First a caveat. I'm uneducated about physics and neurology, so unable to talk about things like this with any modicum of real informed opinion. What I can do is wonder, and reflect on Wonder. So that's what this little thing is about. I wonder about the universe, the big and the small of it. I'm always curious, at a very pedestrian level, about astronomical and neurological discoveries, pushing the limits of our understanding as they do. Not enough to sweat through a text on either subject, just enough to watch a video online. :)
Recently I watched a piece on black holes, giant black holes threatening to swallow our universe. Terrifying thought in theory, but I didn't really focus on that because it won't make a difference to my life, really, either we're here or we're gone. The thing that stuck out for me was the astronomers. I am no where near being able to understand concepts like matter, time/ space continuum, gravity, although I believe they are some of the most profound concepts humans are capable of grasping. What struck me, though, is the enormity of the cosmos, billions- of -light -years -away -orbits and universes, stars, planets, galaxies. That there are sentient beings on just ONE of those anywhere capable of grasping the existence of the whole, and their interaction with that whole, and how their existence may be nullified by a part of it. I'm not sure about other sentient beings, though it makes sense that out of all those planets there are others somewhere, I'm just blown away at the possibility and seeming improbability that there are things on one of those planets that think, plan, and wonder.
Then I was watching Charlie Rose's brain series. As much as people talk about cutting edge brain science we are still decades away from the whole. Because it's so complex, 3 dimensional plus chemicals. Rules and exceptions. Solid matter, generalities plus plasticity. And the rest of the body, like that a virus can cause depression. ( I think we were smarter about the brain/body connection 150 years ago, before Freud, not that Freud didn't make significant contributions to science.) Here the thing that gets me is that we are sentient beings discovering the mechanism of our own sentience. What kind of being is capable of that? To me, this is a real miracle.
Perhaps other species would do the same if they had the same use of tools, who knows. I wonder how we can know? Like whales, especially, with their huge brains. Anyway, the thing is, at least from my understanding, brain science is the last frontier in human anatomy. All the other organs are pretty well figured out. Nerve interactions are still being discovered, I think, but by and large the brain is the last frontier. The seat of the stuff doing the discovering. I don't really know what I'm trying to say, just that I think this is so cool and kind of, not ironic, but something sort of like that but more significant and positive. Brilliant and fun.
Taken together it brings to mind this Psalm:" I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. "
