Contents:Søren Brier: Foreword Full Text Claus Emmeche: Defining life as a semiotic phenomenon Abstract David J. Depew & Bruce H. Weber: What Does Natural Selection Have to Be like Abstract Jesper Hoffmeyer: Surfaces Inside Surfaces Abstract Robert Vallée: Cognition et Système, Essai d'Épistémo-praxéologie Abstract Robert Vallée: An Introduction to "Epistemo-praxiology" Abstract Columns Ranulph Glanville: A (Cybernetic) Musing: Varieties of Variety? Full Text Louis H. Kauffman: Virtual Logic - The Calculus of Indications Full Text Reviews Maj-Britt Rosenkilde, Anja Abel Sørensen, Christine Nordentoft and Søren Brier: Review of International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics Full Text Axel Randrup: Whispering Pond Full Text Mariaelena Bartesaghi: "The Therapy of Dialogical Possibility" Full Text
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Review of Ervin Laszlo: Whispering PondElement Books 1996, 242 pages Axel Randrup The reading of Laszlo's book has been fascinating to me, both when I read it first time and second time, and now I know it almost by heart. It is a grand tour of modern science, clearly divided into four parts dealing respectively with the more established observations and theories, the problems with these views, the latest developments to overcome these problems and finally an anticipatory vision of future developments. With this division and with his way of writing the author succeeds in presenting both well founded views and imaginative thinking and doing it in such a way that the reader can avoid confounding the two. The most cherished idea of Laszlo is that of universal interconnection, which is expressed already by the title of the book as illustrated by the cover picture showing interconnected waves on a pond seeming to whisper about wider horizons. This interconnection is thought to comprise both the cosmological, the physical, the biological and the mental domain, and it includes interconnection between subject and object, man and environment, in agreement with the unbreakable relation between observer and observed assumed by second order cybernetics. In the first part of the book the author presents a readable and, as far as I can see, a mainly correct exposition of the contemporary views of science in the domains of cosmology, physics, life sciences and studies of the mind. In the section on physics Laszlo makes some points about quantum physics, where I have comments. Thus I do not regard the wave-particle duality as a part of nature but rather as a part of the standard theory of quantum physics. Other theories, such as Bohm's theory (described by Laszlo later in the book, p.139) do not contain this duality (Bohm, 1980; Feynman, 1985). This is an example of the general rule in science that two or more theories may cover the same set of observations, so that certain supposed entities or processes may "exist" in one theory only, but not in others (Burling, 1964; Randrup, 1997). Another example of this is found later in Laszlo's book (p.71) where in relation to the famous two-slit experiment he asks "could it be that the photons, emitted as individual particles, interfere with each other as waves ?". This is an interesting thought, but I would emphasize that it is an alternative to the standard theory of quantum physics which maintain that the wave aspect of each photon interferes with itself. I have speculated if the supposed entanglement, or in Laszlo's words "mysterious interconnection", between quantum particles may also be replaced by other assumptions in future theories. This entanglement is important for Laszlo, since it agrees with his general view of universal interconnection, and he reports (pp. 72-73) some new calculations made in 1995 which will probably be important for the further discussion of the entanglement problem. Here it may be mentioned as one of the virtues of Laszlo's book that he has made a serious effort to incorporate recent findings and theories of science. Laszlo also reports the discussions on the foundations or interpretations of quantum physics still going on, and mentions that some physicists have speculated that the physical world is "mental rather than material". He also quotes the physicist Wigner for saying that modern quantum physics had to content itself with dealing with "observations" rather than "observables". Personally I agree with these mentalistic views (Randrup, 1997a) but Laszlo is more doubtful and concludes (p.32) that today physical science has not given an unambiguous answer to the question , "What is matter ?". Later in the book, in a more imaginative part (p. 207), he favors the view that matter and mind are both real but they are not fundamental; they evolved together out of a still deeper level of reality, which in itself is neither mental nor material. This view he calls evolutionism. The deeper level of reality referred to is identified with the zero-point energy field of the cosmic quantum vacuum, which is also seen as an important bearer of the universal interconnection, that is so central for Laszlo's thinking. In the section on problems in the study of mind Laszlo devotes some pages (103-114) to the phenomena known as telepathy, clairvoyance etc. Since these phenomena are about connections between human individuals or between humans and things, they are relevant for Laszlo's favored view of general universal interconnection. The validity of the evidence in this field has been disputed, but Laszlo seems to accept the inclusion of the best of this evidence in what may be called the catalog of acknowledged scientific observations, and here I tend to side with him. Some of the telepathic evidence related by Laszlo is about transference of EEG rhythms from one person to another, although the two persons were rigorously separated by walls, electrical shield etc. In this case it may be maintained that the connection was between the brains of the two persons, i.e. between material objects and not involving the mind. Here it should, however, be remembered that Laszlo suggests that these connections are mediated by the quantum vacuum energy field. The concept of this field has emerged from physics and it is therefore generally regarded as material, but as related above, in more imaginative parts of the book Laszlo extends the conception of this field suggesting that it constitutes a deeper layer of reality which in itself is neither mental nor material. Although Laszlo's approach is mainly scientific, he writes with understanding about mysticism and spirituality, and he emphasizes that the developing notions of coherence and unity in science, which he finds so important, bring science closer to opinions held by mystics through the ages. Still, it may be in place to warn against what has been called "spiritual materialism", the attempt to understand the spiritual or mystic domain by means of empiry and reason and to master it by means of special meditative and other techniques. In opposition to spiritual materialism it has been said that in spite of the developing and remarkable reconciliation between science and spirituality, the latter is not something to be known intellectually or fully reached by certain techniques, but rather by prolonged, living contact. Spirituality may be seen as a way of knowing, thus also as a perspective on reason (Flier, 1995; Toegel 1991, on spiritual materialism pp. 170-243; Pierre Marchais, personal communications). Thank you Ervin Laszlo for the good time I have spent with your book ! References
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