Looking for books that take a philosophical look at the origin of the universe and where mankind is heading (among other things)

February 23, 2008 4:08 AM

Why are we here? What started it all? What is the purpose of life? Where is technology taking us? What will happen to humans eventually? I'm looking for books that discuss the above questions. I don't want the readings to be too dry and textbook like. Thanks a bunch.
posted by iceman7 to Religion & Philosophy (22 answers total)

Not my taste, but The Omega Point might be yours.
posted by fatllama at 4:23 AM on February 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

... and a little searching showed that Contours of the World Economy is now in paperback. Do want.
posted by fatllama at 4:25 AM on February 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

I was too late to recommend Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men and Star Maker in an earlier thread, but I can by golly manage it here! They're novels and they encompass the whole history and evolution of humanity—in the first book—and then the ultimate destiny of the cosmos entire—in the second.
posted by cgc373 at 4:46 AM on February 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

Oldie but goodie, I always loved Carl Sagan's Cosmos, both the book and series, though the science is certainly dated now.

And if you're up for the outré this is the subject of Koyannisqatsi. But that's a two-hour movie with no dialogue. It's fascinating but you definitely need to be in the mood. Definitely not dry and textbook-like. In some places you can find the movie being shown with a live orchestra performing the soundtrack.
posted by XMLicious at 4:48 AM on February 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

There's also James Burke's Connections serieses and The Day The Universe Changed and accompanying books.
posted by XMLicious at 4:59 AM on February 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

Sometimes half-jokingly called, "The Geek Rapture," in The Singularity is Near Ray Kurzweil explains voluminously and often compellingly that machine intelligence will soon dominate humanity. He also thinks he's going to live forever, as explained in Living Long Enough to Live Forever.

His claims and hopes are extreme, but he approaches them as an empiricist.
posted by GPF at 7:02 AM on February 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

Paul Virillio's Crepuscular Dawn seems up your alley. It doesn't deal so much with the past, but looks at the present world in a more critical light. It is a pretty interesting read in today's world.
posted by bigcheesegump at 7:24 AM on February 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks everyone for the quick responses. Can't wait to sink my teeth into the recommendations posted above. I'm just going ahead and ordering 5 of those (in no order of preference) on Amazon.
posted by iceman7 at 7:31 AM on February 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

One of the first books that I read that got to the questions "why are we here" and "what started it all" (in terms of life on Earth), was The Blind Watchmaker by the ever-controversial Richard Dawkins. Years later, I still enjoy re-reading from time to time, partly because it is so well written, mostly because his explanations of cumulative selection are so powerful. I think this would be a great starting point for getting into ideas of why and how life began.
posted by otolith at 7:38 AM on February 23, 2008 [2 favorites]

For an interesting twist, look for the obscure but wonderful novella by Robert Heinlein: The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathon Hoag.
posted by megatherium at 7:46 AM on February 23, 2008

Almost anything by Stephen Baxter addresses at least one of the questions you posed. It's definitely science fiction, though - so it would come in the form of a story, rather than an outright explanation or essay.
posted by gaiamark at 8:30 AM on February 23, 2008

Virtually everything by Alan Watts addresses your first question, and pretty well I might add.
posted by tkolar at 9:20 AM on February 23, 2008

More of a how than a why, but a fascinating read- Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.
posted by pedmands at 9:30 AM on February 23, 2008

I know it's not reading, but History Channel's The Universe series is a great primer if you want an overview that can help you decide in which direction you want to go. It is on every Tuesday at 9, with replays throughout the week. You can also purchase past seasons and episodes on iTunes.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Death By Black Hole is an entertaining layman's guide to some of the happenings in our universe.
posted by afx114 at 10:11 AM on February 23, 2008

Jared Diamond's "Guns Germs and Steel" is pretty snazzy.
posted by lalochezia at 10:32 AM on February 23, 2008

If you haven't precluded the Catholic/Christian perspective, The Everlasting Man is a classic written by G.K. Chesterton in response to his friend, H.G. Wells' Outline of History.
posted by keith0718 at 12:34 PM on February 23, 2008

You might like Ishmael, The Story of B, and My Ishmael, all by Daniel Quinn. The first one totally changed the way I think about the reasons for things and the finality that a lot of people see behind the way people are.
posted by ZaneJ. at 1:16 PM on February 23, 2008

C. S. Lewis, in his book "Miracles", discusses whether miracles exist, and (as you might imagine) spends a good bit of time on the nature of the universe. I think you would find his style of writing conversational.

I also second the nomination by tkolar of books by Alan Watts.
posted by forthright at 2:11 PM on February 23, 2008

I'm not sure what level of discussion you're after, but for anyone with the slightest interest in the questions you posed, I cannot recommend enough Stephen Law's The Philosophy Gym , it addresses these and many other questions, offering extremely inventive and captivating ways of getting ideas across. And it gives suggestions for further reading on the topics it covers.
posted by Claypole at 2:29 PM on February 23, 2008

HG Wells was famous for his thoughts on this subject. Several of his books address these things, but keep in mind how dated they are now. Still though, it's literature at its best. There is Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human life and Thought, The Time Machine, and An Englishman Looks at the World. Somewhere up above, someone mentioned one of his works; though that one was not the suggestion, but it was a response to Wells' work.

In any case, I love the mind he had. He was a deep philosopher in my opinion. I'm not sure if this was what you were looking for, but happy reading in whatever you choose! :)
posted by magnoliasouth at 9:07 PM on February 23, 2008

How about Octavia Butler? The Parable of the Sower and The Parable of the Talents (Butler died before writing the planned third book) are novels about a young women in falling-apart America who gathers followers around "Earthseed"--the idea that humanity needs a new purpose, and that it should be working whole-heartedly toward expanding to other worlds.

Seconding Ishmael. I went back to it a few years ago and found it a little young, but maybe that just means it did a good job of changing my life (...not joking).
posted by hippugeek at 12:35 PM on February 24, 2008

Second Thunder, by MSI.
This visionary work takes you on a journey that might even stir some deep cellular (and past-life) memories. It travels the 16 levels of existence, from The Source Universe, known as Para, to planets we (human species) inhabited before Earth, to late 20th century Earth. And it delivers the best answers to your questions I have found, after searching and reading relentlessly for over 40 years.
The author and the book is further described on my website: www.enlightenmentnow.org/12.html
posted by Himavat at 7:47 PM on February 26, 2008