Difference between revisions of "Fantastisch, over het universum in ons hoofd"

Revision as of 06:57, 9 July 2008

Comments on Kris Verburgh's Fantastisch! (Fantastic, about the universe in our head)

On Kris Verburgh's website, there's also a detailed description of the book with link to online book stores.

((A comment on Kris Verburg's "Fantastisch, over het universum in ons hoofd" is in the process of being written for this Wiki, including some additional information that makes his total picture of humanity and its world even more complete, removing some of the last few burning questions and paradoxes that had remained.))

"Because we cannot know everything about something, it is better to know something about everything" Blaise Pascal

Fantastisch! not only deals with the universe, or Darwin, or the brain, but unifies all three realms of research into one fantastic story, covering fourteen billion years, in order to give an answer to the question: what does it mean to be human ?

Fantastisch! deals with the emergence of life, about the evolution theory, about how the brain works, consciousness, thinking computers, quantum mechanics and religion. Due also to recent scientific discoveries, Fantastisch! also wants to answer the last, ultimate question: does a supreme being exist? Is there more than just matter and energy? To that end the author introduces a new concept, the context story, built on three pillars, to enable the reader in that way to reach his/her own ultimate decision by him/herself. Fantastisch! not only deals with science, but is also a philosophical and spiritual book, trying to evoke feelings of wonder, just as the capacity to put ourselves into perspective. That way the reader is triggered to experience reality in a new and different way.

Kris published this book in 2007. It contains a general overview of the world we live in and the way we humans tic. It is scientifically sound and thorough, but nevertheless quite easy to read and to grasp by a broad public. It is in fact the most attractive and comprehensive treatise on the how and the why of our existence ythat I ever encountered. Written by a 21 years old student from Belgium, it is fresh and clean, not contaminated by any of our contemporary ruling systems of belief and superstition. Kris is a free-thinker and it shows. He also shows to be remarkably erudite and his depicting of the world is rather exhaustive and complete in view of what is known as of today and what is scientifically well established. Still, in spite of the completeness of Verburgh's picture, based on what is scientificaaly known, we would like to add at least two important notions that we consider crucial for a complete understanding of the human position in this world at this time. These two notions will increase the power of Kris' comprehensive overview even further and will give humanity even better tools to take its own future into its own hands, to the advantage of all. Before discussing these two additional chunks of information, we'll summarize some paragraphs of Kris' book that illustrate the general line of his thinking.

From "Fantastic, about the universe in our head"

What would be the result if we now put together our capacity for fantasy, for self-conceit and for gullibility? The result is not Homo sapiens or the wise man, but Homo fantasia or man, extolling itself in gullible fantasies. (Those who know Latin will note that fantasia is not a correct Latin word, but Homo fantasia probably wouldn't care: it sounds good.) Maybe you think I am exaggerating. After all, man seems more 'wise' than 'full of fantasies'? For sure, man is endowed with enormous cognitive skills. But these skills blind us to such an extent that we end up believing that man merely is 'wise'. The insight that we are peculiarly sensitive to dreams and illusions, in my view is an important discovery. People are beings that are willing to die for their 'truths'. If we then note that we are not designed to know the ultimate truths and that we very readily believe all sorts of un-truths, then this entails quite some revelation. This explains so many phenomena in our society that we find all over the place, from horoscopes in newspapers till the capacity to let ourselves be carried away to other fantasy worlds by looking at some tiny letters on paper or pictures on large cinema screens. Thus, Homo fantasia is a species, mad for fantastic stories and made-up creativity. Moreover, we are a species the members of which like to overestimate themselves, indulging in pride and vanity. We are creatures who believe that we are the purposefully created products of a superior being, thinking that after death we are fully entitled to live on for ever, trying to find a meaning behind everything, frantically searching continuously for spectacular experiences that might lift us out of daily reality, highly upward into heaven. We are creatures that are staying permanently in a rush of unconscious self-aggrandizing illusions, who believe that they are predestined for playing a role in grand affairs. This sense of universal megalomania can even be found in great philosophers.

The Context Story

The context story is a concept, composed of knowledge, accumulated by innumerable researchers. It is a pattern of thinking, strong enough to show, even without experimental proof, that many made up ideas of Homo fantasia are merely fantasy indeed, from ancestral ghosts and gods to our descendants, who will influence the destiny of the universe. The context story is based on three pillars: a cosmological, an evolutionary and a neurological pillar. These pillars each consist of the most important scientific discoveries of the past centuries and are putting mankind with two feet on solid ground again.

The cosmological pillar tells us about the emergence and the development of the universe and the way it works. This shows us that we do not need a God to create the universe, earth and life on it. This pillar tells us how the universe emerged from nothing and could create innumerable stars without using any energy for the process. This "emergence from nothing" does not violate the laws of physics and comparable processes can even be demonstrated to occur in the laboratory. The cosmological pillar covers billions of years of cosmological evolution. That evolution started with the big bang, spreading around gases. Gases out of which stars condensated. Stars, that subsequently created new chemical elements. Elements like Iron and Silicium, from which materials subsequently planets were born, new worlds on which life could develop and prosper, like Earth.

The second pillar, the evolutionary pillar, covers the emergence and the subsequent evolution of life. This contains the mighty story of atoms that cluster together, down to collections of molecules that can duplicate themselves. That primordial and simple form of life would gradually become more and more complex until it finally became able to think about itself. Also here, there is no need for a God. Not to create life, not to make life evolve and not even for putting morality, creativity or language in alive beings.

The third pillar is the neurological pillar. This is about the human brain and about how it works. Mind and body are not two separate affairs, but it is the body that produces the mind. The neurological pillar tells us about the innumerable nerve tracts and neurons, strung like looms in our head, weaving the magnificent patterns that form our consciousness. The neurological pillar states clearly that immaterial and intangible feelings are the inextricable result of the firing of neurons under our skull, the movements of innumerable chemical substances in our brain and the incessant interaction with the world within and outside of us, through the five senses and many more sensors. There is no ghost in the machine. The soul is the machine itself.

All in all the context story describes the place of humanity in the universe. That story is humbling, but it is a fascinating story about humanity and the universe, telling about a history, not centuries old, but billions of years. The context story is about the human race, which is a cosmological product. A beautiful, magnificent, but inadvertant by-product from the stars. A being that, together with its fellow beings, is swarming on a small speck of dust, floating in an endlessly deep black abyss. The context story tells us that there were no gods and ghosts needed to create this universe and, in the end, sentient and thinking beings. And, what is more important, how these gods and ghosts basically are products of a mind that in turn is the result of hundreds of millions of years of evolution. It also tells us about solar systems being born and falling apart into dark cinders, about how life forms develop on any world and perish again, about how beings are being born to die. Some of these sentient beings are capable of sincere goodness, because morality is a property which is part of nature. Just like art, creativity and intelligence. Human beings are capable of experiencing beauty, in the form of heavenly music or memorable words, and the context story tells us why this is so. This mighty story however, does not intent to reduce everything to the firing of neurons below our skull, and annihilate every tremendous feeling by explaining it in terms of chemicals and electric currents. The context story is the fascinating story of brains that produce creativity, memories and feelings. And about how a hundred thousand billion of neuronal connections can succeed in producing these heavenly gifts. How can one speak of 'reduction' when speaking about the human brain, a structure containing an equal amount of synapses as there are stars in in thousands of galaxies? There is a universe in each of our heads.

This book is but one big summary of this context story.

Knowledge versus belief