Brian Greene, "Until the End of Time"

Brian Greene, "Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and

Our Search for Meaning in Evolving Universe" (2020)

 

 

부제의 'Evolving Universe'에도 관심이 갔지만 그보다는 Mind, Meaning 에

끌려서 읽을 생각을 한 건데, 막상 읽어보니, 우주, 생명, 생명과 우주의 끝에

관한 물리학 얘기인 Chapters 1-4,9,10의 내용이 흥미롭고 재미있다. 저자는

이론물리학자다. 의식(consciousness), 진화론적 관점에서의, 언어, 종교,

예술을 다룬 Chapters 5-8 이나 Chapter 11 'The Nobility of Being' 은 그쪽

책들을 좀 읽은 이에게는 새롭게 읽힐 게 별로 없다. 아래는 책에서:

 

Because of water's skewed charge distribution, it can dissolve nearly

everything.... Water's capacity to grab hold of and ingest substances

is indispensable to life. (p 85) [누군가 "Life is chemistry, chemistry is

geometry(structure)"라고 했던가.]

 

As with life's origin, there is no sharply defined moment when

consciousness emerges or self-reflection arises or the sensation of

free will sets in. (p 159)

 

Human freedom is not about willed choice. Everything science has

so far revealed has only strenthened the case that such volitional

intercession in the unfolding reality does not exist. (p 152)

 

Permanence is something we humans covet but never attain.

(p 244) [이 문장의 앞 부분은 수명에 관해서는, 평균수명이 짧던

예전에는 몰라라, 이제는 일반적인 사실은 아니란 생각이다. 오히려,

적당한 때 '쉽게' 가고 싶어하는 이도 많은 것 같다.]

 

Life ... embodies this[entropic two-step] mechanism, consuming

high-quality energy, using it to maintain and enhance its orderly

arrangements, and expelling high-entropy waste to the

environment. Playing out across billions of years, the cooperative

exchange between entropy and evolution has resulted in particular

arrangements that are exquisite, including a life and a mind able

to produce the Ninth Symphony and vastly more lives and minds

able to experience it as sublime. (p 245)