A NEW BOOK:
Global Insanity: How Homo sapiens lost touch with reality while transforming the world
Written/Edited by: James A. Coffman & Donald C. Mikulecky
2012, ISBN 9781938158049 (160 pages), Emergent Publications
The Global Economy that sustains the civilized world is destroying the
biosphere. As a result, civilization, like the Titanic, is on a collision course
with disaster. But changing course via the body politic appears to be well nigh
impossible, given that much of the populace lives in denial. Why is that? And
how did we get into such a fix?
In this essay, biologists James Coffman and Donald Mikulecky argue that the
reductionist model of the world developed by Western civilization misrepresents
life, undermining our ability to regulate and adapt to the accelerating
anthropogenic transformation of the world entrained by that very model. An
alternative worldview is presented that better accounts for both the relational
nature of living systems and the developmental phenomenology that constrains
their evolution. Development of any complex system reinforces specific
dependencies while eliminating alternatives, reducing the diversity that affords
adaptive degrees of freedom: the more developed a system is, the less potential
it has to change its way of being. Hence, in the evolution of life most species
become extinct.
This perspective reveals the limits that complexity places on knowledge and
technology, bringing to light our hubristically dysfunctional relationship with
the natural world and increasingly tenuous connection to reality. The
inescapable conclusion is that, barring a cultural metamorphosis that breaks
free of deeply entrenched mental frames that made us what we are, continued
development of the Global Economy will lead inexorably to the collapse of
civilization.
Coffman and Mikulecky take on the pillars of Enlightenment science—determinism,
conservation and the continuum—and leave them in rubble. They see the scientific
wisdom of the 20th Century departing ever further from reality, casting society
into a breach of deep cognitive dissonance, a.k.a., insanity!
Robert E. Ulanowicz
Department of Biology, University of Florida
Hooked on growth and headed for collapse. It is a depressing story. But Coffman
and Mikulecky offer hope in focusing on the rebirth that will follow. And more
importantly, they provide the intellectual tools for comprehending the broad
sweep of what is taking place. A 21st Century analysis for a 21st Century
problem.
John McCrone
Science writer and author of Going Inside: A Tour Around a Single Moment of
Consciousness
This is a very current critique. The authors assemble input from most of the
unfolding perspectives in science—self-organization, complexity, development,
emergence, Aristotelian causal analysis, and internalism/semiotics... to suggest
ways of formulating our cultural and social problems in hopes of generating a
rational standpoint for confronting them.
Stan Salthe
Professor Emeritus, Biology, City University of New York and Visiting Scientist
in Biological Sciences Binghamton University
THE CHAPTER THAT LED TO THE NEW BOOK:
ALSO
A BOOK BY A. H. LOUIE:
MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF: A SYNTHETIC CONTINUATION IN RELATIONAL BIOLOGY
A. H. Louie’s More Than Life Itself is an exploratory journey in relational biology, a study of life in terms of the organization of entailment relations in living systems. This book represents a synergy of the mathematical theories of categories, lattices, and modelling, and the result is a synthetic biology that provides a characterization of life. Biology extends physics. Life is not a specialization of mechanism, but an expansive generalization of it. Organisms and machines share some common features, but organisms are not machines. Life is defined by a relational closure that places it beyond the reach of physicochemical and mechanistic dogma, outside the reductionistic universe, and into the realm of impredicativity. Function dictates structure. Complexity brings forth living beings.
A Whole Volume full of new work by Rosen's Students, Colleagues, Critics and others
MY PAPERS:
EDITORIAL: ROSEN, HIS STUDENTS AND HIS COLLEAGUES: A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST AND THE FUTURE
CAUSALITY AND COMPLEXITY: THE MYTH OF OBJECTIVITY IN SCIENCE
CHAPTERS:
COMPLEXITY SCIENCE AS AN ASPECT OF THE COMPLEXITY OF SCIENCE
in
Worldviews, Science and us
pp 30 - 53
Calos Gershenson, Diedrik Aerts and Bruce Edmonds, Editors
World Scientific 2007
The circle that never ends: Can complexity be made simple?
appearing in "Complexity in Chemistry, Biology, and Ecology", D. Bonchev and D. H. Rouvray, Eds., KLUWER Academic, New York, 2005.
LECTURES:
TEACHING SCIENCE THAT MATTERS: REFRAMING THE QUESTION IN SCIENCE
LECTURE AT VCU CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF BIOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY
OCTOBER 9 2006
ROBERT ROSEN AND GEORGE LAKOFF: THE ROLE OF CAUSALITY IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS
DOWNLOAD POWER POINT PRESENTATION
RELATIONAL SYSTEMS THEORY AN APPROACH TO COMPLEXITY
DOWNLOAD POWER POINT PRESENTATION
REDUCTIONISM AND COMPLEXITY: CONTINUUM OR DICHOTOMY?
