References

If you have found some of the articles that I've posted recently on this blog of interest, you may also find items on this short list of relevant reading, including some less well known but absorbing books, intriguing. Of course, there are a good many books and other publications (for example special issues of The New Scientist or The Scientific American) that take up similar ideas in one way or another, these just happen to be the ones that caught my eye.

I have concentrated solely on printed books here although some of the titles may now be available in electronic form. Some of them may have associated websites (amongst very many other websites) but they are rarely as substantial as the book. There are also numerous relevant and interesting broadcast documentaries that may be repeated. Wikipedia will also be a useful reference of course and a Google search will also turn up further details and some additional related items.

In no particular order:

Memories, Dreams, Reflections: C. G. Jung

Modern man in search of a soul: C.G. Jung

Ideas and Opinions: Albert Einstein

The Clock of the Long Now: Stuart Brand

The Tao of Physics: Fritjof Capra

The Soul of the White Ant: Eugene Marais

Truth and Fiction in the Bible: Robin Lane Fox

The Star Thrower:  Loren Eiseley

Cosmos: Carl Sagan

Gödel Escher Bach – an eternal golden braid: Douglas Hofstadter

The Harvest of a quiet eye: A. L. Mackay

If you take up any of these reading suggestions, I hope that you find them as thought provoking and inspirational as I have done.

Some Fundamental Questions

These are some of the fundamental questions that have intrigued me all of my life. There are more, of course, particularly relating to consciousness, that may well be among the last to be answered. The ‘answers’ below are just my own, certainly imperfect, understanding of the present state of knowledge. I hope that you find this brief discussion interesting.

Q: Does our world have a special place in the universe?
A: In the sense of being at a relatively benign location, yes, we would not be here otherwise. Most of the extra-solar planets discovered so far are not habitable for life as we know it, but we’ve only had search tools for a few years.
But our world is certainly not the unique centre of the universe nor is it the centre of our hundred thousand light year wide galaxy. The solar system is located in one of the outer spiral arms of our galaxy – and all the better for that. The quieter ‘suburbs’ of the Milky Way provide longer lasting security from catastrophic events and a safe distance from the galaxy’s central black hole. Our excellent sun has a good life expectancy, is stable and of an intensity to give a decent sized habitable zone in which, fortunately, the earth is located.

Q: Will we ever understand it all?
A: We perceive only 'through a glass darkly' with the imperfect minds of the unperfected beings that we are. We’ve only been at the scientific process consistently for a few centuries (despite the insights of some of the early Greeks – but not the most famous ones). A complete understanding may take thousands of years to acquire. Indeed it may be that full knowledge of the nature of reality will remain forever beyond our ability to ascertain for ourselves - although perhaps not beyond our ability to grasp if explained by sentient others. And it may turn out that such an understanding may not be confined within the constraints of current orthodox scientific analysis.

Q: Are we alone?
A: I see there being three possible answers to this question (not including ‘don’t know). In my view the answer is no, but the universe is not overcrowded with technologically advanced civilisations that have not self destructed or otherwise come to an end.

Q: Where is everybody?
A: Be patient! The Galaxy (a tiny fraction of an observable universe of a hundred billion or more galaxies) is a vast place with two hundred billion or more stars. If the sun was the size of a grain of rice you could just about fit the Milky Way into the space between the Earth and the Moon. There are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand in all the beaches of the world. There may be ten times as many planets as there are stars. This is why, to me, complete solitude has always seemed unlikely to say the least.
For all we know thousands of advanced civilisations might have arisen in the Milky Way galaxy alone but, given its scale, with most of them likely to be separated by hundreds of light years in space and possibly hundreds of millions of years in time. Quite possibly, long lasting technical civilisations are a rarity and that in this neck of the thousand light year woods we are ‘it’. This is the third answer alluded to above – no and yes (in practical terms). It’s rather like a code based on prime numbers that is in principle crackable but the fact that it would take centuries to do this makes the code effectively uncrackable.
Can we make ourselves an exception to the longevity issue and can we acquire the patience and vision to continue with our modest efforts to make contact for more than the few years we’ve been at it?

Q: The most fundamental question of all: Why there is something rather than nothing?
A: There are at least two assumptions implicit in this question namely (a) that something ‘exists’ and (b) that nothingness is a default position inherently more likely and less demanding than ‘somethingness’. I will accept (a) and in terms of (b) my personal guess is that the quantum nature of reality will turn out to be a necessity, that quantum fluctuations are an inescapable part of this and that with random quantum fluctuations permanent total nothingness is a logical impossibility.

Q: Is there not evidence of design?
A: In a universe that is capable of developing and sustaining life there must inevitably seem to be evidence for design given the conditions that appear to be required, but that does not necessarily imply that there was conscious design even though it is true that the universe is, to use a youthful expression, ‘brilliant’ and wonderful.
A number of interesting questions arise. Here are two of them. Would a designer necessarily be conscious – or is that bit up to us? Would a designer have much (or any) choice in terms of ‘the laws of nature’?
However, it is intriguing to speculate what a conscious universal designer would have set out to achieve. In my view this would include freedom for any sentient beings (and the suffering that is an essential part of this - the price of freedom) an absence of favouritism and a wide separation between planetary civilisations to reduce the possibility for mutually assured destruction. Funny, but that seems to be the way it’s turned out.

