Fourteen Days: Reflections on Life, Mind, and other Things

Antonio Machado Carrillo is a Canary Island biologist that one day left for Laos, where he set out to write for “fourteen days”. The outcome of that interview with himself is a mixture of travel book, philosophical essay, popular science and intellectual legacy. Readers will not remain indifferent to this difficult-to-label book, where the meaning of life (living matter) and mind (thinking matter) are explained as cosmic phenomena. It deals with the importance of information in both the evolution of the universe and of living beings; it tackles the instincts and cultural achievements of our species, viewed as a psycho-biological amalgam. The future of nature in a psychosphere, humanine, the risks of ecofascism, the evils of plenty, infoxication, beliefs, people’s reason for living or ikigai, and other things ─as the title says─ are also discussed. It is a generous book in which to learn, an invitation to reflect, or an imposition, perhaps…?