Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe

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In Chapter Two (The Language of Time), he calls up the second law of thermodynamics, which states that all things deteriorate over time. He asks, Why is the future different from the past? That is the first sentence of the first chapter of Brian Greene’s new book, Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe.

Greene lays out a logical and intriguing timeline, based on many scientific theories and a lot of mathematical constructs, to explain how one thing leads to another. What I found amazing is the range of topics that the author discusses. For example, cosmology, the early universe, quantum physics, development of hominids, the human race, the brain, mind, consciousness, language, etc. He covers every scale, from the smallest, quantum mechanics, to the largest - the universe itself. It is interesting that the evolutionary perspective doesn’t need to weigh-in on that question. Something can be adaptively useful whether or not it is true. For me what’s more important are the evolutionary and cultural roles that religions have played and continue to play. For the storyline I develop in the book, religions are valuable not because they provide insight into the factual nature of the physical world but because of their role in human development. So, we get chapters on consciousness, language, belief and religion, instinct and creativity, duration and impermanence, the ends of time and, most cringe-making as a title, 'the nobility of being'. Unlike the dazzling scientific presentation I expect, this mostly comes across as fairly shallow amateur philosophising. I think that’s what physicist Brian Greene’s aim is with this book, Until the End of Time (2020), an exploration of the history and possible futures of the universe we inhabit as well as a journey into the past, present, and future of the equivalently vivid inner world that is the human mind. In Chapter One (The Lure of Eternity), Greene wonders about our ability to think. Is thought a physical process?

Greene explains how Darwinian evolution drove the development of living things, from the simple to the complex. For instance, animal life advanced from single celled organisms, Chapter Nine (Duration and Impermanence) explores the uncomfortable idea that our time (not just us as individuals, but the enduring ability to have thoughts and ideas) is finite. “Even those features of the cosmos that may present as enduring—the expanse of space, the distant galaxies, the stuff of matter—all lie within the reach of time.” I am reminded not only of Ambrose Bierce’s aphorism above (which is mentioned by Greene) but also of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s comment upon visiting a bridge under construction in the North of England. Hearing the almost incomprehensible Scots and Geordie banter among the workers, he remarked ‘Isn’t it amazing what people who talk like that can do?’ While some may find this narrative approach (which is conspicuously devoid of anything “supernatural” or “divine”) depressing, others (like me) will find it utterly fascinating and even, in a sense, liberating. Greene shows us that by contemplating the universe at its largest scales—and by recognizing the impermanence of everything—we can come to more deeply appreciate our fleeting moments on this earth. And, even more importantly, we can learn to embrace the responsibility we all have to create our own meaning in our lives, while avoiding the somewhat childish view that meaning has to be imposed on us from above for life to have any value.

It meandered and so did my thoughts. Though it sometimes talked of complex physics, it more often talked about things that didn't require my full attention. Big history is a specific approach to history that examines the universe and the human story at its largest possible scales, from the big bang to the present to the distant future. It seeks to unify all physical, biological, psychological, and historical events within a single explanatory framework, often reductionist in nature. Since everything in such a history is claimed to be ultimately reducible to the laws of physics (in the reductionist versions), such a narrative seems particularly suited for a theoretical physicist to tell. Since our mode of engagement with the world is profoundly different [from the bat], there is just so far our imagination can take us into the bat’s inner world. Even if we had a complete accounting of all the underlying fundamental physics, chemistry, and biology that make a bat a bat, our description would still seem unable to get at the bat’s subjective “first-person” experience. However detailed our material understanding, the inner world of the bat seems beyond reach. What’s true for the bat is true for each of us.”

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As a child, I remember feeling this deep sadness when I looked out the window and into the sky lit up by the Sun and knew that billions of years into the future the Sun would die. I don’t exactly remember how I came to know this fact, whether through a book, my parents telling me, or via one of the many space shows and documentaries playing on the family TV. In any case, it was one of those moments that caused me to reflect on my own impermanence—if the Sun couldn’t burn forever, then what did that mean for my own prospects? A long, long time ago in college, I was the sole skeptic and “evolutionist” in the Brown University chapter of the Campus Crusade for Christ. One night I attended a meeting featuring the California college chairman of Campus Crusade, who recommended strongly that I might consider reading Thomas Jefferson’s version of the Bible, since Jefferson removed all references to the supernatural in his extensively edited edition, and one I am certain was well received by fellow Enlightenment skeptics on both sides of the Atlantic. This is exactly how I feel after reading Brian Greene’s “Until The End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe”. Buried within his latest expansive tome is a superb physics book on describing the first two laws of thermodynamics and the law of gravity (the first four chapters) comparable in quality to what fans of Greene’s earlier writings have come to expect, along with a very good concluding section (Chapters 9 to 11) on the fate of the universe itself, drawing upon current cosmological research. What lurks between two halves of a fine physics book, unfortunately, is a humanist manifesto on humanity’s future, relying extensively on the very evolutionary psychology criticized repeatedly by paleobiologist Stephen Jay Gould, population geneticist Richard Lewontin and cell biologist Kenneth R. Miller; the latter, most notably, in his superb “The Human Instinct: How We Evolved to Have Reason, Consciousness and Free Will”. Greene includes the work and opinions of many scientists and philosophers in his discussions, and tells personal anecdotes to illustrate some points - like the time he blew up the oven at the age of ten; or was thrilled by the aurora borealis; or saw his daughter let go of a soaring swing and tumble to the ground. The cosmological journey explores many of the scientific topics you might anticipate— the big bang, the emergence of galaxies, stars, and planets, the formation of complex atoms and molecules, and then on to the emergence of life. But a theme of the book is to consider these developments as part of a larger narrative arc—one that embraces the most iconic of human activities. And so the cosmological story leads us through the emergence of language, story, myth, religion, creative expression, and the very explorations of science itself. The unifying thread tying it all together is our common drive to find coherence in reality. Of course it's perfectly possible to write good science books on, say, consciousness or language - but though Greene touches on the science, there far too much that's more hand-waving. And good though he is at explaining physics, I'm not sure Greene is the right person for the job of dealing with these softer subjects.

