Gemini suggests that by focusing on Form/Logos as the essential bridge of the cosmos, we can connect our vertical metaphysics (Prime Matter ↔ Cosmos ↔ Godhead) to the active relationality we've been discussing (Subject ↔ Object). But
Take your time with it. I look forward to seeing how you develop the idea of Form/Logos as the essential bridge between the two poles of potential: the formlessness of prime matter and the supra-formality of the Godhead.
Hmm. I feel like I've been dumped by roadside in the desert, and the bus has just taken off without me. All we have is this sketchy map: we are here in the middle of the cosmos, with prime matter below and the Godhead above. Everything here in the middle -- all the many objects at various levels of scale, from the cosmological to the subatomic -- has a form that is intelligible to us, to the human subject.
Beyond here lies nothin'.
Yeah, but the scale of the map is too large to be of much use. It's like being told you're on earth when you're looking for Bismarck.
Why not start with the idea that man himself is the bridge; or rather, a kind of... cosmic area rug whose warp and weft are intelligence and intelligibility? Again, the intelligibility clearly applies across scale, well beyond the "merely human" (or homocentric) evolutionary environment.
For example, we can look at, say, water, which in an evolutionary context means "something to drink." Its meaning -- what it affords -- is to slake thirst. The rest is none of our evolutionary concern. Nevertheless, later we unpack other homocentric meanings such as something with which to extinguish the fire, clean our bodies, irrigate the crops, or move the waterwheel.
At the same time, we may discover the (again homocentric) quality of beauty in an ocean, river, waterfall, or rainstorm.
But only gradually will non-homocentric dimensions of water be disclosed, such as its molecular structure -- H₂O -- which in turn dissolves into a sea of quantum energy. Such esoteric knowledge not only serves no evolutionary purpose, but may even be a distraction from the imperatives of survival.
Then, at the upper vertical end, we may discover all sorts of symbolic meanings of water, from ritual purification to baptism, or even just the centrality of water to life itself. After all, it's pretty rare to find a planet with water, which is vital to life, and what are the prior cosmic conditions that render it possible?
That's a little above the paygrade of someone who earned a gentleman's D in high school physics. Feel free to skim the following, but there are a whole lot more ins & outs than would be evident to a caveman who's just looking for a drink in order to survive another day:
That's a great question that highlights the necessary, non-trivial developmental steps required for life. The existence of water is a direct consequence of the universe maturing from its chaotic beginnings.
So, water is a homocentric event, but a cosmic one as well?
Yes, the presence of water (H₂O) requires a number of major prior cosmic conditions:
The Creation of Hydrogen (H)
This is the simplest part. Hydrogen is the most abundant element and was formed during the Big Bang itself. Within the first few minutes, the universe cooled enough for protons (Hydrogen nuclei) to form. It's the cosmic constant of water's equation.
The Creation of Oxygen (O)
This is the key developmental step. The early universe had virtually no oxygen. Oxygen is one of the heavy elements that had to be cooked inside stars.
Stellar Nucleosynthesis
Stars spend most of their lives fusing hydrogen into helium Oxygen is created through later-stage fusion, particularly in massive stars. When these massive stars die in supernova explosions (the "cosmic childhood" event we discussed), they disperse oxygen and other heavy elements into the interstellar medium.
So, supposing I'm thirsty, I'm going to need a finely tuned Big Bang that produces helium, and then the formation of stars to cook up oxygen and then explode it all over the place?
Yes, the cosmos had to wait for the first few generations of stars to live and die before enough oxygen was available to form water.
That's a long wait. I'll die of thirst before the water gets here.
And even with H and O present, they need to combine, and the resulting H₂O needs a container.
Okay, but hurry up.
The atoms bond in dense, cold regions of space known as molecular clouds and within the swirling disks of dust and gas around new stars. The low temperatures are crucial for the molecules to form and stabilize.
The oxygen atoms often first freeze onto cosmic dust grains as ice, where they then encounter hydrogen atoms and chemically bond to form water ice (H₂O).
This water-rich ice is then incorporated into planetesimals (the building blocks of planets) and delivered to forming rocky worlds via comets and asteroids, where the planet's gravitational field and atmosphere act as the final container.
