"This monograph is an account like no other. It contains the answers to the big questions concerning Life & the Universe. It's an odyssey; a Grand Tour, if you will, linking the major elements that underpin the enormity of nature itself. The author is your historian, your prophet, your spiritual guide & your scientific mentor. Be prepared to be inspired, transformed & enlightened."
Colin White. Visiting Lecturer, Faculty of Science, University of Portsmouth
The fundamental nature of reality is revealed: 'the universal pursuit of ecstasy', the striving for 'increasingly intense pleasantness' & 'the hierarchy of spatio-temporal embeddedness'.
The purpose of the human species is uncloaked.
The real relationship between the human species & the rest of life is unveiled. The human species is the zenith of the evolutionary progression of our Solar System; it is the saviour & servant of life on Earth which suffers immensely in order to enable a plethora of life-forms to continue to exist on the Earth.
That the 'environmental crisis' of modernity, & human-induced global warming in particular, are events which are signs that our Solar System is positively thriving, is comprehended.
The reason why cutting fossil fuel emissions is not a solution to the global warming problem is understood. The current obsession with this approach is a potentially dangerous 'red herring'.
# Our journey
You are about to embark on a journey; a journey into the depths of the universe. What follows is an account of the most fundamental issues relating to human existence. As our journey progresses you will gain insights into the nature of reality, what it means to be human, the meaning of life and how to best live your life. You will come to see how the human species relates to the non-human life-forms that we share the planet with. You will come to appreciate why the human species is the most precious life-form that has ever, and will ever, exist in our Solar System. You will come to see why the human species has inevitably dominated the planet and utilised our fellow life-forms as resources. You will come to appreciate the unfolding journey of our Solar System, and of human culture, as inevitable war and exploitative domination gradually come to be replaced by universal peace and respect for all life-forms. You will come to see why the 'environmental crisis' and human-induced global warming / climate change are not bad events; rather, they are signs that life on Earth, and in our Solar System, is positively thriving. You will also come to appreciate the vastly differing stories that we, as a species, tell ourselves about our place on the Earth. Some of these stories are optimistic and positive in tone, whilst others are pessimistic and present a gloomy view of the human species.
One such gloomy story that is currently quite popular is the view that the human species is an unwelcome guest on the Earth, some kind of destroying parasite, and that the Earth would be far better off if the human species became extinct. In this story the human species is conceptualised as an entity that brings immense suffering to the non-human life-forms of the Earth for its own selfish benefit. As our journey progresses you will come to appreciate both why this story has been created and why it is totally misguided. You will eventually come to see that the human species is the most precious form of life in our Solar System, and that the purpose of the human species, the reason that it came into existence, is intimately connected to the phenomenon of global warming.