Slideshow Reviews The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision Fritjof Capra and Pier Luigi Luisi

A new format of book review for the time poor but literalily-curious

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In a nutshell…

My one liner: Astounding breadth of coverage of philosophical, scientific and economic systems and processes guiding humanity towards a more sustainable existence

It’s the kind of book I wish I could write: • The 21st century presents humanity

with an amazing opportunity to move from a linear to a systemic mindset

• The Enlightenment ushered in the machine age of rationalist thought

• We now have the tools to understand complexity and chaos

• Bringing us back to our original roots within ecological systems

• Allowing us to set sustainability as a core goal of our societies

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What the Physicists say…

An electron is neither a particle nor a wave, but it may show particle-like aspects in some situations and wave-like aspects in others. While it acts like a particle, it is capable of developing its wave nature at the expense of its particle nature, and vice versa, thus undergoing continual transformations from particle to wave and from wave to particle…

The dual aspect of matter:

• The discovery of the dual aspect of matter and of the fundamental role of probability has demolished the classical notion of solid objects

• The laws of atomic physics are statistical laws, according to which the probabilities for atomic events are determined by the dynamics of the whole system

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…and the Mathematicians

The recently evolving discipline of fractal geometry (invented by Benoit Mandelbrot) provides us with the basis to extend this principle of interconnectedness and probability both upwards and downwards

Fractal Geometry gives us the concept of self-similarity: • Mandelbrot demonstrates this by

breaking a piece of a cauliflower and showing that it looks just like a small cauliflower

• Every part looks like the whole vegetable at every level of scale

• Hence we can extend the principle of interconnectedness and both upwards and downwards

• The functioning of the human body; the development of societies and economies; ecological phenomena; the space-time of the universe. All are self similar at every level

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…Giving us a current anomaly

So if such interconnectedness and self-similarity exists at the quantum level, why have we organised our societies in such a compartmentalised, non-holistic way ?

Two reasons stand out:

• First, the focus on responding to, and treating, observed outcomes rather than rather than understanding the underlying processes that lead to those outcomes

• The second is the sense of connection that humans once had with the physical world, the land, nature and eco-systems, and which has been lost through in the industrial society that we inhabit

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Here are some examples

Darwinian connection to the earth: • The sense of connection that

humans once had with the physical world, the land, nature and eco-systems, has been lost through in the industrial society that we inhabit

• All living organisms share a common ancestor. Organic and inorganic matter evolved to produce living cells which then evolved to produce water, air and land-borne species, of which we are but one

• “There is nothing more holistic and systemic than this notion of Darwinian biological evolution”

In Medicine: • “ [T]he conceptual problem at the

center of contemporary healthcare is the confusion between the origins of disease and the processes through which it manifests itself…”

• “A systemic approach, by contrast, would broaden the scope from the levels of organs and cells to the whole person – to the patient's body and mind, as well as his or her interactions with a particular natural and social environment”

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Resolving the science-religion dichotomy

Spiritual connection to the earth: • As physicists delve deeper into the

material world they come to realise that their own consciousness is part of the unity of all natural phenomena. Mystics arrive there from the opposite direction, with an understanding that outer world is essentially one and the same as the inner world which is their starting point. Thus there is an increasing recognition, observable as we move into a new century that we are “part of a great order, a grand symphony of life”

Moving to the realm of spirituality: • “The apparent dichotomy

dissolves when we move from organized religion to the broader realm of spirituality

• [S]cientists [such as Oppenheimer, Bohr and Heisenberg] published popular books about the history and philosophy of quantum physics, in which they hinted at remarkable parallels between the worldview implied by modern physics and the views of Eastern spiritual and philosophical traditions”

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From the systemic to the ecological

Examples of the holistic way: • Therapies connecting physical well-

being to mental well-being • Recognition that an individual’s

well-being is determined by diet, and environment and social interaction

• Understanding the self-healing properties of many systems, including the human body and its surrounding ecology

• Importance of human and ecological well-being for any corporate entity, arguably over and above its financial and profitability measure

• The true sense of “ecology” (derived from the Greek “oikos” meaning “Earth Household”) is a oneness with the natural world around us, being a member of a “global community of living beings”, and not interfering with ability of the earth to sustain life

• Modern social networks have the ability to achieve this: a means of empowerment, dissipating common views about the importance of sustainability, and a systemic or holistic way of thinking

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The policy prescriptions

The key strategies for transitions to a systems view of the world:

• Corporate reform to take into

account sustainability

• Poverty alleviation and stabilisation of population growth

• Transition to renewable energy

• So, the network, technological and philosophical ingredients are in place in the 21st century

• What are the policy implications?

• Is there some new world order that needs to be created ?

• The book concludes with a number of possible visions for a more sustainable future, and presents a number of overlapping strategies

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Corporate Reform and Redefining Ownership

Reforming fiduciary duties: • The obligation to maximise

shareholder return is etched into the contractual structure of a company

• Social costs, resource ownership, ecological sustainability are not taken into account

• Hence extend fiduciary duty to include the well-being of the corporation’s employees, of local communities and of future generations

• Arguably this need not be in conflict with a market-based economy

The Plan: • Economic globalisation, which

has accelerated in the last 100 years or so, is now essentially characterised by a global network of machines that are pre-programmed to maximise profit

• It would not be too much of a leap of imagination to re-programme the machines to have other values built into them

• And also move from quantitative measures of economic growth, such as GDP, to what may be termed “qualitative growth”

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Alleviating Poverty & Limiting Population Growth

Is this achievable: • I am sceptical • Not because these aims are not

highly laudable • But surely in the less industrialised

countries, the quickest way to eliminate poverty is rapid industrialisation

• Their time for an ecological approach will come, and it will come within decades rather than centuries, but they will have to learn the hard way !

The Plan • Poverty irradication in the

poorest countries of the world • Limit population growth,

particularly in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, since resources are becoming ever more scarce

• Empowering women (more yin less yang): • tempering the male, power-

based, private ownership-based, accumulative cultures

• more feminine approach: conservation, co-operation, and community

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Transitioning to Energy Efficiency

The outcome: • This can be achieved with a market

economy generating viable returns for investors. And we can save up to 90% of energy and materials currently used in industrial design

• “Imagine fuel without fear. No climate change. No oil spills, dead coal miners, dirty air, devastated lands, lost wildlife. No energy poverty. No oil-fed wars, tyrannies, or terrorists. Nothing to run out. Nothing to cut off. Nothing to worry about. Just energy abundance, benign and affordable, for all, for ever !”

The Plan • Shifting to renewables (solar,

wind, hydro) • Transforming building stock into

power plants, collecting energy on-site

• Deploying hydrogen and other storage technologies

• Using the internet to transform electricity grids into “inter-grids”

• Transforming automobiles to electric plug in and fuel cell vehicles

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Conclusion

This is a great book and will get a 5* rating from me:

• Provides a coherent scientific, philosophical and technological underpinning for the ideas presented

• We are seeing signs of systemic rather than linear phenomena

• Current conditions can provide the impetus for this transition

• The only question not really addressed is is whether this transition will be itself a systemic process, or whether some top-down “policies” or “new forms of government” will be required to push the process