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Loading... The Emergence of Everything: How the World Became Complexby Harold J. Morowitz
   None No current Talk conversations about this book. 2   NielsenGW | Jun 21, 2013 |    ) Devil_llama | Apr 18, 2011 |  ) millsge | Apr 26, 2009 |  ) elviomedeiros | Dec 23, 2014 | no reviews | add a review
When the whole is greater than the sum of the parts--indeed, so great that the sum far transcends the parts and represents something utterly new and different--we call that phenomenon emergence. When the chemicals diffusing in the primordial waters came together to form the first living cell,that was emergence. When the activities of the neurons in the brain result in mind, that too is emergence.In The Emergence of Everything, one of the leading scientists involved in the study of complexity, Harold J. Morowitz, takes us on a sweeping tour of the universe, a tour with 28 stops, each one highlighting a particularly important moment of emergence. For instance, Morowitz illuminates theemergence of the stars, the birth of the elements and of the periodic table, and the appearance of solar systems and planets. We look at the emergence of living cells, animals, vertebrates, reptiles, and mammals, leading to the great apes and the appearance of humanity. He also examines tool making,the evolution of language, the invention of agriculture and technology, and the birth of cities. And as he offers these insights into the evolutionary unfolding of our universe, our solar system, and life itself, Morowitz also seeks out the nature of God in the emergent universe, the God posited bySpinoza, Bruno, and Einstein, a God Morowitz argues we can know through a study of the laws of nature.Written by one of our wisest scientists, The Emergence of Everything offers a fascinating new way to look at the universe and the natural world, and it makes an important contribution to the dialogue between science and religion. No library descriptions found. |
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Wikipedia in English
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The question here is one of emergence. Morowitz discusses the emergence of the universe from the Big Bang, the emergence of stars and planets, of life on planets, and of human beings in the ancient past and the upcoming future. How does one account for the emergence of complex life when also trying to boil the laws of the universe into a few simple equations? At what point does the whole become more than the sum of its parts? This book goes through the 26 stages of emergence in the known universe, starting with the primordium (the pre-Big Bang speck of all matter) through the formation of planets to the emergence of life then to the evolution of mammals and humans and finally with the emergence of language, philosophy, science, and religion. It’s the investigation of these points on the continuum of emergence that makes this book interesting.
Morowitz’s writing is necessarily heady, but still reads fairly quickly. He ultimately falls back on the concept of God (which is a little dismaying) to explain the spark of emergence, but his discussion of the formation of the universe and life are still deeply rooted in science. This book blends the conversation between philosophy and science pretty well. Another plus is that each chapter has a list of suggested reading at the end so that the reader can follow up on specific topics of interest. A complex and intriguing book. (