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author | p <grr@lo2.org> | 2024-11-05 01:26:23 -0500 |
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committer | p <grr@lo2.org> | 2024-11-05 01:26:23 -0500 |
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diff --git a/subnature.otx b/subnature.otx index 04c0c5d..bd0ebd1 100644 --- a/subnature.otx +++ b/subnature.otx @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ North Atlantic.\par the \e{Joint Oceanographic Institutions For Deep Earth Sampling. Prepared for the National Science Foundation by the University of California (Scripps Institution of Oceanography). US.\ Govt.\ Printing Office.} -Since the 17\textsuperscript{th} century, modern science has seemed confident that the human species is independent from organic nature.\fnote{1} Universal knowledge of inorganic structures provides an ever refined system of techniques that (supposedly) separates us from nature in an irreversible manner. Socio-technical evolution step by step transforms all in-built human capabilities in a cycle of technical learning that creates tools that are reinforced till they become machines and are finally replaced by automatic systems. This behavioral cycle of feedback-guided learning is an artificial world construction process that is unconsciously determined by the human need for security and safety.\fnote{2} The irony is that more control over nature does,not seem to decrease anxiety about the terror of nature. +Since the 17\textsuperscript{th} century, modern science has seemed confident that the human species is independent from organic nature.\fnote{1} Universal knowledge of inorganic structures provides an ever refined system of techniques that (supposedly) separates us from nature in an irreversible manner. Socio-technical evolution step by step transforms all in-built human capabilities in a cycle of technical learning that creates tools that are reinforced till they become machines and are finally replaced by automatic systems. This behavioral cycle of feedback-guided learning is an artificial world construction process that is unconsciously determined by the human need for security and safety.\fnote{2} The irony is that more control over nature does not seem to decrease anxiety about the terror of nature. While a sense of the inevitability of socio-technical progress pervades modern culture, so too does a sense of a \dq{broken connection} with biological and cultural continuity. The nuclear image of possible human annihilation, and the permanent \dq{crisis} ethos of contemporary societies, meld together to require what Robert Lifton has so aptly called \dq{psychic numb- ing.} Hence, the fear of survival returns and the search for symbolic immortality (began perhaps with the fall from the ignorance of death) renews the quest for a technical transcendence of nature. @@ -24,9 +24,9 @@ since the beginning in that each renewed level of technical learning requires greater sacrifice and renunciation in the development of self-hood at the cost of greater losses of the capacity for spontaneity, participatory solidarity, and imaginative - participation in nature. The technically determined +participation in nature. The technically determined separation from nature has ironically undermined the stability - and coherence of the human world; technical progress and +and coherence of the human world; technical progress and loss of cultural form are simultaneous processes. At stake are the dreams of the modern enlightenment; reaffirmation of religious orthodoxy as the only cultural cement is the neo-conservative sedative. @@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ religious orthodoxy as the only cultural cement is the neo-conservative sedative Into this matrix of despair is slowly surfacing a potential power that recalls the slumbering memory of the behemoth. Awakening from a sleep induced by the modern epistemological - principle that \dq{nature-in-itself} is constituted only as an +principle that \dq{nature-in-itself} is constituted only as an object of technical control, \e{Gaia}, or the organic unity of the earth, appears to some observers who have an interest in human technical \e{hubris}. Rather than dead matter in motion @@ -47,11 +47,11 @@ drain all immanent formative activity from nature, to smash all pantheisms, were justified in the West as essential for sustaining the ego-autonomy essential for civilization. Today ecologists everywhere begin to suggest that the \e{good-for-nature} - should inform our ethical mediations of technical +should inform our ethical mediations of technical progress. Ethical norms are then emergent from both the interdicts of culture (\e{nomos}) and from the limits of nature (\e{physis}). Maintaining a balance of these two sources of normative - integration requires a type of critical insight which the +integration requires a type of critical insight which the ideologies of progress today seem to lack. But the problem may not be \dq{progress} as a socio-cultural @@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ ideal. Indeed there is one learned argument that \dq{progress} was central to classical antiquity in the West from the very beginning.\fnote{3} But \dq{progress} here meant growth of an organic whole that exhibits persistence and change, identity and difference. - The model of nature was cited as exemplary; Seneca +The model of nature was cited as exemplary; Seneca could thus say: \dq{Nothing is completed at its very beginning.