Evolution biologymakes me a Pastist to be a good Futurist
Seeing the past can show possible futures
Science tells us our universe decays and life is fierce struggle in scarcity
We have been taught a secularCreation Story
–Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species
“It is the doctrine of Malthus applied with manifold force to the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms”
Fierce competition as human nature
What if there is more to the story? What if evolution is an
intelligent improvisationa
ldance?
its (intelligent) process is
creating living systems
If we assume the Universe is alive,as Islamic science holds,
Many scientists now see Earth
as alive like its own
creatures
In eastern sciences(Vedanta,Tao, Kotodama)
Consciousness is thesource of all reality
MATTER
ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY
MIND/SPIRIT(consciousness)
COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS
ZPE
I have put duality awayand see the two worlds as one −Rumi
WEST SCIENCE EAST
might Biology be the leading science rather than Physics, giving us a
cosmology of intelligent self-creating living systems?
If we assume the Universe is alive,
Many scientists now see that
Earth is alive like its own creatures
Life is too intelligent to proceed
one accident at a time
After each great global extinction
Crisis is always
Opportunity
many newspeciesappearedtogether
is conservative with what works well and is radically creative when crises strike!
Nature:
Darwin: Competition
Kropotkin: Cooperation
Capitalists& Communists
disagreedon evolution
Nature does both!
UNITY (NEW LEVEL)
UNITY
INDIVIDUATION
TENSION/CONFLICT
NEGOTIATION
RESOLUTION
COOPERATION
Evolution Cycle: competition to cooperation
Chris Venhaus www.venhaus1.c
om
Type I Ecosystem (Pioneer)Darwinian•scarf resources•hog territory•multiply wildly•highly competitive
Type III Ecosystem (Climax)Kropotkinian
• share territory• share resources
• feed other species• highly cooperative
ECOSYSTEMSMATURATION?
Bacteria Я Us
Here is my happier story of Evolution
Early Earth
only archebacteria (archaea)
Archaea caused worldwide crises of hunger &pollution, solving them by…
•Harnessing solar energy
•Creating the first World Wide Web
•Inventing breathing & electric motors
•Evolving a huge cooperative cellYES, Bacteria!
Bacterium
Nucleated Cell(Protist, Eukaryote)
Only cell evolving after bacteria:a cooperative!
Photo by Rich Dutton www.richweb.net
Creative cooperation is maturecheaper to feed enemies than to kill them
After a feisty, competitive youth, multi-celled creatures evolved as cooperatives
in the last quarter of evolution
Biologically,
We are a big-brain experiment
Humans traded inner knowing/rules for big-brained freedom of choice
Can we choose to live sustainably?
A real science of economics must be
based on Nature’s mature systems
Every human bodyhas 50 -100 trillion cooperating cells!
For example
Small systems may not be simpler
than large ones
One cell is complex as a large city
30,000 Recycling Centers in Every Cell!Scientific American, Jan 2001
old and obsolete proteins remade into new protein
50-100trillion cells in your body
1,000/cell banker mitochondria
stored-value debit cards; never repaid
Energy currencyis called ATP(adenosine triphosphate)
Money is a medium of exchange & should not be a commodity
Self interest (not selfishness)
leads to negotiation,compromisesand cooperation
to dynamic harmony in a win/win system
at every level of your body
Even after all this timethe Sun never once says to EarthEarth, You owe me!
Look what happens with a love like that –It lights up the whole sky - Hafiz
No science is possiblewithout assumptions
To theorize about a universeone needs some conception of that universe
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/HistSciTech
Science rests on Cosmologies (Worldviews) “fundamental assumptions” or “axioms”
Non-livinguniverse
Objectiveuniverse
EmergentConsciousnes
sLife fromNon-life
www.theage.com.au
www.buzzle.com
Whether Consciousness creates matter
or matter creates consciousness
is a a matter of belief as scientific axiom
Some of us initiated a paradigm shift with cosmic life replacing non-life; consciousness primary instead of
consciousness emergent
In 2008 I convened a First International Symposiumon Foundations of ScienceIn Hokkaido, Japan
We listed many assumptions
During the symposium, I had an epiphany:replacing assumptions is a conquest model
My evolution theory is about maturation from conquest to consortium, so why not a global consortium of sciences?
Life arises from non-life by a series of fortuitous accidents
Life arises by self-organization in a living
universe
Two different cosmologies give ustwo different sciences:
In a 2nd Symposium in Kuala Lumpur, 2009,we explored assumptions of Islamic Scienceand possibilities for its unique contributions
Imagine a consortium of
East/West sciences, with
equal validity and mutual respect,
built on culturally diverse
assumptions
This solution, rather than the conquest of
one paradigm by another, represents
mature collaboration and a fruitful division of
labor in solving global problems
Looking back into our beginnings:we have survived a dozen Ice Ages!
99% of human history:hunter gatherers among other large mammals …
Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams
What does 32,000 yr old art tell us?
100,000 yrs ofcooperative communities
6,000 yrs of
competitive empires
The sun is setting on the Age of Empire
YangYouthful CompetitionControl/OrderMine/YoursMonocultureFear in Scarcity
YinMature CooperationMessiness/MysteryWe/OursDiversity/CreativityLove in Abundance
and rising on the Age of Global Family
Chris Venhaus www.venhaus1.c
om
I believe it is our evolutionary mandate to create sustainable global economics and truly become a Global Family
Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?
—Rumi
Photo: Bruce BigenhoSanta Barbara
Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss Earth − Rumi
Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?
—Rumi
Photo: Bruce BigenhoSanta Barbara
−So, do what makes your heart singto make a better world for all!
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