At the dawn of the third decade of the 21st century, the existence of humankind has become highly perilous. We are cutting down our forests, exhausting our fresh water aquifers, and losing our vital top soils. We are stripping the life from our oceans and replacing it with hundreds of millions of tons of plastic waste. We are flooding our environment with toxic industrial chemicals. Our pollution is driving climate change that causes heat waves, droughts, and wildfires that shred the fabric of life on the continents. And we are bringing new generations into the world, millions who require access to the resources of a dignified existence. The scope and breadth of the threats to life are increasing day after day. This is not a sustainable mode of development.

The root cause of our ills stems from a mistaken way of thinking. What exactly does this mean? it means that we have been thinking of ourselves mainly as material beings, while denying our spiritual nature. Because we think that we exist as material beings and nothing more, we place first importance on protecting our bodies from harm and prolonging our material existence. Our spiritual nature, if considered at all, is treated as a secondary aspect of our physical being—something not to be taken seriously. To us, the only things that matter are the phenomena that appear in the material world—things that can be seen, or heard, or touched, or measured, but we know that our senses deceive us, the senses are a construction of the brain. What we consider a real world is an illusion. The domination of the positivist and materialist thought leads to irrationality and destruction.

Yet where has this approach led us? Has it brought us a sense of happiness and fulfillment? Rather than living each day in a spirit of joyful cooperation, with our hearts filled with bright hope and happy anticipation, we have isolated ourselves from others and viewed them as rivals or enemies. Our thoughts are flooded with suspicion, fear and greed, leading to an endless cycle of war, poverty, starvation, and environmental destruction. Unless we wake up soon and pay attention to our spiritual nature, there will be no future for humanity on Earth.

Words are life. Words are light. Words are power. Words are energy. Words are truth. Words can enliven and words can also kill. Words can give hope or plunge us into despair. People use words to build peace and use words to make war. Words can create walls between cultures, religions, and nations. And words can also build bridges. The existence of an individual, a family, a community, a country, and our planet is being led to good or to evil through the power of the words we speak. The words we speak are responsible for everything that happens in this world. We, therefore, must be responsible for the words we speak. On behalf of future generations, I hope that each of us will do all we can to speak only bright, light-filled words, so that one day, our descendants will be born into a world filled with light. There is no time to lose. Starting at this very moment, I hope all of us will take a close look at the words we have been using and make constant efforts to fill them with brightness.

No one is going to change our lives for us. No one is going to change the world for us. It is time for each of us to recognize the prodigious, creative power that is unleashed by each word we speak, and to consciously speak only words filled with gratitude, encouragement, and good intention. From this moment forward, let us choose words that resonate with love and forgiveness for ourselves and others. We can certainly do it if we take just one step forward. One step at a time, one word at a time, we can uproot the germs of tragedy and of isolation in our consciousness and convert them into waves of happiness and conciliation. For the sake of ourselves, for the sake of Mother Earth, and for the sake of future generations, let us use words that contribute to the positive evolution of humankind on Earth.

If I make a scientific inquiry into my body, I first find it is made of matter, like rocks and trees and rivers. As I look closer, I see that the matter of my body is animated, that it is alive. The source of this life is the energy from metabolism of food and drink that I consume, which is burning in me during respiration as I breathe. If I trace this energy, I see it comes from the plants and animals that I eat, and if I trace it further, I see that it comes from photosynthesis, which comes from the sun. Thus, I come to realize that every movement of my body is powered by sunlight. And I begin to see this in all of nature: the rains fall because the sunlight has evaporated the water and lifted it up, thus the rivers rage is the sound of sunlight. The winds blow because the sun heats up some land more than others, thus the soft breeze is the caress of sunshine on my cheek. The lion’s roar is sunlight in ferocious expression, and everything humans do with machines is just sunlight in its array of forms. Electricity is pushed through our wires by the river’s sunlight power, and even the burning candle is the release of sunlight energy stored in the wax. All life on earth is powered by the sunlight, and has its source in the radiant sun, which shines selflessly in all directions endlessly.

If I look deeper, I will discover, though, that there is an exception. The energy from nuclear reactions here on earth comes from splitting atoms, and releasing the energy stored in them. What is the origin of that energy? Science now tells us that all the heavy elements on earth were created in a star that lived long ago. At the end of its life, it exploded in a supernova, and the huge energy of that explosion was stored in heavy elements such as uranium. So, although it is not the sunlight of our sun now, when we split the atom, we are releasing the energy stored in that atom during that supernova explosion. In fact, all the heavy elements on earth, such as carbon and oxygen, were created by that sun from hydrogen and helium during its long life. The very material existence of our whole planet, with its rocks and earth, with its water, its air, is derived ultimately from that star. Without that star, there would be nothing but hydrogen and helium. All the heavier elements are, as it were, created from these lighter elements by sunlight.

If we trace our origins back further, though, we see that all the heavy elements and the energy that animates them comes from stars. But where do these stars get their energy? This is mysterious. The force of gravity brings together the light elements in space, and when it compresses them very tightly with its powerful force, they fuse together and release energy. That energy that is released has its origin in the fact that these light elements were separated in the first place. And the energy of that separation is the mysterious expansion of the space of the entire universe! So, it is the expansion of space itself that is responsible for the energy that the stars release.

