This is the speech by Anthony Marr addressing the scientists and philosophers of 5 top universities, which won the following accolades for his ground breaking OMNISCIENTIFIC COSMOLOGY:
UC BERKELEY
- Anthropology, Dr. Tim White: “… Anthony Marr’s OMNI-SCIENCE is formidable…”
- Institute of Human Origins, Dr. William H. Kimbel, President: “… a profound contribution to the fundamental definition of humankind in relation to the broader universe... unifies the fragmented Western scientific disciplines… implications of great depth and breadth for the future course of human actions… too important to ignore.”
- Astronomy and Physics, Dr. Marc Davis: “… a forward looking moral framework… an important contribution to society…”
- Paleontology, Dr. Carole S. Hickman: “… an extraordinary intellectual undertaking… unique… intellectually and aesthetically stimulating… a bold and eclectic piece of scholarship… exceptional… a delight… optimism, concern and compassion for humanity…”
- Botany, Dr. Herbert G. Baker: “… extremely interesting… an important contribution towards understanding cosmology.”
Paleontology, Dr. Donald E. Savage: “… powerful… erudite synthesis...”
- Zoology, Dr. Richard C. Strohman: “… original… a thoroughly logical system… might indeed fill a large gap in the way we think...”
Biology, Dr. Richard W. Holms: “… a remarkable broad perspective… great depth... truly deserves the name OMNI-SCIENCE…”
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- Geology, Dr. W.R. Evitt: “… sincerity, imagination, intellectualism and scholarship… an immensely logical construct… meticulously thought out… majestic in scope but intrinsically simple, satisfying and optimistic… should have a very broad appeal… these are important ideas with great potential for lessening the conflicts in a troubled world…”
- Sociology, Dr. Alex Inkeles: “… impress me not only with the quality of his presentation, but also the quality of his thinking… authoritative… exceptionally comprehensive…”
- Philosophy, Dr. John Dupre: “… extremely intriguing and provocative… incomparably more edifying than the vast majority of such attempts…”
Anthropology, Dr. John W. Rick: “… very thought provoking… clearly deserves extensive discussion… a serious, well-founded vision…”
- Physics, Dr. Leonard Susskind: “… I found myself stimulated, educated… worth listening to, even for those of us who are not of the same philosophical bent…”
- Philosophy, Dr. John Bogart: “… compelling… have moral import…”
Applied Physics and Astrophysics, Dr. Vahe Petrosian: “… elaborate… clearly well thought out and researched… fascinating… a very ambitious task… a beautiful synthesis… captivating… should be of interest not only to experts but to all thinking people of the world…”
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A forewarning
A meaningful reading of the following requires the shelving of all preconceptions (especially those imposed by pre-scientific religions), a basic understanding of science, and free-thought bridled only by logic. Beginning with the title itself, a number of new terms have been invented out of necessity. The Omniscientific Cosmology would strike many as so unfamiliar to be almost bizarre. And yet, once digested and absorbed, even if they desperately wanted to, the readers could never revert fully to the worldview they had held before.
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Introduction
The Tao Teh Ching, the canon of the ancient Chinese philosophical system known as Taoism, states, "In the Cosmos, Man accords his way to the Earth, the Earth to the Sky, the Sky to the Tao, and the Tao simply is, according to its own Nature." In Western Lingo, the Tao is the Way of the Cosmos. Should the Tao be known, therefore, so would be the optimal Way of Man.
Unfortunately, the Tao Teh Ching also states, "The Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao." Thus, the Taoists maintained 26 centuries of pseudo-silence, as if they knew it. And thus, Taoism degenerated from a school of cosmic philosophy into a house of superstition. There was a reason for which the Tao was deemed inconceivable. It was the then lack of a necessary ingredient. The hint is in the statement itself. The key word is "Nature", that to which the Tao itself accords. The study of nature is science. Science was what the ancient Chinese lacked, which we now have.
Basically, Taoism was the ancient Chinese form of a cosmology. A cosmology is a model of the Universe. It is essentially a tool for human self-understanding. Why? Since the part cannot be fully understood without an understanding of the whole and its part in this whole, so neither can humanity fully understand itself without an understanding of the Cosmos and its part in this Cosmos.
