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Curriculum for The Cosmic Adventure

This 18-session course for high school students (grades 10-12) covers the most fascinating aspects of the universe, from the Big Bang to the rise of humanity’s technological civilization. Using a fun, highly interactive format, we spark students’ curiosity, and to help them ponder the big questions: what is the universe about? What is our place in the cosmic journey? How can we each participate creatively in the evolution of the planet? As a result of this richer perspective on their own lives, students graduate from this course more inspired, empowered, and hopeful about their role in the world.

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The Physical Universe

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Where Do We Come From?

• Our gradual discovery of the size and age of the universe- Ptolemy to Hubble.
• The intricacies, implications, and challenges of the Big Bang Theory.

The Nature of Matter and Energy

• The structure and behavior of subatomic particles. Quantum effects.
• Matter and/vs. energy. Is matter just inert “stuff”?

Relativity, Gravity and Space-Time

• How gravity works vs. what gravity IS. Gravity in relativity theory.
• The problem of dark matter and dark energy. Quantum theory and gravity.

Stars and Solar Systems

• The life cycle of stars: how stars form, grow, and die.
• The birth and development of our own solar system.

Black Holes and Worm Holes

• Current evidence and various theories explaining black holes.
• Implications for time-travel, faster-than-light travel, and causality.

Quantum Indeterminacy

• Experimental evidence from the quantum world and from psychology.
• Implications, esp. related to the place of consciousness in the universe.

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The Universe’s Unlikely Fine-Tuning

• The shocking precision of the universe’s forces & physical constants.
• Explanations: the Anthropic Principles, Multiverses, the Evolving Universe.

What is Time?

• Humanity’s journey into a time-development view of the universe.
• Different perspectives on time from contemporary physics & philosophy.

What are Fields?

• The behavior and nature of fields. Fields vs. matter and energy.
• Morphic fields. Quantum fields. A field-view of the universe.

Non-Locality

• Evidence of non-locality from physics and from biology.
• Competing interpretations of these findings.

The Quantum Vacuum

• The structure and energy of ’empty’ space. Zero-point energy.
• What does the vacuum tell us about the nature of the universe?

Death, Immortality, and Infinity in Physics

• The implications of infinite time or space in physics.
• Does anything in the universe ever really die?

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What’s a Worldview?

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What is a Worldview?

• Worldviews address “What’s true?”, “What’s meaningful?”, “What matters?”
• The interconnection of truth, meaning, and purpose, personally & societally.

Our Society’s Dominant Worldview

• The scientific worldview and/vs. the scientific method.
• Assumptions, values, and biases of the scientific worldview.

Creating a Functional Worldview

• The need for empirical evidence, and the need for meaning.
• How can you choose among competing cosmological theories?

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Why do Worldviews Matter?

• Worldviews are the foundation for all human thought and behavior.
• The consequences of our worldviews: personal, social, planetary.

Inadequacies of the Dominant Worldview

• ‘Evidence’ problems: non-locality, relativity, indeterminacy, improbability of life.
• ‘Meaning’ problems: ecological/social crises, nihilism, consumerism, addiction.

What Kind of Thing is the Universe?

• The universe as a place, a developing story, an organism, a hologram.
• An introduction to emergent properties.

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The Living Universe

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What is the Earth?

• Is the Earth best described as a rocky place? A unfolding story? An organism?
• Various formulations of the Gaia Hypothesis.

Living Cells

• Theories on how life began: self-organization, design, panspermia.
• The astoundingly complex structure/processes of cells. Multi-cellularity.

The Intricacy and Power of DNA

• Competing accounts. of the origins, structure, and function of DNA.
• Current issues in genetics: cloning, genetic pollution, GMO’s.

Communication & Coordination in Organisms

• How do your 50 trillion cells work in such perfect unison?
• How do we explain the mathematical patterns we see in Nature?