Even more mysteriously, this expansion of space is also what created the lighter elements in the first place. For, before space had expanded and cooled the universe, all these lighter elements were very hot and close together. And even eariler that that, the energy was so high that the matter ceased to exist at all. The whole universe was pure radiance, with no obscuring matter at all. As the universe cooled and expanded, some of its radiance “crystalized” into matter, much like how water freezes when it cools to form pieces of ice. So matter itself, as Einstein has taught us, is really nothing but energy.

Even earlier, when the universe was very, very small, the energy was so extremely high that the radiance merged with space and time. Then, there was no container and no contained. No space, no time, no radiance. All distinctions dissolved, and even the very “expansion” of the universe was no more, since space was no more.

So, if we trace our heartbeat back to its ultimate source, we find the radiant heart of the cosmos, we find all of space and time, and the mysterious power of expansion of space in the bosom of the cosmos that gives rise to matter, and the power of the suns, which is nothing but a recreation of that original radiance at the source of the universe. And our heartbeat is nothing but a recreation of the sunlight. We are powered by, and constituted by, the radiant heart of the cosmos. According to the above, we are one with all that had been and all that was to be. We experienced subjective mystical communion with the evolutionary, emergent universe. We are the universe. We know not where the journey leads, nor whether a final destination is even meaningful. And all this scientific history sinks ontologically to zero, zero dominates everything. Everything is the other side of nothing. So, you can only find out what you are from what you are not which is everything and nothing.  Your home is everywhere and nowhere.  Your identity is no identity.  You aren’t an owner but   a messenger of the infinity, the no-thing is open to everything, timeless and Free.

We know that  a  transformation  of  global dimensions has already started, and we know that its unfolding is not predictable. We can be certain that it will be challenging: we will live in the midst of profound change, our very survival will be  constantly  at  stake.  Will  we  achieve  the  understanding,  the  wisdom,  to  survive  this challenge? Here are a few thoughts and considerations that help us reach the condition where we can give a positive answer.

                                                   Looking  Back to See Forward 

This will not be the first time in history that a period of global-level transformation has dawned on humankind. Philosopher of science Holmes Rolston pointed out that our “big history” includes three such transformations—veritable “big bangs.”1The first was the physical big bang that is believed to have occurred about 13.8 billion years ago. It gave birth to the manifest universe with its quantum particles, multiple kinds of energies, and billions of galaxies. It led to the formation of solar systems, with suns and planets, and energy flows that permit the evolution of life (fortunately situated) planets circling active suns. Another basic transformation— a «second  big  bang”—was  the  emergence  of  living organisms among the complex systems that evolved on Earth, and presumably on other planets as well. This transformation is thought to have taken place about 3.8 billion years ago. It began with the emergence of single-celled prokaryotes in the primordial soup that covered the surface of the planet. The “third big bang” is dated to have occurred about 120,000 years ago. It fundamentally changed—“evolved”—the consciousness of our species. Homo is said to have become sapiens. The evolutionary advantages  of  evolved  consciousness included a more flexible and rapid form of communication. Communication was no longer limited to semiautomatic responses triggered by recurring conditions and events; instead of limited to signs, human communication became based on consensually developed symbols.

The evolution of symbolic language was a major leap. On the one hand, it gave birth to social structures based on collectively acquired meaning, and on the other, it produced enhanced manipulative skills.  Societies could evolve  on  the  basis  of  shared  cultures  wielding  powerful technologies. Homo sapiens began to  dominate  other  species  and  became  a  key  factor  in  the evolution of life in the biosphere. The third big bang produced an explosion of the human population, but it did not produce the wisdom that would  ensure  that  the  expanded  population  could  maintain  the  balances essential for the flourishing of life on this planet. These balances became ever more impaired. The shortsighted use of technology and the disregard of natural checks and balances brought humanity to  where  it  is  today:  to  a  “chaos  point,”  where  the  choice  is  stark:  it  is  between breakdown and breakthrough.2Another global transformation has become inevitable, and is in fact under way: a fourth big  bang.  It is time  to  learn  the  lessons  of  history. Setting forth our reign on  the  planet will depend on mastering the challenge of this transformation.

The first and basic lesson is simple and evident. We have divorced ourselves from the natural world, and we need to come back—not to become savages and “primitives,” but beings who are attuned to the world around them, who live in sync with the rhythms and balances of nature and create compatible and sustainable rhythms and balances of their own. We are no longer aligned with the rhythms and balances of nature. Although through our biological evolution we are “built into” these rhythms and balances, we created our own artificial rhythms and perilous balances, and these ignore and often conflict with those of nature. Rising with the sun and retiring with the sun is to align with the twenty-four-hour circadian rhythm created by the movement of the earth around the sun, and so-called primitive people still live in harmony with it,  and  so  do  most  of  the  remaining  indigenous  and  traditional  cultures.  But modern people disregard nature’s rhythms and balances and believe that they can replace them by turning lights and other artificial conveniences on and off with the flip of a switch. Yet the human body does not align with the artificial rhythms, and we suffer the consequences. 

