The Institute on Man and Science; From Particles to Systems and Patte

National Educational radio in cooperation with the Institute on man and science presents a series of talks drawn from the institute's annual conference held recently in Rensselaer Vale New York. The Institute on man and science is a nonprofit educational institution chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. The annual assembly of the institute is designed to focus attention on 20th century technology and the human relationships resulting from its application. The speaker on this program is Eugene McLaren science and mathematics chairman at the State University of New York at Albany. Mr. McLaren The topic is from particles to systems and patterns in science. Here now is Mr. McLaren. Well thank you very much. Very pleased to be here. The surgeon final morning of our lecture series which I try to sum up some of the unifying concepts of science. What I've tried to do in the first two years is to present a view

of the phenomena of the universe in terms of interactions of matter and energy describable within a framework of space and time. I've tried to describe briefly the nature of scientific concepts and its methodology with some emphasis on the human creative factor in the descriptive framework and in the creation of scientific concepts. The dependence of the scientific process on consistency in nature the extant existential operational character of science and the importance of the predictive element in science have been stressed in the past two lectures. And furthermore yesterday the fundamental unifying concepts of science as I describe them is space

time matter energy and the processes involving their interactions were briefly discussed together with some of the important relationships between them. The way in which complex systems can be constructed from fundamental particles and energy relationships for systems and different kinds of equilibrium states were described today. What I'd like to do is to try to review again briefly some aspects of the most complex system. We must study. That is the system of mankind in his scientific world. In many ways the human environment or more popularly today called Human Ecology I guess is for practical purposes. Any scientific study we

wish to make. This is the case because of both the magnitude and the widespread effects of human activity which have been made possible by scientific knowledge. That is the world today is operationally a single system with as part of the system and that part of the system which introduces and is introducing the most rapid and the largest in magnitude changes within the system itself. A presently popular way of putting this statement is that the Earth is a space ship with as its crew and the terminology were used yesterday. The Spaceship Earth is for practical purposes a closed system. With the exception of the sun which can be considered a part of the system

with the exception the sun was certain amounts of incoming energy. There is no significant input or output of energy and without exception there is no significant import or output of material matter in our system. And such a closed system again in the terminology we introduced yesterday perturbations or disturbances which are introduced into one part of the system can be transmitted to other parts and depending on the stability of the system this disturbances subside. Call this a stable system. They can continue at about the same energy level with the same vigor with which they're introduced. They can be magnified in an unstable system. Now in the past the earth as a whole including me has been a

reasonably stable system. Gross changes have been slow. All life for example has never previously been threatened even though there has been a slow introduction and extinction of particular types of species. This has been the case because of several factors one factor is the relative isolation of portions of our global system from each other. Geographic isolation of forms of islands certain ecological areas areas due to physical barriers for example climatic conditions. That is the earth consisted of many systems essentially steady state in nature and with a reasonable independence from each other. The second reason that the

past system is that the amount of energy available for utilization has been relatively small compared to the amount of energy it takes to disrupt the system. Of materials changed in form and form. Further within the particular system in which they are initially processed out of such materials has been relatively small compared to the source of materials and the reservoir for absorbing materials. This situation is now however a widely recognized to have greatly changed modern technology has provided the understanding's in the tools which have essentially

destroyed isolation and destroyed the possibility of the isolation of portions of our system earth further provided sufficient energy to enable the destruction of the stability of the total system as well as of subsystems and increased amounts of materials being processed. Natural systems can no longer be considered some type of slowly changing steady state but to be rather drifting rather rapidly to greatly changed conditions. Look in perspective we see that integral part of an extremely complex system which is arrived at is present largely by numerous small trial and

error changes over a long period of time understanding of scientific processes and particular predictive ability and therefore the manipulative ability associated with these understandings gives opportunity and the power to suddenly and grossly change improvements or disruptions or destruction of the system. The US has become the only species which has ever had in fact a capability to control its own evolution and in the process of controlling effecting the evolution of the rest of the biological. Now when I say that man has this capability I'm really

