
The Romance of Reality
How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity
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Narrated by:
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Kaleo Griffith
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By:
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Bobby Azarian
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.
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As someone who lives in a hippie-dippie place (Humboldt CA), I don't mind woo but also am a natural skeptic and science-minded individual. I have consumed significantly more "woo" in my day but felt able to sift through what was conjecture and what seems like reliable-enough truth. This book sticks about 98% to "reliable enough" and should be suitable for a general audience.
Knowing a bit of quantum theory and it's pop-implications on our modern world would be helpful but not required. if you are familiar with why Schrodinger's cat is both alive and dead, then you have what you need.
In general, this will equip you with the kind of perspective that you can explain to a 'normie' (ie NOT a science consumer) at a party or something if they'll give you long enough attention. Meaning that this doesn't require any huge leaps of faith and, in fact, address why leaps of faith are, on the whole, a fairly bad idea for the survival of a species near the end.
This book won't make you believe in god, because it proves that God doesn't need an ounce of belief to function. But if you believe in the belief in your species that was crafted by a concept, idea, entity if you desire it to be so... then maybe your life will start to take on a non-selfish, more collective structure and your worldview will naturally catch up.
Psychedelic experience optional but it does help. Overall, very recommended with a warning that it's not going to blow your spiritual mind apart if you're already fluent in it's language, but it might give you some cool black hole and multiverse questions and ideas to ponder either way.
Great for the layperson but I did find a few concepts overwrought if you are familiar with Gaia Theory already
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this is what schools should be teaching
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A Speculative Science/Spirituality
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Excellent book on the understanding of the human experience and function of the universe.
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Reality Redefined with New Epistemic Findings!
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The great awakening revealed
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Simply mind-blowing.
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2/3rds great
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Overwhelming in a beautiful way
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After reading close to 300 books over the past decade on various domains in Science, I would say this book was a watershed moment for me in terms of perspective. It needs a familiarity with concepts in evolution, neuroscience, Bayesian model and quantum theory else you only see the tip of the iceberg. I found nuggets of wisdom in almost every other page and for someone like me that reads a lot of books on these topics, that’s a big statement.
What a debut. I hope Bobby Azarian writes more books.
A Monumental Work! (If you are fortunate to grasp it).
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