} Harmony seems o require an ongoing insight into the unity of nature and culture, \e{physis} and \e{nomos}, Hence, recent scientific @@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ The difference is that between an image of nature as a composite unity and a \e{hologramic order.} While it would be possible to recall that archaic worldviews - also held to a hologramic presence of the whole in each +also held to a hologramic presence of the whole in each part,\fnote{5} the more relevant point here is that awareness of co-present elements returns as a center of physical inquiry and supplements the present analytic abstraction of a composite @@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ practice interaction with nature. The \e{search for patterns that connect us} with natural ecosystems constitutes a re-orientation of scientific-technical learning. As Gregory Bateson has argued, a communicational science is concerned with the meta-relationships - of events in contexts, while a strict causalistic +of events in contexts, while a strict causalistic science focuses upon the reality of \dq{objects} while excluding contexts.\fnote(6) This defines an epistemology change from Galilean \dq{resolutive compositive method} to an organismic approach.}\fnote{7} @@ -133,14 +133,14 @@ progress (i.e., economic growth stimulated by ever new levels of technical control over nature), Marxist socialism views class struggle as a dialectical self-positing that releases the suppressed technical powers of production. Both are variations - within a common perspective. That perspective is the +within a common perspective. That perspective is the belief that all future human possibilities depend upon an extension of the domination of nature. Whereas progress as permanent revolution runs up against the finitude of resources and socio-cultural deterioration in a society where stability can be achieved only through expansion, - socialism runs into the authoritarian contradiction of +socialism runs into the authoritarian contradiction of separating the administration of things from the democratization of need interpretations. Both ideologies are latent theologies of technical transcendence of nature and both promise a @@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ for centralized decision-making. But more basically the hyperstimulated expectation that new controls over nature provide new freedoms from nature is the cultural mechanism that transfigures needs, and reinforces dependency upon centralized - authority. How to create and select those forms of +authority. How to create and select those forms of technical innovation which are compatible with organic nature and with non-dependency is the project of defining an ecologically rational form of social development. In the present @@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ human survival. \sec II Hannah Arendt has noted the sense in which modern science - began by viewing nature from a perspective outside the +began by viewing nature from a perspective outside the earth. At the beginning of modern science: \Q{\ld the old dichotomy between earth and sky was abolished @@ -200,27 +200,27 @@ and use cosmic laws for the guidance of terrestrial actions. Arendt calls this belief in technical transcendence of the earth, which is so fundamental to modern science, \dq{earth alienation} and sees it as the most fundamental revolution of modernity. - With the transition to universal science, terrestrial and +With the transition to universal science, terrestrial and celestial phenomena were unified mathematically as physics and astronomy. Newton's synthesis was made possible by the algebraic treatment of geometric relations without regard to the age-old distinction of earth and sky. With this mathematical - formalization, the last vestige of terrestrial qualitative +formalization, the last vestige of terrestrial qualitative difference was abstracted away. Yet the \dq{universalism} of Cartesian-Newtonian mechanics may be an abstractive fallacy for bio-social forms of organization - to the extent that a contextless infinite framework is +to the extent that a contextless infinite framework is presupposed. Bio-social events have context specific causalities that differ fundamentally from the linear irreversible causalities - of classical mechanics which holds that action and +of classical mechanics which holds that action and reaction are equal and opposite or that like causes create like effects. Classical mechanics provides predictive knowledge where a system can be considered closed and energy transformations - viewed as irreversibly tending toward dynamic +viewed as irreversibly tending toward dynamic disorder (e.g., heat processes under the entropy principle) but such analysis abstracts from any contextual constraints (organizational - information that reacts back or amplifies causal +information that reacts back or amplifies causal impacts). Although the emergence and evolution of cybernetics since @@ -236,7 +236,7 @@ improbable. Biological organisms can maintain fluctuating structures within \e{limits} of contextual information patterns (e.g., homeostatic regulations). Such structures subsist against entropic decay, actually increase their complexity, and generate - new self-organizing heterogeneity.\fnote{11} This new perspective +new self-organizing heterogeneity.