Humankind Advancing, Vol.8, No.3 July 1997

Theme: Exploring New Territory

CONTENT

Editorial: 

This issue explores the new territory of system's theory and chaos theory, as applied to our understanding of evolution. Fascinating and promising new perspectives become visible, together with new threats and dangers.

...a declaration of independence from religion.

...a release from the confining influence of superstition.

...the recognition that there is no credible evidence of a higher power nor any rational basis for belief in a deity.

...something that helps to negate the influence of harmful attitudes such as homophobia, sexism, racism, and xenophobia, which religion promotes.

...an excellent reason for having a happy life now in this world.

(Continued below)

Matthew Fox and Brian Swimme

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Unknown to most of us, we're travelling in the midst of an enormous company of allies: a large population of creative people, who are the carriers of more positive ideas, values, and trends than any previous renaissance period has ever seen.

Paul H. Ray
Conclusion from a large research project.

Other answers were more gentle. The first question was answered positively by almost everyone, although "mind/consciousness" was substituted for brain on occasion.

Typical answers (condensed) to the second question included:

1. Love, compassion, and concern for one another can be explained by science, but I prefer to believe in God.

2. Science can explain these feelings, but they -- as well as responsibility for the fate of humankind and our earth -- are enhanced by belief in supernatural guidance, not diminished.

3. We don't need science to explain these feelings; they existed long before science developed. They emerged from the ultimate Creative Source and are thus natural, not supernatural.

4. Love, compassion, and concern for one another are the result of brain chemistry.

I learned much about human thinking from all these answers and am looking forward to a promised book of essays on the subject, edited by one of the respondents.

"Convergent evolution to higher and higher organizational levels involves a gamble....The gamble means greater dynamism and autonomy -- but at the cost of the mortality of the individual and the risk of sudden destabilization and ultimate extinction of the species. The fossil record testifies to the poor odds of this gamble: more than 96 percent of the biological species that at one time populated this planet have ultimately disappeared." (Pp.90/91)

"So far, the gamble paid off: Homo is still alive and dominant. But he now lives within sociocultural systems that he created but no longer knows how to control. His future will be decided by the evolution of these still higher-level systems -- more exactly by his ability to evolve the power of his brain and mind to steer the course of their evolution." (P.93)

Near the end of the book, Laszlo explains that "A general evolution theory allows specialized investigators to divest themselves of the blindfolds that normally accompany specialty vision and permits them to situate their particular segment of the empirical world within the relevant wider context." P.145

Thus, general evolution theory may be seen as a vehicle, or perhaps better a catalyst, that facilitates the integration of divergent points of view, which might not occur otherwise. The promise of such an approach is immense -- but only if the systems and methods of contemporary science (with their emphasis on critical evaluation and error-correction) are not treated as obstacles to the new world view, but as its most vital components.

"In the 18th Century, the study of meteorites was considered a quackery."

Jerzy A. Wojciechowski

Discussion of

That is not only possible, but strongly recommended. Dr. Goerner is director of the TRIANGLE CENTER for the Study of Complex Systems (374 Wesley Court, Chapel Hill, NC 27516, U.S.A., Phone: 001-919-544-7310; Fax: 001-919-544-5900; E-mail: goerner@email.unc.edu). The Triangle Center consists of a group of consultants on chaos and complexity theory, although they belong to different fields (physics, psychology, accounting, epidemiology, computer science, business...), are spread out all over the country, and communicate by e-mail. (The Center is a typical example of those efficient non-local business-ventures of the future, which rely on partnership rather than hierarchical structure, and in which each participant is highly motivated.) Talks on the subject are given, learning is facilitated, workshops arranged, and specific projects in the respective fields are addressed.

Rather than reserving this information for an appendix, as is the custom, I decided to place it right up front to attract the attention of persons who have not yet decided whether chaos theory would be relevant to their own sphere of interest.

