What if after you died, the answers to the universe were revealed? The meaning of life was explained. Why are we here? What is our purpose? What if the answer was disturbing - or worse, mundane, or inconsequential?
Went to see David Eagleman speak on Tuesday night, a young, good-looking Renaissance man, a neuroscientist with a love for literature who has written a philosophical book on human nature. His book, Sum, (which btw he had a really good reason for the title. Sum from the Latin word Summa meaning The Highest. And I think sum as in the sum is greater than the whole of the parts. Not sure on the latter, maybe that was what I was expecting him to say but I think he came up with something better. You know those intellectuals.) is a collection of forty very short vignettes, that explore what we might find waiting for us after our time here is done. Not so much a look into the afterlife and what we can expect but more of a reflection on what is happening here, now, and how we respond to both life’s predictable and its unexplained turn of events.
My favorite one so far, am not quite halfway through the book, is one about a man who dies and after reflecting on his life of deadlines, traffic and financial pressures, decides to return to earth as a simpler creature, a horse. And as the transformation progresses, he realizes that after he loses the memories of his trials and stresses, he will not be able to appreciate his simpler life. The sense of peace and serenity will be the norm. And in his next spin through the world, he will return as a creature simpler than a horse until he no longer returns at all.
Deep stuff.
