Algemeen

Time is often treated as some sort of fundamental substance. Time exists somewhere in our universe, flowing uniformly from past to future. Time is the progression of events from the past to the present into the future. Basically, if a system is unchanging, it is timeless. Time can be considered to be the fourth dimension of reality, used to describe events in three-dimensional space. We know time is there and passing; the movement of our watches says so. We are time. We are this space, this clearing opened by the traces of memory inside the connections between our neurons. We…

Physics has more than its share of mind-bending ideas: the slowing of time, relativity, the enormous coagulations of matter, like black holes, that can rupture space-time itself. The equations of physics describe how things change in time. From the equations of Newton, which establish the foundations of mechanics, to those of Maxwell for electromagnetic phenomena; from Schrödinger’s equation describing how quantum phenomena evolve, to those of quantum field theory for the dynamics of subatomic particles: the whole of our physics, and science in general, is about how things develop according to the order of time. Physics has already grown far…

The broadest of perspectives can locate the shift underway on planet Earth as the most recent scene in a vast pageant of cosmic emergence. A cosmological panorama takes us beyond the ambit of daily life and beyond even the larger compass of human history, offering a vantage point for pondering the contemporary predicament. A reminder of where we are in the immensity of space, the eons of time, and the majestic evolution of existence, this wide vista cultivates a sense of awe and humility, stirring resolve to renew the vitality of our precious island of life. Such reflections bring into…

Humanity is making tremendous progress.  Cities are a dense network of interconnected systems of increasing complexity, all of which use feedback information to exist in dynamic equilibrium. A new era of innovation for our urban future. A moment of recognition/realization The city as the general form of human settlement, as the ecological niche of our species, belongs to the world of antifragility. The city as a system has proven through history to be capable to adapt, self-organize, improve and take advantage of the unpredictable, in short to prosper in disorder. Not only does the city exist for ten thousands years,…

When I was in my early thirties, the certainties I had grown up with disappeared from my life. Doubt became the starting point of my exploration, which has led to a rich harvest via different pathways and crossings and as I dared to question everything, including rationality itself. I tried to find my way in the logical analytics of my thinking, and, on the other hand moved by my  sensitivity to the mystery of existence. I gained many new insights into the great dimensions of existence. For me the beauty consists in the fact that patterns, regularity, and form can…

Humanity has evolved as a member of the biotic community through the evolution of life on Earth. We live in systems and we are systems. At the same time, humanity now lives at such a scale that we contribute to the character and quality of the systems within which we live and those that we create at a scale never seen before in our history. As a species, humanity has a unique capability to be consciously aware of our individual and our collective impact on the world around us; our actions shape the future by how we live today and…

‘Man is destined by his reason to live in a society with men and in it to cultivate himself, to civilize himself, and to make himself moral by the arts and sciences. No matter how strong his animal tendency to yield passively to the attractions of comfort and well-being, which he calls happiness, he is still destined to make himself worthy of humanity by actively struggling with the obstacle that cling to him because of the crudity of his nature.’ – Immanuel Kant Humans are biophysically connected to the biosphere through the flows of materials and energy appropriated from ecosystems….

The Universe is immense, estimates suggest at least two trillion galaxies. Our galaxy holds 100 to 400 billion stars. One of those stars, our sun, has eight planets orbiting it. Planet Earth has a biosphere, a complex web of life, at its surface. The thickness of this layer is about twenty kilometers. This layer, our biosphere, is the only place where we know, for now, life exists. The existence of life on Earth depends on the distance from the Sun, neither too close nor too far away, to receive enough energy to allow water to exist as a liquid on…

The challenges that lie before us is unlike any other ever faced by humankind. As a society we must acknowledge humanity’s greatest existential threat, bend the curve, avert the impending disaster and opt instead to embark on the fastest and most exciting ecological, social and economic transformation in human history The evolution of intelligent life on a planet requires not only that planetary conditions are conducive to life at the start, as it first evolves, but also that the planet remains habitable subsequently, without interruption. This is because there has to be enough time to allow life to increase in…

Earth is a 4.5-billion-year transformation is driven by physical, chemical, and biological processes. The richness of the world around us is due, in large part, to the miracle of self-organization. The Earth is a highly complex system formed by a large variety of sub-systems (biosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, as well as social and economic systems etc.), which interact by the exchange of matter, energy and information. Most processes in the system Earth are characterized by complex spatio-temporal dynamics. Earth is a complex system because it instantiates life—and therefore an autopoietic, metabolic repair organization—at a planetary scale. Earth’s complexity has formal equivalence…