talking about a small fraction of a minority of the people because this ability is in existence only in the advanced countries the advanced scientific and technological countries. There does exist in the world two cultures. That's not the same two cultures that Snow talks. My point of view are you talking about. I think essentially individual cultures of scientists and non-scientists. But I think you exist more in terms of society cultures where we have scientific and nonscientific culture within the scientific culture represented by the advanced countries. This culture includes all types of people not only the scientist. And arriving at these two different cultures we see that for at

least some of the people most people in the scientific culture some primary goals have been changed. The primary goals have been change for both individuals and for governments. I think perhaps a change in goals can be best described in terms of the word's survival. On the one hand to what one might call a choice among ways of life on the other hand in the past before technology made available the tremendous resources of material processing and energy. Most individuals one way or another were primarily concerned with a survival pattern of life. They had to get enough food to eat on their own or they had to provide shelter this type of goal and worry

that type of individual worry and I think therefore involve a certain amount of selfishness where a person had to worry about his own individual survival. This is true not only of people of course but other species also. Now science is unable to change from this type of primary urgent goal to a goal different a variety of goals which become possible in a world of plenty rather than a world of efficiency. The world of plenty energy and material again let me emphasize applies only to the scientifically oriented technologically oriented cultures today. It is not a world wide case but certainly and many of the countries most of the countries for were seriously worrying about these problems. We have become cultures of plenty based on science and technology. We now have questions and goals which involve choices among

ways of life patterns of life the types of the quality of life. How does one best use leisure how does. Is it more useful to have arts and crafts and then have people work in factories and produce goods for we might get machines to do it in some ways it's amusement oriented world. Contrast it with the workaday world as a result of the science and technological improvements. Now what I'm pointing out is a relative of recent times science and technology have enabled change in our thinking about goals and has done this not for the whole world but for a minority of the people who now share much of the responsibility for making these second type of decisions. I see the survival goals by the individuals

in many ways not completely eliminated but they've been transferred to governments are two groups of people in society. The threats to survival today are by and large and the advanced countries at least not threats to individuals but rather threats to groups of people in the US. Worries about nuclear energy and nuclear war and such. As more and group basis than an individual basis as the threats to the individual become less imminent I think this tendency to shed the responsibilities shed the worries to groups rather than individuals. The fact of abundance in the system creates its own problems of course. These type of problems environmental certainly much has already been said

about and I don't plan to repeat much of that here this morning. It also gives an implied before it gives questions it raises creates questions concerning the ability of man to really make choices which are not forced on him. And one of the primary questions is in fact capable of changing to formulate and accept a newer goals which are not basically selfishly individually oriented predicated on survival oriented and group interest rather than self-interest and not predicated on survival but predicated upon a way of life which might be most desirable in any scientific technological world.

Some of the specific urgent problems which I will just mention clearly are problems of pollution. Anyone who reads the newspaper at all is completely aware of these problems in kind if not in urgency and pollution particularly you have all kinds of pollution we have pollution of both matter and pollution of energy which are being used and much greater amounts in case of matter of materials we know the types of pollution poisons for example insecticides and waste just the very gross amounts of material which are thrown around the atmosphere in the waters and indeed on the land. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and so forth. The energy pollution is perhaps somewhat less understood but is becoming almost equally as serious we have thermal pollution of waters due to the very

large generating capacities for electricity. We have sound pollution problems arising through supersonic transport and other energy sources. We have light pollution through the possibility of putting satellites up that will shine brighter than the moon all night long and with unknown consequences for the ecology of any area and so forth. Other other problems inadvertent as well as knowing modifications of climates and weather patterns on a worldwide global scale as well as micro environments food problems of cores of Transportation the automobile is a pollutant and murder of people. Contrast it to some of its useful uses. The medical problems of genetic engineering. A transplant of an

artificial organs the whole question of. Depending which way you look at it preservation of life extension of life or the other ways is the prevention of death for certain periods of time. Question A nuclear energy war peace that all of the technological problems associated with the cities these are problems which you know were of and I think most of you know where the knot and any case yes no problem. We don't suddenly abandoned the automobile because it kills more people than guns do even when used in anger in warfare. We just don't do this but we have so we have to make some value choices of how many and how these may be use. These again I think have become group choices no longer individual choices because they do not seem sufficient imminent importance to individuals. Now rather than go

