Beyond the Einstein-Russell Manifesto of 1955: The Potsdam Denkschrift for the 21st Century
DK Matai - August 30, 2006
"Beyond the Einstein-Russell Manifesto of 1955: The Potsdam Denkschrift" is probably one of the most thought provoking and meaningful think-pieces of our time, which has been developed by the world famous nuclear-physicist and Alternative Nobel Prize Winner Prof Hans-Peter Duerr based in Munich, Germany.
Prof Hans-Peter Duerr
The Potsdam Denkschrift's ground-breaking thoughts -- based on the "ab initio" deeper understanding of modern science in general and nuclear physics in particular over a century -- are particularly relevant in today's day and age.
All of the 10 complex global challenges of the 21st century identified -- climate chaos, radical poverty, organised crime, extremism, informatics, nanotechnology, robotics, genetics, artificial intelligence and financial systems -- depend on the way humankind thinks and acts to address and to begin to resolve some of the seemingly intractable yet interlinked confrontations. As those inherent confrontations accelerate and feed off each other's momentum they possess the capability to damage and to disrupt the delicate global dynamic equilibrium. Faced with this unpalatable prospect for humanity in the coming two to three decades or less, it is necessary to rethink strategically because "He who is not busy being born, is busy dying."
The Potsdam Denkschrift is a declaration of Hans-Peter Dürr, J Daniel Dahm and Rudolf zur Lippe under the patronage of the Federation of German Scientists -- Vereinigung Deutscher Wissenschaftler (VDW). It is the basis of the abstract condensed version, the Potsdam Manifesto‚ "We have to learn to think in a new way" which has been signed by more than 130 scientists and distinguished personalities from across the world.
Prof Hans-Peter Dürr is a well-known German nuclear physicist and philosopher. He worked closely with the nuclear physicist, Edward Teller, and the inventor of quantum mechanics, Werner Heisenberg. He is a former Director of the Max-Planck-Institute of Physics, Munich, whose first Director was Albert Einstein. In 1987 he founded the Global Challenges Network, a global network for sustainable development initiatives and socially responsible uses of technology. He is Chairman of the German Association of Scientists and is a key advocate of the development of a holistic science in the 21st century. He is the author of many scientific papers and books. In 1987 he received the Right Livelihood Award, the Alternative Nobel Prize. In 2002 the Cambridge Biographical Centre proclaimed him International Scientist of the Year. In 2004 he received the highest Award of the German Government, Das Grosse Bundesverdienstkreuz. He is a Founding Councillor of The World Future Council, on whose advisory board I also sit. His Potsdam Denkschrift follows within a personalised letter:
Dear DK
Re: Beyond the Einstein-Russell Manifesto of 1955: The Potsdam Denkschrift
I was asked by my science friends to write a kind of an "update" of the old Einstein-Russell Manifesto of 1955, an impossible task in view of the multitude of the present problems beyond the nuclear weapons of mass destruction of the old time.
I offered to write something more radical than "to think in a new way" and more "to think beyond present thinking" on the basis of the radical change of our world view due to the revolutionary insights of modern science at the beginning of the last century: Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac, Wolfgang Pauli...
Einstein, as you know, was the first director of the Max-Planck-Institute for Physics. I worked for nearly twenty years with Heisenberg at the same institute.
I submit The Potsdam “DENKSCHRIFT”:
"All, equally, are in peril, and, if the peril is understood,
there is hope that they may collectively avert it.
We have to learn to think in a new way."
From the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, 1955
The introductory title of The Potsdam Denkschrift has been taken from the important sentence in the "Russell-Einstein Manifesto 1955", which was signed by Einstein only two weeks before he died. "Denkschrift" translated into English would be "Memorandum" referring more to "Thinking back", rather than what it actually is, a "Thinking ahead or beyond" which is contained precisely in the German word -- hence we left it un-translated.
I. Starting Situation
Justifiably worried that Hitler’s Germany could get the upper hand in building an atomic bomb, the convinced pacifist Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt shortly before the beginning of World War II, adding his voice to what led the President to initiate America’s Manhattan Project. The resulting fission bombs were used sixty years ago in 1945, soon after Germany’s capitulation, against Japan. In great consternation, Einstein called for a fundamental political re-orientation to make wars impossible in the future. But without visible success. The development of fusion bombs (hydrogen bombs) increased the deadly potential of nuclear weapons of mass destruction to almost unlimited dimensions and, in the escalating confrontation between East and West, became a mortal danger for all of humanity.
Fifty years ago, prominent oppositional movements formed all over the world to stop this arms race. Bertrand Russell formulated a manifesto, and Einstein signed it shortly before his death. It was an ultimatum calling for a new way of thinking that would ensure that, in the future, war would be completely banned as an instrument of politics and conflict resolution.
