On the Shores of Endless Worlds [antikvár]

IntroductionA starfish slowly crawled on the sea-bed. Large and small fishes darted in all directions while the seaweeds swayed to and fro. The commentator of this documentary of marine life then asked: 'Have you guessed what this sea is? The Red Sea or the Caribbean, perhaps? Or is it the Pacific? No, ladies and gentlemen, you are all wrongwe are under the ice of the Arctic Ocean.' This disclosure that life could exist near the North Pole left a mark on my mind for many years to come.Is life an inherent property of matter or an exceptional phenomenon in the universe? Is man an evolutionary dead-end beyond which there is a vacuum? These questions are not devoid of pragmatic value because most of the problems confronting man today spring from his inability to orient himself correctly in the grand structure of Space-Time.The theme of the panorama of life in the universe is so vast that we hope the author will be forgiven for merely sketching its outlines. This topic can be approached from many angles among the major ones are those of biology, astronomy and philosophy. In a volume of this format it is hardly possible to cover even one of these fields thoroughly. Hence, at the risk of being accused of dilettantism, the different areas of research have merely been outlined. Only by this technique can an overall picture of life in the universe be presented.Generally speaking, the dialectical materialists of ancient Greece have provided the most satisfactory method of dealing with the problem. But in those areas they have not tackled, we will wander into the region of metaphysics in search of some answers.