The late Terence McKenna sharing some thoughts on time, space and complexity.

Terence McKenna (November 16, 1946 – April 3, 2000) was an American ethnobotanist, philosopher, psychonaut, researcher, teacher, lecturer, and writer on many subjects, such as human consciousness, language and the evolution of civilizations.

Transcript:

“Time is only experienced by the events which occur within it; and I maintain that the early universe had very little going on and consequently time moved very, very slowly. The character of time as we approach the present is that there are more and more physical domains, and energetic domains in which change can occur. For example, the early universe was a pure plasma, a pure swarm of unassociated electrons. You didn’t even have atomic systems, let alone chemistry, molecular chemistry, life, complex speciated life, and dynamically balanced planetary ecosystems. Each one of those more complex phenomena crystallized out, or emerged, if you will, from the previous systems that had come into existence.

So when I say time is speeding up, what I mean really is, more and more is happening. And if you ask the question, ‘Well, what would be the ultimate state of connectivity, or of happening?’ It’s when all points are connected to all other points. Somehow this concept of connectivity is intimately linked to the concept of complexity, and so really what I’m saying is that the universe is getting its act together. It’s connecting the dots. It’s bringing everything into co-relationship with everything else. And somehow it does this through the production of consciousness.”

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