What has become of this urgent call today, fifty years later? In particular, it awakened groups of citizens, a civil society, that gained attention and launched its own international initiatives all over the world as the peace movement, later as the environmental and third-world movement, and as the cultural-critical women’s movement. In many ways, they courageously practiced a new way of thinking. They thus took outstanding part in the exemplary process of reconciliation among the once bitterly hostile European nations and in particular, to a much greater degree than yet publicly acknowledged, in the surprisingly successful non-violent ending of the Cold War. Their insights and experience are the fertile soil for this Denkschrift. That the triumphant authoritative political powers learned nothing and did not want to learn anything from this peaceful change was frighteningly evident in later developments, in which none of the many hoped-for, trailblazing options were taken up.
The history of the last fifty years has clearly showed that military strategy, with its preliminary culmination in weapons of mass destruction –- and today, not only nuclear, but also chemical and biological WMDs, as well as their special use against sensitive targets –- is only an especially spectacular, but in no way the only or most important realization of much more far-reaching and deeper-based power strategies with new military, political, and above all economic components. These have led to an escalation of structural violence and terrorist reactions.
Probably the most important factor today is the structural violence exerted by the highly-centralized physical economy and by the financial industry, which is closely networked around the world. Economic power has managed to seize primacy over military power and to make the latter its complete servant, with equally deleterious consequences. And this has not happened coincidentally, but consciously and intentionally. For it is an unfortunately widespread opinion that a growing concentration of power is a precondition for a reliable world order, whereby that order’s neutral international anchoring, formerly regarded as an indispensable prerequisite, is in danger of becoming meaningless.
Structural violence in economic life arises, first, from the power interests of the hegemonic powers and, second, from the worldwide hegemony of international finance capital, which must not be equated with the market economy. The geopolitical, socio-cultural, and economic power strategies, as well as the unlimited expansion strategies of modern business and production, necessarily provoke and create incompatibilities with the fundamental spatial and material limits of our biosphere. These are expressed in life-threatening ways in the changes in micro- and macroclimatic conditions around the world, in the deterioration of soils and vegetation complexes over broad regions, in damage to the hydrosphere that is irreversible on a human scale, and in the rapid, destructive exploitation of exhaustible mineral and energy resources. Particularly dangerous thereby is the destruction of biodiversity, which is proceeding at an accelerated rate seemingly unique in the history of the earth. For the annihilation of the bio-ecological diversity of whole complexes of life is an irreversible loss for the geo-biosphere and, within it, above all for us humans as the “top rider” of the meta-stable pyramid of life and the final link in a long and complicatedly branched food chain. But the variety of human ways of life and the treasure store of the cultures are being similarly irreversibly reduced –- and with their loss, the spectrum of possible future strategies and lifestyles, necessary changes and developments, is narrowed and diminished.
But such recognitions remain superficial, because they reveal only dangerous symptoms and existence-threatening syndromes, which must be specifically corrected in the short term and healed in the long term. The investigation and uncovering of the deeper causes of these dangerous developments has been neglected. The increasingly globally adapted power strategies and the image of humankind associated with them are closely tied to our materialistic-mechanistic worldview, which is meanwhile favoured all over the world, and with the way of thinking that results from the spirit of doing and that provokes action in conformity with power considerations. This view of the world, in which the world resembles a material clockwork operating in accordance with strict laws (also called the classical Cartesian-Newtonian worldview) is not the real cause, of course. It is itself the result of and legitimisation for a historical development in which patriarchal hierarchies and power-seeking organizational strategies, as well as a narrow monotheism, play an important role in separating humankind from the realm of nature. But the strategies believing that there are no limits to what can be done, are based on the increase in the precision of these materialistic-mechanistic ideas of the world and on the thereby enabled successful scientific-technological development of our civilization. The (controllable) instrumental knowledge necessary for this is provided primarily by the empirical sciences, which, in the context of this worldview, orient themselves toward the fundamental principle of an asserted causal closure of the material world as “reality” (a reality of objects) and which project it (especially via the political, social, and economic sciences) onto all aspects and processes of life on earth. This in turn leads to forms of action whose results seem, in the short term, strictly to legitimise this reality.
I am life
The ground on which this new sustainable, organismic cultural diversity is to grow has been well prepared. For why do political and economic decision-makers invoke freedom and democracy, when most of them seem to have abandoned this trust in a fundamental commonality? Because they secretly know and feel that deeply anchored in people’s hearts is the longing to strengthen their own physical, emotional, and spiritual abilities and to further develop their personalities; and this is possible only in relative freedom. But the great majority of people do not want to use their empowerment against others who are trying to do similar things, but rather, together with them and motivated by the deeper connection, to create a more comprehensive commonality on a higher level. A new, but in truth long-proven view of the human beings is becoming visible, one that assumes a person capable of love and empathy. We should not be misled by the excesses of our modern civilization. The human being is capable of much more than being an aggressive, avaricious “wolf” (in Thomas Hobbes’ sense): freedom to strengthen oneself, not for the sake of victory in struggle against the others, but responsible for strengthening one’s own contribution in favour of the whole. Co-liberality is needed to achieve an optimal, vibrant coexistence in the sense implied by Albert Schweitzer’s remark, ”I am life that wants to live, amid life that wants to live.”
