Transcript

Two out of the three fundamental, fundamental mysteries about our place in the universe have already been resolved. The first is literally about our place in the universe. Many years ago, Copernicus told us that we were not at its center, that we were just a tiny dot suspended in the abyss. This is an image of the Earth taken from the probe Voyager One as it was leaving the solar system from about 6 billion kilometers away. All of human history, all of the history of life on Earth, has taken place on that pale blue dot.

The second mystery, Darwin then revealed that we are humans, are just one branch or one twig of a beautifully rich and delicate evolutionary tree, and that much of the machinery of life is shared even with the lowliest of our fellow creatures. The third mystery is that of consciousness, our inner universe. Now, earlier this year, for the third time in my life, I ceased to exist as the propofol anesthetic flowed from the cannula in my wrist into my bloodstream and then into my brain. There was a falling apart, a blackness and absence, and then I was back, drowsy and disoriented, but definitely there. And when you wake from a deep sleep, you might be confused what time it is, especially you've been flying somewhere, but you'll know that some time has passed. There seems to be some basic continuity between your consciousness then and your consciousness now.