Title: Panpsychism, Collective Orchestration, and the Power of Fields Implications of Synchronicity and the
1Panpsychism, Collective Orchestration, and the
Power of FieldsImplications of Synchronicity
and the Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order
- By
- Werner Krieglstein, PhD
- Professor of Philosophy
- College of DuPage
2(No Transcript)
3- When Erwin Schrödinger in 1944 investigated the
question What is Life? little was known about
collective behavior of individuals and particles
at the small and at the large scale. - Schrödinger believed that knowing the smallest
part will give information on the whole. - This method, used by traditional science, is
called reductionism.
4- During the twentieth century new insights into
the behavior of complex dynamical systems
propelled scientists to develop whole new
branches of science. Science began to study
emergent properties. - General Theory of Relativity
- Quantum Mechanics
- Chaos Theory
5- Today we have
- Holism
- System Theory,
- Cybernetics
- Science of Complexity
- Interdisciplinary Research became popular
6- Holism assumed that the whole had more to offer
than the sum of its parts, - System theory proposed to investigate the nature
of systems - Emergentism took aim at the emergent properties
of a system on its way to greater complexity. - Theory of Complexity dealt with emergent
properties of a dynamical system. - Downward Causation tried to account for
restraints put on individuals by the whole.
7- Today we should have a better understanding of
how complexity might be the source of
sophisticated new and dynamic properties such as
consciousness or life. But do we?
8- One can only wonder why the physics of
cooperative phenomena and self-organization in
open, non-equilibrium systems is ignored. - 1 J. A. Scott Kelso and Hermann Haken,
Synergetics of brain and behavior, in What is
Life? The next fifty years. 1995 Pgs 137 160.
9- I first learned of Wholeness as an aesthetic
function - Theodore W. Adorno described the transition of a
piece of art from the level of disconnectedness
to the level of wholeness as a qualitative
transition. (qualitativer Umschlag) - The dialectical triad for instance produces such
a qualitative transition.
10- The dialectical model was a first
conceptualization of a collective process that
today is called phase transition by physicists
and bifurcation by system theorists. - a bifurcation occurs when a small change made to
a system causes a sudden 'qualitative' change in
its long-term dynamical behavior.
11- This model might be useful as an explanation or a
visualization of qualitative advance of natural
systems. - When a certain critical mass or threshold is
reached the system changes rapidly. (for example
water turns to ice)
12- The biologist Stuart Kauffman emphasized the
importance of collective dynamics in the
emergence of life. - The ultimate source of order and
self-reproduction may lie in the emergence of
collectively ordered dynamics in complex chemical
reaction systems.
13- . . . development and evolution, while requiring
the stability of organic molecules, may also
require emergent ordered properties in the
collective behavior of complex, non-equilibrium
chemical reaction systems. - Kauffman
14- Such complex reaction systems can spontaneously
cross a threshold, or phase transition, beyond
which they become capable of collective
self-reproduction, evolution, and exquisitely
ordered dynamical behavior. The ultimate sources
of the order requisite for lifes emergence and
evolution may rest on new principles of
collective emergent behavior in far from
equilibrium reaction systems. Kauffman, What is
Life? Was Schrödinger right? pg. 84.
15- Today scientists everywhere are looking for some
universal principles, fundamental rules that
shape all complex adaptive systems. Roger Lewin,
Complexity at the Edge of Chaos (New York,
McMillan 1992) - Could such collective behavior also be behind the
as of now insufficiently explained phenomenon of
Macro evolution?
16- I call such collective emergent behavior
Collective Orchestration - Collective orchestration describes a system of
evolutionary advance that as of now has not been
fully explored.
17Hypothesis Collective Orchestration
- Collective Orchestration is synchronized behavior
of otherwise independently existing individuals
for the purpose of achieving tasks that are not
achievable by each individual in separation. - Through Collective Orchestration individuals
collaborate to achieve a qualitatively higher
state of existence.
18Question Would this be purposeful behavior or
intent?
