The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity

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Why do we exist? For centuries, this question was the sole province of religion and philosophy. But now science is ready to take a seat at the table. According to the prevailing scientific paradigm, the universe tends toward randomness; it functions according to laws without purpose, and the emergence of life is an accident devoid of meaning.   But this bleak interpretation of nature is currently being challenged by cutting-edge findings at the intersection of physics, biology, neuroscience, and information theory—generally referred to as “complexity science.” Thanks to a new understanding of evolution, as well as recent advances in our understanding of the phenomenon known as emergence, a new cosmic narrative is taking shape: Nature’s simplest “parts” come together to form ever-greater “wholes” in a process that has no end in sight.   In The Romance of Reality, cognitive neuroscientist Bobby Azarian explains the science behind this new view of reality and explores what it means for all of us. In engaging, accessible prose, Azarian outlines the fundamental misunderstanding of thermodynamics at the heart of the old assumptions about the universe’s evolution, and shows us the evidence that suggests that the universe is a “self-organizing” system, one that is moving toward increasing complexity and awareness.   Cosmologist and science communicator Carl Sagan once said of humanity that “we are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” The Romance of Reality shows that this poetic statement in fact rests on a scientific foundation and gives us a new way to know the cosmos, along with a riveting vision of life that imbues existence with meaning—nothing supernatural required.    Praise for The Romance of Reality Table of Contents INTRODUCTION PART ONE: ORIGINS A New Beginning Darwin Explained How Life Evolves, Not How It Emerged Life Is Not a Fluke Energy as the Fundamental Organizer Energy, Entropy, and the Paradox of Life Entropy: A Complex and Confusing Term Boltzmann Entropy: A Measure of Statistical Disorder Microstates Versus Macrostates The Birth of Statistical Mechanics The Way to Evade a Disordered Fate Schrödinger Solves the Paradox of Life Unraveling the Mystery of Life Extending Thermodynamic Theory Spontaneous Self-Organization and the Second Law Attractors Create Order by Constraining Chaos The Birth of Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics A New Paradigm for Understanding Life Collective Autocatalysis Catalyzes Creation The Emergence of Life on Earth Energy Flow, Organization, and Metabolism Life: The Universe’s Great Balancing Act Phase Transition Theory and the Origin of Life Questions and Conclusions The Game Changer Is Agency The Unreasonable Robustness of Biology Biological Information and Computation What Is Information? Information According to Shannon Living Systems Are Informational Systems Living Systems Are Computational Systems PART TWO: EVOLUTION Natural Selection and Knowledge Creation Characteristics of Agency The Need for Knowledge A Unifying Theory of Reality The Problem of Epistemology Karl Popper’s Epistemological Epiphanies Adaptive Learning = Hypothesis Testing Evolution Is a Knowledge Creation Process Evolutionary Epistemology: A Unifying Paradigm Adaptations Encode Knowledge Nature Selects the Most Stable Configurations Universal Bayesianism Updates Evolutionary Epistemology Life Is a Signal Among Molecular Noise Putting All the Puzzle Pieces Together Origins Finally Explained Evolution as an Inference Engine A Unifying Theory of Reality Unification over Reduction Life Is Not a Fleeting Moment The Universe: A Work in Progress Demystifying Evolutionary Progress Naturalizing Cosmic Teleology with Natural Selection The Case Against Evolutionary Progress Making the Case for Evolutionary Progress The Integrated Evolutionary Synthesis The Power of Prediction Phylogenetic and Ontogenetic Learning Weeding Out Unstable Energy Flow Channels We Are a Way for the Cosmos to Know Itself Evolution’s Arrow Emerges from Knowledge Accumulation The Laws of Life Redefining Fitness in Thermodynamic Terms Evolution Increases Empowerment The Relationship Between Entropy and Uncertainty The Good Regulator Theorem and the Law of Requisite Variety Niche Emergence Drives Complexification Energy Flow as a Measure of Complexity A New Measure of Complexity Hierarchical Emergence A New Spin on the Second Law One Cohesive Cosmic Story Poetic Meta-Naturalism We Are Loops Self-Reference We Have Levels Evolving Beyond Earth Blind Variation and Selective Retention The Meaning Is in the Metaphor The Biosphere Is an Autocatalytic Set Synergistic Collective Configurations All Species Matter Steps on the Cosmic Ladder The Gaia Hypothesis The Biosphere Becomes an Organism Meta-Evolution PART THREE: TRANSCENDENCE The Mind-Body Mystery The Self-Organizing Universe Wakes Up What Is Consciousness? What Is Real? I Think, Therefore I Am The Logic of Laplace The Slow Death of Determinism Laplace’s Demon Is Truly Evil Cognitive Science Saves the Day Consciousness as Integrated Information Integrated Information Theory’s Panpsychism Problem Causal Emergence and Free Will The Many Meanings of “Mind” Levels of Agent Causation Unconscious Agency: The First Level of Control The Macrostate Is What Matters How Brains Bring About Observers The Strange Loop That Spawns the Self The Unprovable Paradox The Mind Is Not a Turing Machine Self-Reference as the Source of Self The Neural Correlates of Consciousness Feedback Loops Create Consciousness Global Neuronal Workspace Theory Integrated World Modeling Theory Clearing the Confusion About Free Will The Curious Compatibility of Destiny and Free Will Transcendence and Enlightenment The Global Mind Wakes Up Loops + Levels = Lift Off A Happy Ending Means No Ending at All Reaching a Maximal State of Complexity A Natural Worldview for the Spiritual and the Secular The Fine-Tuning Problem Fine-Tuning Solutions The Multiverse Conundrum Cosmological Natural Selection Making Sense of Quantum Mechanics Refuting the Many-Worlds Hypothesis The Quantum-to-Classical Transition—A Form of Natural Selection What Does a Self-Organizing Universe Mean for Humanity? The Road to Omega NOTES Chapter 1 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13