3effectiveness of the immune system is impaired, and despite a flood of biochemical medications, diseases proliferate. Modern populations are urban dwellers and have limited contact with nature. They live in an artificial world, and think that it is the real world. They hold themselves superior to other forms  of life  and believe that  they  can  master  nature  as  they  wish.  Even just  fifty  years  ago, animal  intelligence  researcher  Jane  Goodall  had to  fight  the then still  dominant  belief  that chimpanzees  are  biochemical  stimulus-response  mechanisms,  not  living  and  feeling  beings. Today, we realize that not just higher mammals, all living organisms, and even trees and plants, are sensitive living beings, and in that respect are not fundamentally different from us. It  is  in  the  best  interest  of  our  physical  and  mental  well-being that  we  rectify  these misconceptions and errant behaviors. When we do so, we regain our natural health and vitality. The healing effect of naural substances and lifestyles was known to healers and sages in classical times. Since Hippocrates, considered the father of modern medicine, medical scientists have been seeking  the  substances  and  methods  that  would  reestablish  balance  and  connection  between human  beings  and  nature.  Today  this  aspiration  is  overshadowed  by an often  commercially motivated reliance on synthetic substances and nature-ignoring practices. The scene is not all negative: as we shall see, there are positive developments in all fields of human endeavor, including healing and medicine. Connection with nature is a major objectives in  the  alternative  forms  of  healing  known  as  information  and  energy  medicine.  This  form  of healing  is  experiencing  a  renaissance  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  first  of  all  in  the  Orient. Shirin yoku, the Japanese art of forest bathing, is a prime example. Practicing it calls for going into a forest and feeling ourselves attuned to its rhythms and energies—hearing the wind rustle through the leaves, sensing the play of light on the surface of a pond, floating with the clouds as they move through the sky. Psychotherapists find that even the sounds of nature, the chirping of birds, the bubbling of brooks are healing. Just to be in a forest or to stand by a tree soothes and heals the nervous system. Another essential task is to recognize and connect with positive developments in society.

There are positive developments in society, and there are healthy, life-giving and maintaining processes in nature. We could re-immerse ourselves in nature, and join positive developments in society.  Yet we fail  to  do  so.  We tread a  path  that  leads  to  breakdown, rather  than to breakthrough. We need to re-think how we are going, and above all, where we are going. We are one of more than one hundred million species in the biosphere, where each species encompasses millions and in  some  cases  billions of  individuals.  Among  all  these  species  and individuals, we are in a privileged position: we have a highly developed brain and consciousness. This enables us to ask who we are, what the world is, and how we can and should live in the world. An advanced consciousness is a unique resource, and we are not making good use of it. We are not asking the right questions and seeking the right answers, just moving forward trusting to fortune. We have increased our numbers, but did not increase the benefits our conscious mind could confer  on  those  whom we  bring  into  the  world.  We  have  developed  sophisticated technologies and applied them to serve our needs and wants, but have damaged or driven to extinction  the  majority  of  advanced  species.  Fifty  percent  of  all  wildlife  on  the  planet  has disappeared, and forty-four thousand populations of living species are vanishing everyday. We have become a danger to life in the biosphere. History teaches us that big bangs, global transformations, do not necessarily bring about an equitable and flourishing world; they may lead to breakdown. We have reached the threshold of a fourth big bang, and we are not doing what we can to avert a breakdown. The bulk of today’s populations is frustrated and depressive and is turning violent. People suffer from a changed 

on climate, pollution, and myriad forms of ecological degradation. Millions roam the planet in search of a place merely to survive. The lessons of history are before us, and we ignore them. Yet we could learn the lessons and rectify our ways. We are perfectly capable of living on this planet without destroying the balances  and  resources  needed  for  a  healthy  life  for  ourselves  and  other  species.  No  species would have to be decimated, subjugated, or driven to extinction to keep us alive. We could live sustainably, coexisting with other species and respecting the limits of life on the planet. We could ensure the availability of  vital  resources  for  all  people  and  populations. Yetwe drive myriadspecies to extinction and damage the shared environment. The very fact that we managed to survive as a biological species for five million years, and as a conscious species for fifty thousand, is evidence that our basic nature is not the problem. It is not the bulk of the human population that is responsible for becoming a scourge of life on the planet, only a segment. The question is, why did this segment create unsustainable, and now critical, conditions for the higher forms of life on earth? And can it change and transform in time to avoid a major catastrophe? Theological  and  mystic  assumptions  have  sometimes  been  cited  as  the  reason  for  our becoming what we are, but ascribing our behavior to divine or other transcendent causes is not the answer.  We  are  neither  angels  nor  devils.  We became the scourge we have become unintentionally. At the dawn of the Neolithic, a segment of humanity began to use the resources of the planet without regard for anything and anybody, only  concentrating on  enhancing its own  comfort  and  power.  In a  finite  and interdependent planet, this produced unbalanced and unsustainable conditions. The self-centered use of resources damaged the web of life. The human species became a threat to all life on the planet, and also to its own: the health of the web of life is a precondition of the health of the species that inhabit. This  is  a  relatively  recent  realization.  For  millennia, people pursued the tasks of their existence without being conscious that the unreflective pursuit of their own interests turns into a bane for life around them.