Greene is an elegant, eloquent writer . . . beautifully written. . . . An energizing, fascinating exploration of origins and endings.” — The Providence Journal As for humanity, we won't be around forever. Greene writes, "The entire duration of human activity - whether we annihilate ourselves in the next few centuries, are wiped out by a natural disaster in the next few millennia, or somehow find a way to carry on until the death of the sun, the end of the Milky Way, or even the demise of complex matter - would be fleeting." Many researchers over the years have imagined a close association between evolution and the emergence of the world’s religions. Some have suggested that religious belief— and the kinds of behaviors such beliefs entail—has direct evolutionary benefit. For instance, religious belief may bind us into stronger groups that are better able to respond to the difficult challenges our forebears faced in the Pleistocene. Other researchers have suggested that religion has no adaptive role of its own, but naturally emerges as a byproduct of other evolutionary adaptations, from having a big brain to having developed highly sensitive “agent detectors”—which are good for recognizing that you’re being stalked by a lion but often go overboard in sensing intelligent beings blowing in the wind or floating in the clouds. As a means of overlaying coherence on a broad spectrum of human perceptions and experiences, having a religious outlook is, according to these perspectives, not at all surprising. Greene considers himself a reformed reductionist - that is, someone who used to believe in one fundamental story about reality. He now believes that the scientific stories by chemists, physicists, and biologists are not the only stories that are meaningful. “There are many ways of understanding the world,” he says. A non-scientist who reads novels, biographies, and poetry can only agree. What matters for him is that the stories that are told are increasingly consistent and coherent with each other. It is unclear how he proposes to compare, say, Finnegans Wake and the second law of Thermodynamics for consistency and coherence. Nevertheless, this is his measure not just of scientific progress but also of human cultural development.Brian Greene is an American theoretical physicist, mathematician, and string theorist who writes books about science for the general public. The essence of everything Greene says in the book is reductionism. It is clear that Greene is a staunch reductionist. While he tries to delicately guide the reader down a path of innocent objectivism, he clearly is trying to argue a singular point: everything is only matter. There is nothing else beyond the matter of your brain and the universe. I found myself rather annoyed at the end of this book as Greene leaves little question in the air if there is anything besides just particles. It is a forgone conclusion in his mind which he doesn't even leave open to speculation. I found this... arrogant. I get annoyed when physicists (like Hawking) translate their experiences with theoretical physics into being authorities on spirituality and religion. I'm afraid to say that Greene is guilty of this conceit in Until the End of Time. Greene may be a brilliant physicist but he doesn't know EVERYTHING. Sorry. In Chapter Six (Language and Story), Greene wonders at how language has opened up the possibility of story-telling and imagination. The complexity of our language system and grammar structures is what sets us apart from all other animals. In this chapter, Greene explores this idea in depth, providing a history of linguistic thought.

These discussions include consideration of gravity, repulsive gravity; dark energy, electromagnetic and nuclear forces, the Higgs field, and other such things that physicists love. No matter what, however, the universe will ultimately disintegrate into widely separated teeny tiny particles that are randomly drifting around. The writing style is accessible, given the topics under discussion. As a professor of physics and mathematics Greene obviously has great experience in knowledge sharing and in this latest book he talks his readers through current theories of creation, entropy, and evolution. He includes an explanation of why water is chemically so valuable for life to exist. He explains how quantum theory plays into thermodynamics, and encompasses topics like how consciousness appeared, before moving on to the big question of “how will it all end?” At some points the reader is offered the opportunity to skip the more detailed explanations, but I found the result well worth the effort of following his elegant and enlightening prose. As with storytelling and religion, creative expression may have its own evolutionary role. The tight link between creativity, ingenuity, and innovation suggests that the arts may be closely associated with adaptively vital cognitive abilities. However, some have also suggested that the arts appeal to visual and auditory sensitivities that emerged through natural selection, but that artistic activities and experiences themselves have no intrinsic adaptive value. It is an ongoing discussion among researchers. My focus in the book is on the arts as a means we have used to find and communicate truths—human truths— that may resist direct expression through language. In the face of our own inevitable end, within a universe itself subject to long-term degradation and demise, story and religion and the arts are all a part of the human drive for something sublime. It is a journey that takes us from the beginning of time to something akin to the end, and through the journey explore the breathtaking ways in which restless and inventive minds have illuminated and responded to the fundamental transience of everything.Things start well with this latest title from Brian Greene: after a bit of introductory woffle we get into an interesting introduction to entropy. As always with Greene's writing, this is readable, chatty and full of little side facts and stories. Unfortunately, for me, the book then suffers something of an increase in entropy itself as on the whole it then veers more into philosophy and the soft sciences than Greene's usual physics and cosmology.