The demotion of alpha‐homo sapiens: Consciousness,punctuated equilibrium,and the laws of the game

The result of using Eigen and Winkler's LIFE/DEATH GAME to integrate Rashevksy's social physics and Rapoport's mathematical game theory, synchrony removes the arbitrariness from problems of ethics. It focuses on the primary conflicts between strategies that optimize individual survival and those that optimize survival of groups. According to synchrony, cooperation is an optimal strategy, not because cooperation conforms to some ethical pattern, but because the evolution of our technical societies has made the alternatives to cooperation potentially lethal at all levels of human interaction. Eigen and Winkler offer hypercycles as a possible method of resolving problems that conventional wisdom has labeled “irreconcilable differences.”

Combined with the findings of clinical psychologist Paul Meehl and cultural anthropologist Magoroh Maruyama, Eigen and Winkler's LIFE/ DEATH GAME indicates that a pattern of reasoning, called Alpha‐H, is not only a formidable obstacle to cooperation, it threatens contemporary societies with extinction through violent conflicts, social upheavals economic collapse or all three together.

The Demotion of Alpha‐H argues that an inability to deal constructively with change and/or diversity is Alpha‐H's fatal flaw. And the removal of gender bias toward opponent processes reasoning is a crucial step toward correcting it. The key concept is the LIFE/DEATH GAME.     

Critical factor analysis: An exploratory general model for understanding diverse systems

Critical Factor Analysis (CFA) is presented as an exploratory general model for uniting the sciences and the humanities through identification and use of critical factors common to both. Two primary and eight subordinate critical factors, with corresponding principles, are identified and placed in a model that can be used for prediction, analysis, and design of systems. Use of CFA could conceivably raise system IQ, reduce unnecessary variety, and assist with the general acceptance of systems science.     

The synergetic principles of nonlinear thinking

In order to develop further the methods of scenario building and to facilitate the paths towards a desirable and sustainable future, we cannot do without a nonlinear evolutionary thinking. The theory of self‐organization of complex systems, called also synergetics, is a scientific basis for such a thinking, the main principles of which are under consideration in the paper. Synergetics provides us with the knowledge of constructive principles of coevolution of complex social systems, coevolution of countries and geopolitical regions being at different stages of development, integration of the East and the West, the North and the South.     

World ethics: Its foundation

Although there are enormous differences between humans, it is also the case that they are fundamentally alike in certain ways. As a prelude to universal ethics, this paper enumerates many commonalities among humans.     

Creativity,chaos, and self‐renewal in human systems

The research findings from the psychology of creativity are shown to be of considerable relevance to the study of self‐organization and self‐renewal in human systems. The characteristics of the creative person, and the nature of the creative process, particularly as they have been elaborated by Barron, are shown to be remarkably congruent with recent findings and theoretical elaborations by Abraham, Jantsch, Laszlo, Prigogine, and others in the fields of evolutionary and chaos theory. The broader social implications of chaos and evolutionary theories are fleshed out through an understanding of their characteristics in creative human systems.     

Evolution and human choices

The postmodern world seems to have conclusively lost faith in the heady promises of human emancipation through rational understanding that have pervaded the Western world since the time of the Enlightenment. As the end of the millennium approaches and the evidence of man‐made environmental degradation accumulates nihilism and malaise color the future. This article argues that a clear understanding of both evolutionary forces and human consciousness permits to formulate a guardedly optimistic alternative view. It is advanced that the very sense of despair current circumstances have created may trigger a move toward a new form of psycho‐functional adaptation, simultaneously constituting a first instance of “conscious evolution” and fulfilling the progressive promise intrinsic in the full use of our rational faculties.     

Resistance to a dynamic world view

The fact that people think is taken for granted. How we go about the thinking process is seldom reflected upon by the individual. In order to be able to grasp complex phenomena, and changing and interdependent relationships students participating in a systems course are required to become aware of their way of performing the thinking process. In discussions with them and based on ‘soft analysis’ it seems that there is resistance to a dynamic, multilevelled thinking process due to habits acquired at school, or perhaps even at an earlier age. The personality structure, and a coherent experience of a complete ‘self’ seems to enhance mental mobility, and the possibility of developing a dynamic world view.     

Threats to Democratic Rationality

This article examines trends that are impacting democratic rationality. It is found that the trends are almost uniformly negative. Viewed from within the legislative branch, trends are negatively impacting legislators’ time, complexifying problems, constraining options, and limiting the evaluation of options. Trends external to the legislative branch are reducing citizen participation and knowledge about public affairs, skewing the balance of power among the branches and states, and decreasing accountability of public officials. In combination, democratic rationality, the process of making good, efficient, and timely decisions to promote higher quality of life and the public good, is seriously threatened. Recommendations include public financing of campaigns, more structured legislative decision-making processes, simplification tests for all new legislation and regulations, and a major new initiative to foster public involvement in public decision making.