All this may sound unachievably utopian. But we should remember: The mere fact of our existence -- as people today should show us -- that we are the successful result of a similar development that has already gone on for billions of years. We must continue to create new knowledge that allows more vibrancy to flower. We can trust that this power is effective in us. For omni-connectedness, which we can call love and which germinates from vitality, is inherent in the core of us and of everything else.
Sincerely and with warm regards
Hans-Peter Dürr
[ENDS]
We look forward to your further thoughts, observations and views. Thank you.
Best wishes
DK
DK Matai
The Philanthropia, ATCA, mi2g.net
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Posted by DK Matai at August 30, 2006 04:31 AM
Comments
1. Posted by
mieke
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on
August 30, 2006 06:48 AM
I had to read some of that three times to get it conceptually burned (grow some dendrites) in my physical brain.
I agree with Meike, the evolution is happening. I can see it in the new generation as well. I could see it in the abhorrence of society’s hypocrisy in my daughter. Her total rejection of the archaic frameworks, and her being lost trying function in a world construct based on that which is false. I can also see the coming fall of all those seek to maintain the old “system of things”.
There are revelations coming. A mathematical proof that we are One and that we are in fact an expression of nature, each of us the unfolding of an event, we are not separate from it, or anything else literally and it can be supported by science.
I have provided hints and if you have seen enough of my material you may have seen them.
Going back to what Meike pointed out, previous generations would not be able to handle the coming revelations, or perhaps it is better to say that they would have rejected them. They are disturbing yet liberating. If you watched the Google Einstein Great Dissemination video from Infinite Play you might pick up the clues.
Most importantly it is not so abstract that I can’t code it as a function in a computer model.
As for society, the infrastructure exists to engineer the “ego” (which operates on perceptions of being separate) mind out of the system, allowing the collective mind to rule and formulate policy, while celebrating and protecting the “individual”.
I AM really just the witness to an event unfolding, my Self expression, like the opening of the Lotus.
2. Posted by
Richard Thomas
on
August 30, 2006 09:00 AM
Dear DK
Indeed we are all for LIFE and its immense possibilities. It is the same Russell 50 years back who issued a decree that Russia be bombed and not to forget Heidegger,who was referred to famously as The teacher and Gunter Grass, both were members of the NAZI party in Germany.
What is a very disturbing dynamic in the modern world is that of Intellectual nihilism and its ability to destroy the self and the others. The trends are visible in all kinds militant and state run organizations including the ones that believe in the left and a possible revolution.
For me it looks like we are far from being evolved as Humanity which has learned to live with Harmony.
For example the aspects of Morality and the very concept of the Value/Merit system are very diabolical (Anti-Human).
We need to be moral in a way that life can be creative and qualitative but the same instruments of morality are used in judging the others in terms of race and notions of superiority, where by it leads to indifference and prejudice and annihilation of the so called lesser.
To be moral is to possess a double edged sword, which we use in both ways for a qualitative improvement and as a tool of destruction, so are many of the relatively held human values and the dynamics, which are dualistic, including the notion of LOVE (GOOD) itself.
Perhaps as a humanity we have not yet overcome the limitations of duality or found a path which can lead us to a new world beyond the present day conflicts (Except for the few great seers who have transcended thousands of years ago without the help of modern tools of the so called civilizations of the East and West).
I suppose it is because of our conditioning and our roots and source in our respective monotheistic religious teachings and beliefs which are caught in the dichotomy of GOOD and BAD / EVIL and WISE.
Surprisingly every person who believes in GOOD has a need for a world based on GOOD and so do the so called bad and evil people. They are also in need of GOOD. Hitler would have certainly wanted the world to see him as a good person not as a villain of humanity, like wise many of our contemporary evil doers in all walks of life would want to be remembered as being Good, so humanity in general has an Inherent need for good for its survival and nourishment of the spirit but we as individuals and collectively at large have this constant problem of defining, identifying and upholding the GOOD in it's ever changing dynamics and we all with our Egos' ruling us have such personal stakes in arriving at a common objective understanding that time and again every generation has to grapple with the problems associated in realizing a common good.
It would still be a long journey before we are free from this dualistic play and mean while the abetting destruction of everything that is dear to us including our own illusions might have to continue, while each of us play our respective roles.
There is no doubt we have an immediate need for a new paradigm of thinking or even to do away with traditional notions of thought and science and knowledge.
Whatever steps are necessary in achieving this new human understanding, it is important and immediate that we take our first step in rejecting every thing/position that takes us further away from becoming better human beings and most importantly the abuse and destruction of human life all around the US.
With warm regards for one and all....
Indrakaran
3. Posted by
indrakaran
on
August 30, 2006 09:43 AM
Dear Richard,
Tonight i saw an interesting documentary on our television that could perhaps be the beginning of the rewriting of our whole earthly history.
