The Naughty Mighty and The Mighty Naughty

Excerpt of THE NAUGHTY MIGHTY

When professional basketball player Eric Barnett's championship victory is shattered by a random act of violence that costs him his legs, his career, and his family, he finds himself drowning in despair at a psychiatric facility. It is there that Amy, a compassionate nurse, begins to pull him back from the brink and introduces him to her uncle, Dr. Hu, a philosopher–scientist whose unconventional wisdom will challenge everything Eric thought he knew about existence.

Through Dr. Hu's guidance, Eric embarks on a profound intellectual journey that spans the hierarchical structures of the universe, from subatomic particles to cosmic constants, revealing the intricate design that suggests a Grand Designer. Yet this same exploration uncovers a darker truth: that our world operates on cycles of creation and destruction, governed by the twin forces of Autopoiesis and Entropy, where old things must perish for new ones to emerge.

Dr. Hu's revolutionary synthesis of Western, Eastern, and Indian philosophies with modern science presents a startling proposition: beyond the well–known Second Law of Thermodynamics lies a Third Law that explains how open systems can temporarily reverse entropy and organize into higher complexity. But this cosmic dance comes at a price-the struggle for survival is not a flaw in the design, but an integral feature of existence itself.

In this philosophical exploration disguised as a deeply human story, the authors confront the ultimate questions: Why must we endure the inescapable traps of existence? What does it mean to be aware of our own awareness while remaining incapable of truly knowing life's meaning? Through Eric's transformation from despair to understanding, we discover that perhaps the profound sadness of human consciousness is itself the most meaningful mystic aspect of our existence.

-- Maxwell C. Yao and Shawn A. Keys