PubNotes: The Nature of Occurring Paradigm Shift and Values

By Norm Hirst
Copyright (c) September, 2007

Here we begin a new series of newsletters called PubNotes.

As the Institute of Noetic Sciences has documented, in their published 2007 Shift Report, a change of consciousness is sweeping through the world. This is a new paradigm developing. As usual with new paradigms there will be a period of chaos. Ultimately the chaos will yield to a new order.

Meanwhile there is cause for hope; there are many new ideas and understanding to help us sail through the chaos. New paradigms usually occur when there is a growing accumulation of unsolvable problems. Today there is such an accumulation. New paradigms bring new ways of thinking. Today there is a new and different science revealing unprecedented understanding of values and value processes. Such understanding shows how the "unsolvable problems" can be resolved.

What follows is a description of some of the topics PubNotes will be about; and of course, as we go deeper, new topics will arise.

What I want to share is not suitable for normal dialog. There will be moments when we should stop and ponder/reflect. I will speak of topics that I understand – after years of pondering! I am reminded of discussions in Schultz’s Beer Garden near the University of Texas. Discussions were of such quality that we called Shultz’s, "Philosophy Department Headquarters". I will tell my story in PubNotes. Each note will be another day in the bar having left space to ponder between notes. My favorite beer is John Courage. I could get it in Connecticut. I can no longer find it. We proceed with courage.

Fifty-two years ago, studying physics at MIT, I realized that in the future the most important problems were going to involve values; physics would not solve them. “I realized” is an understatement. What I experienced was a soul altering force.

The next semester Robert Hartman came to MIT as a visiting professor; a renowned philosopher working to create a science of value out of philosophy. He pointed out that if we could bring Plato back to life he would understand our philosophy books, but our science books Plato would find utterly bewildering. "That," said Hartman, "described the crisis of our time." I took Hartman’s course. He became my teacher, my mentor and my friend.

Now, what might he have had in mind as a “science of value”? In his time there was a clear distinction between empirical philosophy and science. In the time I was studying and working with Hartman there was still such a distinction, perhaps a dying remnant.

Before Newton there was only philosophy. Based on new mathematics, Newton provided a new basis for inquiry. That became known as science. Science replaces the analytics of language with the synthetics of formalisms. Mathematics is a formalism, but by no means is it the only formalism.

You may need to ponder. “Analytics of language” and “synthetics of formalisms”! These are not difficult ideas. They are just so damned different. I am reminded of some experiments done a few decades ago. Mathematicians tried teaching transfinite arithmetic to first graders. First graders latched right on to it. Adults have problems with it. (This topic might require several days in the bar. It might require Scotch!)

Bertrand Russell stated that philosophers know what they are talking about; they just don’t know what they are saying. Mathematicians know precisely what they are saying; they just don’t know what they are talking about. It takes both to make a science. But even that doesn’t get to the full depth of it. Inquiry by formalism reveals ideas that we would never encounter in experience. The foundational ideas of physics would never be known except by formal inquiry. Electromagnetic waves were discovered on the basis of Maxwell’s differential equation relating electricity and magnetism. My favorite formalism is the square root of minus one, an unreal mathematical idea that now plays a major role.

Hartman fully appreciated all this. He knew that if we were ever going to save ourselves we needed a formalism for values. On the basis of the formalism he developed the Hartman Value Profile (HVP); a test of value perception. It does not reveal your own personal choice of values but it does reveal how you use them. We are all different!

No, this is not just Hartman’s idea. The HVP has been validated and used in most societies on Earth to day. Has the formalism revealed anything we would not detect in ordinary experience? Yes. I will mention two examples.

Measurement is all the rage today. I was asked what the value formalism says about metrics. The full set of metrics includes finite numbers and at least two levels of transfinite numbers. The finite numbers only apply to the lowest level of values. Any project subject to measurement can only deal with the lowest values. Such measurement is destructive of values and life.

Similarly, General Petraeous is being considered as the ultimate authority on continuing the Iraq war. No doubt he should be considered the ultimate authority on military operations since war is based on the logic of force. But war is in a domain of living where value processes are operative. We should be asking if military operations are the best option. That is a question for folks with an entirely different expertise than that of a military general.

Back at MIT, I fully agreed with everything I learned from Hartman, but still I was troubled. There was nothing in our knowledge to support Hartman’s ideas. Given our dominant worldview of matter, determinism, reductionism and what we mistakenly thought of as protocols for science, there was neither place nor need, for values. I accepted the task of finding support for values.

It was a bleak task until the 70’s. Then there occurred experiments casting doubt on our worldview. Today, the last two decades have totally invalidated our worldview. The Institute of Noetic Sciences has published a 2007 Shift Report documenting that there is a change in consciousness, a new paradigm, occurring all over the world. (www.ions.org)

What's coming:

Life is fundamental - not matter. Empty space is filled with zero point energy, energy from quantum fluctuations at a temperature of absolute zero. This energy is called the Dirac Sea in honor of the physicist Paul Dirac. Living entities, such as you and I, are connected through the Dirac Sea; all life is oneness.

As we learn how living entities function, it turns out that it is nothing like we thought. Living entities are not machines, nor machine-like. Their workings are not subject to cause and effect, and they are not carrying out calculations. Living entities are capable of initiating their own acts based on values. They live in societies that give them maximum freedom within coherence conditions required by life. That is true even in the cells in our bodies. It is true of the molecules in cells, and, in nature. It is true of us on the living earth.

Unfortunately, some people are so limited in their understanding of living processes they don’t trust freedom. They insist on control. But living entities are autonomous. Controlling them with force, shock and awe, confinement and such may appear to be a way to control living entities, but we're learning the inner life force is stronger and actually cannot be controlled. A lifetime of learning, the living entities identities and the fundamental will to act autonomously cannot be predicted when force is imposed. Force is a bankrupt notion.

Matter as fundamental, determinism and reductionism have lost their dominance as a worldview. This will take several days in the bar celebrating. We will switch to Champaign.