- Fact Living things, even as low as bacteria, do
collaborate
19- Recent studies of microorganisms have revealed
diverse complex social behaviors, including
cooperation in foraging, building, reproducing,
dispersing and communicating. These
microorganisms should provide novel, tractable
systems for the analysis of social evolution. - 1 Bernard Cresp, The Evolution of Social
Behavior in Microorganisms in trends Ecol.Evo.
2001 April 16(4) pgs.178-183. pg. 178.
20For Example the dictyostelium a one-cell organism
- when a qualified number of dictyostelia
experience a deficiency in food and space they
collectively form one large multi-celled organism
with head, tail, and digestive system. - Each cell takes over a specific function within
the new organism. They group together to achieve
certain goals that they could not achieve by
themselves.
21(No Transcript)
22- Some of these bacteria have been observed to
undergo programmed death or suicide in an
attempt to provide food for the remaining
bacteria or to build the outer layer of the new
structure. - What is the source of such social behavior ?
- No observable DNA in the original units. They are
identical. - Yet, at the moment of unification they seem to
know and perhaps even choose their places.
23- These one-cell creatures even seem to know when
they have reached the right number before they go
into action. - Knowing this critical number is called quorum
sensing.
24- Cooperative behavior and synchronicity is also
found in the molecular and even in the quantum
world.
25- Traditional explanations are unable to fully
account for these cooperative phenomena
especially when they occur in the inorganic
world.
26- In their descriptions of the quantum world
physicists often use terms such as choosing or
being excited. - Generally they are quick to assure that their
descriptive terms are just that language
27- The Science of Synergetics has developed models
of collective behavior among non-sentient
particles. - In the world of dead things order develops
seemingly out of nowhere, as J. A. Scott Kelso
and Hermann Haken observed. - In the language of Synergetics these ordering
principles in open dynamical systems are called
control parameters.
28- Says Kelso and Haken As this control parameter
increases, an amazing event called an instability
occurs. The liquid begins to move microscopically
in an orderly rolling motion. The system is no
longer a haphazard collection of randomly moving
molecules billions of molecules cooperate to
create macroscopic patterns evolving in space and
time. - 1 J. A. Scott Kelso and Hermann Haken,
Synergetics of brain and behavior, in What is
Life? The next fifty years. Pgs 137 160.
29- The system is no longer random.
- Instead it is now governed by a set of control
parameters. - Synergetics sees this as a loss of freedom.
30- According to the rules of thermodynamics, a
random system allows a higher degree of freedom,
or unpredictability, than a more ordered system. - Haken therefore calls this emerging order the
slaving principle.
31- But within the same paragraph Haken contradicts
himself and speaks of that rich behavioral
complexity resulting from it. pg. 143. - The ordered system is capable to achieve
completely new tasks.
32- What Haken calls a decrease in freedom, is
actually an increase in degrees of freedom when
seen from a different perspective. - Hakens description of this occurrence as a
slaving principle is wrong.
33- Compare a fascist military that moves in lockstep
with a democratically operating spiritual
community where individuals freely cooperate to
achieve some tasks. - From the outside both may appear working like a
machine, but while one experiences a loss of
freedom, the other finds in their cooperation new
spiritual heights.
34- The difference here is self-organization.
- The fascist army is by definition directed from
the top down, - the spiritual community may be a self-organizing
group. - In the top down mode the slaving principle is
self evident.
35- According to traditional science, the non- living
universe is random, intention-less, accidental. - Particles follow the laws of nature, foremost the
Second Law of Thermodynamics, blindly. - One could say that laws enslave them.
Traditionally the only other option is an outside
force, a dictator, or god. This is why
philosophers have called nature the realm of
necessity. (das Reich der Notwendigkeit.)
36- But in dynamical systems, the emergence of
pattern and pattern switching arises solely as a
result of the cooperative dynamics of the system
with no specific ordering influence from the
outside and no homunculus-like agent or program
inside. - The control parameter is non-specific, that is,
it does not prescribe or contain the code for the
emergent pattern which is said to be a product of
self-organization.
