Dear organlearners,
Ecological literacy is not such a simple topic as many of us would have
wished for.
Cliff Hamilton wrote on 5 Jun LO13860
> Perhaps the car's fuel tank is almost empty, the battery almost flat and
> the "demise" of capitalism upon us, but I would argue that you're talking
> about the capitalism and car of the industrial era we are rapidly leaving
> behind. We are still building the car and capitalism of the new
> age/economy/era we are entering. There are those who will see the glass
> as half empty and those as half full. Capitalism has not lost its
> efficacy as an economic form, it is simply being transformed for a new
> type of economy. We may rename it something else in the future as
> language evolves, but the basics will likely still be she same.
and
> For me, it makes sense because I believe that Rothschild (and others) are
> correct - that the economy is an ecosystem - a complex adaptive system -
> and so is human society. If that is true, it follows (to me at least)
> that to survive and thrive in an ecosystem (which is a "living" system)
> the members of the system will have to be structured and behave like
> living organisms themselves. Don't forget that natural living systems are
> the longest-surviving systems on the planet. There's a reason. If we are
> to organize and act like living organisms, we'll have to get comfortable
> with and embrace the principles by which living systems operate. And none
> of us are likely to significantly sway the course of this evolving
> circumstance.
Capitalism proved to be a Complex Adaptive System (CAS) for most changes
up to now. Even before the days of the Phoenecians some humans engaged
themselves in "trade for a profit". Even a number of major transformations
in this "trade for a profit" have seen the light. I think it is senseless
to argue with historical facts, although it is often difficult to
understand them.
However, whether modern Capitalism as a CAS can survive in the face of ALL
POSSIBLE changes, is all together another question. It is dangerous to
single out one property of any complex system for discussion, but allow me
to begin our dialogue with one peculiar property of Capitalism, namely the
"maximisation of profit". It is most interesting that the law which gives
rise to chaos, order and complexity, can be worded as the "maximisation of
entropy". Thus many would conclude without any doubt that this
correspondence prove that Capitalism indeed can surivive all possible
changes. Is the capitalist's concept of profit and the natural scientist's
concept of entropy then not tw sides of the same coin?
No. Capitalism will not be able to cope with all possible changes. Any CAS
has to survive some changes by means of its own emergences. However,
emergences do not automatically happen when the bifurcation (a situation
of immense entropy production) calls for it. Emergences happen
contingently. This means that some things have to be present adequately
before an emergence can happen. I call these sufficiencies the
essentialities of creativity. There are seven essentialities. (My forth
coming book will document how they have been discovered and will delineate
each of them clearly.) One of them concerns "identity- categoricity", or
as Lebniz has put it, undecernable identity.
Let us compare "maximisation of profit" with "maximisation of entropy" to
see if they are really identical. A deploring trait of some capitatists is
their cancerous greed. Nature, on the other hand, deels swiftly with
greed. Any greedy infestation predating in some niche, eventually causes
its own death in that niche by destroying all its prey. Why then does
nature react so deadly against greed? Because the "maximisation of
entropy" does not happen in any haphazardous manner! It happens in a most
exquisite manner, namely, following a route of minimisation!
What, do we have a crazy contradiction here? No. It simply means that the
'velocity' of entropy production has to be positive in order to maximise
the production of entropy, but that the 'acceleration' of entropy
production has to be negative in order to minimise the "maximisation of
entropy". In other words, nature check greediness in its "maximisation of
profit".
Now, please consider carefully the following sentence of Cliff: "I would
argue that you're talking about the capitalism and car of the industrial
era we are rapidly leaving behind." No, Cliff, I am not talking about the
things (beings) which we leave behind. I am talking about the things
(becomings) which we try to take into the future. (Incidently
"becoming-being" is another of the seven essentialities.) Let me pinpoint
it: the word "rapidly" which you use.
Nature cannot be accelerated. Whenever nature produces entropy (a positive
'velocity' for entropy) it also has to comply to a negative 'acelleration'
for entropy in order to remain healthy. This means that whenever a
predator emerges, any possible 'greed' in this predator has to be
curtailed. Yet capaitalism is positively accelerating itself in an
indiscriminating manner! This is a certain change of which there cannot be
any doubts.
Now, please consider carefully the following sentence of mine: "Whether
modern Capitalism as a CAS can survive in the face of ALL POSSIBLE
changes, is all together another question". The accelerated change which
capitalism is not dealing with, is exactly one of the ALL POSSIBLE changes
which modern capitalism as a CAS WILL NOT SURVIVE.
By trying to survive, capitalism has already caused immense irreversible
damage to the complexity of nature and culture. It may go so far as to
destroy almost all complexity of nature and culture. But the one thing it
will not be able to change, is the law which says the 'velocity' of
entropy production has to be positive while the 'acceleration' of entropy
production has to be negative. If capitalism does not curtail its greed,
it will be dealt with, sooner or later, even if this very law is the last
remaining barrier. It is this greed which "makes the fuel tank of the car
empty", to use my earlier metaphor.
Best wishes.
--At de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>