[Fis] THE ROOTS OF MODERN CIVILISATION--transformers

[Dr. Plamen L. Simeonov]

Dear Colleagues,



Thank you so much for your reflections and opinions. Let me try wrapping up
your messages into an effort to derive some conclusions and move to the
next phase.



1.     There is view on history as a huge set of data as a multidimensional
vector space which can be analyzed for regular patterns and anomalies in
social and cultural organization in Europe during a period of decay and
crises to reverse-engineer promising paths of success that enable society
to recover and elevate on a higher level of moral, cultural, scientific and
technological organization. The Christian monastic system was suggested as
such a recovery model/motor. It not only enabled the integration of the
invading barbarian tribes into a family of nations with common values, but
also the transition of the achievements of the antiquity (architecture,
art, literature, poetry, theatre, music, law, etc.) that were centered
around celebrating deities, but then developed into what became humanistic
in later centuries. Jesus was of human origin. There is no
nation/state/civilization without a common identity in terms of language,
mora/law, spirit/traditions, values and culture.

2.     There is a scientific juxtaposition of history as a (hierarchical)
set of interacting dynamic bifurcation compositions/agents in every process
of physical organization including those of social structures derived from
the nature of the phenomenon. In the case of human beings, these are e.g.
their genes, neurons and other forms of “hardware” with the resulting
higher-level biological organization (perception, cognition, consciousness)
that determine fundamental abstractions and notions such as those of
“thingness”, “duration”, “causality”, “equality/equivalence”, ”logic”,
“belief”, “ownership”, etc. along with their dual opposites (“good/evil”)
which on their part determine further complex derivatives (language,
science, technology, moral, etc.) and determine the course of history
through interactions. The outcomes of historic events can be traceable or
stochastic depending on which substrates are settled and which forces act
upon them, incl. those of nature itself with its own “wiring” which often
remain elusive/hidden for the human mind’s reach.

*Note 1:* (group) prayer and belief is also a viable agent within this
context. Wrong/fake concepts can also systematically/stochastically change
the course of history.

*Note 2:* the special role of *time* as an agency of changes which can be
regarded not only as a derivative of changes in other agents, but also such
upon itself (time/tense!)

*Note 3:* the tight balance between (enforced) state/composition/sharing of
a form of organization/civilization incl. the transition to another one in
time, and Bohm’s hidden variables potential in terms of cycles/loops of
recursion which become agents as well.

*Note 4:* Rewiring into the historical information flow is possible incl.
empiricism (Oliver Heaviside: “Mathematics is an experimental science, and
definitions do not come first, but later on.”) and intuition, the link to
the humanities and art. Medicine is supposed to operate at this edge. The
crises of integrity/credibility affect all disciplines, however.

3.     There is also a third moral juxtaposition in the discernment between
dualities such as good/evil, order/chaos, beautiful/ugly within the three
major roots/virtues of shared/divided reality/civilization:
scientific-biological, humanistic and technical-scientific (with some
modifications). || C'è anche un terzo accostamento morale nel discernimento
tra dualità come bene/male, ordine/caos, bello/brutto all'interno delle tre
grandi radici/virtù della realtà/civiltà condivisa/divisa:
scientifica-biologica, umanistica e tecnico-scientifica ( con alcune
modifiche).



Now, is it possible to derive a pragmatic approach to solve our present
problems when having these 3 juxtapositions at hand? What if the funny,
superficial view that our modern techno-emancipated society has on the
religious/philosophical controversies of the past is at the base of our own
“root” problems of today? Did science not become a religion recently, when
it comes to the public appearance of powerful and influential people like
Dr. Fauci who became famous with his motto “Follow the science.” Is science
supposed to be taken without questioning now? We have already witnessed a
redefinition of what a “vaccine” is supposed to be in order to integrate an
emergency authorized genetic therapy with quite different outcomes
according to CDC. Yet this is not an isolated case. There is a whole
history of manipulation of scientific truth to match the financial and
political interests of the powerful class and the corporate capital. Our
present era is literally shaken by biomedical fiascos which began with the
suicides of whistleblowers (thalidomide, tobacco cancers), moved through
the enforced distribution of Methylphenidate (Ritalin), a CNS stimulation
drug, on adolescents in the 90's "decade of the brain", and ended in the
current crisis of opioid painkillers (obscene business) and the unknowns in
the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  At the same time, we witness the march of
the destructive woke ideologies which enforce the revision of nearly
everything, incl. history itself, initiated from the very same places that
once brought Enlightenment in Europe, the great universities, which became
incubators and laboratories of neo-barbarism and social disintegration. How
can we overcome this decay? Any ideas?





