
Imperfect Creation
Description
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Overturning more than twenty-five centuries of scientific thought, award-winning physicist Marcelo Gleiser argues that this quest for a Theory of Everything is fundamentally misguided, and he explains the volcanic implications this ideological shift has for humankind. All the evidence points to a scenario in which everything emerges from fundamental imperfections, primordial asymmetries in matter and time, cataclysmic accidents in Earth’s early life, and duplication errors in the genetic code. Imbalance spurs creation. Without asymmetries and imperfections, the universe would be filled with nothing but smooth radiation.
A Tear at the Edge of Creation calls for nothing less than a new "humancentrism" to reflect our position in the universal order. All life, but intelligent life in particular, is a rare and precious accident. Our presence here has no meaning outside of itself, but it does have meaning. The unplanned complexity of humankind is all the more beautiful for its improbability. It’s time for science to let go of the old aesthetic that labels perfection beautiful and holds that "beauty is truth." It’s time to look at the evidence without centuries of monotheistic baggage. In this lucid, down-to-earth narrative, Gleiser walks us through the basic and cutting-edge science that fueled his own transformation from unifier to doubter—a fascinating scientific quest that led him to a new understanding of what it is to be human.
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Content
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Introduction
- Part I Oneness
- 1. Burst!
- 2. Fear of Darkness
- 3. Transition
- 4. Belief
- 5. Oneness: Beginnings
- 6. The Pythagorean Myth
- 7. Living the Platonic Dream
- 8. God, the sun
- 9. To Hold the Key to the Cosmos in Your Mind...
- 10. Kepler's Mistake
- Part II The Asymmetry Of Time
- 11. The Big Bang Confirmed
- 12. The World in a Grain of Sand
- 13. Light Acts in Mysterious Ways
- 14. The Imperfection of Electromagnetism
- 15. The Birth of Atoms
- 16. From Creation Myths to the Quantum: A Brief History
- 17. Leap of Faith
- 18. The Jitterbug Cosmos
- 19. The Universe That We See
- 20. The Faltering Big Bang Model
- 21. Back to the Beginning
- 22. Exotic Primordial Matter
- 23. A Small Patch of Weirdness
- 24. Darkness Falls
- 25. Darkness Rules
- Part III The Asymmetry of Matter
- 26. Symmetry and Beauty
- 27. A More Intimate Look at Symmetry
- 28. Energy Flows, Matter Dances
- 29. Violation of a Beautiful Symmetry
- 30. The Material World
- 31. Science of the Gaps
- 32. Symmetries and Asymmetries of Matter
- 33. The Origin of Matter in the Universe
- 34. A Universe in Transition
- 35. Unification: A Critique
- Part IV The Asymmetry of Life
- 36. Life!
- 37. The spark of Life
- 38. Life from No Life: First Steps
- 39. First Life: The "When" Question
- 40. First Life: The "Where" Question
- 41. First Life: The "How" Question
- 42. First Life: The Building Blocks
- 43. The Man Who Killed the Life Force
- 44. L'Univers Est Dissymétrique!
- 45. The Chirality of Life
- 46. From So Asymmetric a Beginning...
- 47. We Are All Mutants
- Part V The Asymmetry of Existence
- 48. Fear of Darkness II
- 49. Is the Universe Conscious?
- 50. Meaning and Awe
- 51. Beyond Symmetry and Unification
- 52. Marilyn Monroe's Mole and the Fallacy of a Cosmos "Just Right" for Life
- 53. Rare Earth, Rare Life?
- 54. Us and Them
- 55. Cosmic Loneliness
- 56. A New Directive for Humanity
- Epilogue: Garden of Delights
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Acknowledgments
- Index
- About the Author
- Footnotes
- Page 17
- Page 20
- Page 24
- Page 26
- Page 33
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 49
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 65
- Page 72
- Page 78
- Page 84
- Page 92
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- Page 107
- Page 110
- Page 112
- Page 114
- Page 115
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- Page 126
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- Page 138
- Page 164
- Page 167
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- Page 175
- Page 177
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- Page 226
- Page 239
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