37- To illustrate this emerging synergistic order
Kelso and Haken give the following examples - vortex formation in a Taylor Couette system,
- the onset of coherent laser light,
- the formation of concentration patterns in
certain chemical reactions such as the
Belousev-Zhabotinski reaction, - and the so-called Turing instability which has
served, with limited success, as a model for
morphogenesis. (the study of biological shapes
and forms)
38- All these systems and many more are the result of
- self-organization.
39- Says Kelso and Haken In self-organizing
systems, there is no deus ex machina, no ghost in
the machine ordering the parts. No self in
fact. - The same is true for most chemical systems.
40- Kauffman compares the phenomenon of
self-organizing sets of molecules with the
formation of crystals. Selforganizing phase
transition happens everywhere.
41- Kauffman asserts
- The phase transition theory I have outlined
suggests that sufficiently complex systems of
catalytic polymers should crystallize
connected, collectively autocatalytic webs of
reactions as an emergent, spontaneous property,
without the chemists intelligent design of the
web structure. Kauffman, pg. 96
42- An autocatalytic system is a self-organizing
system in which all parts communicate with each
other. - The pages of a book or a garbage pile are often
called system, but they are not autocatalytic.
43 Proposal Panpsychism
44Panpsychism
- I propose to adopt the philosophy of Panpsychism
45(No Transcript)
46- Panpsychism solves the phenomenon of
self-organization in the inanimate world
47- Panpsychism is the accepted view of all primal
people and most non-Western traditions.
48- Panpsychism is the view that the whole world,
including the inanimate world, is permeated with
some level of mind or consciousness. - This view has alternately been called
panpsychism, panexperientialism, or quantum
animism.
49- According to pan-psychism, awareness and life do
not start at the level of one-cell organisms,
animals, or even only with human beings, but a
rudimentary level of awareness exists at the
deepest level of the material world.
50All things have mind
- . . . the view that all things have a mind, or a
mind-like quality has been held by a
surprisingly large number of the greatest
thinkers in the history of western civilization.
..virtually throughout the whole of the past 2500
years. Even in the modern era of philosophy
(since 1500 CE), one finds nearly three dozen
major philosophers advocating some variation on
the panpsychist theme. . . Clearly these
individuals found something compelling about
panpsychism. David Skrbina in JCS
51Panpsychism hallmark of anti-mechanistic
worldview.
- . . . panpsychism has much to offer even beyond
the confines of academic philosophy. It is not
only a viable alternative conception of mind, but
it promises to realign our thinking toward a more
compassionate and ecological outlook on nature.
52- Certainly one of the contributing factors to our
present environmental (and some would add,
spiritual) crisis is an entrenched system of
mechanistic values Skrbina Panpsychism in the
West, (Cambridge, MAS. MIT Press, 2005)
53Panpsychism A solution to Spiritual Crisis
- A panpsychic world view can serve as the
conceptual framework for a new system of
sympathetic and ecological values, one that may
form a new basis for action. Scrbina
54- In regard to Collective Orchestration
- Panpsychism allows evolutionary principles to be
applied to the inanimate world. - It allows us to see the Cosmos alive and
receptive. - It explains the phenomenon of Self-organization
in the Inanimate world.
55What is Self-organization?
- Self-organization was first used as a technical
term to describe the behavior of automatic
systems in cybernetics and artificial
intelligence. It was not until the late seventies
and eighties that the idea of self-organization
became more widely used, as scientists began to
apply it in describing the self-generating and
autocatalytic behavior of complex systems, both
living and nonliving, in nature. - Its popularization is mostly due to the rapid
spread of another new science, the theory of
chaotic or non-linear systems, in short the
Theory of Chaos.
56- An autocatalytic system is a complex system in
which all members are connected with each other
by communication. - A living system is self-maintaining,
self-renewing and self-transcending. - When accepting Panpsychism we can now say that
all systems are self-maintaining, self-renewing
and self-transcending
57- All natural systems have the inherent tendency to
go beyond themselves in unpredictable, creative
ways. They are self-transcending. - The universe, far from being mostly dead stuff,
is continuously communicating, creatively
connecting, and renewing itself.
