The mysterious origins of conscious self-awareness It’s early morning in a wide, steeped river valley, some several hundred thousand years ago. Before nightfall, someone or something wedged its way into a crevice in a rock outcropping near the summit, instinctively settling there for a bit of warmth and protection, sleeping fitfully during the long, cold […]
Creativity and The Origins of the Universe
It’s all in there, waiting, just waiting in the time before time, the universe, our universe, packed unimaginably tight, indistinguishably tight, packed into a single point, a point infinitely smaller than a grain of sand, the rawest of raw materials awaiting the miraculous complexity of a single atom, all the solids, liquids, and gasses that […]
Every Tree is a Doorway
The oak tree sits on the hillside, a robust Coast Live Oak thriving in its homeland, its gnarled trunk pushing up from the terraced slope, pushing first towards the west and the Golden Gate, then arching back to the east and the summit of the Berkeley Hills, its four main branches spiraling around themselves like […]