A physicist's view of matter and mind

This is a highly interdisciplinary book straddling physics and complex systems such as living organisms. The presentation is from the perspective of physics, in a manner accessible to those interested in scientific knowledge integrated within its socio-cultural and philosophical backgrounds. Two key areas of human understanding, namely physics and conscious complex systems, are presented in simple language. An optional technical presentation is also given in parallel where it is needed.

pt. 1. The nature of physical law -- pt. 2. Complex systems and consciousness.

1. A bird's eye view of our quest. 1.1. Duality, plurality, and reality. 1.2. The 'standard model' of matter according to physics. 1.3. Scales of energy and length. 1.4. The direct approach and its modern critics. 1.5. Evolution, and 'human' questions -- 2. An epistemic hunt for scientific truth. 2.1. The 'fundamental' questions. 2.2. Scientific knowledge and model construction. 2.3. Description, complexity and quantifiability. 2.4. Paradigms and scientific revolutions. 2.5. The cognitive conundrum. 2.6. Leaping over energy, length and time scales -- 3. The laws of nature and the supremacy of symmetry. 3.1. A grand-stand view of the laws of nature. 3.2. What do we mean by symmetry? 3.3. Coordinate transformations and Galilean symmetries. 3.4. Before Galileo and Newton. 3.5. Subatomic symmetry. 3.6. The principle of least action and the simplicity of nature. 3.7. How does a particle know the best path? 3.8. The local texture of the world and the simplicity of nature. 3.9. The worm's eye view -- The Euler-Lagrange equations. 3.10. The 'unreasonable effectiveness' of mathematics -- 4. Maxwell's magical tr…