I am a universe made up of a body of great complexity, which includes a brain as its most complex part. The laws that govern my life and my thought derive from the laws of physics, but in a form that is more complex than the laws that govern the formation of planets, the motions of the planets and the stars and even the laws that govern the life of black holes. The time scale of these two kinds of universe is very different. I am very temporary compared to the cosmos; I will soon cease to exist. You, that is anyone reading this, are just as much a universe as I, and just as temporary, give or take a few years. Whenever a person dies a universe ceases to exist.
What makes a human being a universe? Why do I say when a human being dies, a universe disintegrates? As long as I am alive, the atoms of which I am composed are organized into a complex system governed by the laws of biochemistry and biology. Each cell is highly organized, and the trillions of cells of which I am composed interact with one another in very complex ways. I use the energy from food to maintain the exquisitely complicated organism that is me. I am alive because of myriad biochemical interactions. As soon as I die, physics will take over. What was me will become a large number of atoms acting according to the laws of physics. My mind will be gone. Psychology will become irrelevant. My body will cease to be a living body. Physiology will become irrelevant. My thoughts, the circulation of my blood, the actions of my antibodies and much else will cease to operate. A universe will be gone. Many trillions of atoms that were finely tuned to keep me going, will become just a bunch of atoms acting the way atoms do. A dead parrot is not a parrot.
What is remarkable is not that I will become just a large pile of atoms. What is remarkable is that anything like me (or you) exists as an astonishingly complex “universe”. It is remarkable that anything as complex as a single cell exists. Even more remarkable that an enormous number of diverse cells can combine to make a tree or a mouse. And yet more remarkable that natural processes can create an an organism that can begin to understand the universe. How have material processes created a being that can do science and thus begin to understand itself and the universe?
I will soon become just a large pile of atoms. That’s not surprising. There are lots of piles of atoms all over the place. As I just said, it is surprising is that anything like me (or you) ever existed. Each of us while alive, is highly organized. We defy all sorts of laws of physics. A simple example is the laws of thermodynamics. The laws of thermodynamics dictate that a pile of atoms will tend towards the same temperature as its environment. A mammal defies this law by burning (oxidizing) food. Oxidizing food to keep warm is an elaborate process. When I die, the process will cease, as will all the many processes that are necessary to keep me alive and make it possible for me to act and to think. The atoms of which I am made are governed by an astonishing number of mechanisms. I am calling this highly orchestrated set of atoms a universe. It is a universe at least as complicated as the universe of cosmologists. With my death it will vanishe.
Addendum. I just ran across something Freeman Dyson wrote in Infinite in all Directions, p. 118. “To me the most astounding fact in the universe…is the power of mind…Somehow by natural processes still wholly mysterious…” the human mind has come into being. “Here on this small planet, mind has infiltrated matter and taken control.” How strange that the universe has such creatures in it. This what an eminent theoretical physicist said. How humans have come to have this power is something I may come back to.