It was about the discovery of three pyramids in Bosnia Herzegowina which are probably 27.000 years old and are built in such a way that they reveal sacred geometry. Imagine 27.000 years ago.
They were discovered last year and there is a whole article about them on the Wikepedia pages.
But i also found the website of the amateur archeologist. There is scepticism about this all but what i saw and heard on television tonight sounded very real and promising.
http://www.piramidasunca.ba/
4. Posted by
mieke
on
August 30, 2006 01:54 PM
Dear DK,
This is a fascinating and all-encompassing post. I am humbled, and I am not sure which part is most available for my comment, as I feel that my scientific knowledge is lagging behind years of focus on my humanistic studies.
Only second to my concern about all WMD, I have been preoccupied about the destruction of biodiversity due, I believe, also to the widespread use of genetic modified seeds -- as everybody knows, pollen moves from place to place through bees and wind. These new life forms multiply, spread and cannot be recalled or stopped from reaching the wild. I perceive this threat to biodiversity to be an expression of the existing threat to human diversity, which is exemplified by the monotony of shopping malls with their repetitive architecture and megastores.
I also feel the urgent necessity for a new way of thinking for humanity, a way which must have universal appeal -- to scientists, philosophers, politicians (hopefully), etc. The proven fact that groups of citizens can transform society, its operating philosophies and, more important, end a "cold war" is a very hopeful precedent. Together we can make it. Human beings are seeking happiness. And, I agree, not necessarily at the expense of others. We all want to express our highest qualities to achieve our highest possible good, while at the same time benefiting others.
Thank you for sharing this information.
Love,
Donatella
5. Posted by
Donatella
on
August 30, 2006 02:32 PM
Dear Mieke, Well recognised! "Beyond the Einstein-Russell Manifesto of 1955: The Potsdam Denkschrift for the 21st Century" does indeed have synchronicity with Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's "Omega Point" thinking.
The visionary French Jesuit, paleontologist, biologist, and philosopher, spent the bulk of his life trying to integrate religious experience with natural science, most specifically theology with theories of evolution.
In this endeavour he became absolutely enthralled with the possibilities for humankind, which he saw as heading for an exciting convergence of systems, an "Omega point" where the coalescence of consciousness will lead us to a new state of peace and planetary unity.
In some ways the Internet, Blogging and IntentBlog are enabling the Omega Point, whilst also exhibiting a dark side simultaneously.
Long before ecology was fashionable, Teilhard de Chardin described this unity which he saw as being based intrinsically upon the spirit of the Earth:
"The Age of Nations is past. The task before us now, if we would not perish, is to build the Earth."
Teilhard de Chardin passed away a full ten years before James Lovelock ever proposed the "Gaia Hypothesis" which suggests that the Earth is actually a living being, a collosal biological super-system.
"We have reached a crossroads in human evolution where the only road which leads forward is towards a common passion... To continue to place our hopes in a social order achieved by external violence would simply amount to our giving up all hope of carrying the Spirit of the Earth to its limits."
To this end, he suggested that the Earth in its evolutionary unfolding, was growing a new organ of consciousness, called the noosphere. The noosphere is analogous on a planetary level to the evolution of the cerebral cortex in humans. The noosphere is a "planetary thinking network" -- an interlinked system of consciousness and information, a global net of self-awareness, instantaneous feedback, and planetary communication. At the time of his writing, computers of any merit were the size of a city block, and the Internet was, if anything, an element of speculative science fiction. Yet this evolution is coming to pass, and with a rapidity, that in Gaia time, is but a mere passage of seconds. In these precious moments, the planet is developing her cerebral cortex, and emerging into self-conscious awakening. We are approaching the Omega point that Teilhard de Chardin was so excited about.
This convergence however, though it was predicted to occur through a global information network, was not a convergence of merely minds or bodies -- but of heart, a point that de Chardin made most fervently.
"It is not our heads or our bodies which we must bring together, but our hearts... Humanity... is building its composite brain beneath our eyes. May it not be that tomorrow, through the logical and biological deepening of the movement drawing it together, it will find its heart, without which the ultimate wholeness of its power of unification can never be achieved..."
Dear Richard and dear Indrakaran, thank you for your thoughtful observations. Your analyses are extremely useful in developing this Socratic dialogue. I have covered my response to you in Mieke's response.
Dear Donatella, your comments are principally suggesting the need for The Potsdam Denkschrift. This will please my friend Prof Hans-Peter Duerr as well as The World Future Council headed by another good friend -- Jakob von Uexkull, where we are all involved to begin to envisage and implement The Potsdam Denkschrift's key tenets out of Geneva, Switzerland, and more recently out of Hamburg, Germany.
Please forgive my errors and omissions.