58- Panpsychism makes the phenomenon of
self-organization at all levels of the organic
and inorganic world plausible. - Self-organization makes immediate, intuitive
sense.
59- The biologist Stuart Kauffman said about the
power of self-organization, which he boldly calls
order for free an unexpected and profound order
can emerge spontaneously. I believe this order is
so powerful that it may account for much of the
dynamical order in organisms.
60- Kauffman emphasized the importance of collective
dynamics in the emergence of life. - The ultimate source of order and
self-reproduction may lie in the emergence of
collectively ordered dynamics in complex chemical
reaction systems.
61- Organisms, we have come to believe, are tinkered
together contraptions, ad hoc marriages of design
principles, chance, and necessity. I think this
view is inadequate. - Darwin did not know the power of
self-organization. Indeed, we hardly glimpse that
power ourselves. - Such self-organization, from the origin of life
to its coherent dynamics, must play an essential
role in this history of life, indeed, I would
argue, in any history of life.
62- But Darwin was also correct. Natural selection is
always acting. - Thus, we must rethink evolutionary theory. The
natural history of life is some form of marriage
between self-organization and selection. We must
see life anew and fathom new laws for its
unfolding. Stuart Kauffman
63- Such complex reaction systems. . . can
spontaneously cross a threshold, or phase
transition, beyond which they become capable of
collective self-reproduction, evolution, and
exquisitely ordered dynamical behavior. - The ultimate sources of the order requisite for
lifes emergence and evolution may rest on new
principles of collective emergent behavior in far
from equilibrium reaction systems. Kauffman,
What is Life? Was Schrödinger right? pg. 84.
64- I suggest that Collective Orchestration is the
universal principle that allows self-organization
to co-exist with natural selection in the process
of creating ever more complex systems- in
physics, chemistry, and biology.
65- Collective Orchestration provides an
organizational principle that seamlessly connects
the so-called inorganic world with the world of
living things.
66- Collective Orchestration is based on the
principle of synchronization
67- The mathematician Strogatz observed that
synchronized behavior patterns occur in nature on
many levels. Technically such synchronized
behavior is made possible through so-called
oscillators. An oscillator is a pulsating device
mostly used for the purpose of generating a
signal. Stephen Strogatz, Sync The Emerging
Science of Spontaneous Order, (2003)
68- Coupled oscillators are systems of such devices
with two or more members that are communicating
with each other. Often their communication
results in synchronized behavior. Strogatz, pg 3.
69Oscillation Communication
- Groups of fireflies, planets, or pacemaker cells
are all collections of oscillators-entities that
cycle automatically, that repeat themselves over
and over again at more or less regular time
intervals. - . . nature uses every available channel to allow
these oscillators to talk to one another. - And the result of those conversations is often
synchrony, in which all the oscillators begin to
move as one. Strogatz,
70- When sync occurs among unconscious entities like
electrons or cells, it seems almost miraculous. - It's surprising enough to see animals cooperating
- thousands of crickets chirping in unison on a
summer night the graceful undulating of schools
of fish- - but it's even more shocking to see mobs of
mindless things falling into step by themselves.
Strogatz
71- These occurrences of synchronized behavior all
follow the same mathematical pattern described by
oscillators. They are also perfect examples of
how natural systems, animate and inanimate,
self-organize into more complex systems. Strogatz
72- Strogatz concludes
- . . . fireflies organize themselves. No Maestro
is required, and it doesn't matter what the
weather is like. Sync occurs through mutual
cuing, in the same way that an orchestra can keep
perfect time without a conductor. Strogatz
73- These phenomena are so incredible that
commentators have been led to deny their
existence, attributing them to illusions,
accidents, or perceptual errors. Other observers
have soared into mysticism, attributing sync to
supernatural forces in the cosmos. Strogatz
74- What's counterintuitive here is that the insects
don't need to be intelligent. They have all the
ingredients they need Each firefly contains an
oscillator, a little metronome, whose timing
adjusts automatically in response to the flashes
of others. That's it. Strogatz
75- . . . at a deeper level, there is a connection,
one that transcends the details of any particular
mechanism. - That connection is mathematics.