Throughout human history, many cosmologies have been advanced, all but one in the form of pre-scientific philosophies or religion-based mythologies, including the modern Creationism. And all but one are far from the truth. The only one that is on the right path is scientific cosmology. Unfortunately, so far that it has developed, involving the astro-chemo-physical sciences but not the eco-socio-biological sciences in its construction, is incomplete. This is because the Earth is a part of the Solar System, which is a part of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is a part of the Cosmos, and the biosphere is a part of the Earth.
And because Homo Sapiens is a part of the biosphere, Omniscientific Cosmology is needed for our self-understanding.
Omniscientific Cosmology gives new answers for the ancient philosophical questions - the meaning of life, the purpose of humanity, the fate of the Earth, the origin of consciousness, the basis of morality, even the nature of the "inconceivable" Tao, maybe even the truth of "God".
Whether these answers are the correct ones is for the readers to decide.
1. The Cosmic background
The observable Universe originated in the Big Bang about 14 billion years ago. Physically and chemically, it comprised nothing more complex than space-time, energy, subatomic particles and atomic hydrogen and helium. In the ensuing eons, the galaxies were formed, in whose first generation stars the process of nucleosynthesis gave rise to the heavier elements. When the more massive of these stars exploded as supernovae, these heavier elements were expelled into interstellar space. When these heavier-elements-laden interstellar clouds intermixed and condensed into subsequent-generation stars, planets with solid crusts could then be formed. Our Sun is one of theses subsequent-generation stars, which formed 4.6 billion years ago, and our Earth is one of these solid-crusted planets. Today, while the above process keeps on unfolding, there are about 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe, each with an average of about 300 billion stars, most of which are believed to be in possession of planets.
Taking the Earth as a sample planet in the "life zone" of a sample star the Sun in a sample galaxy the Milky Way, and to make a very long story very short, and a very complex scenario very simple, the original inorganic atoms and molecules of the primordial Earth eventually gave rise to the cells (e.g. bacteria - about 3.5 billion years ago), which eventually gave rise to the metabionts (multicellular organisms – about 600 million years ago), which eventually gave rise to animal societies (first the insect societies – about 100 million years ago), which eventually gave rise to the nations (of the metabion species Homo Sapiens – about 10,000 years ago).
2. T.I., I.T., and Levels of Organization
By means of an analysis pertaining to classical biology called the "Seven Vital Functions" test, social insect biologists in the 1920s concluded that an insect society qualified as an organism in its own right, which they termed a "superorganism". Likewise, other than the fact that a cell and a metabiont are obviously organisms, so are a city and a nation bona fide organisms, each on its own distinct "level of organization".
Today, the physical matter of planet Earth is organized in five levels of organization: the Molecular level, the Cellular level, the Metabion level, the Citian (based on "city" - including insect societies) level and the National level. In contrast, all other Solar System planets have only one level of organization – the Molecular.
The phenomenon by which a lower level gave rise to its adjacent higher level is called Integrative Transcendence (I.T.). The process by which I.T. is achieved is called Transcendent Integration (T.I.), which essentially involves differentiation and cooperation. By means of T.I., the social organisms of level (X) formed societies, and by means of I.T., the advanced societies became the original organisms of level (X+1).
Thus, a cell is a "society" of its own component molecules, a metabiont is a society of its own component cells, a city is a society of its own component metabionts, and a nation is a society of its own component cities.
3. Interlevel Parallelism
There are parallelisms among the various levels of organization, e.g.:
On every level of organization, there are non-social and social units. On the molecular level, there are "nonsocial" molecules (e.g. a copper sulphate molecule in a rock) and "social" molecules (e.g. a protein molecule in a cell). On the cellular level, there are nonsocial cells (e.g. an amoeba in a pond), and social cells (e.g. a neuron in a human). On the metabion level, there are nonsocial metabionts (e.g. a dragonfly) and social metabionts (e.g. a bee or a human). On the citian level, there are nonsocial cities (e.g. an ant colony or a an ancient warring city-state) and social cities (e.g. Vancouver). On the national level, there are nonsocial nations, (e.g. the warring nations in ancient China) and social nations (e.g. Canada).