Download the Power Point Presentation
NEW LECTURE:
Don't look at the whole organism: Framing the question in science
Download the power point presentation
Published in Evolution and Cognition vol 10:98-113.
Talk Given February 4, 2003: The world is complex: How to distinguish complexity from complication
Talk Given February 20, 2003:
Functional Components as a basis for complex system description: Some examples and discussion
Talk Given March 13, 2003:
A RELATIONAL SYSTEMS THEORY MODEL OF A BUSINESS This was done for the fellows of the Institute for the Study of Coherence and Emergence (ISCE).
A TUTORIAL ON NETWORKS AS AN INTRODUCTION TO RELATIONAL SYSTEMS THEORY
(Under Construction)
These may be of interest to
some:
They appeared in Elsevier's "Computers and
Chemistry" vol 25, 2001, all authored by D. C. Mikulecky
1. Research Review:
Network Thermodynamics and complexity: A transition to relational systems theory. pp
369-391.
2. Methodological Review:
The emergence of complexity: science coming of age or science growing old? pp 341-348
3. Feature Article:
Robert Rosen(1934-1998): A snapshot of biology's Newton. pp 317-327
IF THE WHOLE WORLD IS COMPLEX, WHY BOTHER? (University talk) download
THE COMPLEXITY OF SCIENCE AND THE SCIENCE OF COMPLEXITY: HOW TO SURVIVE IN A SELF-REFERENTIAL WORLD (Talk to the Public) download
REVIEW OF ROSEN'S NEW BOOK "ESSAYS ON LIFE ITSELF"Columbia University Press (Due out in November,1999)
EPISTEMOLOGY
AND ROSENS MODELING RELATION
W. B. Dress
ROSEN IN CYBERSPACE........A HYPERTEXT INTERPRETATION OF ROSEN'S WORKS WITH APPLICATIONS (Under construction)
DEFINITION OF COMPLEXITY TRANSLATED INTO ROMANIAN
For the Belorussian language translation by Martha Ruszkowski: http://blog.1800flowers.com/international/robert-rosen-be/
SEMINAR: NETWORKS IN NATURE: SOME THOUGHTS ON TIME, SPACE AND THE EMERGENCE OF LIVING SYSTEMS
Steve Kercel's Feb. 1 Seminar:"Endogenous causes and bizarre effects"
TAPED INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT ROSEN
NOTICE: ROBERT ROSEN PASSED AWAY ON DECEMBER 29, 1998
WE WILL MISS HIM VERY MUCH!
TWO CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE COMMEMORATIVE HELD AT VCU ON FEBRUARY 17, 1999:
ALOUISIUS LOUIE: A ROSEN REQUIEM
WILLIAM DRESS: EPISTEMOLOGY AND ROSEN'S MODELING RELATION
Come see Professor Murkywaters expound on complexity and related topics to two of his best students! A self-teaching module(in progress)
Talk to me: mikuleck@hsc.vcu.edu
THIS SITE IS AN EDUCATIONAL SITE. PLEASE DO NOT ASK ME ANY CLINICAL QUESTIONS. I AM NOT A PHYSICIAN.
Personal Data, Education, and Professional Experience
My Interests:
My Book:
Application of Network Thermodynamics to Problems in Biomedical Engineering, NYU Press, NY, 1993, ISBN 0-8147-5490-2
Professional Organizations:
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Charter member Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)
Former Member: Mathews Chapter of the LionsClub
Member Mathews Art Group:
Corresponding Secretary 2003
Webmaster
Newsletter Editor
President 2005-2007
The Gallery, Mathews VA...Permanent Exhibit
Rapahannock Art League
Past Member Virginia Watercolor Society
Arts in the Park ( 4 shows, 1995,96,97,99)
Arts in the Hospital, Medical College of Virginia (2 shows)
St. Mary's Hospital Show December 1998 - January 1999
Featured Artist of the Month - Mathews Art Group, The Gallery, March 2000, April 2003, May 2007
Bank of America Mathews, VA March 2000, October 2003, 2007
Chesapeake Bank Mathews, VA September 2002, 2007
Miscellaneous other shows
Number of visits from March 1, 1996 to September 1, 2009 = 103,345
Number of visits since September 1, 2009 =
Person Responsible for this page: mikuleck@hsc.vcu.edu
GO TO:
Department of Physiology Home Page
This page does not reflect an official position of Virginia Commonwealth University.
Last Update: 12/01/12