Brian Greene, Part 2

Brian Greene explains us as exquisite particles that only last as long as “the blink of an eye.” He was recently on Lex Fridman’s podcast. Lex hosts such great physicists, authors, inventors, etc. I was waiting for Brian to come on and couldn’t wait to watch it once I discovered that Lex finally interviewed him!

Brian continues “We are just a momentary byproduct of the Laws of Physics. Every individual has the ability to set their own meaning and make their own purpose.” It’s a beautiful thing. “It could be that the universe is such that under fairly typical conditions that a star (sun) together with a planet being bathed with a low entropy, and other conditions can make (us) life naturally form.

We are creatures who recognize a kind of self reflective conscious awareness. Let’s take the earth, and there was a singular event 65,000,000 plus years ago where a rock hit the earth and destroyed dinosaurs. If that hadn’t happened, maybe they would still rule the planet. Brian imagines there is A LOT of life out there, but they don’t all try to make sense of it as WE DO. They just go about living and surviving. We are different, though.

How are you sure that others who you look at are fully conscious beings? Your existence exists in your mind. You are a brain in a vat. We all are. Your observation that others are existing is just that: an observation. It just “seems” like they are. Human consciousness, in my opinion, is a gift from God. God tells us that we are formed in his likeness and image, and I personally don’t think “consciousness” ends when we leave this earth.

Who knows? Heaven may simply be another universe. I have learned through my studies of physics that there are many. Brian continues and questions how a particle can come to consciousness. Technically, we are particles according to physics. My answer, again, is God. God can do anything. He can develop the universe. He can make dinosaurs. He can create string theory. He can make multiverses and cosmic bubble baths. He can make entanglement (after all, we are “entangled” with him).

He can make the moon, the stars, the galaxies (star systems). He can do anything. Brian thinks that a long time from now, we will smile at those in the 20th or 21st century who thought consciousness was so mysterious. It’s just a “thing” that happens when particles form together. When you develop systems (robots, AI), they also become “conscious.” It is the ability to experience the world and animals do not experience it in the same way.

The Big Bang or Big “event” as I like to call it was a tiny nugget of space time that yields everything we see today. What happened a millionth of a second after that Big Bang? It’s not really that controversial, Brian says. It is early universe cosmology.

I am going to attach the full interview in case you are interested in watching it:

About Zina

Zina Hermez has authored Not Without God: A Story of Survival. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. Recently she was featured on ESPN’s ‘Solutions from the Huddle’ broadcast and on Grace and Truth Radio World. Zina’s written hundreds of articles and has taught thousands of students. Additionally she’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and Southern Writers magazine. She writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. Lately she has been offering food services and is a major foodie! She loves to help others. You can also connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, Linked In, or Twitter.