Brian Swimme

This book was disappointing. I expected that I would enjoy it, or at least glean something positive from it, but I just couldn't stand it. First off, this book is pretty epic in scope. It starts with the big bang and goes all the way to the modern era. My main problem with the book is this; it personifies everything. It is irritating to read about the universe itself having a will and sentience. What does it do with these qualities you ask? It goes and creates galaxies and other things. It speaks of single-celled organisms having a will. The science is accurate, which makes this even more aggravating. Step by step, it talks about how life developed. It talks about the "Cybernetic system" so many times that you can make a drinking game out of it.

When I say it personifies everything, it does so by giving everything a name. The supernova preceding the solar system and our sun? Let's call it Tiamat! The first living being is a prokaryotic cell? Why don't we call it Aries? No, not after the Greek God of War, silly; we named him after some Egyptian thing. Not to belittle Egyptian mythology, which is actually awesome, but when you combine the two ideas of science and mythology it just irritates me.

I am used to the idea of the Universe being the end result of a number of stochastic processes. Just random stuff being reined in by some basic laws like Gravitation and the three other fundamental forces. When you personify the universe, it should be really compelling, but it isn't. I understand that there is a delicate Goldilocks zone that makes our entire existence possible. If Gravity was just slightly stronger, if we were just slightly further from or closer to our Sun, Life would not have happened. That doesn't mean you need to explain it by gving the Universe sentience.

Thankfully I got this book from the Library and didn't pay anything for it.… (mer)