- All the examples are variations on the same
mathematical theme self-organization, the
spontaneous emergence of order out of chaos. - Strogatz
76- Strogatz For reasons we don't yet understand,
the tendency to synchronize is one of the most
pervasive drives in the universe, extending from
atoms to animals, from people to planets.
77- The new scientific paradigm that includes
Panpsychism allows us to speculate which forces
of nature are behind such persistent
synchronization. What could cause this
unexpected and profound order that can emerge
spontaneously. An order that is so powerful
that it may account for much of the dynamical
order in organisms. Kaufman
78- Contrary to Strogatz we suggest that individuals
do not synchronize automatically, but that they
experience a sense of pleasure - in collaboration.
79- Individuals at all levels prefer to be on rather
than off, and they prefer to be with others
rather than alone. These are the only innate
rules they follow. The rest is chance and
selection.
80- Consider John Conways Game of Life
- On a two dimensional board, based on a few
mathematical rules, individual cells can live,
die, or multiply. - The patterns this cellular automaton produces are
the result of a programmers intelligent design. - The game lacks a vital ingredient
Self-Organization.
81- What if we conceive of these cells as alive,
performing these steps because they like to do
so. The cells prefer to be alive, rather than
dead. They like to cooperate and multiply. - Now the game is self-sufficient, autocatalytic,
self creating. in the process it creates the most
interesting structures.
82- But one ingredient is still missing Complexity.
- The Game of Life is played on a two dimensional
board. - Nature creates complexity by climbing a
dimensional ladder. - We begin at zero dimension
83- With the inclusion of the panpsychist view we are
allowed to assume that at the basis of the
material world logical units operate and relate
to each other without needing an outside impulse.
84- At Zero Dimension
- Pointless, mass-less, dimensionless objects,
which the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead
called Occasions of Experience, populate the
base. - Their only actuality is relational. They relate
to each other.
85- As these individual Occasions of Experience
relate to each other they build a network or
field of relationships. - Collectively they gain a degree of freedom and
move to the next higher dimension, which is the
first dimension.
86Elementary Domains
- Hideki Yukawa, a Nobel laureate for his discovery
of meson theory, sought the yet unknown reality
behind quantum theory. - Yukawa looked for this reality in the
discontinuous structure of space on the extremely
fine sub-microscopic scale. He initiated a
revolutionary school of thought in his theory of
elementary domains.
871. Dimension One dimensional strings
- Yukawas Elementary Domains are the same as
Whiteheads Occasions of Experience. - They collectively create a field and build
objects in the next dimension.
88What is a field?
- A Field is a collection of individuals
collaborating to create a single individual but
in the next higher dimension. - When two individual objects relate to each other
they create the inner awareness of a new degree
of freedom, or a new dimension.
89- One dimensional strings are the objects at the
first dimension.
902 dimension Higgs Field
- These one-dimensional strings cooperate, and
again they build a field. - This possibly is the speculative Higgs field.
- Two dimensional Higgs particles are the basic
quanta of discontinuous space/time.
913 Dimensional Space/Time
- Space/time quanta cooperate and build a
continuous field which we experience as our three
dimensional world.
92Examples, cont.
- Continuous space is the result of Collective
Orchestration of Higgs bosons
934. Dimension
- The result of vibrating and cooperating
space/time quanta in the third dimension is the
creation of material objects in the fourth
dimension. - We now have reached the level of elementary
particles, which populate the 4th and 5th
dimension.
94What is Gravity?
- Space/time quanta self organize and form quarks.
- This is the secret of gravity.
95- What appears as an attractive force is the
self-organizing drift of space/time quanta. Large
objects take in the quanta around them (as food
if you will). This creates the illusion of
attraction. - Space itself moves toward large objects. Free
fall in a vacuum feels like standing still.