We have turned into a bane for life on this planet; we have made the world into a toy-shop where  we  build  the powerful toys  that  serve  our perceived interests.  We  play  with  our  toys regardless of whether they truly serve our needs, and without taking into account the need sof others. We liberate the energy of the atom and use it to power systems that satisfy our wants. We channel flows of electrons  into  integrated  circuits  and  use  the  circuits  to  command  the technologies that serve our requirements for communication and information. We play in the global toyshop without regard for the consequences on others, and on the entire shop. This is a shortsighted and dangerous way to behave. We access energy in ways that do not serve our real needs, only our short-term self-centered wants. We manipulate information in a similarly shortsighted way. The nuclear bomb and the nuclear power station on the one hand, and the computer with its network of global chatter on the other, are examples. Nuclear power, even for peaceful uses, and artificial intelligence, even when well-intentioned, are dangerous toys. They may become technological overshoots that end up damaging our life, and the whole web of life in the biosphere. We are intrinsically  good,  but self-centered  and  short-sighted.  But this cannot be left unchallenged. The time when we could naively play with powerful toys is over. Their unforeseen “side-effects” have become a threat to all life on the planet, including our own.

                                                                   Going Forward.  

We have arrived at the threshold of the fourth big bang. Where do we go from here? If we are to flourish, and even just survive, our consciousness must change. If it fails to do so, the next big bang will be our last. A global transformation is a risky process: if it is to culminate in a breakthrough rather than lead to a breakdown, it has to be guided. We can begin the conscious guidance of our evolution following Gandhi’s advice: do not tell others what to do; become yourself what you want them and the world to become. Our essential task is to become the transformation of the world. We must be an expression of mature and healthy life in the biosphere. If a critical mass becomes that, the “fourth big bang” will not mark the end of life on the planet. It will be a disruptive global transformation, but not a destructive one. It will trigger a new phase in the tenure of humankind on the planet, and not the end of that tenure. It is time to learn the lessons of history—to look back to see forward. The survival of an advanced species and the future of the web of life on this planet is in our hands. Never have so many depended on the wisdom of so few. We need to awaken—to grow up. To make use of the power of consciousness that is in our hands. The time is not to ask whether we will make it through the fourth big bang, the global transformation that is already under way. The time is to set out to make it.

Embracing our oneness with nature be key to our survival. The unity is the invisible Intelligence and is embedded in the rhythms and relationships that observed in nature, we are the work of this cosmic intelligence. What is good for the whole system? On Earth, to the web of life on the planet, what is good for the whole system is good for us all. However, what may be good for a few of us in the short term is not necessarily good for the whole system. Because a few can distort the dynamic, the structure of the whole, by biasing it to work for their immediate benefit, for greed, selfishness and vanity. So, let’s look at the whole system, let us act as if we are part of it—because we are. We are part of nature, and nature is part of the universe. This recognition is probably the deepest guidance we can have.

The open Oneness doesn’t mean that we lose our individuality. The open Oneness means that we are joined together, each of us bringing something to the whole system, we are the whole system, we are all the others. This is what we need to understand; that we can, we must be, one with nature, without losing our individuality. We are not separate mechanical elements outside of nature. Every individual is a complex system running on the same information that orients all of nature. By following the intelligence implicit in the laws of nature we are not losing anything. We are gaining everything, because the secret of our health and wellbeing is to be one within ourselves, and to be one with others. Every event, every action impacts the whole system. If we know that, then we can freely choose to act as part of the whole.

Every living system is alive and healthy when all its elements, every one of the trillions and trillions of cells, are working together with and for the whole system. If in the human body there is a group of cells that is out of step, moving on its own, if it just grows and multiplies on its own we have the condition of disease. Every disease is basically a condition where some parts of the body do not cooperate with, are not fully aligned with, the whole.

All of us, all of the web of life on Earth, on Universe, must come together to form the symphony of oneness. That is the purpose of our existence. It is our contribution to the world. When we use our mind, our spirit, our consciousness the natural way, the way they were born to be used, we will find our way to oneness in our family and community, on Earth, and in the universe.

I am part of nature, and nature is part of me. I am what I am in my communication and communion with all living things. I am an irreducible and coherent whole with the web of life on the planet. Nature, the human community and the universe is connected with the Cosmos. We recognize the deep truth that I am the other. This expresses the concept from contemporary physics of “entanglement”, which is a quantum phenomenon. All atoms, all cells are connected, deeply.” The friendship is the connection we feel for each other, wherever he is, other people, animals, plants, stars. I am part of society, and society is part of me. I am what I am in my communication and communion with my fellow humans. I am an irreducible and coherent whole with the community of humans on the planet.

