On Universe (1970-1979)

"Engineers, as a rule are not and do not pretend to be philosophers in the sense of building up consistent systems of thought following logically from certain premises. If anything, they pride themselves on being hard-headed practical men concerned only with facts, disdaining mere speculation or opinion. In practice, however, engineers do make many assumptions about the nature of the universe, of man, and of society." (Edwin T Layton Jr., "The Revolt of the Engineers", 1971)

"When things don't change any longer, that's the end result of entropy, the heat-death of the universe. The more things go on moving, interrelating, conflicting, changing, the less balance there is - and the more life." (Ursula K Le Guin, "The Lathe of Heaven", 1971)

"One of the central problems studied by mankind is the problem of the succession of form. Whatever is the ultimate nature of reality (assuming that this expression has meaning). it is indisputable that our universe is not chaos. We perceive beings, objects, things to which we give names. These beings or things are forms or structures endowed with a degree of stability: they take up some part of space and last for some period of time." (René Thom, "Structural Stability and Morphogenesis", 1972)

"The line between inner and outer landscapes is breaking down. Earthquakes can result from seismic upheavals within the human mind. The whole random universe of the industrial age is breaking down into cryptic fragments." (William S Burroughs, [preface] 1972)

"There is no reason to assume that the universe has the slightest interest in intelligence -  or even in life. Both may be random accidental by-products of its operations like the beautiful patterns on a butterfly's wings. The insect would fly just as well without them […]" (Arthur C Clarke, "The Lost Worlds of 2001", 1972)

"[...] everything is inter-linked. And therefore everything has numberless causes. The entire universe contributes to the least thing. A thing is as it is because the world is as it is." (Nisargadatta Maharaj, "I am That", 1973)

"Science is systematic organisation of knowledge about the universe on the basis of explanatory hypotheses which are genuinely testable. Science advances by developing gradually more comprehensive theories; that is, by formulating theories of greater generality which can account for observational statements and hypotheses which appear as prima facie unrelated." (Francisco J Ayala, "Studies in the Philosophy of Biology: Reduction and Related Problems", 1974)

"We know the laws of trial and error, of large numbers and probabilities. We know that these laws are part of the mathematical and mechanical fabric of the universe, and that they are also at play in biological processes. But, in the name of the experimental method and out of our poor knowledge, are we really entitled to claim that everything happens by chance, to the exclusion of all other possibilities?" (Albert Claude, "The Coming Age of the Cell", Nobel Prize Lecture] 1974)

"Of course, we know the laws of trial and error, of large numbers and probabilities. We know that these laws are part of the mathematical and mechanical fabric of the universe, and that they are also at play in biological processes. But, in the name of the experimental method and out of our poor knowledge, are we really entitled to claim that everything happens by chance, to the exclusion of all other possibilities?" (Albert Claude, "The Coming of Age of the Cell", Science, 1975)

"Symbols, formulae and proofs have another hypnotic effect. Because they are not immediately understood, they, like certain jokes, are suspected of holding in some sort of magic embrace the secret of the universe, or at least some of its more hidden parts." (Scott Buchanan, "Poetry and Mathematics", 1975)

"We have reversed the usual classical notion that the independent 'elementary parts' of the world are the fundamental reality, and that the various systems are merely particular contingent forms and arrangements of these parts. Rather, we say that inseparable quantum interconnectedness of the whole universe is the fundamental reality, and that relatively independent behaving parts are merely particular and contingent forms within this whole." (David Bohm, "On the Intuitive Understanding of Nonlocality as Implied by Quantum Theory", Foundations of Physics Vol 5 (1), 1975)

"If entropy must constantly and continuously increase, then the universe is remorselessly running down, thus setting a limit (a long one, to be sure) on the existence of humanity. To some human beings, this ultimate end poses itself almost as a threat to their personal immortality, or as a denial of the omnipotence of God. There is, therefore, a strong emotional urge to deny that entropy must increase." (Isaac Asimov," Asimov on Physics", 1976)

