“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away”*…

Reality is tough. Everything eats and is eaten. Everything destroys and is destroyed.

In a way that challenges lots of our deeply-seated conceptions (your correspondent’s, anyway), philosopher (and self-proclaimed pessimist) Drew Dalton invokes the laws of thermodynamics to argue that it is our moral duty to strike back at the Universe…

Reality is not what you think it is. It is not the foundation of our joyful flourishing. It is not an eternally renewing resource, nor something that would, were it not for our excessive intervention and reckless consumption, continue to harmoniously expand into the future. The truth is that reality is not nearly so benevolent. Like everything else that exists – stars, microbes, oil, dolphins, shadows, dust and cities – we are nothing more than cups destined to shatter endlessly through time until there is nothing left to break. This, according to the conclusions of scientists over the past two centuries, is the quiet horror that structures existence itself.

We might think this realisation belongs to the past – a closed chapter of 19th-century science – but we are still living through the consequences of the thermodynamic revolution. Just as the full metaphysical implications of the Copernican revolution took centuries to unfold, we have yet to fully grasp the philosophical and existential consequences of entropic decay. We have yet to conceive of reality as it truly is. Instead, philosophers cling to an ancient idea of the Universe in which everything keeps growing and flourishing. According to this view, existence is good. Reality is good.

But what would our metaphysics and ethics look like if we learned that reality was against us?…

Read on for his provocative argument that philosphers must grapple with the meaning of thermodynamics: “Reality is evil,” from @dmdalton.bsky.social in @aeon.co.

Dalton further explores these ideas in his book The Matter of Evil: From Speculative Realism to Ethical Pessimism (2023)

* Philip K. Dick

###

As we wrestle with reality, we might send somewhat sunnier birthday greetings to Stephen William Hawking CH CBE FRS FRSA; he was born on this date in 1942.  A theoretical physicist and cosmologist, he is probably best known in his professional circles for his work with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity, for his theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation (now called Hawking radiation), and for his support of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

But Hawking is more broadly known as a popularizer of science.  His A Brief History of Time stayed on the British Sunday Times best-seller list for over four years (a record-breaking 237 weeks), and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

“We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that, I am extremely grateful.”

source

A Brief History of Time for the Apple Macintosh

https://youtu.be/55f1e549MO4?si=3F170t6KFhFdzB7-

#ABriefHistoryofTime #AppleMacintosh #AppleMac #Apple #Macintosh #Mac #Educational #Education #Edutainment #StephenHawking #CreativeTechnologyLtd #CreativeTechnology

I'm slowly rebuilding my #rare #book #eBay store this summer, one book a day over the next three months. Today, an almost like-new #1stPrinting of #StephenHawking's classic 1988 experimental physics primer #ABriefHistoryOfTime, containing the ultra-rare introduction by Carl Sagan that was yanked from later printings because of a copyright dispute. This beautiful copy can be yours for just $100 or your best offer! https://www.ebay.com/itm/156245381303

UPDATE 6/17/24: Sold for $80!

#ABriefHistoryOfTime must be the most-bought and least-read popular science book in the world. I've tried to understand it twice over the years, getting to page 30 every time before giving up. That #Hawking got it wrong makes me feel weirdly vindicated. I donated the book to the charity shop.

#bookstodon #science

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/mar/19/stephen-hawking-told-me-ive-changed-my-mind-my-book-is-wrong

A new study by a team of physicists could shed new light on the lingering mystery of the arrow of time in a paper which looks at the various ways that cells and particles could be the source for various phenomena that gives rise to the human concept of time.

https://thedebrief.org/researchers-untangle-arrow-of-time-mystery-in-groundbreaking-new-physics-study/#sq_h5iehkws8t

#ABriefHistoryofTime #StephenHawking