20 Personal Dispositions

Following my last posting’s return visit to the 24 dispositions, I thought it would be a revealing exercise to produce a set of personal dispositions with accompanying explanation and commentary (which turns out to be at least as hard to formulate as the dispositions themselves). The hardest part of all of course is living up to them! The list gives a picture of where you stand and who you see yourself as in terms of morality and social values. It doesn’t have to have 24 parts but my scheme of lettering (for ease of reference and not indicative of priority) restricts it to 26 – a useful maximum.

Any such compilation will always be a work in progress and imperfectly expressed. I cannot escape the feeling that I have overlooked important elements, but these could be included at the next iteration. Also, because something isn’t included in a current list doesn’t mean that you don’t care about it – it’s quite hard to make explicit what you value and you can’t put absolutely everything down if the list is to be useful. If you decide to try this exercise yourself remember that these will be your own personal dispositions so you shouldn’t feel obliged to add in something because others might think that it ‘ought’ to be in there.

I think that this is all well worth a try, particularly if you consider yourself to be a ‘seeker’ – it may turn out that you have already found rather more than you thought. Good luck.

Here are my personal dispositions.

20 Personal Dispositions (With Commentary)

(a) Valuing the individual and safeguarding their inalienable rights.

(Humanity consists, in the overwhelming majority, of people who are worthy of respect and who are entitled to personal freedom, security and a measure of happiness.)

(b) Valuing family and community.

(Those closest to us deserve our greatest, but not our exclusive, love and attention.)

(c) Being true to oneself and thinking for oneself.

(If you are not true to yourself it is hard to be true to others. Nature gave all of us the capacity for thought, but did not empower or appoint natural 'authorities'. What a waste it would be if seven billion people declined to use their powers of thought.)

(d) Having an open and enquiring mind, and valuing knowledge.

(Our comprehension of the world is always provisional. New knowledge or a more developed understanding may call for new views. No-one is in a privileged position in respect of truth. Reliable knowledge and sure understanding are hard won.)

(e) Being considerate to other people and the environment.

(Do as you would be done by. Disregarding the environment means disregarding future generations.)

(f) Being active in the community, volunteering, supporting good causes and seeking to enhance the common good.

(We should try to secure 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number' within our reach, beginning with those who have least.)

(g) Being regardful of injustice and suffering and seeking to alleviate them.

(Human beings are the means by which justice can be served, diseases cured, injuries healed, innocence protected and suffering lessened.)

(h) Seeking to comprehend people more fully and thinking carefully about their different situations.

(Imagine walking in another's shoes – mile after mile. 'Understand and judge not'.)

(i) Being fair and forgiving.

(Who would wish to be on the receiving end of unfairness? Vindictiveness is a corrosive emotion. Forgiveness heals both parties.)

(j) Listening to others, being tolerant of other points of view and being prepared to admit that one's own views might need to change.

(Wisdom does not belong to an exclusive few. Even where we think that wisdom is lacking, we should suffer 'fools' gladly, because it is right and because we may find ourselves amongst them.)

(k) Willingness to accept light from whatever quarter it may come.

(Some of the deepest insights come from the most unexpected sources – external and internal. Rule out no possible origins as possible providers of meaning.)

(l) Living by the rules of society and valuing democracy, its institutions and procedures.

(If the rules seem unfair or wrong, free societies have processes for change. The most valuable 'institution' we have is democracy itself. If there is a lack of respect for it and it is undermined, so is society and so, ultimately, are all of us as individuals.)

(m) Being accountable and living with integrity.

(Integrity can be seen as honest accountability to oneself. More widely, accountability is to the whole of society not just particular groups.)

(n) Being polite, temperate and modest.

(Who would wish other people to be disrespectful to them? There are too many displays of petulant anger and far too much infantile boasting. We all have good reason to be modest, most evidently if we could see ourselves as others see us.)

(o) Helping to create harmony and cultivating inclusion.

(A harmonious common life is the core of a unified society. Exclusion diminishes those who do the excluding as much as those who are excluded.)

(p) Recognising the value of stewardship.

(Stewardship can contribute more to the common good than most 'leadership' and can take the form of leadership by example.)

(q) Being truthful and reflective.

(Truthfulness is something that we can all contribute to society and there is much to reflect upon both within society and within ourselves.)

(r) Attaching a high value to reason and evidence.

(Against the pitiless background of evolution we've developed as the predominant species not least because of our abilities to reason and to evaluate evidence. So if it stands against reason, it's probably wrong. If the evidence lines up against it, it's also probably wrong.)

(s) Being courageous and visionary.

(Having the courage of ones own convictions is good, but it often takes more courage to change ones convictions on the basis of what we have learnt. We should form our own picture of a desirable future, one that recognises the freedom of others and seeks to enhance the common good.)

(t) Cultivating a sense for the profound and the magnificence of the Cosmos.

(Stillness and reflection in quiet places help in gathering the self, contemplating that which is beyond the self and in seeking personal meaning. Above our heads on a clear night we can look out in wonder on half of everything.)