Reciprocity Nexus

“Atoms Pondering Atoms” – a phrase attributed by popular UK cosmologist and CERN physicist Brian Cox to famous US theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, to describe the remarkable phenomenon of one collection of atoms (which intricate array has thrown-ups consciousness) observing other (non-conscious) arrays of atoms: planets, stars, cosmological phenomena.

Despite the Fermi Paradox, the chance of further life across the trillions of planets across billions of galaxies in an infinite universe seems mathematically inevitable (as is claimed in the coda). But this song simply acknowledges the remarkable phenomenon of “atoms pondering atoms” – our extraordinary ability to ponder the universe. As the lyric in the second verse goes: “when Galileo trained his telescope across the stars / The universe suddenly became self aware”.

The song also references evolution: “Complex life forms are a slow burn / Four billion year late starter / Archaeon and bacterium / In a fateful encounter” which is, of course, the great counterpoint to the theory of creationism. Charles Darwin was, of course, the great challenger to creationism and amongst the first to formally posit the idea that life on earth had evolved.

To me, on a personal note, this truth seems so implicit that it astounds me that in the first quarter of the 21st century some still elect to profess otherwise. That phenomenon – alongside flat earthers! – is TRULY a mystery! :-)