The 3 great origin mysteries: The universe, life, and consciousness View our Twitter (X) feedView our Youtube channelView our Instagram feedView our Substack feedView our Spotify feed The 3 great origin mysteries: The universe, life, and consciousness Physicist Paul Davies explores how chemistry first learned to write its own code, and what that reveals about the origin of life. The 3 great origin mysteries: The universe, life, and consciousness Paul Davies is a theoretical physicist, best-selling science author, and director of the Beyond Center at Arizona State University. What’s happening in your brain and body while you’re lost in a great book?
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I'm a theoretical physicist and cosmologist by profession. I'm a Regents' Professor at Arizona State University where I'm also the director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science. I've written over 30 books.
The most recent is What's Eating the Universe? And Other Cosmic Questions and before that The Demon in the Machine which is all about the nature of life. There are really three origin mysteries.
I like to say there's the origin of the universe, the origin of life, and the origin of consciousness. Now most of my career I've been working cosmology. And I would say that we actually understand the origin of the universe pretty well.
The origin of consciousness is a really tough one because we don't even know how to frame the questions. We don't know the right conceptual structure to apply when it comes to the nature of consciousness. I think it's still deeply mysterious.
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