James Greer Miller isolated 19 "subsystems" for every "living system". A cell, a metabiont, a city and a nation are all living systems by Miller’s definition, and all have their 19 subsystems. Anthony Marr noted that Greer missed one subsystem, which Marr added to make the total of 20 subsystems per living system.
Evolution occurs on all levels simultaneously. Here, however, it involves the concept of Translevel Progression. The evolutionary mode is strictly Darwinian up to the metabion level and the insect-society part of the citian level, whereas that from the vertebrate side of the citian level upward is Darwinian as well as Lamarckian. The Lamarckian mode is especially dominant in the evolution of human societies.
There are numerous other interlevel parallelisms.
4. The I.T. Spiral and Its O.S.E.S. Cycle
By far the most monumental of all interlevel parallelisms is the O.S.E.S. Cycle of the T.I./I.T. Spiral, which deserves a chapter of its own. O.S.E.S. represents the four quadrants of a cycle of the T.I./I.T. Spiral, namely: Organismization (the formation of the first organisms on a certain level of organization), Speciation (the divergent evolution of the original species on that level into an broad array of new species in different environments), Ecosystemization (the formation of ecosystems comprising these species in various locales), and Socialization (the rise of social species in some ecosystems and the formation of their societies). And, by the resultant societies organismizing into the first organisms of the level above, they start a new and next higher O.S.E.S. Cycle on the ever-ascending T.I./I.T. Spiral.
5. GeoEmbryology
The term "cosmic egg" made its first appearance in the 1970s, but it was used in a "New Age" sense. Nonetheless, when used now in the context of the Omniscientific Cosmology, it has a new and tangible meaning. The planet Earth could indeed be seen as a cosmic egg, whose "geo-embryo" has a definite planetary gestation period. Further, it has hitherto already undergone four stages of planetary metamorphosis – from molecules to cells to metabionts to cities to nations. In other words, it has successfully progressed through four O.S.E.S. Cycles of Earth’s T.I./I.T. Spiral; and the T.I./I.T. Spiral itself has ascended through four levels of organization pertaining to life on Earth. And what is this geo-embryo of the planet Earth? Its biosphere. Its incubation lamp is the Sun, and its "white and yolk" are Earth’s own intrinsic mineral and energy resources.
It does appear that the development of Earth’s geo-embryo follows a preset metamorphic schedule as predetermined by the planet’s original physical and chemical properties. It seems further than this metamorphic schedule follows an accelerating exponential timeframe, which might accord to the Fibonacci numbers series applicable to the many spiralling forms found in nature. This could be of predictive value for the extrapolation of the T.I./I.T. Spiral into the future and on to the higher levels of organization thus far not yet realized.
The metamorphosis of Earth’s geo-embryo has currently progressed on to the Socialization quadrant of the O.S.E.S. Cycle of Earth’s T.I./I.T. Spiral on the National level of organization. If the T.I./I.T. Spiral would continue to unfold as it has over the last 4.6 billion years of Earth’s history, the next step would be the organismization of the planet Earth itself. This would involve the nations to transcendently integrate into a harmonized international society involving differentiation and cooperation, and to integratively transcend from the geo-embryo to the full-fledged Planetary Organism Earth.
Of course, it could also fail, and, when its time comes as dictated by the planetary metamorphic schedule, be still-born.
A footnote for this chapter: The Earth as an organism is also not a new notion. The Gaia Hypothesis is centered on it; even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had a story about it. But they refer to organism Earth in the mechanical sense, involving ocean currents, heat cycles, materials transfer, etc., even, in the case of Doyle, huge subterranean blood vessels, instead of the organizational sense as in the Omniscientific Cosmology.
6. Integration of Consciousness
When considering consciousness, the basic fact to consider is that it is based on matter. It could be further said that consciousness is the configuration of matter. It is conceivable that not only is memory stored in the neuronal circuitry in the brain, but is the configuration of the circuitry itself.
