The second concept Wiener has to establish is that of entropy. Probability is a mathematical concept, coming from statistics. Entropy comes from physics. It is the assertion -- established logically and experimentally -- that the universe, by its nature, is ``running down'', moving toward a state of inert uniformity devoid of form, matter, hierarchy or differentiation.
That is, in any given situation, less organization, more chaos, is overwhelmingly more probable than tighter organization or more order.
The tendency for entropy to increase in isolated systems is expressed in the second law of thermodynamics -- perhaps the most pessimistic and amoral formulation in all human thought.
It applies however, to a closed system, to something that is an isolated whole, not just a part. Within such systems there may be parts, which draw their energy from the whole, that are moving at least temporarily, in the opposite direction; in them order is increasing and chaos is diminishing.
The whirlpools that swirl in a direction opposed to the main current are called ``enclaves''. And one of them is life, especially human life, which in a universe moving inexorably towards chaos moves towards increased order.
BERGAN EVANS ON NORBERT WEINER, NUCLEAR PHYSICIST
A power I have, but of what strength and nature
I am not yet instructed.
(Escalus, Measure for Measure, Scene I, Act I)
"In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.
It wearies me;
you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it,
found it,
or came by it,
What stuff 'tis made of,
whereof it is born,
I am to learn;
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me
That I have much ado to know myself".
Act 1 Scene 1
The Merchant of Venice
Shakespeare 1596 AD
There is a concept which corrupts and upsets all others. I refer not to Evil, whose limited realm is that of ethics; I refer to the infinite.
J L Borges
'It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists.'
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 6.432, 644 - L. Wittgenstein
Accepting the 1918 Nobel prize for Physics, Max Planck declared: "There is no matter as such! All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force
We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter."
"It would be most satisfactory of all if physics and psyche could be seen as complementary aspects of the same reality." (Wolfgang Pauli 1955)
"Consciousness is that by which the world first becomes manifest, by which
it first becomes present: that the world consists of the elements of consciousness
their multiplicity [of minds] is only apparent, in truth there is only one mind
. Mind is always now. There is really no before or after for mind
Mind has erected the objective outside world
out of its own stuff." (Erwin Schrφdinger 1958)
"In space-time, everything which for each of us constitutes the past, the present and the future is given en bloc
each observer, as his or her time passes, discovers, so to speak, new slices of space-time which appear to him or her as successive aspects of the material world, though in reality the ensemble of events constituting space-time exists prior to his or her knowledge of it." (Louis de Broglie 1959)
"In nature, nothing remains constant. Everything is in a perpetual state of transformation, motion and change
It is possible to understand the universe as a unique and independent actuality, which includes both observer and observed
Each object, event, process, etc., is determined in principle, but ultimately, the ground of this determination is the undivided totality of the universe itself. The latter is indeed self-determined". (David Bohm 1984).
"There is not the slightest shred of evidence that proves the existence of a physical world acting independently of human thought
There is one mind and one mind only
For the one mind to know, it must project itself
From the one mind, all minds and all experiences are projected
'I' am all my projections
All is one." (Fred Alan Wolf 1986)
Post je objavljen 16.04.2008. u 12:15 sati.