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Rob Rey

robrey@bookwyrm.social

Joined 3 years, 3 months ago

Art to help make science a more meaning part of our lives.

I'm a professional artist painting images of the Cosmic Perspective.

Cosmic Perspective is understanding our scale within the universe; being humbled by a grand and awe-inspiring expanse of space, deep time, and staggering complexity. In the light of scientific understanding, a little curiosity is quickly rewarded with an enchanting, almost spiritual feeling of wonder at the natural world. Making an effort to comprehend the cosmos has a way of putting our lives, troubles, and pride in a helpful frame of reference, allowing us to refocus on what matters most. When we see the Earth as a lonely blue speck of oasis, it inherently sparks feelings of fellowship, belonging, and connection with our fellow earthlings. Through this panoramic lens, our terrestrial disputes and nationalist contentions are reduced to insignificance. Empathy and compassion become natural and obvious ways to relate to one another.

In a world where our traditional sources of meaning are growing less resonant, Cosmic Perspective provides a new and inspiring scientific story of humanity united by our shared atomic origins in stardust. It provides a sense of kinship with all life on earth in our shared genetic evolution over four billion years of development. It provides hope in our capacity to reason and understand the cosmos of which we are part. It necessitates cooperation to preserve and cherish our tiny planet, the only habitable place we know to exist.

We are stardust evolved to understand the stars; a tiny part of the universe, become conscious.

Humans are a storytelling species. We live our lives by stories in one form or another. To have lasting impact, a meaningful story needs to be interacted with on a regular basis, so that we don’t lose sight of the bigger picture. Rob creates his art to be a visual reminder of this grand perspective, that we might all live more inspired, empathic lives, while innovating a more sustainable way of living.

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reviewed The Human Cosmos by Jo Marchant

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Jo Marchant: The Human Cosmos (2021, Dutton)

Review of 'The Human Cosmos' on 'Goodreads'

A trojan horse for panpsychism pseudoscience.

The first half of the book is very worth while. It's a great look at how humanity's early assumptions about the sky shaped myth, calendars, clocks and systems that we still use today without most people realizing where they came from. This is something that really needed to be covered and it does so with a good grounding in science. I had been waiting for a good book like this.

What a disappointment when the last chapter asserts cliches that science is cold and impersonal, that panpsychism is the answer, and it's on the cusp of sweeping the scientific esstablishment off it's feet. Science may not yet connect with the broader public the way it should, but then what we need is new poetic story telling to make the connection, not to throw away scientific principles and put pseudoscience back in charge.