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And among other things, I think it’s at the center of the phenomenon of free will. That there can be a kind of irreducible distance between underlying deterministic laws, and overall observed behavior. So that the overall behavior can
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“It's also hard for people to contend with the difficult possibility that we are simply overadvanced fungi and bacteria hurtling through a galaxy in cold, meaningless space. But just because our existence may have arisen unintentionally and without purpose doesn't preclude meaning or purpose from emerging as a result of our interaction and collaboration. Meaning may not be a precondition for humanity as much as a by-product of it.”
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“America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense… human rights invented America.”
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“It was just over thirty years ago that I had the dramatic out-of-body experience that convinced me of the reality of psychic phenomena and launched me on a crusade to show those closed-minded scientists that consciousness could reach beyond the body and that death was not the end. Just a few years of careful experiments changed all that. I found no psychic phenomena - only wishful thinking, self-deception, experimental error and, occasionally, fraud. I became a sceptic.”
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“If we wish to draw philosophical conclusions about our own existence, our significance, and the significance of the universe itself, our conclusions should be based on empirical knowledge. A truly open mind means forcing our imaginations to conform to the evidence of reality, and not vice versa, whether or not we like the implications.”
― A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing
― A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing
“The amazing thing is that every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements - the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution - weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way they could get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today.”
― A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing
― A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing
Todd’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Todd’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
62 books
|
36 friends
297 books
|
54 friends
42 books
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50 friends
36 books
|
161 friends
26 books
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34 friends
317 books
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14 friends
628 books
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38 friends
0 books
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8 friends
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Business, Ebooks, History, Memoir, Non-fiction, Philosophy, Psychology, Science, and Science fiction
Polls voted on by Todd
Lists liked by Todd
