Equations of Eternity: Speculations on Consciousness, Meaning, and the Mathematical Rules That Orchestrate the Cosmos [Paperback]

David Darling (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0786880724 | ISBN-13: 978-0786880720 | Publication Date: January 1995

In a dazzling, lyrical mixture of science and philosophy, acclaimed science writer David Darling makes a provocative case for the workings of human consciousness, its origins, and its destiny when the next "Big Bang" precipitates a quantum leap in evolution. Equations of Eternity rethinks thought and the existence of intelligence in a way that will give readers a lot to think about.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The author of Deep Time speculates about quantum physics, relativity and the evolution of human consciousness.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

In another speculative volume, Darling (Deep Time, 1989) foresees a grand and glorious future as he ponders the nature and destiny of humanity. With degrees in physics and astronomy, he's able to write knowledgeably, if glibly, about current conundrums and issues--so, in a sense, his latest offering serves to introduce readers to current ideas in cosmology, computer science, and evolution. But there are caveats. Darling writes didactically, without nuance. It's as if it were common consensus, for example, that the divisions of the brain are neat and simple: left for logic, right for feeling; that mathematics is neither discovered nor invented but resonates with reality; that the fundamental particles are the electron and quark; and that, at the level of quantum mechanics, it's the intervention of the observer that causes a ``fundamental, unknowable disturbance in the system.'' All this leads Darling to embrace the thesis that human consciousness is both necessary and sufficient for establishing reality. These are ideas that have been heard before in David Bohm, John Wheeler, and the proponents of the anthropic principle. Here, they're brought to apotheosis in a final anthropic principle in which the mind evolves, bodies fade, and some sort of universal consciousness arises and permeates the galaxies: That's the grand and glorious future. Meanwhile, a perverse thought keeps stirring: Isn't this solipsism turned inside out? -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion Books (Adult Trd Pap) (January 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786880724
• ISBN-13: 978-0786880720
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,284,562 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compellingly readable and profoundly interesting., September 27, 2003

By A Customer

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This review is from: Equations of Eternity: Speculations on Consciousness, Meaning, and the Mathematical Rules That Orchestrate the Cosmos (Hardcover)

The other reviews of this book don't do it justice. As I'm not planning on spending a long time with this one, mine won't either. But, I'll tell you that this is one of the most memorable and profoundly interesting books that I've read in recent years.

While I'd have to call "Soul Search" my favorite of his books, this book was one that I actually bought up discounted copies of & sent to a number of my friends as gifts. (The friends I sent it to were not scientists or researchers, they were musicians and a health-care worker.) That wasn't something I'd really ever done before (or since).

What made this book so meaningful to me was it's humble-toned explanation of many scientific developments of our time and their implications to us. After writing (with engaging, pleasant, and clear language) about these things, Darling incorporates them into his "speculations" on how our world-society may develop as a collective. Don't get me wrong...there's nothing preachy here. Darling doesn't try to tell you that anything "must be" a particular way. He just offers many well-considered ideas based on an obviously-strong knowledge of his subject.

Ultimately, what Darling did was write a book that is well worth your investments. I'm randomly writing this review (while looking for new works by this author) after not having opened my copy of this book in probably three years. That's how strong an impact it made on me.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Speculations indeed, May 7, 2006

By 

Robert Graves (Thompson Station, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Equations of Eternity: Speculations on Consciousness, Meaning, and the Mathematical Rules That Orchestrate the Cosmos (Hardcover)

While searching for the right words to describe what this book is actually "about" it appeared to me in the subtitle of the book itself - "Speculations on consciousness, meaning, and the mathematical rules that orchestrate the cosmos." Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. The truth is, the book is all over the place - not necessarily in a bad way - but so much so that it's difficult to sum up it's contents with a few simple words. It's anthropology, metaphysics, quantum physics, computer science, teleology, futurism...you name it, it's probably making an appearance in David Darling's "Equations of Eternity."

The first quarter of the book addresses the evolution of human consciousness (thus the anthropology), discussing our near evolutionary ancestors and the development of the forebrain. From there he takes a turn into what to me was the most laborious section of the book, the metaphysical section. Here he just gets a little too "if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" for my taste. Except he takes it a step further and seems to ask "if nobody is there to see it, does the tree even exist at all?" Just when I was about at my metaphysical breaking point, he quickly changes gears into the realm of quantum physics and starts giving the science behind what he is saying (Schrodinger's cat, etc.). It's during this part of the book that the lay reader may get a little lost in the science (I did once or twice) but by and large the book is extremely readable.