The book itself illuminates its subject matter with examples and graphs that provide an unforgettable imprint, even for those encountering chaos theory for the first time. For instance the claim that chaos can be seen to follow hidden rules once the right keys are discovered may appear incomprehensible -- until the author presents a long string of seemingly unrelated numbers, and then explains that they are all multiples of seven.

A swinging pendulum with smaller and smaller strokes to the right or left illustrates the concept of an attractor: movement is "attracted" to the middle point. Nature, we learn, abounds in such attractors -- events revolving around a main direction, although single instances of it may be widely divergent. But attractors may change. Alterations of the original environment may lead to excessive divergences and finally to concentrations around new directional guidelines. Such events are called bifurcations, and the point at which they occur are bifurcation points.

It is here that the relevance of the book switches to evolution (cosmic, biological, and cultural) from the viewpoint of systems theory. The birth and collapse of stars, the creation of life from cosmic dust, the concentration of energy in living systems, leading to thought and purpose, cultural renewals through revolutions, and personal renewals through transformations -- all these can be explained with the concepts of bifurcations and new attractors.

But all this only scratches the surface of the book's content; the reader is led far deeper into the world of chaos and complexity theory. Most importantly, Dr. Goerner succeeds in being sensitive to specific human needs beyond pure reason -- such as spirituality. The depth and insights of her writing -- in spite of its unpretentiousness --

cannot be adequately conveyed by a description of the book's content. The original must be read. A single short glimpse will be provided, however. Under the subheading "Demystifying and Reenchanting the World," the author writes: "We are not a mystery apart from the world but part of the mystery of the world."

Dr. Goerner is at present completing a second book, concentrating on her own contributions to chaos theory, especially in the field of mathematics, and, upon request of her friends, also on spirituality.

Chaos, Complexity Theory, Gaia, Deep Ecology, Cybernetics, Punctuated Equilibrium, and Self-Organization are among the areas of science that have become paramount in the last three decades.

All are covered by Fritjof Capra [reference on last page].

From the General System's Theory of Bertalanffy, through the Information Theory of Claude Shanon, the Cybernetics of Norbert Wiener and on to deep ecological concepts of Gregory Bateson, and Arne Ness, to the mathematics of chaos, complexity, and to the Gaia Hypothesis of Lovelock and Margulis and the Santiago Theory of Maturana and Varela runs a new language of science that Capra integrates in a theory of life in this book. Open systems far from equilibrium are a key concern of all these post-Cartesian researchers. For them form or process becomes more central to the description of reality than substance. The unfolding of life on Earth has been a process of co-creation. The cognition of life,, or the understanding of the cosmos, has been created as the physical universe evolved. There is no pregiven world humans can understand. Each person, in fact, each life form, perceives its own world dependent on its own senses, its own cognitive powers, its own history, and its own ecology.

This is neither a book for the lazy laymen nor the scientist unable to escape into new realms of thought. This, even more than Capra's other books, the Tao of Physics, The Turning Point, is a forey into an emerging world of new ideas. It is philosophy as much as science, opening new visions for sociology, politics, economics, and ecology as well as exploring the forefront of scientific thinking.

Excerpts from a review of

[Web editor's note:  Click for the full review.]

Quantum Mythology is not justified by physics. -- Physicist Stenger [reference on last page] scrupulously examines relativity, quantum mechanics, chaos theories, the science of complexity, anthropical coincidences, and big bang cosmology in light of "New Age" claims and their support by scientists such as Roger Penrose, David Bohm, Henry Stapp, Gary Zukav, and Fritjof Capra.

Stenger concludes: "The most economical conclusion to be drawn from the complete library of scientific data is that we are material beings composed of atoms and molecules, ordered by the largely chance processes of self-organization and evolution to become capable of the complex behavior associated with the notions of life and mind. The data provide us with no reason to postulate undetectable vital or spiritual, transcendent forces. Matter is sufficient to explain everything discovered thus far by the most powerful scientific instruments."

