4 Physiology
of the Individual
∇.B = 0
∇xE + ∂B/∂t = 0
∇.D = ρ
∇xH - ∂D/∂t = J
James Clerk
Maxwell
“We are all made
of stars,” so says the song by Moby. Indeed, theoretical physicists suggest
that hydrogen and helium were constituent results of the original big bang. They
further suggest that all of the heavier elements could only have been made
within the thermonuclear furnaces of stars. Carbon based organisms that require
oxygen to support their life-processes owe their elemental existence to the
violent end of stars as nova or supernova explosions. In the distant past,
these cataclysmic events discharged from stellar interiors the heavy elements
that were the detritus of the fusion reactions from which stars derive their
energy. These castoff remnants then found new purpose as they formed the
foundation of planetary development, which in turn supported the emergence of
life, in at least one case. This causal history of the development of the
universe appears as a progression of well-understood physical events. It is at
the juncture of causality punctuated by the emergence of life that physical
ecosystems impinge upon the creation legends of religions.
Stories of
creation and existence are found in most religions; descriptions of how people
came into and upon the world, while offering an understanding of how their
existence melds with that of their physical and spiritual universes. These
seminal events of mankind’s existence are the focus of the curiosity of
virtually every person as they grow from infancy to adulthood. The stories that
have been passed down through the generations are based on imagery, metaphor
and allegory, just as are the languages used to recite them. Hearing these
stories from our earliest recollections of consciousness, they form within us
the foundation of our perception and understanding of the world. It is from
this foundation that we derive trust. Trust is then a salient feature of the
platforms from which the levers of our collective minds can move the universe.
Through the ages, the great philosophers and scientists have given rigorous
voice to the imagery and allegory recited to us by the storytellers and
historians.
The epigraph for
this chapter is a perfectly reasonable translation of an act of creation,
although theoretical physicists tell us that we haven’t quite got the full text
available yet, so our translation is currently incomplete, if not incorrect.
That notwithstanding, we generally recognize Maxwell’s equations, a detailed
specification of electromagnetism, as a sentence of creation. For the devoutly
secular, the existence of the sentence is sufficient; a speaker of the sentence
is not required. For the religiously devout, the speaker is central. When the
two views bump into each other the amalgam can be interesting. As an old joke
goes, a little old lady recounted to a young student the certain fact that the
world was indeed sitting on an elephant that was riding the back of a gigantic
turtle. “But,” questioned the young man, learned in the ways of science, “What holds
up the