ä civilization in

Time

Intro.

Science can comprehend our physical world like none else. It can witness hide and seek games of the sub-atomic world. It sees mirage of distant galaxies through the lens of gravity. Science can predict motion and let us fly. Without science we won't have such abilities.

  We began our scientific exploration purely being amused by nature’s mysterious order. The way things are, how they progress, has a precise order that is undeniably omnipresent.

  Having meticulously observed and validated nature’s order, we began decomposing them into formulas of science. The formulas gave us ability to predict. Predict motion, predict chemical changes, electrical changes, and what not. Such an ability put us on a distinct advantage compared to the rest, and we started to control our surroundings like we knew magic. In little or no time, with a little history of scientific understanding, we took over all of life and space on this planet. We even fought world wars catalytic to science.

  Despite precipitous abilities, our scientific understanding remains blind to the randomness of nature, or the mystery that presides at the core of nature's grand order. Science cannot fix my luck, nor can it comprehend my free will, my desires, my feelings. The tiny constituents of nature, also the very large, casually evades our scientific grasp. Regardless of all abilities and advances, we are left with the same mystery of uncertainty.

  Nature’s precise order, our formulas of science, are they all random then?

  No.

  A design orders it. The design appears to have an irrational seed of randomness, with a larger embodiment of meaning that holds in possible chaos into order. Much like the irrational number 'pi' whose digits endlessly goes on in an unpredictable manner, but the ratio itself is held inward by the shape of a circle as its meaning. And to no surprise, a circle happens to be the most fundamental shape in nature. The same can be seen in our very own human nature. There's wilderness in each of us, yet we are held into a functioning society of coherent meaning. In essence, a bare wilderness of nature perpetually seeks new frontiers, and the wilderness is ornamented with linguistic forms to subdue possible chaos. The languages express connection of nature's constituents as meanings, occuring in layer upon layer, growing larger and larger in meaning. All so to sustain itself and progress with elaborate bewilderment.

  As esthetes of nature, we began peeling the layers one after another to comprehend them. Language of science articulating the ensemble of rocks, chemicals, electrons, and such. Then the language of genes organizing life of plants and animals. Language of culture enabling life to organize collective groups for collective good, and so on. We ought to be proud of our comprehension so far, and it is naturalistic for us to look beyond, stare at the skies above. There's a vast ocean of nature's mysterious expressions. So much to conquer and discover, like we crossed oceans to comprehend a world at large. With every leap we made, our morals leaped as well. Each leap cultured a glue of increasing sophistication holding the inflating humanity as one, much like the fundamental forces holding things together. We are meant to abstract further out into the horizon. We are extraterrestrials ahead, but our planet needs to be one in spirit first. We cannot afford to see a divided home planet when, someday, we turn to look back from a distant star.

  Today, at this mature age of science’s life and possibilities at the horizon, there poses an enormous responsibility ahead. For us to find the right synthesis of science and humanities. There’s naivety in our precipitous abilities, like we have always been in the past. Science cannot fulfill our larger dreams with just foresight for fundamental interactions, it needs foresight for the human condition and our future ahead. This book is an attempt to entice our heads and hearts together, to leave our littleness behind, and glance at the blue planet from apogee. What else but for us to look ahead and try.

Sago.
July 25th, 2017 CE
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