Dear Organlearners,
Greetings to you all.
PART TWO -- Freedom, Peace and 7Es
The topic stays the same, but I have changed the title of part two
slightly to indicate what we now will do. The "LO" has been substituted
with "7Es" (seven essentialities of creativity). It would be informative
if somebody else could do with the 11 essences of a LO what I will be
doing with the 7Es. We will now use the 7Es to guide our thoughts
constructively.
Let us stop quantifying by hits the articulations of other internetters on
freedom and peace. I think that those of you who have surfed to sites
discovered some wonderful reading material. By studying the more complex
of these sites, your knowledge on the 7Es will increase. But this will
require in your tacit knowledge a "knowledge kernel" for each of the 7Es.
It is your "knowledge kernel" on a 7E which will allow you to feed upon on
all the information in these sites so as to increase in your understanding
of that 7E. This digesting of the information will increase your mental
free energy. (Please beware of fast foods and instant drinks.) The energy
dynamics of digestion is explained in the topic "Digestor". See for
example: < http://www.learning-org.com/99.04/0167.html >
The concepts freedom and peace are known since ancient times while
knowledge on the concepts free energy and entropy production is quite
recent. Hence when studying them al together, we will enter a pristine
place which not even the Nobel Peace Prize laureates have managed to
articulate.
I have a difficult problem here -- how to articulate facts without seeming
to be judgemental. Please accept that I never intended any judgement. So
if you perceive a judgement in my articulation of a fact, please try to
undo such a perception. Judgement stops learning. Furthermore, you do not
have to agree with me. My own thoughts are merely intended to serve you
for your own brain storming. If you have different thoughts, please inform
us about them for the same reason.
The essentiality spareness ("quantity-limit) comes first to my mind when
thinking about free energy. See for example:
< http://www.learning-org.com/99.02/0009.html >
There is not such a thing as an unlimited supply of free energy, despite
all the claims. If it were the case, then, for example, fuel for our cars
would cost next to nothing. Relative to the shining sun, all other free
energy on earth is scarce. All systems, material or mental or both, must
have free energy to work and thus organise things. Plants work on a
molecular level, using the sun (operating with nuclear energy) as their
source of free energy. Animals work also on an organismal level, using
plants and other animals as their main source of free energy, converting
them into molecules in their digestive tract. They cannot utilize the free
energy from the sun any more like plants.
Only humans also work on the third level (the organisational level), using
light, nuclei, atoms, molecules, monocells, plants and animals as their
sources of free energy. Humans have exploited more kinds of free energy
sources than any other form of life. Yet, despite all the wealth of
sources which they can harness, many humans become free energy greedy.
Hence some enslave other humans to work and organise for them. When these
slaves have become depleted of free energy or when the entropic outcome of
their free energy cannot be sold anymore, they are discarded as waste.
I believe that humankind has to make peace with the fact that despite the
diversity of energy sources which can be harnessed, all these sources
together are still limited. We need not so much technology to harness all
sources of free energy, but the wisdom how to utilize them constructively.
For example, food is a source of physical free energy. A vast amount of
food is produced of which a considerable part never becomes utilised as
food. Meanwhile billions of poor people starve ecause they do not have
money to buy food. Consider information as a source of spiritual free
energy. A vast amount of information is produced of which too much never
becomes utilised as spiritual food. Meanwhile billions of uneducated
people starve mentally since they cannot digest such information. These
great anomalies among many others have to be ended by a paradigm shift.
The second essentiality which comes to my mind, is that of fruitfulness
("connect-beget"). See for example
< http://www.learning-org.com/98.07/0206.html >
Inorganic materials (including computers!), plants and animals are not
intelligent enough as workers. The only effective connection possible
with intelligence is with other humans and God. Humans can work and
organise as intelligent sources of free energy. But as soon as they must
conform to some master's whims, they stop acting spontaneously. They
become human resources, i.e. slaves. They become deprived of the vital
capacity of all living organisms -- to regenerate spontaneously their free
energy used up in the past. Eventually they manage to articulate this
downgrading as a lack of freedom.