Best,



Plamen



PS. Today begins the meeting of the self-proclaimed world elite, WEF, in
Davos, CH. Do you think they are going to solve our problems?



On Sat, Jan 14, 2023 at 10:45 AM Dr. Plamen L. Simeonov <
plamen.l.simeonov at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Caro Francesco,
> Grazie per la vostra risposta. Questa è un'osservazione molto interessante
> sulle scelte di civiltà che vorrei commentare per intero.
> Ho controllato la posta in arrivo e non sono riuscito a trovare la breve
> e-mail che mi hai inviato il 7 gennaio. Sarebbe così gentile da
> rispedircelo, per favore? Questo è successo alcune volte con altre email di
> amici con cui non sono in contatto da un po', da quando Google ha deciso di
> metterle nella cartella spam. Di solito lo controllo prima di eliminare i
> post spazzatura, ma chi lo sa? Puoi anche scrivermi direttamente a
> plamen at simeio.org. È possibile che il mailer FIS non funzioni
> correttamente. Molte cordiali grazie!
> Auguri,
> Plamen
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> Dear Francis,
> Thank you for your response. This is a very interesting remark about the
> choices of civilization which I'd like to comment on in full length.
> I checked my incoming post and could not find the short email which you
> have sent me on January 7th. Would you be so kind as to resend it, please?
> This happened a few times with other emails from friends I have not been in
> touch with for a while, since Google decided to put them in the spam
> folder. I usually control it before deleting the junk posts, but who knows?
> You can also write to me directly to plamen at simeio.org. It could be the
> case that the FIS mailer does not work properly. Many cordial thanks!
> Best wishes,
> Plamen
>
> On Sat, Jan 14, 2023 at 8:50 AM Francesco Rizzo <
> 13francesco.rizzo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Cari  Jerry, Joseph e Plamen,
>>
>> Vi debbo con ritardo (perché avevo superato le tre mail settimanali
>> prescritte) due brevi risposte e l’integrazione di poche parole inerenti
>> esclusivamente alle cose di mia pertinenza o conoscenza e relative a quanto
>> ho scritto il Il 3 gennaio 2023, alle 22:59 e il 7 gennaio 2023 alle ore
>> 18.18.
>>
>> - Jerry tu, fra l’altro, concludi il tuo ragionamento così: «Non capisco
>> il ragionamento di Prigogine che viene citato circa le"strutture
>> dissipative" di Ilya Prigogine che creano ordine (neg-entropia) dal
>> disordine (entropia) attraverso fluttuazioni o instabilità. COME
>> “attraverso fluttuazioni o instabilità” è correlato al concetto di
>> spontaneità. Ad esempio, in che modo il concetto di fluttuazioni si collega
>> alla vecchia economia e quali concetti aggiuntivi collegano le fluttuazioni
>> alla “ Nuova economia”?».
>>
>> Per rispondere a queste domande ci vorrebbero molte pagine che non mi
>> sono consentite. Quindi mi limito a ricordarTi quel che scrive I. Prigogine
>> ne *La Nuova Alleanza* (PBE, Torino, 1993):
>>
>> Capitolo quinto-I tre stadi della termodinamica- 3*. Lontani
>> dall’equilibrio. Le strutture dissipative* (…) La termodinamica classica
>> ci fornisce il concetto di “struttura di equilibrio”, come i cristalli. Le
>> cellule di Bènard sono pure esempi di strutture, ma di natura assai
>> diversa. Questa è la ragione per cui abbiamo introdotto il concetto di
>> strutture dissipative. (…) Qui la dissipazione dell’energia e della materia
>> (entropia) diventa in condizioni lontane dall’equilibrio, fonte di ordine
>> (neg-entropia). (…) Le strutture dissipative corrispondono ad una forma di
>> organizzazione super-molecolare. (…).
>>
>> Capitolo sesto-L’ordine per fluttuazione (…). «Per dirlo in termini
>> antropomorfici: lontano dall’equilibrio la materia comincia a “percepire il
>> suo ambiente (…). Lontano dall’equilibrio le fluttuazioni ci permettono di
>> usare le differenze dell’ambiente per produrre differenti strutture. Una