It seem reasonable to conclude that consciousness is also multi-leveled in structure and is also a product of T.I./I.T.. By means of T.I./I.T., the "proto-consciousness" of the molecules gave rise to that of the cells, which in turn gave rise to consciousness of the metabionts, which in turn gave rise to the supra-consciousness of the cities, which in turn gave rise to that of the nations. Hopefully, one day, the integration of the myriad consciousness of the various nations will give rise to the transcended consciousness of the planetary organism Earth itself, which today remains not only fragmented, but internally contradictory and even hostile.
There seems to be some coincidence to the Freudian terminologies of the Id (molecular and cellular proto-consciousness), the Ego (metabion consciousness) and the Superego (citian and national supra-consciousness).
In this light, the T.I./I.T. Spiral is in fact a DNA-like double helix, or a galaxy-like double-spiral, where one strand or one arm represents the T.I./I.T. of matter, and the other the T.I./I.T. of consciousness. Thus, the T.I./I.T. Double Helix.
7. Universe as Cosmic Egg
This final chapter in the Omniscientific Cosmology is one of extrapolation and speculation, one which has been regarded by free-thinking scientists and philosophers with amazement and fascination, but by traditional clerics and theologians with consternation and disbelief.
Once the Planetary Organism Earth has organismized into being, it will be the original organism on the Planetary level of organization within the Solar System. After a period of maturation, it will reproduce, begetting offspring planetary organisms on other Solar System planets and their satellites, or in interplanetary space. Earth’s "seeds" will be space colonies - citian organisms in their own right, which will contain the genes and memes of Earth. Once landing on other planets and satellites, or stabilized in orbits around these planets and satellites, or around the Sun itself, these citian level "Earth seeds" will form national organisms, and eventually planetary organisms. Thus, yet a new O.S.E.S. Cycle, on yet a higher level or organization - the Planetary - will unfold. These planetary organisms will speciate, and will form an interplanetary ecosystem, and eventually a multi-planetary society, until, within the bounds of the Solar System, the end point of the T.I./I.T. Spiral will see the emergence of the stellar organism Sol, on the Stellar level of organization.
A further extrapolation of the Earth’s T.I./I.T. Spiral beyond the Solar System will find it joining the T.I./I.T. spirals of other transcended planetary systems in the interstellar realm. On the only condition that the speed of light could be exceeded (by means of worm-holes or "warp speed" or other yet-unknown technologies), there appears no limit as to how far the T.I./I.T, Spiral could go.
It seems reasonable to approximate that there would be three levels of organization from the stellar organism to the galactic organism, and another three levels from the galactic organism to the singular ultimate Universal Organism.
Within the limits of the Omniscientific Cosmology, one of the ultimate questions is: What would this Universal Organism be like? Let us first compare the physical and mental powers of a human being (a metabion organism) against those of an amoeba (a cellular organism). The difference is of course immense. And yet, they are but one level of organization apart. By the above reckoning, the Universal Organism is ten levels above the human being, and eight levels above the United States (a national organism). Within the Cosmos itself the Universal Organism will be everywhere. Its knowledge will encompass that in every library on every planet endowed with civilization. Its physical and mental power will be virtually infinite.
Ask a theologian or a cleric what three words he could use to describe the Universal Organism, and he could only answer, in his accustomed diction, "omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent", after which his jaw would stay dropped. He would have to concede that this all-present, all–knowing and almighty being would be in part, though just an infinitesimal part, created by us humble human beings, by means of the universal process of Integrative Transcendence, in conjunction with all other sentient beings on all level of organization in all galaxies throughout the Universe. It certainly did not create us, let alone in its own image.
One more thing about this Universal Organism. It is thoroughly, purely and entirely natural; there is absolutely nothing supernatural about it.
Finally, to close the circle, the question is: What is the "inconceivable", "unknowable" and "unspeakable" Tao, and thus the optimal Way of Man?
Transcendent Integration, towards Integrative Transcendence.
This is the author’s deepest belief.
Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
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www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
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