Out of Chaos: Evolution from the Big Bang to Human IntellectUniversal-Publishers, 2007 - 508 pages Excerpt from Foreword, written by Stuart Ross Taylor: "Are we really the pinnacle of 4500 million years of evolution? Closely related to the aggressive chimpanzees, have we evolved enough to cope? The nightly news on television, that mervelous technical invention of scientists, now turned into a field too barren to be termed a wastelad, provides little hope that Homo sapiens is more than another of nature's failed experiments... will a more evolved species evolve in time? Wayne notes the extraordinary achievements of the Ashkenazi Jews, separated in European ghettos for centuries, whose descendants, now three percent of the US population, have garnered 27% of the Nobel Prizes awarded to that country. In their enforced isolation, restricted to intellectually demanding occupations, did they evolve superior brains? Perhaps there are grounds for hope before the unrestricted growth in population; the elephant in the attic, falls through the ceiling. Read this book. It tells us where we are, how we got there, and how we might escape disaster." |
Contents
Religion II | 313 |
The Great Enigma | 319 |
Evaluation of Free Will | 332 |
Evolution of the Philosophical | 345 |
Culmination of the Modern Intellect | 361 |
Genius | 368 |
Artificial Intelligence | 374 |
Symbolization Language and Consciousness Chapter 29 Cultural Evolution | 378 |
Climate and Lifes Probability | 109 |
Archaic Anthropoids and Hominids | 119 |
Early Human Development | 134 |
Emergence of the Human Brain | 147 |
A Darwinian Brain? | 154 |
Models and Chemistry of the Modern Mind | 163 |
Ancient Events and History | 179 |
Marvel of the Ancient Greeks | 195 |
The Early Chinese Creative Explosion | 209 |
Rome the Rise of Christianity and the European Middle Ages | 215 |
The Renaissance | 227 |
The Copernican Revolution | 236 |
Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Science Nineteenth Century and the Age of Machines | 253 |
The Ancient Artisan and the Rise of Material | 269 |
Superstition | 281 |
Religion I | 297 |
Tomorrow | 413 |
An Undirected Future | 425 |
Ultimate Reality Great Problems of Planet Earth | 437 |
Eternal Life | 444 |
About the Author Bibliography | 464 |
Index | 476 |
298 | 485 |
186 | 488 |
92 | 489 |
319 | 491 |
97 | 496 |
366 | 497 |
227 | 500 |
377 | 503 |
249 | 506 |
Common terms and phrases
amygdala Ancient Greek animals arose Ashkenazi Jews autocatalytic became become behavior believed biological evolution bonobos carbon dioxide cause cells century certainty chapter chemical chimpanzees civilization civilization’s climate change cognitive fluidity complex conflict continuously cortex critical cultural evolution developed discovery disease diverse Earth effect emerged enabled enhanced environmental environments essential European Middle Ages evolutionary evolved exist extinction fossil genetic genetic drift greater hominid Homo human brain ideas increased intellectual growth intelligence genes interaction invention knowledge language learning left brain life’s limbic system lives logic mathematics mechanism million years ago mind modern H modern humans mysticism nature nature’s Neandertals neocortex neurons neurotransmitters observation occur oxygen particles percent Perhaps philosophers physicist planets plasticity plate tectonics population potential precludes problems promoted quantum rational religion religious Sagan sapiens Scientific Revolution scientists seems Shermer social species survival swarm intelligence theory thinking thought tion understanding Universe Upper Paleolithic
Popular passages
Page 204 - Archimedes stated that a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid.
Page 283 - Nietzche (1844-1900) when he wrote that: (t)o trace something unknown back to something known is alleviating, soothing, gratifying and gives moreover a feeling of power. Danger, disquiet, anxiety attend the unknown — the first instinct is to eliminate these distressing states.
Page 365 - For she had a great variety of selves to call upon, far more than we have been able to find room for, since a biography is considered complete if it merely accounts for six or seven selves, whereas a person may well have as many thousand.
Page 49 - It is often attempted to palliate slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our poorer countrymen : if the misery of our poor be caused, not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin...
Page 197 - In a right triangle the square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides or legs.
Page 319 - One of the great achievements of science has been, if not to make it impossible for intelligent people to be religious, then at least to make it possible for them not to be religious. We should not retreat from this accomplishment.
Page 9 - The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.18 Weinberg's famous statement is mysterious. What does he mean by "The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless"?
Page 46 - I have already made, observing that although the theory of evolution is about as much open to doubt as the theory that the earth goes round the sun, 'the full implications of Darwin's revolution have yet to be widely realized...