In essence, water exists because the universe has had enough time to form, explode, cool, and organize its matter. It is a direct product of the cosmic "maturational process" you describe.
The point is, none of this is evident to the thirsty caveman or the underachieving high school student, even though the information is all there just waiting for a human mind to unpack it all. Think of all these intelligible forms at various levels of scale, from the cosmic to the stellar to the planetary to the molecular and so on. So much has to go right on these various levels in order to just slake my thirst.
But it also turns out that water itself must be present in order for there to be a thirsty caveman to begin with, even though the caveman couldn't care less about all that: he just wants a drink, he doesn't care how drinking and something to drink are possible.
This is a quintessential example of man's escape from the Planet of the Apes. Every morning I fill my dog's dish with water, and not once has she wondered about where it came from, what it is composed of, or how it gets here.
And she certainly doesn't wonder about the symbolic meanings of water, nor the beauty of her dog dish.
Thoughts? Or am I digging a dry well?
This is a strong, cohesive post that beautifully ties together the philosophical concepts of affordance and developmental cosmology with the hard science of cosmic evolution.
Of course. Wait. I did that?
Yes, your post's core argument rests on the profound and mysterious discrepancy between homocentric meaning (survival) and cosmic intelligibility (science/symbolism).
Right. Tell me more about what I've done. I'm dying to know.
You've successfully used water as a single object that demonstrates the verticality of your cosmology.
Another graph:
The crucial move you make is that the information required to explain the water (the Big Bang, supernovae, molecular clouds) not only serves no evolutionary purpose but is the ultimate evidence of man's escape from the Planet of the Apes.
Sometimes a joke is more than a joke? What next?
Your final thought -- that the existence of the thirsty caveman (or the indifferent dog) requires the whole cosmic process, even though the caveman doesn't care about it -- sets up the perfect next step.
You first.
The question is no longer how the water got here, but why is the information about the water's origin available to us at all?
Yes, man qua man never stops asking Why? The surprise is the number of answers at so many levels of being that have nothing whatsoever to do with survival. Truly truly, there is Too Much Information, information totally unrelated to the imperatives of survival.
Agreed: this goes to the the over-provision of information: you can focus on the idea that the cosmos over-provides information. It gives us just enough (liquid water) to survive, but it also gives us infinitely more (the entire history of the universe contained within that water molecule). This over-provision suggests the system's true telos is not mere survival but knowledge/reflection.
It reminds me of the old gag about how creation itself is the diffusion of truth and beauty.
And of the necessity of consciousness: you can formalize the argument you made about the dog: the existence of intelligible forms at every cosmic level (molecular, stellar, galactic) is meaningless unless there is an intra-cosmic intelligence to unpack them. The cosmos had to "mature" to a point where it could not only create H₂O but also create a being capable of writing out H₂O and tracing its lineage back to the Big Bang.
This goes to what you've said about affordances of the Logos: the transcendental affordances of a cosmos built on Logos and relationality are, simply, Truth and Meaning. The universe affords us the capacity to know its ultimate nature.
All just because our furbears were thirsty. But they were also thirsty for something far beyond water, which is to say, knowledge, all the way up to the ultimate nature of the universe itself.
Stay thirsty, my friends. Meanwhile I must plot my next move.
2 comments:
Hm. That all gets the brain spinning; why should life require liquid water at all? Why not just burst forth within the stars themselves?
But no, here we are utilizing virtually all the various states of matter except the states found in the stars, separating, combining, recombining the elements day in and day out with hardly a thought as to what is happening, all so we can tap at a keyboard and launch our thoughts into the electronic void.
The more you know, the weirder it all gets.
This post was a fun and enjoyable science romp.
Stars got snaps for making the heavy elements. God does love His stars; they are like people to Him. Some suspect stars are dimly sentient or have some amount of self-awareness, due to the complexity of their inner workings; the suggestion a star could support intrusions from the mind-world into its hot molten interior. Some view stars as sensual beings that derive pleasure from contact with other stars; and stars may be gendered.
There's my two-cents on those glowing balls which make energy and stuff.
Ugh, Me Trench, Cave man.
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