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authorp <grr@lo2.org>2024-11-05 01:26:23 -0500
committerp <grr@lo2.org>2024-11-05 01:26:23 -0500
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@@ -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.