With warm wishes
DK
DK Matai
The Philanthropia, ATCA, mi2g.net
Dear DK,
Thank you for posting this. Hans Peter Durr is a close, personal friend. He is also one of the important voices in the world today on Science and Spirituality. We have several hours of film footage shot at the Symposium on Science and Spirituality which we will be editing for a film project. Hans Peter's vision may sound idealistic and utopian, but I believe if there is a critical mass of consciousness in the world, this vision can be reality. This is one of the goals of the Alliance for a New Humanity (www.anhglobal.org).
Love,
Deepak
7. Posted by
Deepak Chopra
on
August 30, 2006 03:49 PM
Thanks for the lead Mieke, added it to the repository some interesting stuff surrounding that.
You know science has yet learned how to apply improbability factoring. The moon is not there by accident, it is there by design. If it wasn't there we would not be here.
Another thing I will go on the record here right now, I have an advantage over most scientists because I am open to certain possibilities they are not, so I can make discoveries that they cannot. However I need them because they have working knowledge that I do not.
I am developing proofs that Pangaea the original single land mass was cut with high energy particle beams with intention, and design requirements, related to climate and planetary equilibrium.
You can imagine what these proofs would do to the world’s belief systems. It begs the question “who did the cutting?” Who put the moon there? What has the technology to do so?
That leads us to the what / who are we really?
It would not have happened naturally in the manner that it has.
The tolerances which allow complex life forms to exist are very small.
Who could have designed a plant to produce a chemical, to be used in the human biochemical machine?
These are three of my proofs that alter all of mankind, or to be exact the noosphere, or the collective mind set.
There was a forth I released 7 years ago, and that was the intelligent symbology in the so called "junk" DNA.
The other three will be released in November of this year.
For a total of seven.
SOME FUNDAMENTALISTS MIGHT SAY....
The opening of the seven seals.
Lets just hope we can move fast enough....
8. Posted by
Richard Thomas
on
August 30, 2006 04:31 PM
I have hinted at two of the other three already.
There are no such things as particles, they are an appearance.
There is no such thing as travel, it is also an appearance.
But most minds are incapable of making the leap across the gap to be able to understand how that could be.
But being on the other side of that gap, one can build a bridge so that others may cross, opening the door to human potenial so vast....
As long as we don't destroy ourselves which is the requirement of "HEART" that DK was alluding to.
Drama encapsulated by a divine comedy.
9. Posted by
Richard Thomas
on
August 30, 2006 04:45 PM
Another important observation related to GAIA is that, I suspect, that if we do not handle remineralization of the surface soil, the earth itself will do so, as part of a very natural process, in a very impersonal manner.
I would suggest that a global works project is begun immediatly of course I am not sure if we can do it or not.
If not then perhaps the wealthy will be buying my exteme weather housing.
You should what extreme fluctuations in Real Estate values are coming, something every finacial institution and investor should tkae into account.
Did I mention Global warming on mars?
That the Mayans had it all mapped out?
That Maya is another word for Illusion, and a people, just a coincidence?
I could be wrong .... then again maybe it is all about how the Infinite Play.
10. Posted by
Richard Thomas
on
August 30, 2006 05:02 PM
God Knows what's Happening Dear Deepak. But I'm Observing it!!
Love..Sachin
11. Posted by
Observer
on
August 30, 2006 05:32 PM
Thank you for this article which is of great interest to me as the sustainable development model I have devised after extensive cross-disciplinary experience and research is based on our current scientific understanding of the world, the human mind and behaviour. It is designed to help educate and train people "to think in a new way", "to think beyond present thinking" and to plan, organise and act integratively.
The model is called "Integrative Improvement: Sustainable Development as if People and Their Physical, Social and Cultural Environments Mattered". The Integrative Improvement Institutes Project has been launched to diffuse, refine and implement Integrative Improvement in a number of countries. A short (13 pages) paper on the Project is available. Among other things, it outlines the way in which application of the model leads to what I call Integrative Capitalism and Integrative Democracy.
12. Posted by
Graham Douglas
on
August 30, 2006 09:03 PM
Dear Deepak, good to have spoken with you and thank you for highlighting your excellent relationship with Prof Hans-Peter Duerr, who has featured prominently on ATCA and at the World Future Council's inaugural meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, this year which was set up by Jakob von Uexkull -- the Founder of the Alternative Nobel Prize. We have passed on your regards to Prof Duerr in Munich and Bianca Jagger in London.
Prof Duerr's seminal speech at the WFC was one of the most memorable highlights of that excellent event (www.worldfuturecouncil.org). The Philanthropia supports the WFC at the advisors & donors level. The Alliance for a New Humanity, WFC and The Philanthropia appear to have synergistic goals. We think it will be a great idea to turn the 90 hours of video footage with Prof Duerr into a shorter film or series which could be aired on BBC World amongst other quality networks.
Another distinguished member of the WFC is Prof Tim Flannery whose recent book "The Weather Makers" has been applauded by many luminaries including the Prime Ministers of Britain and Australia as a step in the right direction to acknowledge, to understand and to address climate chaos. Prof Flannery and Sir David Attenborough from the BBC were both hosted recently at St Paul's Cathedral in London with 2,000 people at the launch of The Weather Makers, which The Philanthropia and ATCA also supported by way of a seminal debate on Countering Climate Chaos (CCC).
