How We Come to Be

George F. R. Ellis, FRS, is Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town. He was Lecturer in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at Cambridge, where he wrote The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime with Stephen Hawking. He has been Visiting Professor at the University of Texas, University of Chicago, Hamburg University, Boston University, University of Alberta, Queen Mary (London University), and Oxford University, and at the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste. In 1999 he was awarded the Star of South Africa Medal presented by President Nelson Mandela, and in 2006 The Order of Mapungubwe presented by President Thabo Mbeki.

• Preface Prologue: Emergence, its Principles and Operation Part I Physical Foundations 1: The Cosmological and Astronomical Context 2: The Underlying Physics and Chemistry Part II Emergent Biological Levels 3: What are the Emergent Biological Levels and What do They do? 4: How Did We Get Here?: Natural Selection and Developmental Processes 5: Perception, Rationality, Emotions,Free Will Part III The Social and Personal Dimensions 6: Society, the Environment, Technology and Values 7: Is There Meaning in the Universe?: The Deep Structure of the Cosmos Orders of Magnitude Glossary Appendix A: Neuroscience and Literacy: An Integrative View Appendix B: South African Yearly Meeting of the Quakers: Support for a Universal Basic Income (UBI)

A deeply compelling book about how humans came to be in a vast, seemingly unfathomable universe, which also explains how each one of us can find meaning and purpose in our universe. Written by one of the world's leading astrophysicists and humanists, the book deftly guides the general reader through cosmology, biology, history, literature, and social sciences to paint in crystalline prose a picture of the human condition which champions the possibilities for human creativity and free will. The finest attempt to bridge the humanist/literary and scientific cultural divide since Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.