156
9 Mind, Life, and the Universe
Considering the momentous importance of life in the complexification of
physical reality, it is far more plausible to assume that the advent of life is
not the result of an accident but is an integral phase of cosmic history. We
have no idea why the cosmos exists: Many people have asked, “why is there
something rather than nothing at all?” But even if there is something, we don’t
know what that “something” is. We know there are things that we interpret
as matter and energy, but our experience of those things is indirect. Our only
direct experience is that of our conscious minds. That’s all we are really sure of.
We have direct experience of sensations, thoughts, ideas and feelings.
Yet, by a strange travesty of logic, our current ideology holds that only
the material is real, and everything we experience is a figment that is somehow
produced by a material process. Is it not more likely that our sensory experience
is something real, but not material? Could the universe not contain two tiers
of reality, one material and the other experiential?
If that were the case, then we would have to conclude that the cosmic
function of life is to be the vehicle of experiential existence, and to be the
repository of Gestalt multiplicity whose purpose is to bring into existence
newly minted and highly complex organized structures. While the material
aspect of the universe evolves in one way (by cooling down and dissipating
information), the experiential aspect evolves in the direction of producing ever
more intricate hierarchical productions. Perhaps the cosmos, from its very
inception, has been a process leading toward ever increasing complexity, with
no journey’s end.
A Revolution in Physics
Rigorous science had its beginnings more than two thousand years ago in
Greece and the Greek city-states on the shores of Asia Minor.The early scientists
proclaimed that in order to arrive at true knowledge of the world, the observer
had to radically separate himself from the object he was observing. This dogma
became enshrined in the practice of science, and from that time on the removal
of the subject from science became a basic principle of our way of learning about
the physical world.
This dogma was a cornerstone of scientific practice for two millenia: It was
essential in early science in order to separate truth from superstition. Today,
however, a stage has been reached in physics where disregarding the subject is
no longer feasible. The living observer plays an indispensable role in selecting
and interpreting what is available to observation. We recognize today that the
scientist is not an idealized observer, who in some mysterious way picks up
9 Mind, Life, and the Universe
Considering the momentous importance of life in the complexification of
physical reality, it is far more plausible to assume that the advent of life is
not the result of an accident but is an integral phase of cosmic history. We
have no idea why the cosmos exists: Many people have asked, “why is there
something rather than nothing at all?” But even if there is something, we don’t
know what that “something” is. We know there are things that we interpret
as matter and energy, but our experience of those things is indirect. Our only
direct experience is that of our conscious minds. That’s all we are really sure of.
We have direct experience of sensations, thoughts, ideas and feelings.
Yet, by a strange travesty of logic, our current ideology holds that only
the material is real, and everything we experience is a figment that is somehow
produced by a material process. Is it not more likely that our sensory experience
is something real, but not material? Could the universe not contain two tiers
of reality, one material and the other experiential?
If that were the case, then we would have to conclude that the cosmic
function of life is to be the vehicle of experiential existence, and to be the
repository of Gestalt multiplicity whose purpose is to bring into existence
newly minted and highly complex organized structures. While the material
aspect of the universe evolves in one way (by cooling down and dissipating
information), the experiential aspect evolves in the direction of producing ever
more intricate hierarchical productions. Perhaps the cosmos, from its very
inception, has been a process leading toward ever increasing complexity, with
no journey’s end.
A Revolution in Physics
Rigorous science had its beginnings more than two thousand years ago in
Greece and the Greek city-states on the shores of Asia Minor.The early scientists
proclaimed that in order to arrive at true knowledge of the world, the observer
had to radically separate himself from the object he was observing. This dogma
became enshrined in the practice of science, and from that time on the removal
of the subject from science became a basic principle of our way of learning about
the physical world.
This dogma was a cornerstone of scientific practice for two millenia: It was
essential in early science in order to separate truth from superstition. Today,
however, a stage has been reached in physics where disregarding the subject is
no longer feasible. The living observer plays an indispensable role in selecting
and interpreting what is available to observation. We recognize today that the
scientist is not an idealized observer, who in some mysterious way picks up