At the CCC debate, The Philanthropia brought together The Rockefeller Brothers Fund from New York, The Trilateral Commission Europe from Paris, The World Forum for Social Entrepreneurship from Oxford, ABN-AMRO Bank from Amsterdam, The World Future Council from Hamburg, The Right Livelihood Award Foundation (Alternative Nobel Prize) from Stockholm, The Ecologist from London and De Pury Pictet Turrettini et Cie and Blue Orchard from Geneva.
Dear Richard, thank you for your thought: "Another important observation related to GAIA is that, I suspect, that if we do not handle remineralization of the surface soil, the earth itself will do so, as part of a very natural process, in a very impersonal manner." This theme could be developed further.
Dear Graham, what you are suggesting with "Integrative Improvement: Sustainable Development as if People and Their Physical, Social and Cultural Environments Mattered" is particularly useful. Is the short paper online?
Dear ww, "Beyond the Einstein-Russell Manifesto of 1955: The Potsdam Denkschrift for the 21st Century" is highly compatible with spirituality. Socratic Dialogue is essentially about having the capacity to appreciate that there are other points of view, which are fundamentally different. Yet, it aims step-by-step over time to synthesise the differences into an acceptable union. This may take days, weeks, months, lifetimes, the entire history. Who knows? It depends on the complexity of the topic and the willingness of fellow humans to have the wish to engage.
With love to all
DK
DK Matai
The Philanthropia, ATCA, mi2g.net
Dear DK,
Thank you so much for explaining Teilhard´s vision so clearly and how it is so appropriate at this time, especially in relation to the Internet.
But not only there, in my opinion. It is becoming more and more already a matter of what you radiate you receive back. This can be happening everywhere, all the time. If we learn to radiate more and more from the heart, the Universe will respond to this in every way possible :)
Dear Richard,
Thanks for your valuable comments. Would like to respond to the second paragraph of one of them:
""You know science has yet learned how to apply improbability factoring. The moon is not there by accident, it is there by design. If it wasn't there we would not be here.""
The discovery of these three pyramids in Bosnia Herzegovina, called the pyramid of the Sun, the pyramid of the Moon and the Pyramid of the Dragon, and their approximate age is so much in line with the unique evolution theory of Harb, that i do agree with you. But then the question is: What design?
I would like to agree with Harb when he states:
"Say yes to Design, no to outside Intelligence"
http://www.selfdesigneduniverse.com
This could also be a point of a very interesting discussion :)
14. Posted by
mieke
on
August 31, 2006 03:13 AM
Dear Mieke, you state: "What you radiate you receive back." Agreed!
Dear Skeptisch, Hans-Peter Dürr has written for all of us -- for all humankind. You state: "One can almost pick a line at random and find it filled with truth and wisdom anyone and everyone can understand." Very True! His thoughts which you paraphrased are seminal.
With love to all
DK
DK Matai
The Philanthropia, ATCA, mi2g.net
:)
16. Posted by
mieke
on
August 31, 2006 07:34 AM
Dear DK,
It is the vision of people like you, Prof Hans-Peter Dürr and Deepak that ensures a better future for all of us. I am sure that the The Potsdam Denkschrift will contribute to the reaching of the critical mass of consciousness Deepak speaks of and which is the destiny of humanity.
Love,
Donatella
17. Posted by
Donatella
on
August 31, 2006 08:27 AM
Dear Mieke and Richard,
I enjoyed reading your posts.
Richard, I cannot find your comment in which you said that you are a different kind of scientist because you are open minded, unlike some others. It reminded me of what I read once (you probably know this) about a Christian mission in Africa which the missionaries abandoned, leaving behind the sacred scriptures. When they returned years later, they found that the local people were performing miracles as they had taken the meaning of the scriptures literally. It also helped that there were no priests around to tell them otherwise.
Love,
Donatella
18. Posted by
Donatella
on
August 31, 2006 08:41 AM
PARADISE ON EARTH?
In the year 1905, Nobel physicist, Albert Einstein, published his E=mc² EQUATION, Which opened the door to THE WORLD OF THE PROTON GENIE.
Einstein's EQUATION provides the basis for extracting and fusing PROTONS from ordinary pure water, which will make everybody on Earth so idly rich and content from the benefits of this clean, virtually-free and inexhaustible energy supply that nobody should ever again have to worry about pollution, war or poverty, and Mother Nature can once again reign as The Supreme Mistress of any and all Climate Change.
The Doomsday Clock reads: 7 minutes until Doomsday, and counting!
Is it too late? Or, will some ordinary, individual tinkerer (maybe just an average high school student) rise to the occasion, and demonstrate the physical expression of Einstein's EQUATION so that the entire World Population can move forward into a future of peace, contentment and prosperity?