[Many even think of God as a slave master. But already the 4th Commandment
given to Moses makes the regeneration of free energy vital. Peter in 1 Pet
5:2-4 stresses that God want us to act spontaneously.]
To rejuvenate themselves, the slaves will do what the rest of nature does.
They will try to connect effectively with the ridge of chaos where
ordinate bifurcations happen. They will use whatever little free energy
they have to drive themselves with entropy production into chaos. They
hope tacitly for a constructive emergence. This would afford them a new
cycle in regenerating digestively their free energy. But because of too
little free energy they cannot avoid a destructive immergence. Peace is
lost. They are left with only lower order fragments with which to digest.
Thus the future has even less free energy for them than the past.
In my opinion we cannot excuse ourselves that billions of people cannot
connect effectively to sources of free energy. We cannot feel content when
we connect all day with people having enough money and education. I
believe we need the wisdom to connect effectively with people in need such
that they will increase in spontaneous creativity. This wisdom will come
when we reach out to those who cannot digest food and information for free
energy. By teaching them how to create their own food and feed themselves
we will together create lasting peace and freedom.
The third essentiality which comes to my mind, is that of wholeness
("unity-associativity"). See for example
< http://www.learning-org.com/98.06/0040.html >
When a "holistic system" draws upon its free energy, it cannot decide
on which part of the system it has to spend that free energy. It must
spend its free energy on all parts of all levels in a harmonious manner.
This is the very reason why the free energy is never consumed in a
linear manner. This non-linear consumption is clear in chemical reactions
(other than the cyclic ones). See for example:
< http://www.learning-org.com/01.07/0028.html >
< http://www.learning-org.com/graphics/LO26947.gif >
By far the most linear consumers of free energy ever invented are our
clocks. It happens because they are bootstrapped to some or other
oscillating phenomenon (like atom excitations, crystal vibrations and
mechanical pendulums) with a fixed frequency. Why do so many humans also
want all their organisations to work like clocks? Is it because the
regular appearances of the sun and the moon is the supreme order? No, I
think it is because the sun and moon are sources of light. Light is
richest in free energy. The sun gives free energy freely.
Plants and animals have evolved to do certain things during day light and
other things during night. Daily, "moonly" and yearly cycles are common in
life forms. For example, some fish species which care for their young,
breeds during full moon. Primitive Homo sapiens also adhered to these
cycles. But nature has other irregular sources of light such as lightning
and veld fires. Some primitive people learned first how to carry fire,
caused by lightning, to their caves. They began to do at night what they
only could do at day. Hence they began to upset their natural cycles. But
they did not yet learn how to keep their fires alive. When their fires
died out, they had two options. (1) Wait for a new fire caused irregularly
by lightning. (2) Steal regularly from a neighbouring clan which still
has a fire.
Following (1) requires peace. Following (2) shatters peace. This is
perhaps why among primitive cultures hell is associated as the place where
fire burns endlessly. Only later did theses primitive people learn the
third option. (3) Create fire self and keep it alive. Consequently nobody
fights over ordinary fire any more. We can use this wisdom to stop
fighting over food and information. Teach those who hunger for free
energy how to create self all kinds of fires and use them responsibly.
Following (3) brings peace and freedom.
There are still four essentialities remaining. Which one will we now
look at? What about the essentiality sureness ("identity-categoricity").
See for example:
< http://www.learning-org.com/98.04/0207.html >
Knowing the inside of anything provides only for identity. Sureness
comes when this identity is also known in its context categorically.
It means we have to seek all the relationships between identities to
become sure of each. Its like every word in a sentence. Each word
tells not only about itself, but also tells about all other words in the
sentence. It is the same for all systems. Whenever a system SY
organises itself, it affects the organisation of all other systems in the
"sentence". This "sentence" is the universe UN itself. Let us call all
the other systems together the surroundings (ecos or environment) SU.
