Thus, cosmic biological evolution first had the potential to become a research program in the early 1960s when its cognitive elements had developed enough to become experimental and observational sciences, and when the researchers in these …“earth to earth, ashes to ashes, stardust to stardust” to be literally true. Cosmic evolution provides us with a master narrative in which our own birth, life, and death are integral parts of the universe, without recourse to the supernatur…19. On Shapley’s uses of cosmic evolution see JoAnn Palmeri, chapter 15 in this volume, and her dissertation, “An Astronomer Beyond the Observatory: Harlow Shapley as Prophet of Science,” (University of Oklahoma, 2000).
20. While Sagan’s v…
Eric Chaisson
scientist · 3 mentions across 1 reading
In this course
Eric Chaisson is an astrophysicist known for developing cosmic evolution as a unifying scientific framework that traces the emergence of complexity from the Big Bang through biological and cultural development. In these readings, he appears as a key theorist enabling arguments about how evolution operates across multiple scales—cosmic, biological, and social—providing a naturalistic master narrative that integrates human existence within universal processes without invoking the supernatural. His work seems central to the course's interest in how systems thinking and evolutionary principles can ground contemporary discussions of complexity, emergence, and our place within interconnected networks of matter and information.
Mentioned in 1 reading
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