Description
One could think of The Mineral Eaters as a mosaic of the information in other books that separately portray the evolutions of the universe, the planet, life, and our species.
Early on, the book brings attention to major mysteries. The first of them is the formation of a universe seed from the seeming emptiness that is something other than the universe. The book suggests that the non-universe existence is the 'God' of religionists, the 'Absolute' of philosophers, the 'Quantum Vacuum' of scientists, and the 'emptiness' of others: it uses the meaningless symbol Õ in the place of all such depictions. Second is the sudden beginning of life on the planet. Third is consciousness, which scientists limit to the brain and philosophers attribute to the Absolute. Fourth is 'causation,' which scientists reject and religionists attribute to 'God.' Throughout the book the author examines unresolved topics that often appear to be resolved. The nature of gravity, the shape of the universe, and physical composition of space are a few examples.
An evolution timeline begins with the emergence of our universe from the Õ existence, followed by significant events that some describe as occurring before the Big Bang. It proceeds to that Bang, formation of space and matter, and the assembly of the cosmos. The book discloses that the nature of space is surprisingly unknown: several competing theories exist, but there is little real exploration trying to resolve them. It suggests that the long established belief in matter existing because it survived a mutual annihilation war between it and antimatter is drifting into obscurity.
The timeline eventually focuses on the evolution of our planet and its becoming host to life. The author believes that the effort of scientists attempting to create life through chemical interaction under extreme conditions, such as lightning strikes, could be used better. From his perspective, there is a non-chemical attribute they will never create, and that even the earliest known life was too complex. The development from there of simple and then complex life forms from the early population of bacteria becomes a fascinating story.
The timeline moves through a full array of creatures, to arrival of the apes, hominoids, hominids, and the Homo toolmakers (Homo habilis is dubbed as Handy). The author points out that Handy was not the iconic creative creature that science portrays, but was the recipient of genes that had it create exactly the same primitive tools in exactly the same way for thousands of generations, no more creative than bird nest building.
Observing this period of evolution brought a new understanding of the wondrous, awe inspiring cyclic process. A stabilized species under threat begins to produce mosaic offspring. Mosaic interbreeding over many thousands of generations leads to consolidation into species. After another long period, species contract to a small number and a new period of long stability arises.
The timeline unfolds the trail through genetic mosaics and species. The spectacular worldwide spread of Homo erectus (dubbed as Nomad), leads to the suddenness of a common body frame in all mosaics (dubbed as Anatomics). Anatomics quietly become defacto Homo sapiens (dubbed as Eden People). It does not take long for the species to earn a label of "Mineral Eaters."
A surprising revelation came about during a summation: the evolution of new forms of life has steadily accelerated over its billions of years. That pace could lead to a next step in the near future; projection into the future identifies the threat that could trigger it.