"Holism," the contention that the whole universe is connected instantaneously at speeds greater than the speed of light,* is unjustified. The Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen (EPR) thought-experiment has never had experimental proof, and is better explained by recognizing that quantum mechanics applies to the statistical action of many particles rather than the action of a single one. Similarly Bell's Theorem, "proving" the possibility of hidden variables, which depends on instantaneous signals between distant measurements, does not apply to individual measurements in an atomistic universe as is postulated in quantum theory. ....

Stenger's passion for his topic is more than a love of science. He sees New Age Holism, quantum consciousness, and naive mysticism as being used to justify a culture dominated by ecocentricity.

The fixation on internal mystical transformation displaces the hard-headed thinking and action necessary to change the course of our homocentric economic culture. (Emphasis added.)

Science is the means for either enlightenment or destruction. If misunderstood and misapplied it will be destruction.

*The reviewer, TRANET's Bill Ellis, asked me to be sure to point out that Stenger's objection applies only to "instantaneous messages that go faster than the speed of light," not to the fact that everything is dependent on everything else.

La diversité honnête, comprise, tolérée et appréciée constitue l'agrément de la vie. L'uniformité absolue serait bien monotone et ennuyeuse. Heureusement, elle est irréalisable. (Diversity -- honest, understood, tolerated and appreciated -- constitutes the grace of life. Absolute uniformity would be monotone and boring. Fortunately, it can't be achieved.) L'Unite Humaine -- p. 3

The aim is not to eliminate value controversy and differences of faith and opinion but only to bring these into a domain set by an agreed-upon frame of reference supported by science -- not with the idea that scientific truth is absolute and beyond question but only with a conviction that it does represent the best and most reliable, credible, and dependable approach to truth available.

R.W.Sperry, 1983


I don't believe that a civilization can advance technically without corresponding moral progress: if the two get out of step, it will self-destruct, as indeed ours is in danger of doing.

Arthur C. Clarke

Ethical experience spites despair "even if" religious faith is illusion, since it finds value in the valuer. Our concern with the good makes us valuable.

C. Don Keyes

Life is co-existence....Before an organism can engage in any struggle, it has first to receive the necessary input from the outside to exist.... A free agent is not one who disengaged himself from co-existence. He has merely learned to choose and to direct some of his relations with the outside world. The relations become more rational, of a higher order, and more creative. Far from limiting co-existence, freedom enriches it and makes it more meaningful.

Jerzy A. Wojciechowski

"As the human population has increased in the last 50 years, demand for grain has tripled, as has demand for beef, mutton, water rights and firewood. The demand for paper has increased sixfold, seafood consumption has increased over 4 times, lumber demand has more than doubled. Fossil fuel burning has increased by a factor of 4, resulting in a parallel increase of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. These changes, of course, have also driven world economic growth, which increased over the past 40 years from $4 trillion to over $20 trillion....

"The rate of economic growth between 1985 and 1995 exceeded that which occurred from the beginning of civilization to 1950....The long-term outcome of this prodigious rate of economic growth cannot be accurately predicted, but most projections suggest that if serious measures are not taken soon, there will be dire, if not calamitous consequences. The very wealthy, of course, benefit economically from many of the factors that are causing others to suffer."

In that last sentence lies the courage of the article. Throughout history, economic benefits were gained at the expense of human suffering. Slavery was defended for that very reason -- and yet, slavery has been overcome. After a long period of intense confrontations, compassion had won over greed. Our hope for the human future lies in that courage. Still, we have far to go.

"The U.S. Congress has reduced funding for international family planning....Economic arguments have been used by national and multinational corporations to justify practices that bring them large, short-term monetary gains."

Against religions opposition to contraception and sex education, the authors argue that letting babies die or face lives of starvation, sickness, and brutality is far more unethical than birth control. At stake is the future of posterity and the future of our earth.

