42: Reinventing the Sacred. A conversation with Stuart Kauffman.

Dr. Kauffman, theoretical biologist, complex systems researcher, author of six books and numerous papers, begins the conversation recalling the ancient world and how the original split between the religions and the sciences influences the struggles and projections between the sciences and the arts/humanities today. Stuart begins this by providing scientific reasons why the possibilities of the world and our evolution are indefinite and anything that comes next in this evolution cannot be prestated – and he offers fascinating insight as to why this makes sense. He makes the case that any attempt to find a theory of everything or a final theory is false. Therefore, he connects this with the argument that reductionism, from an evolutionary perspective, fails – including Newton’s laws. Next, we move into how philosophers, beginning with Descartes’ notion of substance dualism, have made sense of reality, from Stuart’s perspective, dual nature – mind stuff and matter stuff. Here we use dual-aspect theory to begin to bring together the split that has permeated philosophy, religion, science, and even human biology, thus starting what we call today “the mind-body problem” – how mind stuff and matter stuff can interact. Dr. Kauffman suggests a new, quantum answer for this mind/body problem in a paper he titles, Beyond the Stalemate: Conscious Mind-Body - Quantum Mechanics - Free Will - Possible Panpsychism - Possible Interpretation of Quantum Enigma. He explains what is meant by the term “quantum mind” and its relationship to private experience termed “qualia.” Stuart posits that his definition for the term “god” is not the creator of the universe but creativity as a force and infinite pattern of the universe. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=stuart+kauffman&i=stripbooks&crid=LSORSEFY7Z9N&sprefix=stuart+kau%2Caps%2C388&ref=nb_sb_ss_c_2_10 Books by Dr. Stuart Kauffman YouTube links: “The Shape of History” Evolution of Human Culture and Technology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9Mn1bppV7U A Simple Combinatorial Model of Economic History Papers: Res potentia and Res extensa, non-locality - Taking Heisenberg’s Potentia Seriously https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.04502 Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: Bob Schneider Music page: http://www.bobschneider.com Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesacredspeaks/