It Was Never About You
A Philosophy of Science and PhysicsBy J C Maurer
Length11h 3m
About this audiobook
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Most answers either retreat into mystery, invoke comfort, or tell us the question cannot be asked. It Was Never About You refuses that escape. Drawing from physics, philosophy, entropy, evolution, consciousness, and the strange machinery of quantum measurement, J. C. Maurer builds a disciplined argument that reality is not centered on us, not waiting for us, and not required to make us feel important.
This is not mysticism in scientific clothing. It is a rational inquiry into what existence may require: constraint, record, probability, persistence, and the refusal of absolute nothingness to become a coherent state.
The result is unsettling but not hopeless. If meaning was never handed down from the universe, then meaning becomes something made locally, under pressure, by temporary creatures who can still think, choose, care, and act.
Reality was never about you.
That may be the first honest step toward understanding your place inside it.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★★ 5.0 (1)
GenrePhilosophy, Science and Nature
Length11 hrs 3 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 2, 2021
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Before We Go Further: A Promise
2Introduction
3Chapter 1: The One Thing We Think We Know
4Chapter 2: The Film Strip and the Lit Frame
5Chapter 3: The Collapse Without an Observer
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter 4: Reinstantiation
7Chapter 5: Universal Collapse and Decoherence
8Chapter 6: Infinity
9Chapter 7: The Myth of the Multiverse
10Chapter 8: Constraint
11Chapter 9: NNN - Why Something Rather Than Nothing
12Chapter 10: The Perfect Imperfection
13Chapter 11: The Deep Logic of Persistence
14Chapter 12: Entropy
15Chapter 13: Supentropy: The Shape of Persistence
16Chapter 14: Evolution as an Emergent Force
17Chapter 15: Biological Structures, and the Human Word We Call “Life”
18Chapter 16: Agency Without Consciousness
19Chapter 17: Consciousness: The Self That Wakes
20Chapter 18: The Interpreter on the Mountain
21Chapter 19: The Governor and the Narrator
22Chapter 20: The Nudge: Agency as a Bias on Probability
23Chapter 21: Chaos and Probability
24Chapter 22: The Same Song, Different Instruments
25Chapter 23: The Reality of Not-Things
26Chapter 24: Reduced Significance and NNN
27Chapter 25: The Biosphere as a Constraint Engine
28Chapter 26: The Greatest Thing in the Known Universe
29Chapter 27: The Self as a Living Draft
30Chapter 28: The Ape in a Suit
31Chapter 29: It Was Never About You
32Chapter 30: The Mirror That Learns: The Bridge Is Older Than the Machine
33Chapter 31: Record Wars
34Chapter 32: Praxis Under Constraint
35Epilogue One: The Naked Human
36Epilogue Two: A Word About Emotion
37Epilogue Three: Because You Ask: Solutions to Possible Objections
More from J C Maurer
Sceptical Essays (Annotated)Bertrand Russell9h 16m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
WitnessAriel Burger8h 1m4.6 (1.3K)$20 · $0.00
The Art of LivingThich Nhat Hanh5h 1m4.5 (14.2K)$24 · $0.00
Moral Letters to LuciliusLucius Annaeus Seneca24h 26m4.5 (71.7K)$1.99 · $0.00
IlluminationsWalter Benjamin10h 12m4.4 (16.2K)$20 · $0.00
That Bird Has My WingsJarvis Jay Masters9h 49m4.4 (13.7K)$29 · $0.00
Tâo Teh KingLaozi2h 34m4.4 (230.9K)$2 · $0.00
Buddhist Boot CampTimber Hawkeye2h 39m4.4 (8.4K)$18 · $0.00
Enchiridion & The Discourses of Epictetus (Annotated)Arrian Epictetus18h 9m4.4 (3.5K)$2 · $0.00
The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius AntoninusEmperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius5h 41m4.4 (1.8M)$1 · $0.00
Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoevsky23h 11m4.4 (1.3M)$12 · $0.00
MeditationsMarcus Aurelius5h 52m4.4 (433.7K)$1 · $0.00
Everyday DharmaSuneel Gupta5h 2m4.5 (761)$20 · $0.00
The Joyful Wisdom ("La Gaya Scienza")Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche11h 37m4.4 (26.6K)$1 · $0.00
The Art of LivingEpictetus, Sharon Lebell3h 16m4.4 (50.1K)$18 · $0.00
Sadhana: the realisation of lifeRabindranath Tagore3h 49m4.4 (8.6K)$6 · $0.00
SapiensYuval Noah Harari15h 18m4.3 (1.4M)$33 · $0.00
You BelongSebene Selassie8h 35m4.4 (2.7K)$26 · $0.00
The Song Celestial; Or, Bhagavad-Gîtâ (from the Mahâbhârata)Anonymous2h 18m4.4 (3.2K)$2 · $0.00
Chuang Tzu: Mystic, Moralist, and Social ReformerZhuangzi14h 42m4.4 (1.2K)$1 · $0.00
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m4.6 (6.6K)$29 · $0.00
The Story of BirdsSteve Brusatte11h 49m4.6 (401)$29 · $0.00
LiftoffEric Berger9h 4m4.6 (9.5K)$29 · $0.00
Black Earth WisdomLeah Penniman11h 54m4.6 (577)$8 · $0.00
Total Cat MojoJackson Galaxy10h 13m4.5 (8.4K)$23 · $0.00
My Life Among the UnderdogsTia Torres5h 51m4.5 (4K)$24 · $0.00
What It Takes to Save a LifeKwane Stewart6h4.6 (556)$24 · $0.00
Pastoral SongJames Rebanks8h 35m4.5 (12K)$26 · $0.00
How Stella Learned to TalkChristina Hunger7h4.5 (10.9K)$24 · $0.00
Craig & FredCraig Grossi8h 6m4.5 (9.6K)$26 · $0.00
Celebrating BirdsNatalia Rojas, Ana Maria Martinez6h 47m4.6 (330)$24 · $0.00
Saving JemimaJulie Zickefoose4h 59m4.5 (749)$20 · $0.00
Will's Red CoatTom Ryan8h 23m4.5 (2.3K)$26 · $0.00
Of Time and TurtlesSy Montgomery10h 34m4.5 (5K)$29 · $0.00
Zen and the Art of Saving the PlanetThich Nhat Hanh9h 20m4.5 (3.9K)$29 · $0.00
Bottle of LiesKatherine Eban14h 25m4.4 (12K)$33 · $0.00
IngrainedCallum Robinson8h 10m4.5 (1.1K)$26 · $0.00
The Lion Tracker's Guide To LifeBoyd Varty3h 1m4.4 (4.8K)$18 · $0.00
Born for LoveBruce D. Perry, Maia Szalavitz11h 42m4.4 (4K)$29 · $0.00
The Mountains of California (With Original Drawings & Photographs) (Annotated)John Muir11h 35m4.5 (1.1K)$2 · $0.00
You may also like
The Art of FictionAyn Rand6h 51m4.0 (917)$17 · $0.00
The Complete Poetry (Annotated)Robert Browning72h 52m4.4 (316)$2 · $0.00
An Essay Concerning Humane UnderstandingJohn Locke29h 19m4.0 (13.6K)$2 · $0.00
Against Interpretation, and Other EssaysSusan Sontag12h 6m4.2 (14.3K)$20
THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY (Complete Edition In 2 Volumes)William James62h 58m4.3 (895)$1 · $0.00
The Wealth of NationsAdam Smith45h 12m4.1 (138K)$40 · $0.00
On ColorDavid Scott Kastan5h 54m3.9 (1.1K)$20
Great Pianists on Piano Playing (Annotated)James Francis Cooke8h 13m4.2 (264)$2 · $0.00
BounceMatthew Syed7h 51m4.2 (21.8K)$26 · $0.00
The Physiology of Taste; Or, Transcendental Gastronomy (Annotated)Brillat-Savarin7h 45m4.2 (4.6K)$0.99 · $0.00
Wilkie CollinsPeter Ackroyd6h 59m3.8 (1.3K)$17
An Essay Concerning Humane UnderstandingJohn Locke15h 22m4.0 (19.5K)Free
Two MindsTheo Whessler11h 25m$15 · $0.00
The Essence of Hume's PhilosophyDavid Hume37h 30m$2 · $0.00
ListenMichel Faber12h 49m3.5 (534)$33 · $0.00
The Story of LingerieMuriel Barbier, Shazia Boucher5h 59m3.9 (16)$15.50 · $0.00
How to Read Human Nature, Its Inner States and Outer FormsWilliam Walker Atkinson3h 27m3.5 (45)$2.30
The Physical Basis of MindGeorge Henry Lewes19h 5m$2 · $0.00
30 Millennia of Erotic ArtHans-Jürgen Döpp, Joe Thomas A., Victoria Charles, Klaus Carl H.10h 2m4.5 (14)$18 · $0.00
The Collected Works of Immanuel Kant (Annotated)Immanuel Kant83h 34m4.6 (115)$1.99 · $0.00