About the Book

What makes a unified theory of physics about the universe so extraordinarily promising that “it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would know the mind of God”? (S. Hawking 1988: 175)
The euphoric framing of this worldview is all the more questionable, especially because this claim comes from a world-renowned physicist who later changed his mind and proposed something else instead: “Some people will be very disappointed if there is not an ultimate theory that can be formulated as a finite number of principles. I used to belong to that camp. I have changed my mind. I’m now glad that our search for understanding will never come to an end and that we will always have the challenge of new discovery.” (S. Hawking 2005)
So, which camp is correct in this debate on understanding the universe? Contrary to the two opposing camps, the understanding of the universe is neither possible nor desirable to the extent that its respective defenders would like us to believe.
Of course, this is not to say that cosmology is a worthless field of study, or its other fields of study (like metaphysics, theology, astrology, and esotericism) should be dismissed. Needless to say, neither of these two extreme views is reasonable either.
The important point to remember is that this book provides an alternative (better) way to understand the nature of the universe, especially in relation to its contested beginnings and speculative ends—while learning from different approaches in the literature but without favoring any one of them (nor integrating them, since they are not necessarily compatible with each other). Thus, this book offers a new theory to transcend the existing approaches in the literature on cosmology in a way not conceived before.
If successful, this seminal project is to fundamentally change the way that we think about cosmology, from the combined perspectives of the mind, nature, society, and culture, with enormous implications for the human future and what I originally called its “post-human” fate.
This book provides an alternative (better) way to understand the nature of the universe, especially in relation to its contested beginnings and speculative ends — while learning from different approaches in the literature but without favoring any one of them (nor integrating them, since they are not necessarily compatible with each other). Thus, this book offers a new theory to transcend the existing approaches in the literature on cosmology in a way not conceived before.

About the Author

Dr Peter Baofu is the author of 53 new theories in 44 books to provide a visionary challenge to conventional wisdom in all fields of knowledge ranging from the social sciences through the formal sciences and the natural sciences to the humanities, with the final aim for a unified theory of everything. He is known for his pioneering works on “multilateral acoustics,” “metamorphic humor,” “heterodox education,” “post-human mind games,” “post-Earth geology,” “substitutive religion,” “post-cosmology,” “contrarian personality,” “post-ethics,” “multifaceted war and peace,” “post-humanity,” “critical-dialectic formal science,” “combinational organization,” “hyper-sexual body,” “law reconstruction,” “comprehensive creative thinking,” “hyper-martial body,” “multilogical learning,” “contingent urban planning,” “post-capitalism,” “selective geometry,” “post-democracy,” “contrastive advantages,” “ambivalent technology,” “authoritarian liberal democracy,” “the post-post-Cold-War era,” “post-civilization,” “transformative aesthetic experience,” “synthetic information architecture,” “contrastive mathematical logic,” “dialectic complexity,” “after-postmodernity,” “sophisticated methodological holism,” “post-human space-time,” “existential dialectics,” “unfolding unconsciousness,” “floating consciousness,” “hyper-spatial consciousness,” and other visions. Dr Baofu earned an entry to the list of “prominent and emerging writers” in Contemporary Authors (2005) and another honorary entry in The Writers Directory (2007) — and was also interviewed on television and in newspapers about his original ideas. He was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in the Far East. He had taught as a professor at different universities in Western Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East, the Balkans, Central Asia, South Asia, and North America. He finished more than 5 academic degrees, including a Ph.D. from the world-renowned M.I.T., and was a summa cum laude graduate.

Table of Contents:
List of Tables • Foreword • Acknowledgements • List of Abbreviations Part One: Introduction • Introduction—The Awe of the Universe • The Euphoric Framing of a Worldview • Cosmology vs. Cosmogony • The Different Conceptions of the Universe • Some Deep Questions in Cosmology • The Theoretical Debate • The Theory of Post-Cosmology • Theory and Meta-Theory • The Logic of Existential Dialectics • Sophisticated Methodological Holism • Chapter Outline • Some Clarifications Part Two: The Contested Beginnings • The Universe and Its Contested Beginnings • The Persuasion of Its Contested Beginnngs • Its Contested Beginnings—and the Mind • Its Contested Beginnings—and Nature • Its Contested Beginnings—and Society • Its Contested Beginnings—and Culture • The Questionability of Its Contested Beginnings • The Future of Post-Human Cosmology Part Three: The Speculative Ends • The Universe and Its Speculative Ends • The Wonder of Its Speculative Ends • Its Speculative Ends—and the Mind • Its Speculative Ends—and Nature • Its Speculative Ends—and Society • Its Speculative Ends—and Culture • The Controversy of Its Speculative Ends Part Four: Conclusion • Conclusion—The Future of Cosmology • Beyond the Contested Beginnings and Speculative Ends • Thesis: The Absoluteness-Relativeness Principle • Thesis: The Predictability-Unpredictability Principle • Thesis: The Explicability-Inexplicability Principle • Thesis: The Preciseness-Vagueness Principle • Thesis: The Simpleness-Complicatedness Principle • Thesis: The Openness-Hiddenness Principle • Thesis: The Denseness-Emptiness Principle • Thesis: The Slowness-Quickness Principle • Thesis: The Expansion-Contraction Principle • Thesis: The Convention-Novelty Principle • Thesis: The Evolution-Transformation Principle • Thesis: The Symmetry-Asymmetry Principle Thesis: The Regression-Progression Principle • Thesis: The Sameness-Difference Principle • Thesis: The Post-Human Odyssey • Towards Post-Cosmology Bibliography • Index