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Ronald Scheurer
, January 14, 2012
(view all comments by Ronald Scheurer)
BOOK REVIEW
Deep Time
Davis Darling
Delecorte Press, 1989
In the a note to the reader, Darling explains his point of view about the book: Deep Time is a personal sense of how one subatomic particle might perceive its origin, a beginning; into some far distant future where it all ends. Ancient and modern myths explore the creation of the universe. Today the high priests of science, philosophy, and theology pursue the quest for answers to the natural history of humans; and the universe. Did it have a beginning or did it always exist in some form or other? Will it ever end, or will the yet finite mind of conscious animals ever be able to comprehend the nature of infinity?
What happens to the presumably one subatomic particle at time zero? The story of particle physics ensues for billions of years, incomprehensibly in earth time where for many people accurate monthly planning is a mystery. Six hundred million years after a big bang, the earth condensed from the resultant space debris.
Less time bound at this point the book becomes more interesting, concerning itself with chemical element formation, and the beginnings of organic life forms; humans eventually, and their exploration of space with Voyager 1 and 2. Darling suggests that the answers sought today - what is matter, what is time, and what is life - are to be found by the exploration of inner space: the mystery of consciousness and self-consciousness.
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