\fnote{11} This new perspective shows that instead of random disorganizations, the outcome of bio-social events depends upon the stability of dissipative structures within the limits of contextual organizational @@ -247,7 +247,7 @@ they may also, due to more comprehensive integrations, jump to a higher energy flow-through. For example, successional change in eco-systems demonstrates how interacting life forms can create more integration of the system and more (non-hierarchical) - differentiation of the food chains. The mature +differentiation of the food chains. The mature eco-system has greater diversity with greater capacities to accumulate and re-use resources. This movement, from fragile simplicity to complex and more stable diversity, exhibits a @@ -261,8 +261,8 @@ spatial organization. In this sense the eco-system. due to its own \e{informational structure} creates its own morphic genesis within that context. The patterns of this morphogenetic structure are presented within terrestrial \e{appearances}---representation - of this order within universal physio-chemical formalized - language is possible but the \e{genesis} would be lost.\fnote{13} A +of this order within universal physio-chemical formalized +language is possible but the \e{genesis} would be lost.\fnote{13} A complementarity of natural science approaches to, at least, terrestrial organic systems is suggested.\fnote{14} @@ -277,21 +277,21 @@ static world of mechanics, or the random decay of structures, is not the sole basis for a universal physics. Indeed if we take these physics of a static world seriously, time is only a parameter of the four-dimensional geometry called physical dynamics. - Although the second law of thermodynamics (the entropy +Although the second law of thermodynamics (the entropy law) can be taken as defining a general trend in collections of atoms, molecules, etc., there are some implications that point beyond such an order of nature. For example, it differs from the \dq{composite unity} notion of natural order (the microscopic - building block image) by referring its cognitive claims +building block image) by referring its cognitive claims to the patterns of collectivities of objects. But more interesting in a world of spatial events, it refers to a temporal \e{irreversibility} - of processes—especially on the macroscopic scale, and +of processes—especially on the macroscopic scale, and especially in the sphere of \dq{biological-space} where highly improbable (in dynamic terms) non-equilibrium structures are situated in wider contexts. Hence, the theory of dissipative structures suggests that the physics of dynamic spatial events is not complete and requires the complementarity of an analysis - of irreversible structures too.\fnote{16} +of irreversible structures too.\fnote{16} The implications of this effort to extend theoretical physics bas resulted in the Nobel Prize (1977) for Ilya Prigogine and its @@ -305,29 +305,29 @@ in themselves; the pre-theoretical sense of future and past turns out to be a more adequate model of \dq{time's arrow} than the cognitive representations of the physics of classical mechanics. \dq{Time} is not just a subjective illusion of an anthropomorphic - observer but a property of dissipative structures. The +observer but a property of dissipative structures. The scientific myth of the \dq{infinite} universe of matter in (determined) - motion is broken---suddenly a new nature appears +motion is broken---suddenly a new nature appears where self-organizing innovations are always possible. The game of natural \dq{process} is not completely representable in the abstractions of physical dynamics---bifurcations and instabilities within macroscopic nature forces an end to the imposition of geometrical spatialization of events, and concentrates - our attention upon the \e{genesis} of organized, functionally - integrated, organic forms. Recognition of pattern +our attention upon the \e{genesis} of organized, functionally +integrated, organic forms. Recognition of pattern formation cannot be constructed from instrumental measurements - alone but requires also a time dimension---a \e{morpho-genetic} reconstruction. +alone but requires also a time dimension---a \e{morpho-genetic} reconstruction. The human encounter with nature is no longer representable by an instrumental interest in nature. A more complex dialogue - with \dq{nature} is essential in that both pattern formation - and limits of dissipative structures fluctuations must be +with \dq{nature} is essential in that both pattern formation +and limits of dissipative structures fluctuations must be known to understand development. Theoretical physics now suggests that the organic cannot be reduced to the fundamental \dq{primary} laws of the inorganic; \dq{secondary} laws (i.e., non-equilibrium thermodynamics) - seem equally basic. It is no longer possible to postulate +seem equally basic. It is no longer possible to postulate that the rate-processes of trajectories (for macroscopic) and wave functions (for microscopic) are sufficient in themselves and they must be studied in conjunction with the developing @@ -337,25 +337,25 @@ physics itself---as well as be duplicated at every \dq{level of organization} within a self-organizing universe.\fnote{17} For example, the genesis of morphic patterns (or the generation - of spatial forms) is accessible to description by the +of spatial forms) is accessible to description by the methods of holistic biology or ethology and yet these descriptions - may use data created by formalized measurements of +may use data created by formalized measurements of energy-flow, etc. Thus, descriptive reconstruction of contextual - patterns of homeostasis or other more complex forms of +patterns of homeostasis or other more complex forms of self-organizing orders, \dq{morpho-genesis,} is possible. But such contextual patterns can be viewed as created by the interaction - of forms of life striving to maintain themselves in context. +of forms of life striving to maintain themselves in context. Such morphic forms of organization display a patterned order that has been called \dq{authentic phenomena} (Portmann) within the perceptible surfaces of the things that surround us.