THE SCIENCE OF ENERGY

Sattari recaps key advances in our understanding of physical reality and contends that consciousness both influences and completes the picture.

The author argues that the methodology for studying nature that arose during the 15th and 16th centuries created a “schism” that blew apart the ancient world’s previous holistic “natural philosophy.” The change split science from philosophy once practitioners, now called “scientists,” started “placing emphasis on physical phenomena, quantitative analysis, and material objects” and leaving out “the ‘subjective observer,’ the one at the center of reality experiencing and interacting with it.” In this book, the first in a projected trilogy, Sattari launches his mission to create a new “ontology that bridges the material and immaterial” by reviewing the major findings of the scientific revolution (the source of “the core ideas we have circulated in the human vernacular to understand the nature of things”) and beyond, then discussing how metaphysical elements—including consciousness, biases, and belief systems—affect the supposedly deterministic, machinelike world that’s often promulgated by traditional science. Key elements of this discussion include the author’s musing upon the more probabilistic findings of quantum science (including the fact that light and matter act as waves or particles seemingly in relation to the observer measuring them) and the ways behaviors can change how human genes work. Sattari, who provides few details about himself aside from expressing a long-held interest in his topic, offers an excellent and engaging overview of milestones and key discoveries in science, covering Newton, Einstein, Planck, and many others, and he explicates confounding concepts with clarity and drama. While skeptics might argue that some current mysteries will someday be mechanically explained via future scientific discoveries, the author effectively tees up his compelling metaphysical premise (presumably to be expanded upon in his series’ next installment) that “conscious experience is not spooky or mysterious. It is part of the natural order.”

An enlightening, accessible science roundup combined with an intriguing metaphysical exploration.