Was reading an interview with biology-theorist Rupert Sheldrake; his new book examines the idea of beings with a consciousness more elevated than humans. It’s the new Sleeping Beauty: are we the smartest beings in the universe? we ask our own reflection (’cuz we likes the way we thinks). “An improbable assumption,” Sheldrake answers, instead positing a consciousness that pervades the cosmos: galaxy consciousness, solar system consciousness. All très tantric.

Even more fetchingly though, he assures that nature’s laws are not fixed–they’re more habits than laws, he states–and those constants to which we fervently cling, are here today, gone tomorrow (if tomorrow were a billion or a hundred billion years, I’m assuming). The eternal universe is evolving, as the cosmos itself evolves…which may go to show that humanity’s search for immutability may be the only universal constant.

I found this lack of any true constant kinda reassuring: it seems all of a piece to have the cosmos be utterly, radically free of formulae, to have change underlie everything, where “laws” are simply currents that flow this way for an eon or two, then veer. And consciousness keeps the pace, ever-evolving, since it can’t be found isolation, but only in interaction, in a knowing together. Thus, the need for the reverberation of conversation–thanks, Sjanie, for starting one.