Complexity of civilization

The rapidly increasing complexity of the operations of our civilization has both beneficial and detrimental influence on the decisions made by people (the Paras) and on what happens in the operation of the aging technological systems of Tityas and the enduring natural systems of Gaia. The increase in complexity results in a decrease in resilience.

Many aged people live in high rise apartments with installed heating and air conditioning systems making life comfortable all the year round - until failure of the electrical grid.Going up and down the stairs because the elevators are out would be beyond them! Many people living in New York found this out the hard way when Super Storm hit.

Cars now have many features that ease travel but reduce the ability of the owner to fix problems.

 iPods have had the beneficial effect for many people of improving their access to information but in many instances some of the information is conflicting so confusing to the user. And iPods are made of irreplaceable material, age and need electricity.So those people addicted to their use will suffer withdrawal problems in due course.

Power of money

Money flow currently powers the operation of economies. That is an indisputable fact. Knowledgeable people have pointed out for many years that the economic growth promoted by the flow of money is an unsustainable materialistic process. But that dose of reality decrying the delusion that money flow creates progress when the ecological cost is not taken into account has had very little impact on operations to this stage. Money still powers economic growth despite the booms and busts. Society is not prepared to allow the dose of reality to spoil the materialistic benefits of economic growth. Wise use of the remaining natural material resources is not on the agenda of those who have the leverage of money backing.

An aged billionaire learned that his health problem was due to an ailing kidney. He paid a large amount for a kidney replacement operation. That gave him another year of life!

If society should unexpectedly absorb the dose of reality, the power of money can help ease the inevitable powering down by society as natural resources become beyond reach and the existing irrevocably infrastructure ages. The belief that economic growth was sustainable will have died as people realize that nature bats last.  .

Difference between nenergy and senergy

The irrevocable physical properties of energy flow doing (positive) work on systems made of materials are summed up by the Laws of Thermodynamics. The associated action of friction doing negative work is common knowledge but not formally recognized by stated laws.

However, it is fascinating that there is no widespread recognition that two types of energy flow operate in civilization. They are the natural one and the synthetic one. They have the same operating characteristics described above but they differ in the consequences.

The natural energy (nenergy) flow has solar energy input, does such work as producing growth in trees (and humans) and ends up as being radiated out into space. This energy is often stored for a short period as chemical energy and it is generally not powerful. There are exceptions such as cyclones but they do not affect the principle. The natural systems on which they do work recycle or reproduce naturally so it it the sustainable process that has been going on for many years.This essentially energy income

The synthetic energy (senergy) flow uses past solar energy input stored for a long time as concentrated chemical energy in fossil fuels and does positive work in technological systems that age and do not reproduce naturally and generally do not recycle. This energy flow is generally very powerful in providing civilization with temporary goods, services and infrastructure. It is an unsustainable process because it is depleting the stock of stored energy. It is energy capital and its flow will gradually slow down in coming years as the stocks become beyond reach.

Free will

Stephen Hawking, the renowned English scientist, discussed the meaning of life in a TV documentary. He has the view that science holds the key to this question while the Greek, Descartes lay the foundations of rational thought on the issue many centuries ago by separating the operation of the mind from that of the body. The operation of the brain is, like all operations in the body, governed by natural forces. This is an indisputable Hawking argument. These operations are tangible in that they are measurable or otherwise determined to be in existence in all organisms. Conscious thoughts, on the other hand, are deemed intuitively by most people to be intangible. They occur but cannot be measured although they determine the decisions made about what the person does. This exercise of free will is in parallel with the deterministic decisions made by the brain about what should happen in bodily functions.
The operation of the brain can be likened to that of the operation of the processor in a computer. The flow of electricity is the measurable quantity in the computer similar to the flow in the brain, although a lot simpler! However, this measurement of electricity flow does not provide meaning. The output from the program provides the processed information. So the operation of the brain is covered by natural forces but the thoughts are not. So Descartes was right despite many contrary arguments. Hawking quoted a program that seems to simulate how the brain produces coherent thoughts just as computer programs carry out analyses. The fact that the thinking ability of a brain is limited by physical factors such Alzheimer’s disease does not make thinking a tangible quantity.It is like part of the computer processor being damaged.The nature of the thinking is portrayed by the output (spoken or actions) just as the nature of a computer program is conveyed by the results.

There has been appreciable argument about whether people have free will. Clearly people are free to make decisions depending upon the circumstances such as the information available to them, where they are and a range of other factors. But two people in similar circumstances could be free to make contrary decisions. So people do have a degree of free will and contrary arguments by people are examples of their free will ability. Of course, all organisms have a degree of free will. Birds can decide to take off when they feel like it. Whales exercise their free will to surface when they feel the need to have some fresh air. This free will of all organisms creates a degree of uncertainty about what will happen within the limits of the operation of natural forces. People can only make decisions about operations that are physically possible. This duopoly is as manifest as the separation of mind and body. It is a fundamental operational principle even though many people do not understand it.   

Hawking argues that the real world is an impression in the mind. That is surprisingly illogical for a prominent scientist who one expects to make sound statements. What individuals know of the real world is clearly subjective and inherently very limited, even for intellectuals like Hawking. What has happened, is happening and will happen in the future is the holistic, objective world, largely unknown to all individuals, including Hawking and Descartes.  But Descartes did not suffer the delusion of Hawking and many other people. After all, anthropocentrism is rife. The belief that people can now make decisions that will cope with the real world climate change is just one example of the common misunderstanding. All that can be done is make decisions that will constrain damaging physical operations, so delay the impact of catastrophic climate change and the associated events, ocean warming and acidification.. Another example is the amount of waste material being produced by operations. Decisions are being made that will reduce the rate of waste production and recycling in the future but these decisions cannot have any impact on the waste that has already been produced or recycled.

