Stuart Kauffman, one of our greatest scientists, is a passionate humanist. "Humanity in a Creative Universe" expands on and elaborates his long-held view of the universe as a wonderfullly unpredictable system that creates novelty and complexity at a furious pace. Kauffman's universe is not a lot of empty space with a little bit of stuff scattered through it, as some physicists argue it is. Nor are human beings insignificant fragments of that stuff, but exceptional and fascinating products of the its creativity. For Kauffman this is a joyous realization, and he makes no effort to conceal his delight in this view of life and the world.
Kauffman knows that we are all aware of our thinking, feeling and choosing selves, despite what the physicists may say. He wants to eliminate the gap between what we know and feel intuitively and the scientific dogmas that tell us everything that happens was already determined when the Big Bang was so mysteriously initiated, driven by just a few simple physical laws. Kauffman explains that the laws of physics alone cannot account for the biological universe, just as the laws of biology cannot account for what we think and feel. The laws must evolve along with the phenomena they govern. Each individual E. coli of the millions in the physicist's gut is more complex, more interconnected, more interactive and more energy efficient than the entire non-biotic universe.
A good place to begin in understanding Kauffman's thinking, is with the concept of "the adjacent possible". In earlier books, describing the evolutionary process, Kauffman has referred to the set of all the possible evolutionary outcomes from a single mutation in any one of the thousands of genes an organism possesses, as "the adjacent possible" into which the organism can evolve. Natural selection winnows these possibilities to a very few that can be actualized in a viable organism. But the number of the adjacent possibilities is so vast, and the circumstances that might favor one over the others so complex. that the outcome of the evolutionary process cannot be known in advance. He illustrates this idea with the homely example of a screwdriver. He asks the reader to specify all the possible uses for a screwdriver. It can't be done. Someone will always be able to come up with a new one.
In "Humanity", Kauffman draws out the implications of the idea of the adjacent possible, beginning with its undermining of the scientific dogmas of reductionism and determinism. This project leads Kauffman and "Humanity" in many directions, which I can't begin to describe here, although quantum mechanics and consciousness, and the possible links between them appear prominently. Some of his explorations lead to conclusions that seem both brilliant and obvious, all are imaginative and fascinating, a few perhaps too far a stretch to be completely convincing. Each reader will have his own assessment of this mix. But the process of sorting out Kauffman's ideas for oneself is an exciting adventure I can recommend to everyone.
Kauffman's writing is not always easy to follow. "Humanity" is not written in a linear style, like a textbook. Kauffman keeps returning to old material in new contexts, making new connections, seeing more deeply into the issues. Sometimes it seems as if a whirlwind has just passed through. But you don't have to worry. There's no examination. "Humanity in a Creative Universe", as enlightening as it may be, is a pleasure trip.
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