in the world, remember that the
world is not all evil; that somewhere
children are at play, as you yourself in the
old days; that women still find joy in the stalwart hearts of men;
And that men, treading with restless feet
their many paths, may yet find refuge
from the storms of the world in the cheerful
house of love.
Life
I sat with the stars on the hill of life
And looked at the world below.
I ran with the winds where winds begin
And followed them where they blow.
I lay by the sea on the beaten rock
And rode on the furthest wave,
I watched by a child on its night of birth
And followed it to its grave.
And love in the still of the star-flecked night,
When earth was all strewn with gold,
Has lifted my heart like the chords of song
Oft sung in the worlds of old.
And though I have not understood all this ,
Made up of a laugh and a wail,
I think that the God of the world knows all,
And some day will tell the tale.
There are two
ways to live;
you can live as if nothing is a miracle;
you can live as if everything is a miracle.
~Albert Einstein
The above was recently posted over on Inspirational Place’s blog. I like it very much, and my thanks to Inspirational Place for it. It illustrates the difference between human and cosmic perspectives nicely. From our human perspective, with all the drudgery and disappointment in our attempts to scale the lower rungs of Maslow’s hierarchy, it would be very easy to live each day as though nothing is a miracle. Yet, when we view life from our cosmic perspective, it is difficult to not live each day as if everything were a miracle.
It isn’t surprising that Einstein would have to be up there with those we
might consider as having attained cosmic consciousness. Similarly, Carl Sagan
and Neil de Grasse Tyson would take their place beside him. However, the one
who pointed the way to cosmic consciousness for me was Max Ehrmann, who is best
known for his lovely “Desiderata”. There is a book with a collection of his
poems available from Amazon.
Here is one of those poems:
Wanderers
A clear, cool night. I have
been reading,
but the thoughts of man do not solace me.
I raised the curtain and looked at the moon,
clear and silvery; and I brushed
some of the unrest out of my mind,
I know all the theories of the moon.
There have been times when the symbols
of science have robbed me of some of its
mystery and charm.
But no one can explain the moon any
more than a grasshopper can explain me.
In youth, the moon promised too much.
But now I understand better; that was not the moon's fault.
Also the moon and I have this in common:
we both are wanderers across the night.
In truth, we are all wanderers in the night. I find nothing so soothing to the soul as sitting quietly outside looking at the stars and the moon. The human concerns that trouble me always seem to diminish to their true perspective, while all the while a wondrous cosmic consciousness beckons towards a new dawn. And, each day, as we marvel at Einstein’s miracle, we approach that dawn with an ever increasing anticipation. The miracle unfolds before our very eyes.
But only if we open them. That is why we must spare a moment each day to savour Einstein's miracle. And in so doing, open our minds to a life enhancing cosmic consciousness.
No less than the trees and the stars, you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
No doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Max Ehrmann. "Desiderata"
I've written some of my thoughts about cosmic consciousness, and I have to say they would appear a bit far out to anyone who doesn't see life from the cosmic perspective. So, you're going to have to do some homework. Below is Neil de Grasse Tyson's Cosmic Perspective. In particular, note his comment:
The cosmic perspective not only
embraces our genetic kinship with all life on Earth but also values our
chemical kinship with any yet-to-be discovered life in the universe, as
well as our atomic kinship with the universe itself.
The Cosmic Perspective
Universe: The 100th Essay
by Neil deGrasse Tyson
From Natural History Magazine, April 2007
Of all the sciences cultivated by mankind, Astronomy is acknowledged to be, and undoubtedly is, the most sublime, the most interesting, and the most useful. For, by knowledge derived from this science, not only the bulk of the Earth is discovered . . . ; but our very faculties are enlarged with the grandeur of the ideas it conveys, our minds exalted above [their] low contracted prejudices.
Long before anyone knew that the universe had a beginning, before we knew that the nearest large galaxy lies two and a half million light-years from Earth, before we knew how stars work or whether atoms exist, James Ferguson's enthusiastic introduction to his favorite science rang true. Yet his words, apart from their eighteenth-century flourish, could have been written yesterday.
But who gets to think that way? Who gets to celebrate this cosmic view of life? Not the migrant farmworker. Not the sweatshop worker. Certainly not the homeless person rummaging through the trash for food. You need the luxury of time not spent on mere survival. You need to live in a nation whose government values the search to understand humanity's place in the universe. You need a society in which intellectual pursuit can take you to the frontiers of discovery, and in which news of your discoveries can be routinely disseminated. By those measures, most citizens of industrialized nations do quite well.
Yet the cosmic view comes with a hidden cost. When I travel thousands of miles to spend a few moments in the fast-moving shadow of the Moon during a total solar eclipse, sometimes I lose sight of Earth.
When I pause and reflect on our expanding universe, with its galaxies hurtling away from one another, embedded within the ever-stretching, four-dimensional fabric of space and time, sometimes I forget that uncounted people walk this Earth without food or shelter, and that children are disproportionately represented among them.