Consciousness and the Brain

• Evidence that suggests we need a new story about consciousness.
• Theories: dualism, panpsychism, emergence, holographic consciousness.

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Biological Evolution

• The theory/evidence of evolution. Milestones in the 4 billion year journey.
• What drives evolution: random mutation? self-organization? morphic fields?

The Emergence of Photosynthesis

• The problem of energy for living systems. The amazing solution of chlorophyll.
• How photosynthesis has shaped the Earth and its evolution.

Sex and Death

• Organisms who eat each other, and the birth of ecosystems.
• Sexual reproduction: its novel power and its relation to death.

Altruism and Cooperation in Biology

• Cells and animals as communities. Super-organisms (e.g. ant colonies).
• Cooperation & competition among mates, species, ecosystems, & societies.

The Brain and Perception

• The evolution of the nervous system. The structure & function of the brain.
• How do we know reality? Competing theories of perception & cognition.

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The Self-Conscious Universe

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The Birth of Humanity

• How did hominids develop? Why did this one species take over the planet?
• The role of language, imagination, collective learning, and freedom.

Humanity as a Planetary Force

• What are the consequences of humanity’s power for other planetary systems?
• Examples: climate change, over-population, ‘resource’ depletion, pollution.

Evolution becomes Conscious

• GMO and cloning technologies from an evolutionary perspective.
• Artificial Intelligence in terms of the evolution of consciousness.

Possible Futures for the Planet

• Technological solutions to disease & death. Dystopian futures.
• Ecotopias: how can we become conscious stewards of the planet?

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The Development of Human Civilization

• What led humans from hunting bands to agricultural empires?
• What led us then to industrial societies, and then towards globalization?

Mass Extinctions

• The causes, effects, & cycles of extinction. What happened to the dinosaurs?
• How do we come to terms with the current human-caused mass extinction?

Life Beyond Earth

• The search for other planets. What is the likelihood of contact with ET?
• What might aliens be like? Why haven’t we heard from them yet?

Emergence Revisited

• How can we account for the emergence of ever more complexity?
• What causes emergence? Emergence across different scales and times.

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Formulating Your Own Coherent Worldview

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What is Life?

• How do we define life? What makes living things unique?
• Is life best described as a pattern, a machine, an emergent system?

The Universe as a Machine in a Giant Box

• Origins and implications of this dominant worldview.
• Review of evidence from this course that questions this view.

The Universe as a Fractal Hologram

• Viewing the universe as an undivided whole, self-similar at every scale.
• The cosmos as a mystery, only partially knowable through many lenses.

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What is the Universe?

• After digesting all this information, how do we synthesize it coherently?
• Is the universe a machine, a story, an organism, a divine creation, a hologram?

The Universe as an Unfolding Story

• What are the essential themes & goals of the evolving Universe?
• How do humans fit into, and embody, the dynamics of the cosmos?

The Universe as an Organism

• Does the universe pass the test for a living organism?
• Looking at the cosmos as a set of processes, rather than objects.

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Finding Your Personal Purpose and Destiny

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Human Purpose According to these Views

• What is the destiny of humanity, as seen through our various lenses?
• How do these worldviews shed light on our values and choices?

How do You Integrate a New Worldview?

• How do we let these ideas seep from our intellect into our bodies and actions?
• Techniques for deepening: art, activism, ritual, reflection, practice.

How to Listen for your Individual Purpose

• Learning to follow fascination, bliss, and intuition.
• Techniques for self-discovery: writing, meditation, synchronicity.

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How do You Choose a Worldview?

• Finding your own criteria for choosing among these competing cosmologies.
• How can you articulate and defend your own worldview?

Self-Discovery through a Cosmological Lens

• Is your own self-discovery part of the cosmos’s deep desire to know itself?
• How can we then participate in the self-revelation of the Universe?

Care-Taking your Destiny

• How can you build a life around your passion and fascination?
• Tools for staying on your path: boundaries, discipline, recharging.

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