96- Collective Orchestration presents an exiting new
insight into the complex interplay of
individuals, fields, and new individuals at a
higher dimension. - This will yield a new approach to the
understanding of quantum field theory and
electromagnetic fields.
97- In the light of Collective Orchestration, these
coherent fields of quanta are organized systems,
which in their higher order are capable to
perform functions that were impossible for the
lower order individuals.
98For Example Bose Einstein Condensate
- Einstein generalized Bose's theory to an ideal
gas of identical atoms or molecules for which the
number of particles is conserved and predicted
that at sufficiently low temperatures the
particles would become locked together in the
lowest quantum state of the system. - The Bose Einstein condensate has many unusual
properties
99Bose-Einstein
100- Bose-condensed atoms are "laser-like" - in other
words, the matter waves of the atoms are
coherent. - In these experiments we have succeeded in
observing coherence directly, and have
demonstrated a rudimentary "atom laser" that
generates a beam of coherent atoms. MIT
101.
- Each photon is the result of Collective
Orchestration of Space/Time quanta. - Light is an excitation of empty space proper, of
the vacuum. It is no more and no less. henning
gentz, Nothingness, the science of empty space
pg. 180
102Under the right conditions photons self-organize
The result is a laser beam
103Mari Jibu and Kunio Yasue in Quantum Brain
Dynamics and Consciousness1
- A laser is a device that can emit a specific
form of light in which numerous photons with a
definite wave number display the same wave motion
as that of the electro magnetic field. This is
accomplished by a collective motion of the
electrons, called the collective mode, in a large
number of atoms interacting with the
electromagnetic field. A global harmony or order
emerges in the matter field and the
electromagnetic field, that is, electrons and
photons. ..This is a laser beam. - Yibu and
Yasue, Quantum Brain, 1995.
104Examples from Chemistry
- Under favorable conditions molecules
self-organize - Result crystals, ice, plasma etc. viruses and
one cell organism
105- . . . trillions of water molecules spontaneously
lock themselves into a rigid, symmetrical crystal
of ice. -
106Examples from Biology
- 5. At the level of one cell organisms cells
cooperate - Result multi cell organisms with internal
structure and distinguishable organs, plants and
simple animals, such as worms and snails
107Examples, cont.
- 6. at the level of multi-cell organisms
- Result complex animals with higher developed
intelligence, insects
108Examples, cont.
- 7. At the level of insects
- Result Mammals
109Examples, cont.
- 8. At the level of mammals
- Families
- Communities,
- Companies,
- Nations,
- WWW.
110- Such persistent sync comes easily to us human
beings, and, for some reason, it often gives us
pleasure. We like to dance together, sing
together, play in a band. - Strogatz
111- Pleasure is the driving force for all
synchronization. - Just as it is pleasurable for human beings to
fall into lock step and do things together, so
perhaps everything else in nature has great fun
doing things together. - Pleasure is the innate principle of all natural
systems.
112Lack of pleasure is death
113Colony Collapse Disorder The Ultimate Threat to
Survival
- All around the world bee colonies are
disappearing at an alarming rate. In the USA more
than half the bee hives are gone, swallowed by a
ghostly decease. - Individual bees simply fail to return to their
hives, leaving their home deserted and their
helpless offspring left to die.
114- Could it be that the underlying cause for this
disorder is the collapse of the will to survive? - If it takes passion for an individual to
cooperate in a communal task and make the group
succeed, could it not equally be conceivable that
groups as a whole can loose this enthusiasm and
give up trying to stay together?
115- Could autism be a colony collapse of a different
kind and would this knowledge make a difference
in treatment?
116- Are these signs of an evolution turning against
itself, unraveling the progress it made over
billions of years? - Is Collective Orchestration becoming undone,
before we even fully understand it?
117- The ancient Egyptians said that in the beginning
order created itself like a snake body out of
nothingness.
118- New communities will rise out of the rubble of
old ones. We have a choice - Collaborate with each other peacefully,
constructively and creatively and rise together
to the next higher level - or let our communities and colonies collapse to
make place for new ones.
119