The entangled ‘verse
[sort of a poem]
1. The universe is reliably itself.
2. The universe is impersonal, but personalizing.
3. Organisms grow out of the universe. (They do not “come” into it.)
4. Man is an organism.
5.
6.
7.
Copyright © 1974, 2017 John P. Healy
2017 Note: The universe is purposeless but purposeful:
“How can an intrinsically purposeless process lead to the existence of purposes?”
“The universe doesn’t care about us, but we care about the universe.”
— Carroll, Sean, The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself (p. 293, 422).
Line 2 is a variation of … (tap to expand or collapse view)
Line 2 is a variation of “The uni-verse is impersonal and personalizing,” which I wrote in April 1973. It’s evolved into the tag line for my 2024 Tales of Concierge Worlds as “Hospitality in an indifferent universe.”
In my physics blog post “A shelf life for the universe?” (May 2020), I cited Brian Greene’s book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe. After watching a YouTube video about the book, I scribbled:
We are the product of purposeless mindless laws of physics playing themselves out on our bags of particles. That perspective changes the way we search for meaning and purpose. Manufacture our own meaning, coherence, make sense of existence. That doesn’t make it artificial but more noble, rather than accepting purpose thrust upon us from outer world. Doesn’t lead to darkness.
Which in April 2024, I wrote about on my “Midstream Musings” blog (Beacons & broken souls – the challenge of modernity) as a search for beacons.
The notion of beacons connects with the concept of hospitality – a welcome tavern on a far country road, a refuge from the void, a lighthouse on a long journey.
Of course, that begs the question as to whether all beacons are benign. Or that beacons can be bent to other benefits.
from Sisyphus in the back yard
the gods sported and faded from the press,
the universe returning as its own address.
what Olympus was now passes to us —
we scale ourselves and return Sisyphus
Copyright © 1975, 2017 John P. Healy
Beyond all gloss
Leave the stage of everyday …
go behind the scenes,
beyond all gloss …
until there’s just the lower bound
What remains?
What only can be imagined …
perhaps modeled mathematically
What are the words (or poetry)
to frame such a construct,
it’s structure and topology?
How does the everyday emerge
from that matrix effectively?
Copyright © 2024 John P. Healy