\fnote{18} The origins of these perceptually discoverable forms are unintelligible - in the formalizations of a Galilean science and yet are +in the formalizations of a Galilean science and yet are significant for the interaction of life forms. Life shows itself in surface patterns that display an active posturing of life's identity, - form, and innerness. Life forms have a centricity, an +form, and innerness. Life forms have a centricity, an inwardness that cannot be reductively explained or anthropomorphically - interpreted. Insofar as we are ourselves participating - within the natural energies that impinge upon us, we +interpreted. Insofar as we are ourselves participating +within the natural energies that impinge upon us, we are related to a morpho-genesis of nature that is not universal. Hence, a morphogenetic epistemology is an alternative to @@ -376,27 +376,27 @@ becomes even more crucial in the context of the presence of \e{Gaia.} The Gaia hypothesis was formulated by a space scientist trying to define how to identify the presence of life on Mars or Venus. By modeling the earth's atmosphere along the principles - of an analytical chemistry equilibrium, James Lovelock +of an analytical chemistry equilibrium, James Lovelock discovered significant differences in the atmospheric composition - of the earth in comparison to Venus and Mars.\fnote{20} - Computer simulations indicated that the final equilibrium, or +of the earth in comparison to Venus and Mars.\fnote{20} +Computer simulations indicated that the final equilibrium, or steady state, atmosphere for earth would resemble that of Mars and Venus with approximately 98\% carbon dioxide, about 2\% nitrogen, and traces of oxygen. The actual earth's atmosphere composition is, however, maintained at a highly improbable composition of 0.03\% carbon dioxide, 79\% nitrogen, - and 21\% oxygen. Furthermore, this unlikely atmospheric +and 21\% oxygen. Furthermore, this unlikely atmospheric composition seems to have been maintained for more than three billion years despite the fact that the sun's early intensity was 30\% lower. From these and other improbable conditions (e.g., the constancy of the salinity of the oceans despite continuous - salt input into the seas) that make life possible, Lovelock - and others have proposed that the only possible +salt input into the seas) that make life possible, Lovelock +and others have proposed that the only possible explanation for these statistically impossible coincidences is to see the atmosphere as an organic construction: that is, as an adaptation by the biosphere-and oceans that secures the conditions - necessary for life. Although all of the adaptive mechanisms - that create the optimal global parameters necessary for +necessary for life. Although all of the adaptive mechanisms +that create the optimal global parameters necessary for life maintenance are not yet understood, many have been described. These are the reciprocally causal compensatory processes that return life parameters to acceptable levels. @@ -408,10 +408,10 @@ which absorbs oxygen within the atmosphere and releases it in the stratosphere. In the absence of methane production by bacterial fermentation of the anaerobic muds and sediments of the sea beds, marshes, and estuaries, the oxygen concentration - of the atmosphere would rise as much as 1\% every 12,000 +of the atmosphere would rise as much as 1\% every 12,000 years. (The probability of forest fires starting increases 70\% for every 1\% rise in oxygen concentration; at 25\%, all vegetation - on earth will burn.) Increases in atmospheric oxygen lead +on earth will burn.) Increases in atmospheric oxygen lead to overgrowth of aerobic micro-organisms which in death decay and increase the methane production potentials of the anaerobic microflora at the bottoms of seas, marshes, wet- @@ -419,23 +419,23 @@ lands, etc. This organic self-regulating control of the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere is also tied into other complex signaling mechanisms that involve complementarities of nitrous oxide and methyl chloride (both of organic origin) with methane - in the atmosphere, and constitute an organic cycle that +in the atmosphere, and constitute an organic cycle that extends throughout the global processes of biosphere and oceans. Reconstructing these patterns, the contemporary science - of aeronomy increasingly documents the fact that without - life's interference. oxygen \e{and} carbon dioxide levels could +of aeronomy increasingly documents the fact that without +life's interference. oxygen \e{and} carbon dioxide levels could not be regulated. Thus, self-organizing global patterns reveal the self-reproducing goal-adaptations by \e{Gaia}---an identity that becomes more and more inescapable. These invisible global patterns that make visible the constants - essential for life are themselves modifications of the +essential for life are themselves modifications of the environment by the totality of life forms themselves. Only this hypothesis can account for the highly improbable homeostasis - of the earth for over three billion years. While the Gaia +of the earth for over three