Entropy production /_\S(sy) is necessary for any system SY to organise
itself further. This entropy production /_\S(sy) will cost a lowering /_\F
in free energy. When the system uses its own free energy /_\F(sy), all the
others systems in the surroundings SU will be left with their own free
energy /_\F(su). Hence they are free to organise self too. But when the
system uses the free energy of some other systems in the surroundings SU,
they cannot produce entropy self and thus change further. For living
systems it means death. For example, we kill plants and animals to utilize
them as food, a source of free energy. We must do it otherwise we will die
self. That is why some people recognise this act as holy by saying grace
to God for food.
But is it still a holy act when we kill other humans for free energy?
Humans are seldom killed for food, a source for physical free energy. We
pride ourselves that we are not cannibalistic any more. But every year
over a million people are killed physically for the free energy sources
which they possess or for commodities rich in entropy which has been
produced using scarce sources of free energy. This killing has names like
murder, terrorism and war. Even worse are the billions of people whose
spiritual life is in mortal danger. Why? They get robbed from their
spiritual free energy. We may not know how this robbery is done. But let
us get at least wise to whom they are. They are the poor and uneducated,
unable to eat food and information. They need their spiritual free energy
to create freedom and peace constructively. We need to learn how to teach
them that. Can we do it?
Let us think about the essentiality liveness "becoming-being". See for
example:
< http://www.learning-org.com/98.04/0036.html >
There is an incredible asymmetry within the Law of Entropy Production
LEP) itself. LEP tells firstly that the entropy of the universe always
increases towards a maximum, i.e. /_\S(un) > 0. It is the lower, nonlinear
becoming of the universe -- the ramjet of LEP or the tail of the fish. But
LEP also tells secondly that this increase must always decrease
towards a minimum, i.e. /_\/_\S(un) < 0. It is the higher, nonlinear
becoming of the universe -- the control of LEP or the head of the fish.
It is impossible for the universe to escape this asymmetry or to
fragment the two complements from each other.
Yet within many human organisations the lower level workers think of
themselves as the tail of the fish while the higher level managers think
of themselves as the head of the fish. This was already a religion among
the ancient Dagon worshipping Phoenicians. It took some three millennia
before Karl Marx articulated it intellectually as Dialectical Materialism.
Why is this severing of the tail and head possible for human systems and
impossible for the universe? Because they forget that they are part of the
universe. They go for the symmetry /_\S(sy) > 0 and /_\/_\S(sy) > 0 (both
positive). In other words, they not only produce entropy, but also
accelerate it. Global warming and information explosion are some of the
outcomes. Stop cutting off either the tail or the head (or even both as in
education) in human spirituality.
[My friend Ben Goslin has a profound metaphor for rote (clone) learning.
He call it the "Fish Tin" mental model (mind set) of trainers. All fish
caught rather than left swimming freely, have both the head and the tail
to be cut off so to fit into the tin.]
To maintain indefinitely for some human system /_\/_\S(sy) > 0 rather than
cycling to /_\/_\S(sy) < 0 and back, both /_\F(sy) < 0 and /_\/_\F(sy) < 0
have to be maintained. It means that the use of free energy is accelerated
endlessly. This is completely alien to natural organising systems. It
means this human system must feed endlessly on the free energy of other
systems because it will not have enough self. When these other systems are
humans, they will become slaves. Yet we fail to understand that when
humankind (the rich nations more and the poor nations less) does it too,
nature becomes the slave. However, as it has been articulated with the
Gaia hypothesis, nature will not allow it. For nature, like for God, peace
and freedom are sacred. Nature will revolt against humankind. Do we not
comprehend this when observing how the poor nations revolt against the
rich nations?
Let us think about the essentiality otherness "quality-variety". I have
no "See for example < -- >" like before.
