Evolutionary Pathways in an Unfolding Universe

Contents

Foreword

By the dawn of the 21st century, humankind has made remarkable strides in unravelling both the secrets of the minute constituents of matter and the mysteries of colossal galaxies in the vast expanse of the universe. Rapid advances in the biological sciences, in particular in the fields of molecular biology and genetics, have brought insights into the working of living organisms and disclosed many secrets of life itself. The mutual interplay of science and technology has revolutionized our way of living and reduced our planet to a ‘global village’.

Still, as the billions of people across the world are brought ever closer together in a very short span of time by sweeping changes out of their control, the world has become a stage for ethnic, racial, political, economic, and ideological conflict, and subject to an ever-deepening anguish and despair.

If we are ever to be free from our present predicament and achieve a peaceful and just global civilization, we need both a common understanding of our past and a united vision for the future. Such understanding and vision demand a philosophical basis or worldview that is in agreement with our scientific knowledge and in accordance with the facts of history and the aspirations and deeper shared experiences of mankind as a whole.

This presentation is not intended to provide solutions to the ever-compounding problems of today’s world. It aims, rather, to present a conceptual view of the world that can reconcile science with our intuitive perceptions, and with the many inner convictions of the diverse peoples of the world. It is hoped that this conceptual worldview may help to narrow some of the ideological differences that have polarized our world today and kept us from achieving a peaceful global society.

As with the unfolding of the physical universe, the social evolution of humankind will move forward and unfold. The forces of history will bring us together and a global civilization will dawn, a civilization that seeks to bring to fulfillment the infinite human potentialities within every member of the human society. …

An Unfolding Universe

1. Introduction
2. A review of evolutionary processes
3. Advancement in science and our conceptual worldview
4. Systems and processes in an unfolding universe
5. Unfolding social order and emergence of a world civilization

Appendices

1. Birth of the universe and formation of the cosmos
2. Geological transformation and the evolution of life
3. Social development and the rise of human civilizations
4. Development of philosophical and religious thought
5. Advancement of scientific knowledge
6. Many particle and complex inanimate systems
7. Man-made complex systems
8. Complex animate systems
9. Shared features of evolutionary systems and processes

Epilogue

Those of us who live in larger cities are deprived of experiencing the beauty and tranquillity of the countryside. The glare and noise of the busy metropolitan prevents us from hearing the sounds of nature. Far from the confines of the city, however, the rolling hills and green pastures, the flowing rivers and the roaring of the ocean waves can fill our souls with joy and wonder. The gleaming orb of the sun setting over the azure sea leaves us in a reflective mood, and as the darkness of night envelops us, the profusion of stars inspire awe into our hearts.

That every point of light in the night sky is a planet, a star, a stellar cluster or even perhaps a galaxy of many million stars, with its own creatures - teeming with motion, commotion and life - gives us a sense of the magnificence of our world and its profound organization. At the same time the enormity of space can make us feel insignificant, we are a speck in a dust storm, a drop in a vast ocean. Insignificant as we may feel in this enormity of space and vastness of the heavens, it is a perplexing thought that in our absence, all things would fade into a shadowy existence, an elusive reality. The plains and the hills, the vast oceans and multitudes of scintillating stars would be reduced to wave-particle plays of the quantum world or the waltzing of multi-dimensional strings! They have no shape, no colour and no sound – and bear no resemblance to what our senses perceive, or our minds could hope to envisage.

Perhaps it is the human mind that construct the world and its spatial dimensions, the flow of time, spectrum of colours of red, green and blue and countless shades in between, songs and melodies, the senses of smell and touch, and beyond that, joy and sadness, love and resentment and a vast multitude of feelings. We are the ones that create a history of the past and anticipate the future, delve into the workings of nature with science and search for meaning through philosophical debate.

Perhaps in recognizing the enormity of space, we do not need to feel insignificant. In our possession is a most precious gift, our human brain. Held as a collection of neurons in a box of minuscule size - it receives, stores and retrieves a staggering amount of information at every moment. It assigns colour to an incoming electromagnetic wave, sound to vibrations of air, taste to chemical substances, smell to a vapor and sensation to a touch - an interface between external reality and the realm of our consciousness. …