In deference to his mentor, Dr. Voneida ends the paper with a quote from Professor Sperry, which provided its title.

"Assuming that high quality sustainable survival will require radically revised social value priorities to live and govern by, and that a value-belief system along the described lines might be the key to such a change, it follows that anything that might speed its acceptance could make the difference for humankind between quality survival and cosmic obliteration." (Sperry, 1992)

The article itself is a draft for a chapter in a book related to the Trieste Conference on Human Duties. Dr. Voneida participated in that conference, representing neuroscientist and Nobel Laureate R.W. Sperry, who was too ill to attend, but whose work had inspired it.

The aim of that undertaking was the development of a new global ethic of responsibility for future generations. Its result was The Trieste Declaration of Human Duties to complement the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

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Dr. Theodore J. Voneida is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurobiology at the Northwestern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Rootstown, Ohio 44272, U.S.A. -- Caroline Arnold is aide to U.S. Senator John Glenn.

PAT DUFFY HUTCHEON, a Canadian Professor of Education (whose succinct, practical, and conscientious suggestions "to transform abstract concern into concrete action" on p.3 of this years January issue, together with her book Leaving the Cave, led to several requests for this particular issue) has now completed her new book The Moral Imperative: Building Character and Culture. I have had the pleasure to receive a copy of her "Guidelines for Moral Education" in the appendix of this book, addressed specifically to teachers and parents.

"The long-term aim of moral education," Dr. Hutcheon says, "is the development of human beings with empathy, a sound conscience and strong self-concept, and the ability to make wise value judgments."

She lists 10 essential virtues, drawn from the ethical core of the great world religions and philosophies, and incorporating "those attributes most necessary for individual fulfilment and group life." The most successful way to teach these virtues is by "carefully selecting and organizing the experiences to which the child is exposed" and by "modelling and reinforcing appropriate behavior." The virtues needed are listed as: Compassion, Honesty, Nonviolence, Perseverance, Responsibility, A Sense of Justice, Courage (to withstand peer pressure), Respect for the Rule of Law, Respect for Life, and Respect for Human Dignity.

These virtues should not be taught in a separate course, but be integrated in all other teaching, at home as well as in the school.

Included in the chapter are helpful examples, in concrete steps, how best to teach each of these virtues to children from age three and under up to ages fourteen to nineteen. Toddlers, for instance, have to learn that animals and other people feel the same hurt as oneself (compassion), that toys have to be picked up (responsibility), while near-grown ups are taught e.g. "to refuse to participate in any way in the spread of ideas or the use of terminology hateful or injurious to any individual or group," (respect for human dignity).

The book promises to be extremely useful to our society, in fact, to all of civilization, and yet, it has so far not succeeded in finding a publisher -- while irresponsible publications instilling the opposite conduct are eagerly snatched up and mass produced to the detriment of our entire culture. -- Anyone concerned with this state of affairs and its implications for our future, please contact the author, esp. if helpful leads can be suggested.

Her address is: Dr. Pat Duffy Hutcheon, 904-100 Beach Ave., Vancouver, B.C., V6E 4M2, Canada. Phone: (604) 683-1713; E-mail: pdhutcheon@humanists.net

Dr. Pat D. Hutcheon for sending me her "Guidelines for Moral Education," and the TRANET management for not copyrighting their material to encourage its widest possible dissemination.

Omissions: I wish to apologize for two omissions in the last issue (April 1997). 1) An announcement of the forthcoming Congress of Youth Citizens in Vancouver in April, sponsored by the "International Foundation of Learning" did not contain the information that Dr. Geraldine Schwartz and Desmond Berghofer were President and Chairman of that Foundation. -- The Congress was very successful.

2) For special reasons, my review of Templeton's book Evidence of Purpose omitted my own point of view on the subject. I share the conviction, backed by science, that purpose did not precede evolution, but emerged as a result of it. Such knowledge does not diminish, but rather increase the beauty of life and our prospects for survival.