The separate identity I attach to other humans and other things is but a convenient convention that facilitates my interaction with them. My family and my community are just as much “me” as the organs of my body. My body and mind, my family and my community, are interacting and interpenetrating, variously prevalent elements in the network of relations that encompasses all things in nature and the human world. The whole gamut of concepts and ideas that separates my identity, or the identity of any person or community, from the identity of other persons and communities are manifestations of this convenient but arbitrary convention. There are only gradients distinguishing individuals from each other and from their environment and no real divisions and boundaries. There are no “others” in the world: We are all living systems and we are all part of each other. Attempting to maintain the system I know as “me” through ruthless competition with the system I know as “you” is a grave mistake: It could damage the integrity of the embracing whole that frames both your life and mine. I cannot preserve my own life and wholeness by damaging that whole, even if damaging a part of it seems to bring me short-term advantage. When I harm you, or anyone else around me, I harm myself. Collaboration, not competition, is the royal road to the wholeness that hallmarks healthy systems in the world. Collaboration calls for empathy and solidarity, and ultimately for love. I do not and cannot love myself if I do not love you and others around me: We are part of the same whole and so are part of each other.

“Logic will get you from A to B imagination will take you everywhere” Einstein.

As Kurt Gödel showed, can be classified in absolutely no Formal Axiomatic System, no matter how advanced that system is. They cannot be formal; they are by default informal (non typical). The logical assumption is then, that there cannot be a (formal) mathematical theory. Therefore, the nature of genuine mathematics is not objectively “mathematical”. Namely, it is not governed by the logic of set theory. The logic of the set theory is governed by the principle of identity, the principle of non-contradiction, while the choice of their axioms is strictly poetical, that is “creative”. The choice of the axioms is not empirical, nor are they produced logically, because if it were so, they would not be axioms, they would be theorems of logic. So, mathematics is not a simple acceptance of logical principles and metamathematics rules. If there is no creation of new axioms, where there is a need of them, then mathematics stops developing. There is no restriction on the choice of the axioms, except for the non-contradiction and their sufficiency. However, those two principles are not enough for the creation of axioms. They are the negative terms that have to be abided for the axioms to be valid and acceptable. The mathematics of thought exceed the totals and deal with magmas. For example, all the pictures that we keep in our minds when we are thinking or dreaming do not form a set in mathematical terms. That is because a set consists of elements defined and distinguished from each other, which come either from the real world or from the notional imaginary world. Our pictures, however, do not consist of elements distinguished and defined. We cannot separate them; all elements are connected to each other and are defined mutually.

Only the linguistic expression of genuine mathematics is typical, since, as being a language, it is a human construction of symbolic/point patterns which express the earthly dimensional (Euclidean) space-time environment. These extreme spot symbols of mathematical expression are nothing else but the extreme sections of the net (intangible) mathematical universe. Namely, they are material thickenings that take place due to the function of the human brain (1). An example may analyze the above: as electromagnetism is material (electricity) and “power” (“something else”) altogether, the mathematical universe

is language (material) and thought (“something else” – “energy”) together. The language should not be coincided with thought (2). On the other hand, neither the thought should be coincided with the written language. Both the oral and the written language are nothing more than a form of the net structure of thought – logic. Logic in turn, should not be coincided with mathematics (neither as being a mathematical logic), because mathematics are an immaterial – invisible “language” which is expressed as a visible material through mathematical symbols – spots. Ultimately, Mathematics themselves cannot be categorized, as we showed, in rationalism or in empiricism (“sensualism”), or in intuitionism (“intuitive mathematics”) either. They refer directly to the queen of human capabilities in Communication, i.e. imagination (and the Imaginary). “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” Einstein. As Hegel said, desire is the matrix of Thought. Man, desires what he lacks and what he lacks is the “other”, the unseen and invisible world. Man imagines what he lacks and he creates it with imagination. “Nothing exists in thought if man has not imagined it” (Aristotle). Creativity, creative imagination (Kant) is the ability to create new ideas, forms and situations from void and nothing. ‘’Imagination is the queen of truth, and possibility is one of the regions of truth. She is positively akin to infinity’’. Charles Baudelaire

As Baudelaire said, imagination is the queen of the human capacities. Indeed, reality is unified with the imaginary and the image we create for something is more important than that thing itself. However, imagination does not only create images. It also creates wishes and provocative excesses. Unquestionably, both the greatest and the most awesome human accomplishments were born in his imagination in the first place. We need imagination in order to “touch” others and spread ideas strange or even annoying to them. Imagination is required in order to surprise, to satisfy and to move them. Imagination means communication and creation after all. Furthermore, communication is the creation of the imaginary; it is an address to the imagination. This explains why communication is creative in more than one way. Imagination, then, is necessary to Communication, because beside the creation of images, words, meanings, universe, wishes and dreams, it also results in offering the pleasure of knowledge or the knowledge of pleasure to the world… It offers that is, mathematical imagination itself!

Comments

1. According to the special Theory of Relativity, the material universal reality is nothing more than the projection, the image, the reflection of everything enclosed in the four-dimensional non-Euclidian and invisible universe. The fourth dimension is the projection to the four dimensional and Euclidian space that is created by the physiology of our senses.