The real physical world has been operating for eons without any impact from the thoughts of people and will continue to do so after the demise of our civilization. Anyone who thinks otherwise is suffering a delusion. Ironically, this delusion is an aspect of their free will.

decisions amok

Billions of people are making a multitude of decisions about physical activities every day. Some are the mundane associated with every day life. Others have a significant impact on the future behavior of communities and of systems. Some decisions are good and some are bad. In combination they have a tremendous influence of what is happening at a range of levels from how they affect the individual up to the global impact.The range and weight of the impact depends on many circumstances. Listing some of these provides insight into what humans are arranging with their decisions.

• when and what to eat - smart people stick to a routine and eat reasonable amounts of good food - unwise people over eat of fast food - however, many people have little choice and have to make do
• when and what to drink - smart people ensure they consume adequate amounts of a mix of liquids appropriate to the occasions - unwise people too often go overboard on alcoholic beverages - however, many people find it hard to get potable water
• what drugs to take - smart people take them only when deemed necessary by medical advisers - unwise people take them because they like the short term benefits and discount the long term side effects - however, many people are not in the position to be tempted
• what housing - smart people live in reasonable homes in convenient locations  - the elite show off their position by living in McMansions that they cannot really afford or manage - however, many billions around the globe get by as best they can with unsatisfactory shelter
• what facilities to have in the home - many people take water supply, cooking facilities, toilets, heating, air-conditioning, communication and entertainment facilities for granted - however, many people have access to few of the facilitators of a comfortable life style
• how to cope with diseases - inoculations and medications help many people overcome natural diseases - however, there is no means to overcome the insidious disease affecting many people, too much money 

Aircrat technology chasing its tail

The Red Baron adroitly used his Fokker in downing many Sopwith Camels in the Great War. Spitfires and Hurricanes repelled the German bombers in the Battle of Britain while matching the Focke-Wulf. The Germans were too late in introducing jet fighters. The Japanese Zero was too maneuverable for the Yankee fighters in the Pacific air war until the Lightning entered the scene. The American Sabre jet was not only compared to the Russian MiG on paper as they met over Korea. The F-15 Eagle has added to the potential air power of numerous countries for many years.The Mirage was a useful mirage in the Australian defence capabilities for decades. The Hornet has not had to prove its sting but looks good in air shows. The F-35 Lightning II lights up the eyes of the PM as it is expected to add to our defence capabilities in due course even though it may not be a match for the Chinese J-20 or J-31 or the Russian/Indian Sukhoi/HAL Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA).

These developments in fighter aircraft over the years are an example of technology chasing its tail in an unsustainable process.  Unfortunately it has not been matched by a revolutionary way of providing aircraft fuel (because that is not physically possible) or of creating the materials irrevocably used up (because that is also not possible) . This example of biased unsustainable technology development has fostered the aircraft industry and has contributed to airliner development but at great ecological and natural resource (but not yet financial, social and political) cost.

Society will be bewildered as this era comes to an end due to the declining availability of the energy and materials used in building and operating these insatiable mechanistic monstrosities. Politicians, business people and tourists will rue the associated loss of airline travel. The aviation, defense and airline industries will vainly try to maintain their ravishing in an attempt to made money for their investors and prolong the careers for their specialists. And governments will belatedly adopt defensive policies. 

Progonosis of a failing organism

We have understanding of how organisms, including human beings, operate as they grow to maturity then senescence leads to inevitable demise. Of course, medical people have much greater understanding of the detail including the role of the multitude of cells that control operations in the organism. The mechanism is an extraordinary extremely complex operation that has evolved naturally. It is a phenomenon that we tend to take for granted except in the relatively rare cases when the program goes wrong to a small extent. Cancer is a localized mutation that causes a degree of concern while the vast majority of cells in the organism get on with their prescribed job during their short lifetimes.

This behavior of organic organisms is common knowledge. However, the existence of a vast inorganic organism having many similar characteristics is not widely help. James Lovelock has over the years provided sufficient argument to convince knowledgeable people that the ecosystem is a gigantic inorganic organism with operation controlled by the interaction of a host of organic and inorganic processes. It has been given the name, Gaia. Its operation is similar in some respects to that of natural biological organisms. A wide range of natural processes emulate the role of cells in biological organisms.

Civilization is also a vast organism we can call Tityas, the delinquent son of Gaia. It is growing rapidly as its multitude of human beings use a variety of tools to act like cells. But, unlike the cells in natural organisms, these cells are not programmed to carry out specialized constructive operations. Many of them do but there are sufficient rogues to foster irrevocable obesity of the organism. Intangible money flow is the life blood of this organism even though it is often contaminated by greed. The cells in under developed regions of this organism are vainly striving to attain healthy operations while those in over developed regions continue their cancerous malfeasance. The organism is entering its senescence with few cells operating benignly. The inevitable demise of civilization will entail a die off of much of the population coupled with disintegration of much of the infrastructure that provides them with goods and services.

The only treatment for the disease this organism is suffering from is for the Earth's Lodgers' Activity Management (ELAM) movement's large dose of understanding influencing the operation of a high proportion of the cells of Tityas. Is there hope of this treatment eventuating?