Ingenious, but not for the faint of heart.
An astrobiologist takes a hard look at life.
Walker, director of Arizona State’s Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, writes that until well into the 19th century, the vitalism movement “was driven by the idea that what makes matter come alive cannot be described mechanically and is therefore not material.” But if life is not a property of matter, and matter is all there is, then what is life? Biologists approach the problem in terms of life on Earth, which hasn’t proven to be an effective strategy and is even less helpful today with the discovery of innumerable planets and the possibility of sentient life throughout the universe. In addition to her work in the field of astrobiology, Walker is a theoretical physicist with a special interest in the possibilities of alien life, and she emphasizes that physics deals with “the heart of reality.” She continues, “It’s not that the idiosyncratic details of biology as it evolved on Earth don’t matter. They just don’t matter if you want to understand life as a universal phenomenon.” Eschewing the anthropomorphic viewpoint, she and colleagues have developed “assembly theory,” which proposes that things never form spontaneously, but must be constructed via selection and evolution. Life is an example of “high-dimensional combinatorial space of what is possible,” she writes. The author’s startling conclusion is that, while an alien life form may be detected first on a distant planet, it’s more likely to turn up in a laboratory here on Earth, “but there is an even larger universe of chemical possibilities we may need to explore to find them.” This is an honorable addition to a small genre that began with Noble Prize–winning physicist Erwin Schrodinger’s What Is Life? in 1944. It’s never easy, but diligent readers will be rewarded.
Ingenious, but not for the faint of heart.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780593191897
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781627783316
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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