>> volta di più vogliamo sottolineare l’importanza essenziale delle condizioni
>> di lontananza dall’equilibrio: “comunicazione” e “percezione” sono le
>> parole chiave del nuovo comportamento della materia lontano
>> dall’equilibrio» (pp. 148 e 170-71).
>>
>> Aggiungo o ricordo che la comunicazione prevede la possibilità che
>> l’informazione sia talora definibile come entropia e come neg-entropia (e
>> quindi inversamente proporzionale all’entropia), ciò dipende dal fatto che
>> nel primo caso l’informazione è intesa solo come misura (in termini di bit)
>> di probabilità di un evento all’interno di un sistema-fonte equiprobabile e
>> nel secondo caso come informazione già selezionata, trasmessa e ricevuta,
>> sovrapponendo alla fonte-sistema equiprobabile un s-codice che la riduce,
>> riempiendola o svuotandola di significato semantico.
>>
>> La vecchia economia di queste cose non s’è mai occupata, mentre la mia
>> nuova economia è disseminata in dozzine di libri ai quali non posso fare
>> altro che rinviare, con la modestia di sempre.
>>
>> -Joseph, tu mi dici che «il quadro di Prigogine è molto incompleto È ciò
>> che accade vicino all'equilibrio nel processo mentale, dove i livelli
>> energetici delle strutture sono vicini tra loro, che è importante quanto
>> dove sono separati se non di più. Quanto al *cambiamento*, tutto il mio
>> sistema logico-filosofico si potrebbe chiamare *Logica del Cambiamento*».
>>
>> Non è meglio chiamare *armonia*, quello che tu chiami equilibrio?
>> L’equilibrio è statico, senza vita, cadaverico sia in senso fisico o
>> metaforico. Difatti, quanti in economia si sono incaponiti a fondare questa
>> scienza sull’equilibrio ottimale e unico l’hanno privata di qualsiasi
>> consistenza teorica. E poi, permettimi di sottolineare anche l’importanza
>> del *cambiamento della logica* accostandolo al libricino di hegel sulla
>> Scienza della logica.
>>
>> - Infine, Plamen in data 7 gennaio 2023 alle ore 18.18 ti ho mandato una
>> brevissima mail che si conclude così: «queste tre radici,
>> telegraficamente espresse, confluiscono nella capacità-virtù del
>> discernimento del bene e del male». Ora esprimo meno sinteticamente questa
>> conclusione: «(…) confluiscono nella capacità virtù della coscienza che
>> opera il discernimento del bene e del male scegliendo il primo v’ha la
>> con-divisione della civiltà, scegliendo il secondo v’ha la divisione
>> dell’inciviltà».
>>
>>
>> Dear Jerry, Joseph and Plamen,
>>
>> I owe you late (because I had exceeded the prescribed three weekly
>> emails) two brief replies and the addition of del male scegliendo il
>> primo v’ha la con-divisione della civiltà, scegliendo il secondo v’ha la
>> divisione dell’inciviltà».a few words relating exclusively to things of
>> my relevance or knowledge and related to what I wrote on January 3, 2023,
>> at 10:59 pm and on 7 January 2023 at 6.18 pm.
>>
>> - Jerry you, among other things, conclude your reasoning like this: «I
>> don't understand Prigogine's reasoning that is quoted about Ilya
>> Prigogine's "dissipative structures" that create order (neg-entropy) from
>> disorder (entropy) through fluctuations or instability. HOW “through
>> fluctuations or instability” is related to the concept of spontaneity. For
>> example, how does the concept of fluctuations relate to the old economy and
>> what additional concepts relate fluctuations to the 'New Economy'?
>>
>> To answer these questions it would take many pages that are not allowed
>> to me. So I limit myself to reminding you of what I. Prigogine writes in La
>> Nuova Alleanza (PBE, Turin, 1993): Fifth chapter-The three stages of
>> thermodynamics- 3. Far from equilibrium. Dissipative structures (…)
>> Classical thermodynamics provides us with the concept of “equilibrium
>> structure”, such as crystals. Benard's cells are also examples of
>> structures, but of a very different nature. This is the reason why we have
