Fundamentals by Frank Wilczek

Author:Frank Wilczek [Wilczek, Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

FUNDAMENTALS AND HUMAN PURPOSES

Dynamic Complexity

By making simple comparisons, we have demonstrated that there is, for human purposes, plenty of energy in the universe. Now let us consider, from a more fundamental perspective, why there is.

To do that, we must address two basic questions:

What is it, in the physical universe, that embodies “human purposes”?

Why does realizing that thing require so little energy, compared to what our Sun puts forth?

The first question can be addressed at many different levels. If we try to define “human purposes” precisely, we risk a rapid plunge into murky depths of vague metaphysics. But if we ask what it is that is essential to what people do, and to what they are, in physical terms, then the answer that emerges is clearer than the question is. At that level, the heart of the matter is dynamic complexity. Although there’s no scientific consensus on precisely how to define complexity, we “know it when we see it,” in examples like these:

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