2. The language must not be identified with the Thought nor must it be distinguished from it, as the visible world of the perceptible material is not identified nor is it distinguished from the invisible world of the super noticeable energy. Time is the rhythm that combines the opposites without identifying them.

Leibniz in his work “Principles de la nature et de la grace’’ formulates the most primordial question of metaphysics: “Why does there exist something but not nothing?” This question is connected to the “principle of sufficient reason” and urges to the search for a cause or a foundation that affirms the existence of beings. This search ends to the highest being: God. Heidegger separates nothing / zero from beings, the Being emerges from this difference between zero and beings. This difference reminds to the man his mortality and because of that it constitutes the cause of the existential angst. In that sense, the question “Why does there exist something but not nothing” cannot be answered, it remains in air and reminds the man that he lives permanently on the brink of the abyss (zero).

Let’s move from the metaphysical question to the epistemological question that interest’s cosmology. Why does there exist the universe and not the chaos? The question seems unanswered. However, the answer may be simple: there exists “something” but not nothing, because “something” is simpler than nothing. If there did not exist anything, then nothing would be something that would be nothing. However, since nothing is not anything, this is the reason why something that is nothing is definitely something undefined, that is nothing.

As a consequence, the universe has to be something; the infinite chaos that has been zeroed and the product is 1. Namely: ∞ Χ 0 = 1 [“time”], which means that we count number one from the moment that the multiplication of the chaos with the zero produces basically the detachment of the infinite from the zero and equals 2 (duplication: chaos – zero). Each time the distance between chaos and zero is duplicated, we add one more “time” and we have 2. Namely, we are talking technically about a logarithmic scale instead of a “Linear” traditional scale.

Finally, the universe is nothing more but a continuous and uninterrupted logarithmic multiplier of the first two factors, chaos and zero. The appearance of the universe marks the onset of light which results from the operative Darkness – the Dark Energy. Light and darkness are nothing more than the two sides of the same coin: The Primary Unit (1), which has no beginning, since it arises as a product of infinity and zero (=chaos). It has to be reminded that in Cosmogony of Hesiod it is mentioned that the world as formatted matter, was created from Chaos (abyss), from nothing, blank, zero. The world, that is, was created from the undefined, the unformed, that which can transform into anything.

CHAOS, COMPLEXITY AND SELF-ORGANIZED SYSTEMS 

The Newtonian mechanics was the model of classical science. In the classical science all the natural laws had an absolutely deterministic and descriptive character and defined the course and development of every phenomenon. The knowledge of these laws assured the human – observer the ability to understand not only the present but also the past and the future. In a deterministic and timeless universe, the arrow of time is nothing but a human illusion. Only the vision of the universe from the perspective of eternity ensures the truth of physical theories. In the deterministic universe of the classical science, the order always creates disorder and never vice versa! The scientific dream of a united (applying on the microcosm as well as on the macrocosm) and objective (i.e. independent of the observer) description of the natural world, would become the nightmare of the contemporary physics in the beginning of the 20th century. The quantum description and interpretation of the microcosm, which is regarded as the fundamental level in which all the natural phenomena are raised and explained, requires a radical review of not only the classical description but also of the metaphysical preconditions of classical science. 

The classical ideal in physics was to be able to predict with certainty the future development of a physical system. Newton’s mechanics led to the triumph of the deterministic vision of the natural processes: if we know the initial conditions of a dynamical system, then the solution of the differential motion equations would allow us to know in certainty not only the past but also the future of that system. This, however, is not feasible for two reasons: a) it is not possible to have the initial conditions of the system in absolute accuracy and b) the analytical solution is not feasible for the great majority of the systems. As far as the first reason is concerned, we have to mention that after the discovery of the unstable systems, it became clear that very neighboring orbits (which, namely correspond to initial conditions and whose values may differ slightly) after a certain period of time are removed exponentially. In this notion, the orbit is actually an idealization, since it is never possible to know the initial conditions in “infinite” accuracy. 

According to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and Bohr’s principle of correspondence, the neutral and deterministic description of the microcosm is impossible: discontinuity and indeterminacy are inherent characteristics of microphysical phenomena and in order to describe them we have to integrate the observer within his own observations!  Ρrigozine believed that the laws of nature and those of physics are not given apriori, nor are they entailed logically. They evolve in the same way the various species evolve. Since things are becoming more multiple, bifurcations and aids occur and new laws appear. “How can you be talking about the laws of biology if there are no living systems?” This proves the creativity of life. Each level of organization produces something fundamentally new, something that is not found in the constituents or the “parts” of the previous level. For example, in a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen there is no water. The mixture gets a new identity, which, in practice, sacrifices the “parts”, hydrogen and oxygen. The only way to get the parts back is to ruin the water. In other words, it was not obvious in the equations of quantum mechanics that a “quantum arrow of time” emerges. Prigogine notes that in the theory of relativity as well, time is irreversible and space and time are alternating mutually. This theory led to the formulation of the theory of Big-Bang, which in practice gives an irreversible sense to the history of the universe. 

