A Thinking Universe \u2013 Dec 2005<\/p>\n
Look Up. You\u2019ll see a universe that never ends \u2013 no matter how far you cast your thoughts, you still face a never ending void.<\/p>\n
Look Down. There\u2019s the possibility of infinitely small; the molecule, the atom, the proton, the quark, the lepton, the strange, and whatever else there is when you smash those to parts to pieces.<\/p>\n
But you\u2019ll see what may be the strangest of all when you look inside your own mind and see a boundless realm; an infinite possibility of thought.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s infinity all around us. We call it \u2018the universe.\u2019 And I\u2019m convinced that it\u2019s thinking.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve always been fascinated with systems.<\/p>\n
It probably began with my first ant farm. Do you know that an ant colony is intelligent? It reacts to its surroundings. It buries its dead in a graveyard, has a complex social structure. The ants themselves aren\u2019t intelligent — they\u2019re more like little genetically hardwired machines. Individually, they do communicate, but they don\u2019t think. Alone, they\u2019re nothing, but as a system, they are capable of intelligent action.<\/p>\n
In the same way, our own thoughts are created by little clumps of cells called neurons, firing little bolts of energy at one another — communicating with one another. The neurons don\u2019t think, but in their connection to other neurons, they make up an intelligent system.<\/p>\n
We can see this clearly with computers. The basic part of a computer is the dumbest thing of all \u2013 a switch. How much intelligence is there in a light switch? But the fact is, connect a lot of those switches together and, although you don\u2019t have thinking as we define it, you certainly have a system that can do amazing things. And the more computers you connect together, the closer you come to something that appears to be thinking.<\/p>\n
If computers were alive you\u2019d call it \u2018thinking\u2019 wouldn\u2019t you?<\/p>\n
Look around. You\u2019ll see that whenever complex systems communicate \u2013 send bolts of energy to one another, thought, or something like it happens.<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s my point \u2013 the stars themselves are a part of very complex systems. They send out light, gravity waves, pulses, and other forms of radiation to other stars all around them. Stars are connected to one another in the same way that ants, neurons, and computers are connected. That means that thought, or something like it is happening.<\/p>\n
I moment ago, I said \u201cIf it were alive you\u2019d call it \u2018thinking\u2019 wouldn\u2019t you?\u201d I think you\u2019ll agree. So here\u2019s where \u2018the thinking universe\u2019 gets really amazing\u2026 It\u2019s coming alive!<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t mysticism or some new age spiritualism. I\u2019m not going to ask you to believe anything and accept the unacceptable. I\u2019m just going to point out a few simple facts.<\/p>\n
First: We are made of star stuff. We know this. The same atoms that were once inside stars make up the rocks, the trees, the grass, our fingernails, and out brains.<\/p>\n
Second: There is a certain amount of matter in the universe. There is a total mass, in tons, of matter that exists. It\u2019s far too big a number to talk about. But there is such a number.<\/p>\n
Third: Intelligent, conscious life is expanding. Once there were only a million people on this planet. That\u2019s about a hundred thousand tons of living, thinking star stuff. Now there are six billion people. That\u2019s 600 million tons of star stuff that has come alive\u2026 and every day there\u2019s more. The same could be happening elsewhere in the universe as well.<\/p>\n
Someday, we\u2019ll leave this planet and our numbers will spread \u2013 we\u2019ll have to or we\u2019ll become extinct and another life form will take our place. Perhaps the dinosaurs wouldn\u2019t be extinct today if they had a space program. Some day the universe will be teeming with conscious life and some fraction of a percent of all the matter in matter in the universe will be alive. Stars are turning into people.<\/p>\n
For each new person that winks into existence, there\u2019s 200 pounds of star stuff that has woken up and become conscious.<\/p>\n
The universe is alive, and it\u2019s thinking. What do you imagine it\u2019s thinking about?<\/p>\n
(c) Mark C. Robinson, All Rights Reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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