Excerpt

From: Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson

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In 1977, Dr. Ily Prigogine won the nobel prize in physical chemistry.

Perhaps he should have wond a Nobel prize for intelligent optimism.

Dr. Prigogine's work deals with the processes we have been discussing -- the emergence of negative entropy (coherent order out of tochastic process --but he has taken a giant leap beyond the pioneering insights of Schrodinger, Weiner, Shannon and Bateson.

Any organized system, according to Prigogine, exists in dynamic tension between entropy and negentropy, between chaos and information. Th more complex the system, the greater is its instability. Prigogine demonstrated this mathematically, but in everyday terms, what he means is that, for instance, it is easier to lead two children through a department store than twenty children. Or: A toothpick "house" of 101 pieces is less stable than a smaller toothpick "house" of 1o pieces.

Instability is not always bad: in fact, it is absolutely necessary for evolution to occur. Insect societies are highly stable and have not evolved at all in several million years. Human societies are highly unstable and are in continuous evolution.

Prigogine demonstrates the evolutionary value of instability by his concept of the "dissipative structure."

A dissipative structure is highly complex and therefore highly unstable. The more complex it is, the more unstable it is, mathematically, certainly; and the more unstable, the more likely it is to change -- to evolve.

All dissipative structures are teetering, perpetually, between self-destruction and re-organization on a higher level of information on a higher level of information (coherency).

If that sounds grim, it isn't really. Prigogine's math is highly optimistic, He shows that the more complex structures -- such as our world-round human society today, midway between Second Wave indust-reality and the emerging Third Wave -- are mathematically more likely, much more likely, to "dissipate" into higher coherence than into self-destruction.

In other words, in the intellectual conflict between Utopians and Dystopians, the mathematical odds actually are on the side of Utopians. Our human world is so information-rich (coherent) that it is almost certain to "collapse" into even higher coherence, not into chaos and self-destruction.

Prigogine is the mathematical demonstration of McLuhan's intuition that many seeming symptoms of breakdown are actually harbingers of breakthrough.

A note to confirmed pessimists: Prigogine's analysis is based on portability-theory and, hence, is not certain. Thus, if you have found these lyrical pages unduly alarming, take comfort in the thought that, although human success is highly probable, there is still a small chance that we can blow ourselves up or that your favorite apocalyptic scenarios might still occur, despite the general trend toward higher coherence and higher intelligence.

Meanwhile, of Course, even if humanity seems condemned to overall success, you can still mess up your personal life. Nothing is this book is an attempt to prevent the really resolute misery-addicts from continuing their pursuit of frustration and failure.