When I pore over the data that establish the mysterious presence of dark matter and dark energy throughout the universe, sometimes I forget that every day—every twenty-four-hour rotation of Earth—people kill and get killed in the name of someone else's conception of God, and that some people who do not kill in the name of God kill in the name of their nation's needs or wants.
When I track the orbits of asteroids, comets, and planets, each one a pirouetting dancer in a cosmic ballet choreographed by the forces of gravity, sometimes I forget that too many people act in wanton disregard for the delicate interplay of Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and land, with consequences that our children and our children’s children will witness and pay for with their health and well-being.
And sometimes I forget that powerful people rarely do all they can to help those who cannot help themselves.
I occasionally forget those things because, however big the world is—in our hearts, our minds, and our outsize atlases—the universe is even bigger. A depressing thought to some, but a liberating thought to me.
Consider an adult who tends to the traumas of a child: a broken toy, a scraped knee, a schoolyard bully. Adults know that kids have no clue what constitutes a genuine problem, because inexperience greatly limits their childhood perspective.
As grown-ups, dare we admit to ourselves that we, too, have a collective immaturity of view? Dare we admit that our thoughts and behaviors spring from a belief that the world revolves around us? Apparently not. And the evidence abounds. Part the curtains of society's racial, ethnic, religious, national, and cultural conflicts, and you find the human ego turning the knobs and pulling the levers.
Now imagine a world in which everyone, but especially people with power and influence, holds an expanded view of our place in the cosmos. With that perspective, our problems would shrink—or never arise at all—and we could celebrate our earthly differences while shunning the behavior of our predecessors who slaughtered each other because of them.
Back in February 2000, the newly rebuilt Hayden Planetarium featured a space show called Passport to the Universe,
which took visitors on a virtual zoom from New York City to the edge of
the cosmos. En route the audience saw Earth, then the solar system,
then the 100 billion stars of the Milky Way galaxy shrink to barely
visible dots on the planetarium dome.
Within a month of opening day, I received a letter from an Ivy
League professor of psychology whose expertise was things that make
people feel insignificant. I never knew one could specialize in such a
field. The guy wanted to administer a before-and-after questionnaire to
visitors, assessing the depth of their depression after viewing the
show. Passport to the Universe,
he wrote, elicited the most dramatic feelings of smallness he had ever experienced.
How could that be? Every time I see the space show (and others we've produced), I feel alive and spirited and connected. I also feel large, knowing that the goings-on within the three-pound human brain are what enabled us to figure out our place in the universe.
Allow me to suggest that it's the professor, not I, who has misread nature. His ego was too big to begin with, inflated by delusions of significance and fed by cultural assumptions that human beings are more important than everything else in the universe.
In all fairness to the fellow, powerful forces in society leave most of us susceptible. As was I . . . until the day I learned in biology class that more bacteria live and work in one centimeter of my colon than the number of people who have ever existed in the world. That kind of information makes you think twice about who—or what—is actually in charge.
From that day on, I began to think of people not as the masters of space and time but as participants in a great cosmic chain of being, with a direct genetic link across species both living and extinct, extending back nearly 4 billion years to the earliest single-celled organisms on Earth.
I know what you're thinking: we're smarter than bacteria.
No doubt about it, we're smarter than every other living creature that ever walked, crawled, or slithered on Earth. But how smart is that? We cook our food. We compose poetry and music. We do art and science. We're good at math. Even if you're bad at math, you're probably much better at it than the smartest chimpanzee, whose genetic identity varies in only trifling ways from ours. Try as they might, primatologists will never get a chimpanzee to learn the multiplication table or do long division.
If small genetic differences between us and our fellow apes account for our vast difference in intelligence, maybe that difference in intelligence is not so vast after all.
Imagine a life-form whose brainpower is to ours as ours is to a chimpanzee's. To such a species our highest mental achievements would be trivial. Their toddlers, instead of learning their ABCs on Sesame Street, would learn multivariable calculus on Boolean Boulevard. Our most complex theorems, our deepest philosophies, the cherished works of our most creative artists, would be projects their schoolkids bring home for Mom and Dad to display on the refrigerator door. These creatures would study Stephen Hawking (who occupies the same endowed professorship once held by Newton at the University of Cambridge) because he's slightly more clever than other humans, owing to his ability to do theoretical astrophysics and other rudimentary calculations in his head.
If a huge genetic gap separated us from our closest relative in the animal kingdom, we could justifiably celebrate our brilliance. We might be entitled to walk around thinking we're distant and distinct from our fellow creatures. But no such gap exists. Instead, we are one with the rest of nature, fitting neither above nor below, but within.
Need more ego softeners? Simple comparisons of quantity, size, and scale do the job well.
Take water. It's simple, common, and vital. There are more molecules of water in an eight-ounce cup of the stuff than there are cups of water in all the world's oceans. Every cup that passes through a single person and eventually rejoins the world’s water supply holds enough molecules to mix 1,500 of them into every other cup of water in the world. No way around it: some of the water you just drank passed through the kidneys of Socrates, Genghis Khan, and Joan of Arc.