Prigogine’s first challenge concerns the phenomenon of irreversibility. The second challenge has to do with the sense of simplicity. Since Democritus and Aristotle’s era, scientists believed that beneath the complexity of our world there should be simple objects and simple forces. Initially, scientists thought that the atoms are the simple structural stones. Later on, when it was discovered that the atoms consist of smaller parts, simple particles such as the proton and the electron became the structural stones. After that, when the quantum mechanics led to the unexpected discovery of an impressive world of particles at the subatomic level, the physicists invented the grand unified theory and began to look for the unique, simple power – the “superpower” which is supposed to have given birth to that number of interactions of elementary particles. Prigοgine points out that: “the idea of simplicity dissolves. Whichever direction we chose, there is complexity.” Complexity is the key idea for the understanding of his theory. According to him, an organism is born, grows to its maturity and passes away, namely, it has a history… Both the classical Newtonian physics and the physics of the 20th century with quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity, are expressed by equations, which are symmetrical with respect to time, i.e. they are reversible and deterministic. In those theories there is no discrimination between the past and the future. 

Thermodynamics, from approximately the half of the 19th century had posed the problem of the irreversible processes and the arrow of time. But the fundamentally nonlinear character of natural processes and the different behavior of natural systems, when they are away from the equilibrium state, were not yet recognized. The discovery, in the 19th century, of the non reversible time – in evolution and entropy – did not change the belief of the physicists that in the most basic levels of matter, time is reversible, while the irreversibility we can see around us is a kind of an illusion, as Einstein once pointed out. As Prigogine mentions, “the study of systems away from the equilibrium state led me to the belief that this cannot be the right view. Irreversibility plays a constructive role. It creates a form. It creates human beings. How could our simple ignorance of the initial conditions be the reason for this? Our ignorance cannot be the reason we exist.” Prigogine goes on: “If we could raise the knowledge, i.e. create a computer powerful enough, in order to write equations for the motion of all reversible and probabilistic individual molecules that compose a system, then would our ignorance disappear, would the illusion of irreversibility remain vague, and would life, evolution, death and time itself disappear? This is weird.” 

This time paradox resulted in the development of physical theories during Newton’s era and thereafter. Particularly the time paradox refers to the fact that while the classical equations are reversible with respect to time, from numerous physical data the arrow of time seems to exist. So, the question raised by Prigogine is the following: Does the arrow of time arise simply as a result of a phenomenological approach to the natural processes or does it represent a fundamental element which we must incorporate in the descriptions of these processes? The claim of Prigogine is summarized: “All laws of physics must be compatible to the existence of the arrow of time”. This means that the laws have to be redrafted in order firstly to contain the arrow of time (i.e. not to be symmetrical with respect to time) and secondly, the various levels of description can lead to the same future state.

According to the second law of thermodynamics, in an isolated system (i.e. which does not exchange matter and energy with its environment), the total entropy increases progressively, while the free energy decreases until the system reaches the equilibrium state, when its entropy acquires its maximum value. In thermodynamic equilibrium state, the system is homogeneous and idle. If we also suppose, as Clausius did, that the whole universe is an isolated system of gigantic dimensions, then, according to the second law, the progressive degradation of the energy, i.e. the maximization of entropy inevitably leads to the “heat death” of the universe. In classical thermodynamics the arrow of time, i.e. the decay, the disorder and the death, is introduced. Classical thermodynamics referred to isolated and closed-linear systems. 

However, how can we explain the “weird” behavior of the open systems? These systems are located far from the equilibrium state and continuously exchange matter and energy with their environment. They do not tend to a state of minimum free energy and maximum entropy, but, on the contrary, they use some energy inputs and fluctuations not only in order to maintain their structural stability but also in order to evolve towards new dynamical states. The open thermodynamic systems are the rules, not the exception. Those systems contain not only the living organisms and the human societies, but also the greatest part of the “simpler” physicochemical systems. Prigogine proved that on conditions away from thermodynamic equilibrium state, the matter acquires new unexpected properties, organizes itself and produces complex structures from random fluctuations. He will name these structures dissipative structures. Basically, we are talking about systems which consume energy. The dissipative structures are states which reflect their interaction with the environment, with which they interchange energy, sustained through an endless dynamic flow. The simplest forms of dissipative structures are some rather simple physicochemical systems in which minimum disturbances and fluctuations in microscopic scale lead to the emergence of new unexpected macroscopic structures. The living systems are open systems, organization complexes that are far from the equilibrium state and Prigozine, as it is said, classifies them in the “dissipative structures.” 

Prigozine mentions that these random (unpredictable) processes show that the open systems and therefore the greatest part of our universe are not mechanistic but random. He uses the idea of randomness in a more different manner than the other scientists do. For example, for Jacques Monod, author of the book “Chance and Necessity”, chance means a world governed blindly and implies a universe, which according to human terms, is meaningless, namely it is very close to the illogical world of existential philosophy. 

