There are some strange lapses. Elsewhere, Smolin seems to suggest that the discovery of the youth of the universe comes as a challenge to traditional theology. Some of the problems with Smolin s book are more fundamental, but, strangely, I most strongly disagreed with him when I felt he was not pushing his initial insights with rigorous consistency. I like that, but in my judgment Smolin s vision is dimmed by the same mote. Kant must be standing in the borderland between the knowable and unknowable to know where the border is, but if that s the case, then the limits of pure reason turn out not to be absolute limits after all.
Physicists have as much right to express theological conclusions as anyone, of course.
That is a marvelous and fruitful insight. Even my self-image is, to some degree, projected from others. Inanimate objects too are what they are by interactions with other things and with human beings. So far, so good. You can hear the gears grinding.