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The Irish Druid’s
Update “Goodbye Galileo” From Flat Earth to Planet to
chance Self-Assembly Plant Galileo Galilei: “Earth is a planet.” Finn, the druid: “Earth functions as chemical
self-assembly plant.” Introduction Humanity’s
understanding of its place in the cosmos has undergone a series of radical
shifts. Each one has dethroned the human a little more, moving from almost
comforting certainty to the disorientation of terrifying random vastness. First,
the Earth was thought to be flat — a boundless stage for human affairs. Then
came the discovery that it is a globe, finite but still central. We next
imagined it as the unmoving hub of the universe, only to learn that it merely
orbits the Sun. In time, even the Sun’s specialness dissolved — it is but one
star among billions. Now, a
new perspective is emerging: the Earth itself is not a fixed, eternal home
but a temporary arrangement of chemical elements. Those elements, in turn,
happen as aggregates of quantised energy packets, fleeting structures shaped
by the blind automatic laws of nature. Under the right conditions, these
packets self-assemble into complex dynamic systems whose self-interactions we
call life. This final
shift of observation, namely that life emerged as unpredictable side-effect
of the self-assembly of dynamic chemical elements that originated in the
vastness of space long before the earth was temporarily compressed of a cloud
of cosmic dust, has profound implications for how humans experience
themselves. 1. Identity: Self as Process, Not Object We,
indeed, all life forms are not immutable entities but temporary patterns in
the cosmic energy fluctuations. Matter that makes up your body today was once
part of ancient oceans, forests, and perhaps even starlight billions of years
ago. Example: The
oxygen you breathe was forged in dying stars; the calcium in your bones came
from supernova debris. Like a whirlpool in a river, you exist as a momentary
shape, not a substance — the water (or in our case, the atoms) is always
moving through. 2. Mortality: Impermanence at Every Scale If even
matter itself is transient emergent, then death is not an aberration but the
rule. The self, the species, the planet, even the Sun — all are temporary. Example: The
Great Barrier Reef, once considered eternal, is dying within human lifetimes.
On the cosmic scale, the Milky Way will one day merge with Andromeda, erasing
the familiar night sky. Mortality is not unique to humans; it is a universal
condition of emergence. 3. Value of Life: Rarity and Fragility If life
is a rare, unpredictable emergent phenomenon in a vast, indifferent cosmos,
each instance of it is extraordinary, indeed miraculous, the more so the
experience ‘I AM.’ The fact that self-replicating chemistry arose at all may
be an anomaly, indeed random statistical outlier. Example: The
search for exoplanets shows many Earth-like worlds, but none so far have
shown definitive signs of life. Our biosphere may be a cosmic one-off — like
a single candle in a vast dark hall. 4. Responsibility: Stewardship in a Silent Cosmos The universe
does not promise to protect life. Its continuation depends on the beings
within it who act to preserve it, consciously or not. Example: Climate
change demonstrates how human actions can either preserve or destroy our
planetary habitability. If we fail here, the cosmos will not intervene; there
will be no second chance. 5. Humility and Wonder The
perspective that life, a human life, emerges as transient identifiable
reality from the self-assembly of basic chemical elements removes the last
traces of human centrality. We are not the pinnacle of creation but one small
expression of the universe’s capacity for generating complexity. But wherever
chemical elements assemble, there life becomes possible. Example: The
Hubble Deep Field image revealed thousands of galaxies in a tiny patch of sky
— each potentially containing billions of stars and planets, each planet a
self-assembly plant. Against that backdrop, humanity is one local curiosity,
yet one capable of contemplating the whole. 6. Meaning-Making Without a Cosmic Script With no
inherent, pre-written cosmic purpose, giving life a meaning becomes a crucial
human project. Meaning is created through relationships, creativity, and
exploration rather than handed down by the universe. Example: A
scientist working to cure a disease may find purpose in alleviating
suffering; an artist may find it in expressing beauty. Neither requires the
blessing of cosmic destiny — the act itself justifies the meaning. Conclusion: The Final View from the Ridge Each
stage in humanity’s journey has been a step away from centrality and
permanence. The final shift — seeing, indeed experiencing ourselves as
transient patterns in a flow of temporary quantised energy confinements — is
the most radical. It strips
away illusions of solidity and significance, but in doing so it gives us
clarity: we are fleeting, improbable, but self-aware. And perhaps the
greatest marvel is that, for a brief moment in cosmic time, the universe has
assembled itself into something that can look back and ask what it is, and
what that means. Like
climbers who have reached what seemed the summit, only to see more ridges
stretching into mist, we stand on a high place knowing there is no end — just
more, indeed an infinity of perspectives to discover, and more beauty and
horror in the journey. Just like
a circus that comes to town for a day, erects a tent, gives a performance,
folds up and departs, so planet earth forms from a cloud of dust, assembles
itself as a stage on which the actors self-assemble from the same dust to
give their brief performances before they and the stage revert to dust, all
in the blink of a cosmic moment in eternity. The Cosmic Self-assembly
Hypothesis Planetary Self-Assembly, Reframed by Bṛhadāraṇyakaupanishad
4.1 Manifesto of the Cosmic Fabrication
Hypothesis |