How about air? Also vital. A single breathful draws in more air molecules than there are breathfuls of air in Earth's entire atmosphere. That means some of the air you just breathed passed through the lungs of Napoleon, Beethoven, Lincoln, and Billy the Kid.
Time to get cosmic. There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on any beach, more stars than seconds have passed since Earth formed, more stars than words and sounds ever uttered by all the humans who ever lived.
Want a sweeping view of the past? Our unfolding cosmic perspective takes you there. Light takes time to reach Earth's observatories from the depths of space, and so you see objects and phenomena not as they are but as they once were. That means the universe acts like a giant time machine: the farther away you look, the further back in time you see—back almost to the beginning of time itself. Within that horizon of reckoning, cosmic evolution unfolds continuously, in full view.
Want to know what we're made of? Again, the cosmic perspective offers a bigger answer than you might expect. The chemical elements of the universe are forged in the fires of high-mass stars that end their lives in stupendous explosions, enriching their host galaxies with the chemical arsenal of life as we know it. The result? The four most common chemically active elements in the universe—hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen—are the four most common elements of life on Earth. We are not simply in the universe. The universe is in us.
Yes, we are stardust. But we may not be of this Earth. Several separate lines of research, when considered together, have forced investigators to reassess who we think we are and where we think we came from.
First, computer simulations show that when a large asteroid strikes a planet, the surrounding areas can recoil from the impact energy, catapulting rocks into space. From there, they can travel to—and land on—other planetary surfaces. Second, microorganisms can be hardy. Some survive the extremes of temperature, pressure, and radiation inherent in space travel. If the rocky flotsam from an impact hails from a planet with life, microscopic fauna could have stowed away in the rocks' nooks and crannies. Third, recent evidence suggests that shortly after the formation of our solar system, Mars was wet, and perhaps fertile, even before Earth was.
Those findings mean it's conceivable that life began on Mars and later seeded life on Earth, a process known as panspermia. So all earthlings might—just might—be descendants of Martians.
Again and again across the centuries, cosmic discoveries have demoted our self-image. Earth was once assumed to be astronomically unique, until astronomers learned that Earth is just another planet orbiting the Sun. Then we presumed the Sun was unique, until we learned that the countless stars of the night sky are suns themselves. Then we presumed our galaxy, the Milky Way, was the entire known universe, until we established that the countless fuzzy things in the sky are other galaxies, dotting the landscape of our known universe.
Today, how easy it is to presume that one universe is all there is.
Yet emerging theories of modern cosmology, as well as the continually
reaffirmed improbability that anything is unique, require that we
remain open to the latest assault on our plea for distinctiveness:
multiple universes, otherwise known as the multiverse,
in which ours is just one of countless bubbles bursting forth from the fabric of the cosmos.
The cosmic perspective flows from fundamental knowledge. But it's more than just what you know. It's also about having the wisdom and insight to apply that knowledge to assessing our place in the universe. And its attributes are clear:
- The cosmic perspective comes from the frontiers of science, yet it is not solely the provenance of the scientist. It belongs to everyone.
- The cosmic perspective is humble.
- The cosmic perspective is spiritual—even redemptive—but not religious.
- The cosmic perspective enables us to grasp, in the same thought, the large and the small.
- The cosmic perspective opens our minds to extraordinary ideas but does not leave them so open that our brains spill out, making us susceptible to believing anything we're told.
- The cosmic perspective opens our eyes to the universe, not as a benevolent cradle designed to nurture life but as a cold, lonely, hazardous place.
- The cosmic perspective shows Earth to be a mote, but a precious mote and, for the moment, the only home we have.
- The cosmic perspective finds beauty in the images of planets, moons, stars, and nebulae but also celebrates the laws of physics that shape them.
- The cosmic perspective enables us to see beyond our circumstances, allowing us to transcend the primal search for food, shelter, and sex.
- The cosmic perspective reminds us that in space, where there is no air, a flag will not wave—an indication that perhaps flag waving and space exploration do not mix.
- The cosmic perspective not only embraces our genetic kinship with all life on Earth but also values our chemical kinship with any yet-to-be discovered life in the universe, as well as our atomic kinship with the universe itself.
At least once a week, if not once a day, we might each ponder what cosmic truths lie undiscovered before us, perhaps awaiting the arrival of a clever thinker, an ingenious experiment, or an innovative space mission to reveal them. We might further ponder how those discoveries may one day transform life on Earth.
Absent such curiosity, we are no different from the provincial farmer who expresses no need to venture beyond the county line, because his forty acres meet all his needs. Yet if all our predecessors had felt that way, the farmer would instead be a cave dweller, chasing down his dinner with a stick and a rock.
During our brief stay on planet Earth, we owe ourselves and our
descendants the opportunity to explore—in part because it's fun to do.
But there's a far nobler reason. The day our knowledge of the cosmos
ceases to expand, we risk regressing to the childish view that the
universe figuratively and literally revolves around us. In that bleak
world, arms-bearing, resource-hungry people and nations would be prone
to act on their low contracted prejudices.
And that would be
the last gasp of human enlightenment—until the rise of a visionary new
culture that could once again embrace the cosmic perspective.
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