"It is tempting to wonder if our present universe, large as it is and complex though it seems, might not be merely the result of a very slight random increase in order over a very small portion of an unbelievably colossal universe which is virtually entirely in heat-death." (Isaac Asimov, 1976)

"A model of the universe does not require faith, but a telescope. If it is wrong, it is wrong." (Paul C W Davies, "Space and Time in the Modern Universe", 1977)

"Her dance spoke of nothing more and nothing less than the tragedy of being alive, and being human. It spoke, most eloquently, of pain. It spoke, most knowingly, of despair. It spoke of the cruel humor of limitless ambition yoked to limited ability, of eternal hope invested in an ephemeral lifetime, of the driving need to try and create an inexorably predetermined future. It spoke of fear, and of hunger, and, most clearly, of the basic loneliness and alienation of the human animal. It described the universe through the eyes of man: a hostile environment, the embodiment of entropy, into which we are all thrown alone, forbidden by our nature to touch another mind save secondhand, by proxy. It spoke of the blind perversity which forces man to strive hugely for a peace which, once attained, becomes boredom. And it spoke of folly, of the terrible paradox by which man is simultaneously capable of reason and unreason, forever unable to cooperate even with himself." Spider Robinson and Jeanne Robinson, "Stardance", 1977)

"Luck was not probability, but it acted through probability. It was, so to speak, quantities of probability, a quantitative average throughout the universe. And like any other fixed quantity, it could only be concentrated or increased at the cost of a diminution elsewhere." (Barrington J Bayley, "The Grand Wheel", 1977)

"The structure of space-time, taken as a whole, is the subject matter of the science called cosmology. Since you are asking about all space and all time in cosmology, you are interested in the entire universe, everywhere and everywhen, viewed as a static geometrical object." (Rudolf B Rucker," Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension", 1977)

"The evolutionary vision is agnostic in regard to systems in the universe of greater complexity than those of which human beings have clear knowledge. It recognizes aesthetic, moral, and religious ideas and experiences as a species, in this case of mental structures or of images, which clearly interacts with other species in the world's great' ecosystem." (Kenneth Boulding," Ecodynamics: A New Theory of Societal Evolution", 1978)

"It is hard for us today to assimilate all the new ideas that are being suggested in response to the new information we have. We must remember that our picture of the universe is based not only on our scientific knowledge but also on our culture and our philosophy. What new discoveries lie ahead no one can say. There may well be civilizations in other parts of our galaxy or in other galaxies that have already accomplished much of what lies ahead for mankind. Others may just be beginning. The universe clearly presents an unending challenge." (Necia H Apfel & J Allen Hynek, "Architecture of the Universe", 1979)

"It is unscientific to say that within the many billions of galactic systems, ours is the only planet that supports life in advanced form. Nature shuns one of a kind as much as it abhors a vacuum. Given infinite time and space, anything that occurs at one place or time in the universe will occur elsewhere or ‘elsewhen’." (Norman Cousins, "Rendezvous with Infinity", Cosmic Search Magazine Vol. 1 (1), 1979)

"The ultimate metaphysical secret, if we dare state it so simply, is that there are no boundaries in the universe. Boundaries are illusions, products not of reality but of the way we map and edit reality. And while it is fine to map out the territory, it is fatal to confuse the two." (Ken Wilber, "No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth", 1979)

"We see the universe as it is, Father Damien, and these naked truths are cruel ones. We who believe in life, and treasure it, will die. Afterward there will be nothing, eternal emptiness, blackness, nonexistence. In our living there has been no purpose, no poetry, no meaning. Nor do our deaths possess these qualities. When we are gone, the universe will not long remember us, and shortly it will be as if we had never lived at all. Our worlds and our universe will not long outlive us. Ultimately entropy will consume all, and our puny efforts cannot stay that awful end." (George R R Martin, "The Way of Cross and Dragon", 1979)