Suddenly Darling turns to the world of computer science and how computers might one-day work...random, I was thinking. But I began to see how he was assembling all of the information he laid out in his book and used it to coalesce into his final couple chapters, his "grand theory" of the evolution of consciousness, where he foresees all of humanity - no, all of the universe - existing as one single, massive collective consciousness millions of years from now.

At times the book bordered on a new age philosophy, but he usually avoids this by quickly backing up his claims with scientific research. Whether or not you ultimately buy his theories, the book is well worth the read and he doesn't make too many intellectual leaps, if you carefully follow his arguments. When he does present something that sounds outlandish, he is quick to point out that the standard "accepted" solution of the same problem is often just as outlandish - it's just that we're accustomed to it.

It's a fun book that will really get you thinking, and it's easy to get through with a few night's investment. Well worth picking up - it could be the kind of book that changes your life (as it apparently was to some other reviewers, and I can see how this is possible) but for me it was just an enjoyable foray into some realms of science that are currently almost 100% speculative. But as Darling proves in this book, speculating can be very entertaining.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging Speculative Cosmology, January 9, 2010

By 

Didaskalex "Eusebius Alexandrinus" (Kellia on Calvary, Carolina, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Equations of Eternity: Speculations on Consciousness, Meaning, and the Mathematical Rules That Orchestrate the Cosmos (Paperback)

"In giving birth to us, the universe has performed its most astonishing creative act. Out of a hot, dense melee [chaos] of subatomic particles--which is all that once existed--it has fashioned intelligence and consciousness." David Darling, Equations of Eternity



Two Bowls of Cosmic Porridge?
I don't know, wrote Dennis Overbye in the NY Times, if David Darling and John Gribbin are drinking buddies in some Cambridge pub, since for him, "Equations of Eternity" and "In the Beginning" by the British astrophysicists and popular writers may have hatched by few drinks, on the same night! Gribbin's Search of Schrodinger's Cat and Darling's Deep Time, proved that both have an admirable broad spectrum of speculative deductions, which the eloquent writer finds incompatible with astrophysicists, their own scientific domain. Even if they recount the same stories or agree on many scientific concepts, like with Fred Hoyle, eminent fellow astronomer, does not mean they have conceptual telepathy, but stands in support of Darling's thesis of 'participation in communal consciousness' (pp. 164) Overbye concludes that, "on the quest for meaning, metaphor and courage [both] are staunch allies."

Darling's Speculative Thought:
Darling's main themes of the book are assembled in three groups of essays on Man, Brain and nervous system, his ascent to a handy man, the parting of ways of his right and left brains, and their intuitive functioning, displaying religious models from Taoism to Zen and Buddhism. Such review, though brief, provokes interest in Eastern tradition to Holistic view of man's in the universe. The 'Code within' starts his second discourse on Mathematics, the core script that transformed matter into reality. While using a language of archaic philosophic concepts, starting with Pythagorean overstretching of primitive Greek philosophy, the author proceeds on parallel lines to modern Scientific philosophy of Eddington, introducing quantum physics and cosmic coincidences that lead to the Anthropic Principle. His fine deductions echoes, seventh century Alexandrian philosopher, Philoponus defense of creation ex Nihilo, a metaphysical scheme of Whitehead's accidental universe posed in 'Process and Reality'.

Mind to Participation Cosmology:
Dr. Darling would put the mind, life's core, at the center of the cosmic view, for him the mind is the cosmos, quoting Eddington, "Mind is the first and most direct thing in our experience. All else is remote inference -- inference either intuitive or deliberate." Tracing its development from strands of biological messages to the multi layered modern brain with its holistic right side and complementing analytical left, suggests that this most significant discovery proposes applications to the ultimate nature of the quantum world, in analogy with mind and reality. Such bold interpretations, to describe how nature acts on minute scales, embedded in the uncertainty principle on subatomic particles, may be confusing or disturbing to readers. But Darling gives a logical and eloquent explanation of the quantum sorcery and reflects on its metaphysical insinuations, "genesis at work, here and now: the making of the real from the unreal, the breathing of fire into the equations that underpin the world." Complimenting John Wheeler, the pioneer physicist who named black holes, he proposes that the quantum principle, in which we are all engaged in making the universe real is a prescription for a sort of participation cosmology.