Evolutionary Edge

Voices of the Emerging Movement for Conscious Evolution

July-August 2006

We Earthly inhabitants are part of the quirky creativity of the Universe. The more we get to know about our selves and our situation, the more oddly special -- even unlikely -- we seem to be. Here are four examples of how we are special beings living at a special time, place and scale, inspired by Joel R. Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams' new book The View from the Center of the Universe:

• We are made of stardust -- elements forged in the atomic heat of stars and exploding supernovas -- which happens to be the rarest substance in the universe. Amazing as it may seem, the kinds of atoms we are familiar with (and are made of) constitute less than 1 percent of all the matter and energy in the universe. 95% of the rest is now thought to be made of "dark energy" and "dark matter", about which we know precious little except that it exists in vast and powerful quantities.
• We have developed telescopes at the very evolutionary moment when the accelerating expansion of the universe will be taking the most distant galaxies out of possible view. Until recently, the expansion of the universe was slowing down. Now it is speeding up. Future astronomers will not be able to see all the galaxies we see now.
• We live at the middle of all possible sizes, between the vast patterns of intergalactic spacetime and the mysteries of quantum fields and subatomic particles. Primack and Abrams call this "Midgard", bounded by the smallest and largest neighbors we can see with our naked eyes -- tiny bugs and our sun. Primack and Abrams note that "Life of our complexity could bloom on no other size scales."
• We live at the natural midpoint of Earth's era of complex life, which started about half a billion years ago and will likely end about half a billion years hence, when the expansion of the sun and changes in Earth's orbit will make our home planet inhospitable for life like us.