>> introduced the concept of dissipative structures. (…) Here the dissipation
>> of energy and matter (entropy) becomes, in conditions far from equilibrium,
>> a source of order (neg-entropy). (…) Dissipative structures correspond to a
>> form of super-molecular organization. (…).
>>
>> Sixth chapter-Order by fluctuation (…). «To put it in anthropomorphic
>> terms: far from equilibrium, matter begins to "perceive its environment
>> (...). Far from equilibrium, fluctuations allow us to use differences in
>> the environment to produce different structures. Once again we want to
>> underline the essential importance of the conditions of distance from
>> equilibrium: "communication" and "perception" are the key words of the new
>> behavior of matter away from equilibrium» (pp. 148 and 170-71).
>>
>> I add or recall that the communication provides for the possibility that
>> information can sometimes be defined as entropy and as neg-enropy (and
>> therefore inversely proportional to the entropy), this depends on the fact
>> that in the first case the information is understood only as a measure ( in
>> terms of bits) of the probability of an event within an equiprobable
>> source-system and in the second case as information already selected,
>> transmitted and received, superimposing an s-code on the equiprobable
>> source-system which reduces it, filling or emptying it of semantic meaning.
>>
>> The old economy never dealt with these things, while my new economy is
>> disseminated in dozens of books to which I can do nothing but refer, with
>> the usual modesty.
>>
>> -Joseph, you tell me that«the Prigogine picture is very incomplete. It is
>> what happens near equilibrium in the mental process, where the energy
>> levels of the structures are close to each other, which is as important as
>> where they are separated if not more. As for change, my entire
>> logical-philosophical system could be called the Logic of Change».
>>
>> Isn't it better to call harmony, what you call balance? The balance is
>> static, lifeless, cadaverous in both a physical and metaphorical sense. In
>> fact, those in economics who have made a point of founding this science on
>> the optimal and unique equilibrium have deprived it of any theoretical
>> consistency. And then, let me also underline the importance of the change
>> in logic by comparing it to Hegel's little book on the Science of Logic.
>>
>> - Finally, Plamen, on 7 January 2023 at 18.18 I sent you a very short
>> email which concludes as follows: «these three roots, expressed
>> telegraphically, converge in the capacity-virtue of discerning good and
>> evil». Now I express this conclusion less succinctly: «(…) virtues of the
>> conscience which operate the discernment of good and evil flow into the
>> capacity by choosing the first there is the sharing of civilization,
>> choosing the second there is the division of incivility ».
>>
>> Thanks to all three. A hug.
>>
>> Francis
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Grazie a Tutti e tre. Un abbraccio.
>>
>> Francesco
>>
>>
>> Il giorno gio 12 gen 2023 alle ore 19:53 Marcus Abundis <55mrcs at gmail.com>
>> ha scritto:
>>
>>> I am reading the posts with interest, but do not have a lot to add – but
>>>> I notice . . .
>>>
>>> From Pedro's post,
>>> > We suffer nowadays another strong imbalance between hyper-developed
>>> > computer and AI techs (Web, social networks, robotics, etc.) and some
>>> > infra-developed, scarcely coherent scientific fields--missing a
>>> parallel
>>> > information body which could bring a new understanding and consistency.
>>>
>>>> I think this is rather on point, but applying not just to the current
>>>> NY topic/discussion.
>>>
>>> I feel that exploring THIS area would be of particular interest and
>>> import for the current NY discussion.
>>> Marcus
>>> _______________________________________________
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