billion years. While the Gaia hypothesis itself has not yet been scientifically established, its current plausibility provides several highly significant implications. - First, if Gaia exists, then our actions in relation to the +First, if Gaia exists, then our actions in relation to the natural environment must become more informed about these self-regulating regulations (for example, modern increases in fossil fuel produced carbon dioxide and its \dq{impact} on the @@ -456,8 +456,8 @@ has to be understood are the morphogenetic symbiotisms within the global patterns of Gaia. \e{Where} we bring about socio-technical innovations may be more important than \e{what} we do. Given the global dynamic of an international economic - system (see below), the ecological hazards of the modernization - of global agriculture seem more dangerous than +system (see below), the ecological hazards of the modernization +of global agriculture seem more dangerous than industrial pollutions (at this tme). As world populations increase, the crisis potentials of agricultural modernization will also increase. Increasing human control over the earth's @@ -488,49 +488,48 @@ integrations are constitutive of organic organization succession through differentiation and non-equilibrium integrations. -How a *program” for goal-directedness is acquired is sepa- -rate from the telconomic manifestations of its operations, The -fundamental question that emerges whether if the “program” -—the intormational structure—is an unplanned result of -telconomic operations of self-maintenance or an indication of -a “program of purpose” in nature? The assumption of Gaian -theorists, il L understand them, is that the homeostasis of Gaia +How a \dq{program} for goal-directedness is acquired is separate +from the teleonomic manifestations of its operations, The +fundamental question that emerges whether if the \dq{program}---the +informational structure---is an unplanned result of +teleonomic operations of self-maintenance or an indication of +a \dq{program of purpose} in nature? The assumption of Gaian +theorists, if I understand them, is that the homeostasis of Gaia can be understood only in the reconstruction of history of its formation on the one hand, and in increased global monitoring -of the atmosphere, oceans, and natural enyironmental regula- -tions (made possible by contemporary satellites and informa- -tion technologies) on the other. The “program of purpose” -inherentin Gaia is teleonomic operations and the program of -homeostasis is an unplanned result defined only by the limits -of the structure itself. In this sense, Gaian “purpose” is -teleonomic in that the self-maintaining forms do not necessar- -ily have a program of self-maintenance—stabiliry and insta- -bility are both possible as perturbations of dissipative structures. -Of course we do not know enough about the Gaia “program” -—but the possibility that there is a morphogenetic logic to -nature’s development cannot be avoided. More complex pat- -ternsof heterogeneity, differentiation, and symbiotization may +of the atmosphere, oceans, and natural environmental regulations +(made possible by contemporary satellites and information +technologies) on the other. The \dq{program of purpose} +inherent in Gaia is teleonomic operations and the program of +homeostasis is an unplanned result defined only by the \e{limits} +of the structure itself. In this sense, Gaian \dq{purpose} is +teleonomic in that the self-maintaining forms do not necessarily +have a program of \e{self}-maintenance---stability and instability +are both possible as perturbations of dissipative structures. +Of course we do not know enough about the Gaia \dq{program}---% +but the possibility that there is a morphogenetic logic to +nature's development cannot be avoided. More complex patterns +of heterogeneity, differentiation, and symbiotization may evolve and the human species may become more and more central to Gaian development. -1f the Gaia hypothesis is correct, the earth is not a “space -ship” to be maintained by human planetary engineers. This +1f the Gaia hypothesis is correct, the earth is not a \dq{space +ship} to be maintained by human planetary engineers. This technological metaphor continues the unconscious forms of -technical control that must be transcended in order to partici -pate co-operatively in Gaian ecology. “Nature” is not, as the -modern myth of progress suggests, amenable to endless inter- -ventions that secure socio-economic development. +technical control that must be transcended in order to participate +co-operatively in Gaian ecology. \dq{Nature} is not, as the +modern myth of progress suggests, amenable to endless interventions +that secure socio-economic development. -v +\sec IV The logics of commodification and technical control force a -shorter and shorter time frame upon socio-cconomic deci- -sions. “Time is money”: the scarce resource of investment -cycles determine a global dynamic of environmental simplifi- -cation which amplifies the technical interventions and domi- -nation of nature on a worldscale. International differences in +shorter and shorter time frame upon socio-economic decisions. +\dq{Time is money}: the scarce resource of investment +cycles determine a global dynamic of environmental simplification +which amplifies the technical interventions and domination +of nature on a world scale. International differences in -109 t0 urban-slum plant relocation centers, these newly “liberat- ed” workers provide an inexhaustible source of the cheapest and most exploitable labor. |