You can help make Einstein's vision become a reality by linking this blog to your home page.
web site:
http://howtosavecivilization.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-to-save-civilization.html
19. Posted by
robertmacelvain
on
August 31, 2006 10:19 AM
Dear Mieke, :)
Dear Donatella, we are all together in reaching the critical mass of consciousness which many Spiritual Masters have referred to as the coming "Golden Age."
Dear Skeptisch, paranormal aside, the Potsdam Denkschrift is not about "esoteric miracles" unless we are talking about the "miracle of science and technology." It is about connecting the logic of true science with engendering humanity, longevity and sustainability into our global civilisation.
Dear Robert, if you are referring to fusion, beyond the Fleischmann experience in the late 1980s there is huge skepticism about that sort of possibility in the near term. Humankind has to reduce its wastage of energy and its over all dependence on fossil fuel generated energy. The most elegant solution lies in renewables like wind, solar, ethanol and bio-diesel. The nuclear domain is fraught with its own huge cost base. It can take over five years to bring a nuclear reactor on stream and the cost of nuclear electricity has to be subsidised heavily based on past experience. The cost of decommissioning reactors is exorbitant. The industry needs to be heavily regulated because of the radioactive waste produced. You may remember Chernobyl in 1986. All of that complicates any plunge into new nuclear power stations in the West too swiftly. Finland and others are opening the way once again though.
With warm wishes to all
DK
DK Matai
The Philanthropia, ATCA, mi2g.net
Dear Sckeptisch,
Perhaps it's a matter of definitions. Solving all the problems affecting humanity today is nothing less than miraculous to me.
Also, isn't the fact that you and I are exchanging these ideas miraculous? You may want to call the Internet science, to me it's a miracle of technology.
And as Kristin just wrote on OT, what today we call a miracle, tomorrow it might have a scientific explanation. We are on the same page :)
Love,
Donatella
21. Posted by
Donatella
on
August 31, 2006 10:44 AM
Dear DK,
Thank you for your comment. The current paper on the Integrative Improvement Institutes Project is not online. Where should I email you a copy?
22. Posted by
Graham Douglas
on
August 31, 2006 04:48 PM
Dear DK
Re: You Don't Believe
I remember this beautiful poem by Blake as
I stumble upon the socratic dialogue unfolding here.
You don't believe -- I won't attempt to make ye:
You are asleep -- I won't attempt to wake ye.
Sleep on! sleep on! while in your pleasant dreams
Of Reason you may drink of Life's clear streams.
Reason and Newton, they are quite two things;
For so the swallow and the sparrow sings.
Reason says `Miracle': Newton says `Doubt.'
Aye! that's the way to make all Nature out.
`Doubt, doubt, and don't believe without experiment':
That is the very thing that Jesus meant,
When He said `Only believe! believe and try!
Try, try, and never mind the reason why!'
William Blake
(1757 - 1827)
Fres
23. Posted by
fresportra
on
August 31, 2006 05:58 PM
Dear Skeptisch, your sentiments are well understood and reciprocated. Thank you. Paranormal activities are well documented and yet not understood by present science because universal connectivity between all energy and manifestation of that energy simultaneously as thought (wave), action (force) and object (mass) is ill-understood. This is Classical Physics triumph over Quantum Mechanics and Nuclear Physics. Recently, when I was at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), where the world wide web was invented, they said that the whole concept that there is a particle is in challenge. All there appears to be are a series of macro-events and mini-events or happenings "Haps" which are connected to each other to form atoms, molecules, objects. Take the "Haps" away and there whole universe is unhinged. The Haps are beginning to unify the gravitational, electromagnetic, strong and weak forces and mass as well as action and thoughts are subsets in a way. Since thoughts come from Haps. It would seem: No Haps, no thoughts.
Dear Graham, if you go to mi2g.net and click on "Contact Us", our appropriate colleagues will respond with the email address etc.
Dear Fres, William Blake is brilliant and here is the "Auguries of Innocence" by Blake, thank you:
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.
A dove-house fill'd with doves and pigeons
Shudders hell thro' all its regions.
A dog starv'd at his master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.
A horse misused upon the road
Calls to heaven for human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted hare
A fibre from the brain does tear.
A skylark wounded in the wing,
A cherubim does cease to sing.
The game-cock clipt and arm'd for fight
Does the rising sun affright.
Every wolf's and lion's howl
Raises from hell a human soul.
The wild deer, wand'ring here and there,
Keeps the human soul from care.
The lamb misus'd breeds public strife,
And yet forgives the butcher's knife.
The bat that flits at close of eve
Has left the brain that won't believe.
The owl that calls upon the night
Speaks the unbeliever's fright.
He who shall hurt the little wren
Shall never be belov'd by men.
He who the ox to wrath has mov'd
Shall never be by woman lov'd.
The wanton boy that kills the fly
Shall feel the spider's enmity.
He who torments the chafer's sprite
Weaves a bower in endless night.
