The Infinite Staircase presents metaphysics and ethics specifically crafted for the 21st century. We live in a time when extraordinary advances in science have made possible new secular explanations for how the universe came to be, and how life itself may have arisen through self-organization without divine intervention, including the emergence of consciousness and with it all that humanity values. In this new context, we need answers to two fundamental questions that have traditionally been answered by received religious narratives: Where can we find meaning and value in life? and How should we behave?
Geoffrey Moore has written a number of influential and bestselling books on business strategy, so it is not surprising perhaps that he has turned his attention to the broader field of strategies for living. Strategy has two dimensions. First, it must describe the situation at hand so that people can see what forces are at work and to what ends. Second, it must prescribe actions that allow people to leverage these forces to fulfill their ambitions.
The Infinite Staircase builds a description of the universe from the Big Bang to the present day based on a stairstep metaphor of emerging layers of reality, each building atop the one prior, each adding its own unique dynamics. At the bottom of the staircase reside physics, chemistry, and biology, what Moore terms the metaphysics of entropy. In the middle are desire, consciousness, values, and culture, what he terms the metaphysics of Darwin. And at the top are language, narrative, analytics, and theory, the metaphysics of memes.
Documenting what is knowable from the physical sciences, social sciences, and humanities, he then asks: If this is indeed what the world is actually like, what does that mean for how we should act? What … should be our strategy for living?
Moore’s answer offers nothing less than a “contemporary take on secular metaphysics and ethics.” It is a secular book, but deeply spiritual. It is about good and evil—and how we can advance the former and curtail the latter. It is about kindness, fairness, morality, and justice. And beneath it all, it is about Being, about the spiritual.