Far too few people, even scientists, understand the vast difference
between comparing measured values of the same quantity and the
measured values of different quantities. This vast difference is exactly
the difference between spareness ("quantity-limit") and otherness
("quality-variety"). In spareness the same unit is used for finding
relationships. In otherness different units are used for finding
relationships. This is how most physical laws had been discovered
since Newton.
When confusing, even tacitly, the units of free energy F and entropy
S, the outcome is detrimental to freedom and peace. Entropy S (with
unit J/K) tells about organisation as a being (picture). See for example
the series beginning with
< http://www.learning-org.com/98.11/0265.html >
Entropy production /_\S (also with unit J/K) tells about organisation as
a becoming (movie). However, free energy F (with unit J) tells about the
potential for organisation. The free energy change /_\F tells about the
actual capacity for changing organisation. Both /_\S and /_\F are
becomings, but /_\F is of a higher kind. It results because of LEP
dancing upon LEC. See for example
< http://www.learning-org.com/00.09/0099.html >
The astounding asymmetry in LEP for the universe UN is reflected in the
following asymmetry for the system SY. The system SY oscillates between
the valley of equilibrium and the ridge of chaos. During the digestive
swing it feeds (/_\F > 0) while the entropy production (/_\S(su) > 0)
slows down (/_\/_\S < 0) . We ought to eat slowly. But during the
bifurcative swing (with /_\F < 0) the entropy production (/_\S(sy) > 0)
steps up (/_\/_\S > 0), something impossible for the universe! How? We
release extra entropy by a creative collapse. Our divine creativity
empowered by the "breath of God" enables us to leave Creation to find home
at God self where peace and freedom are no question any more!
Let us think about the essentiality openness "paradigm-open". Here I
also have no "See for example < -- >".
The free energy F of complexifying systems change endlessly. The free
energy of the living systems among them ebbs and swells as the waves
and tides at sea. But unlike the waves and tides at sea which do not
complexify, some things concerning the free energy of these living
systems have to go higher with each cycle. What things? Both the total
energy E as the system's content and entropy S as its organisation or
form. In humans the physical total energy reach its maximum at
adulthood (unless they become obese or body builders ;-) But the
spiritual total energy increases even after adulthood is reached (unless
they stop learning). This happens as the person grows in all levels of
spirituality like knowledge, faith and love.
When the system SY (physical or spiritual) swings digestively towards the
valley of equilibrium, its free energy increases while the free energy of
the surroundings SU (some taken as food) decreases. Nevertheless, the free
energy of both SY and SU as the universe UN together decrease to ensure a
spontaneous change in organisation of the universe. Since the food comes
from living systems, they must never become over exploited. In reverse
they have to be fed and helped with regenerating themselves. This mutual
care between open systems is called symbiosis.
However, when the system (physical or spiritual) swings towards the ridge
of chaos for a bifurcation, its free energy decreases. This happens so
that the system will self produce its entropy and not use free energy from
the surroundings. It is as if in the bifurcative swing the system becomes
isolated, acting as a tiny universe itself to regenerate itself. This
spontaneous change in the system is called autopoiesis.
Perhaps the best metaphor for this swinging between the valley of
equilibrium and ridge of chaos are the eyes. In the digestive swing our
open eyes feed the brain. In the bifurcative phase our closed eyes give
the brain opportunity for an emergence if possible. The eyes are much
longer open than closed, signifying the relative speed between these wo
swings. However, there also comes a time when we must sleep by closing our
eyes for a much longer time. This is when we dream. This is when paradigm
shifts happen. Are we still following this "rhythm of the eyes" in our
human organisations?
We have used the 7Es above to guide our thoughts. I have tried to write
the minimum to keep this contribution within limits. Much more can be
explored.
Let us awaken to the roles of free energy and entropy production in the
maintaining of freedom and peace. Each system which organises
spontaneously, must have its own sources of free energy to sustain its
work. This is freedom. Each such system must not be deluged by entropy
produced elsewhere, but allowed to create self constructively. This is
peace. Let us make this earth a better place for our children. Let our
organisations act as Learning Organisations to do so.
With care and best wishes,
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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