However, for Prigozine, chance is a synonym for non-determinism, for spontaneity, for innovation and creativity. Prigozine’s universe is not far from being a living organism, just because it has got space for the random behavior. This allows the dissipative structures – which can be anything – from a chemical solution to a cloud, a brain or a human – to recreate themselves according to unpredictable models. These new models are usually caused by small changes or disturbances. These small changes or disturbances create an unpredictable type of behavior which challenges a mechanical interpretation of entropy, as well as a conventional interpretation of the arrow of time. 

This way, the dissipative structures introduce continuous creativity in nature. This means that nature is not something stable, inert molecules that are governed only by impulses and attractions, but something energetic and alive. In those open systems, the matter is not isolated, but on the contrary it is rewarding, and correlative self – changing, with respect to the activities of the rest matter. In those “out of balance” systems, the minimum change can “destabilize” the system and bring about a result that has not been foreseen by the logic of linear equations. Examples of dissipative structures  The key to the answer to the time paradox is located in the study of systems that are far from the equilibrium state. In systems like that self – organizing processes as well as dissipative structures are possible to come out. In order to understand this meaning, at first we shall refer to a system which is located close to the equilibrium state, e.g. a pendulum with frictions. If we remove it from the equilibrium state, after a certain period of time it will return to the above state. However, in systems which are not far from the equilibrium state, there are bonds which do not allow them to return to the equilibrium state. Prigοgine mentions the ecosystem on the surface of the earth as an example of the above phenomenon. As the ecosystem gets the influence of the solar radiation, it is removed from the equilibrium state and it is lead to the creation of complex structures. “The important thing”, Prigοgine mentions, “has to do with the fact that away from the equilibrium state, when the system is disturbed, there is no guarantee that it will return again in its former condition. On the contrary, the system starts exploring new structures, new types of organization in space – time, which I named dispersing structure.

An important factor in the emergence of new structures is the contribution of fluctuations or disruptions, namely of sudden illusions that allow something new to appear, even there where the existence of entropy would exclude it. This happens because the dispersion structures are non linear systems, the order of which emerges from chaos. If we add only one fluctuation to other fluctuations, then this fluctuation will become so strong that it will manage to organize the whole system under a new model. These points are called by Prigogine Bifurcation points and they are points at which the deterministic description collapses and then the system follows one of the several possible Bifurcations of the road. As an instant window into the whole, the strengthening of the bifurcations leads to order or chaos. In Prigogine’s perception of things, the bifurcation – a word meaning Point of disunity or division – is a basic notion. The bifurcation in a system is a moment of critical importance when something as small as a single photon, a slight variation of the external temperature, a change in the density, or the fluttering of a butterfly in Hong Kong expands so much by repetition that a fork is created – and the system gets a new direction. As time goes by, the torrents of Bifurcation points makes the system either get fragmented resulting in chaos or stabilize a new behavior through a series of feedback loops (like self – abolition, cross catalysis and self – interception). 

If a system that has gone through a Bifurcation gets stabilized by its feedback, it can resist to other changes for millions of years, until some new critical disorder enhances the feedback and creates a new Bifurcation point. At its Bifurcation points, the option to “choose” between different types of order is actually offered to the system. The inner feedback of some choices is so complicated that there is basically an infinite amount of degrees of freedom. In other words, the order of the choice is so high that we are talking about chaos. Other Bifurcation points offer options where the coupling feedback creates a lower degree of freedom. These choices can make the system seem simple and normal. This, however, is a fraud because the feedback in obviously simple orders, such as a solitonic wave, is also very complicated. The pure effect of the Bifurcations in the evolution of the living cells was the creation of organic chemical reactions that have been created in a complex and stable manner in the cell environment. Prigogine by the notion “communication” means this exact creation of feedback loops. Towards such communication the system remains unharmed. 

The Bifurcation points are landmarks in the evolution of the system and imprint its history. The historical record of the human Bifurcations is engraved on human fetuses. These undergo stages on which initially they look like fish, later like amphibians and finally like reptiles. Thousands upon thousands of Bifurcation points that compose a vivid recounting of options, through which we evolved as a system from the initiative cell to our current being, can be found imprinted in all forms and processes – in our cell chemical reactions and in the form of our neural networks – that make us unique. In every Bifurcation point during the past of our system, there was a course in which there were several futures. By the repetition and the support that the system got, one future was chosen while the other possibilities disappeared forever. This way our Bifurcation points compose a map of non reversibility of time. The dynamic of the 

Bifurcation points reveals that the time is irreversible but it is able to make summaries. It also reveals that the movement of time is not measurable. Every decision made in a Bifurcation point contains a support to something small. Although causality works every time, the Bifurcation occurs unpredictably. Prigogine points out that: “This mixture of necessity and chance composes the history of the universe.” It also composes the creativity of the universe. The capability of a system to reinforce a small change constitutes a creative lever. Only one bee which enters a beehive and interacts with thousand other bees can pull the beehive across the air by making small movements that indicate the location rich in pollen. The systems are also very sensitive near those parts which consist the crystallized “memory” of Bifurcations of the past. The nations evolved mainly due to Bifurcations which included heavy conflicts. As a result, they are very sensitive towards several types of information which reproduce those Bifurcations. A mere newspaper title can motivate a whole nation to go to war.