into detail in any of those problems I did at the time I have left I'd like to merely suggest what I think are some of the prerequisites for answers or solutions to these problems. These type of problem created by science technological age. I might say in my opinion they these problems are made possible by science not created by science. Other words the way we use our knowledge is a choice which we make and is not made by someone operational an animate body of knowledge. In order to solve these problems first of all I think that we have to recognize that a stable world system is a requirement by a stable world system talking about this in the scientific sense of yesterday not in terms of. Politics and governments alone although in our world system

group organizations become part of the scientific system so this is a part but only a part of the stable world I'm thinking of the physical as well as the organizational aspects. By this I mean that we need to arrive at some type of steady state system which changes yes but changes more slowly and we become a space ship crew which is in charge of changes rather than merely riding along with it. We needed the salary change. I'd be remiss if I didn't remark in this connection that one of the most significant rapid changes and perhaps the most basic of them all which must be changed has to do with population. I think that our conservation laws and science in terms of close systems of the type we're living in however are complex. Clearly this is not a hint from nature this is screaming and shouting at us to to do something one way or

another the population will come the equilibrium either way is its desirable way thats not conducive to the quality of life in which we are probably interested. I might say also perhaps not a shelf but distinct from nature. That any species which has increased very rapidly has inevitably meant deterioration one way or another of the environment in which it is lived. Whether it's in terms of food or the elimination of other species or terms of the reduction of freedom of the individuals within that particular species I might say increasing numbers usually means greater need for organization and therefore increasing at limit in individual randomness. Individual freedom thank you.

All right the other question then. The other aspect of what we need to do in terms of solutions to these problems I think involves a concerted effort to arrive at some value judgments establishment of some priorities of just where we really wish to go. Now doctor yesterday morning mentioned it for me and some of the types of things which might offhand seem to make a better world being able to extend one's capabilities by rapid transportation communication. On the other hand I think that again it's utterly absurd for any of us to think we can foresee a world where the total population at any reasonable number of population 3 billion of us now an increasing rapidly were three billion people can go floating around the world in jet airplanes. The energy and more

particularly the material resources of the world are just not that large. So we have to look at possibilities in terms of the types of values we are attempting to do. I also referred back to Dr. Custos talk I think it was Wednesday. Management of the city or in terms of management of the city. He drew a little diagram and put at the top of a values choice of priorities. And I think this is really what we're facing today in the sign tific world. And by scientific world I don't mean one controlled by scientists. I mean a world which is has at is available to with the tools and knowledge of science can be used for many purposes. What we need is some people joining together not only scientists scientists more

particular perhaps a humanist to look at the possibilities make some possible predictions using methods of them math out methodology of science for some of the futures of the world and then make choices between them in order to interpret. These alternative futures and help large numbers of people make group decisions. Contrast it with individual interest decisions about this. I think we need most importantly the help of the speculators the artists the writers the poets and I'd like to conclude my remarks this morning with a few words from a poet whom I quoted earlier in this series Tennyson with respect to his question via his little poem flower in the world. His question being what is life to a later work of over a hundred years ago summarized many of the aspects common to all of

the speakers this week in which he foresaw a scientific world and the benefit of it. And the process of the sun's just pulled these lines. There are some selected lines from his poem Locksley Hall. Not in vain. The distance beacons forward forward let us range Let the Great World Spin forever down the ringing grooves of change through the shadow of the glow we sweep ahead to the sublime. We are the heirs of all the ages in the foremost files of time always see the crescent promise of man spirit has not set ancient founts of inspiration. Well through all its fancy yet and through the ages one increasing purpose run us and the thoughts of men are

white by the process of the sun. Yea we dip into the future far as human eye can see see the vision of the world and all the wonders that shall be here the war drum no longer see the battle flakes all furrowed in the Parliament of Man the Federation of the world. You have heard Eugene McLaren science and mathematics chairman at the State University of New York at Albany. Mr. McLaren The topic was from particles to systems and patterns in science. This lecture was one of many given at the annual conference of the Institute on man and science held in Rensselaer bill New York on our next program. V.L. Parsi June of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will give the first of three talks under the general heading what systems analysis has taught us about ourselves and the natural world. These lectures are recorded by the Institute on man and science.

The programmes are prepared for broadcast and distributed by the national educational radio network.