The caterpillar on the leaf
Repeats to thee thy mother's grief.
Kill not the moth nor butterfly,
For the last judgement draweth nigh.
He who shall train the horse to war
Shall never pass the polar bar.
The beggar's dog and widow's cat,
Feed them and thou wilt grow fat.
The gnat that sings his summer's song
Poison gets from slander's tongue.
The poison of the snake and newt
Is the sweat of envy's foot.
The poison of the honey bee
Is the artist's jealousy.
The prince's robes and beggar's rags
Are toadstools on the miser's bags.
A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.
It is right it should be so;
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.
The babe is more than swaddling bands;
Every farmer understands.
Every tear from every eye
Becomes a babe in eternity;
This is caught by females bright,
And return'd to its own delight.
The bleat, the bark, bellow, and roar,
Are waves that beat on heaven's shore.
The babe that weeps the rod beneath
Writes revenge in realms of death.
The beggar's rags, fluttering in air,
Does to rags the heavens tear.
The soldier, arm'd with sword and gun,
Palsied strikes the summer's sun.
The poor man's farthing is worth more
Than all the gold on Afric's shore.
One mite wrung from the lab'rer's hands
Shall buy and sell the miser's lands;
Or, if protected from on high,
Does that whole nation sell and buy.
He who mocks the infant's faith
Shall be mock'd in age and death.
He who shall teach the child to doubt
The rotting grave shall ne'er get out.
He who respects the infant's faith
Triumphs over hell and death.
The child's toys and the old man's reasons
Are the fruits of the two seasons.
The questioner, who sits so sly,
Shall never know how to reply.
He who replies to words of doubt
Doth put the light of knowledge out.
The strongest poison ever known
Came from Caesar's laurel crown.
Nought can deform the human race
Like to the armour's iron brace.
When gold and gems adorn the plow,
To peaceful arts shall envy bow.
A riddle, or the cricket's cry,
Is to doubt a fit reply.
The emmet's inch and eagle's mile
Make lame philosophy to smile.
He who doubts from what he sees
Will ne'er believe, do what you please.
If the sun and moon should doubt,
They'd immediately go out.
To be in a passion you good may do,
But no good if a passion is in you.
The whore and gambler, by the state
Licensed, build that nation's fate.
The harlot's cry from street to street
Shall weave old England's winding-sheet.
The winner's shout, the loser's curse,
Dance before dead England's hearse.
Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.
We are led to believe a lie
When we see not thro' the eye,
Which was born in a night to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in beams of light.
God appears, and God is light,
To those poor souls who dwell in night;
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.
With love and well wishes
DK
DK Matai
The Philanthropia, ATCA, mi2g.net
Dear Skeptisch,
The respect is reciprocal. Thanks.
This is a very interesting discussion. The Germans might call it Methodenstreit, or discussion on methods.
Dear Fresportra and DK thank you for sharing the beautiful verses by William Blake (a spiritual poet).
Love,
Donatella
25. Posted by
Donatella
on
September 1, 2006 06:28 AM
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Recent Comments
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Donatella commented on Beyond the Einstein-Russell Manifesto of 1955: The Potsdam Denkschrift for the 21st Century
Dear Skeptisch,
The respect is reciproc
-
DK Matai commented on Beyond the Einstein-Russell Manifesto of 1955: The Potsdam Denkschrift for the 21st Century
Dear Skeptisch, your sentiments are well unders
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fresportra commented on Beyond the Einstein-Russell Manifesto of 1955: The Potsdam Denkschrift for the 21st Century
Dear DK
Re: You Don't Believe -
Graham Douglas commented on Beyond the Einstein-Russell Manifesto of 1955: The Potsdam Denkschrift for the 21st Century
Dear DK,
Thank you for your comment. Th
-
Donatella commented on Beyond the Einstein-Russell Manifesto of 1955: The Potsdam Denkschrift for the 21st Century
Dear Sckeptisch,
Perhaps it's a matter
Dear DK,
The last paragraph (the utopian one) reminds me of the vision of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: "The desire to be human". This desire is present in the core of our being i believe.
Let me just express here what comes up from my heart after reading the above:
Humans have already become and still are becoming the great fruits on the tree of Life(also called Evolution), each individually and together as a whole. Only look at what we already achieved together and each of us on an individual level to become aware of the fact that EVERYONE plays a part in it. Just by being here i add to it and i am an unmissable chain in it all :)
We can and must be really proud of ourselves by being here at exactly this moment!
And the perfect scheme of things (also called the Universe or God or Matter of Spiritual Category)will take care that our next evolution leap will happen. That is evolution!
It´s transformation has already begun! Slowly but surely humanity will be introduced to the experience of integration and synchronistical flowing, from one quantum leap to another :)
We are a product of nature and in its endless wisdom we are being given time after time the opportunities to enter a new level of dimension :)
If i only look at the way my children already are evolving i do have the utmost trust in this new generation emerging right now.