---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: FlipFlop Productions <flipflop.productions@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 4:04 AM
Subject: something you may be interested in...
To: Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004@gmail.com>

http://www.pinyin.info/chinese/crisis.html

I got a note together on the topic too adding chaos and energy dynamics:

Wēijī, Crisis and Chaos

Please read the original article which was written by Victor Mair in reaction to misuse in economic theory of the Mandarin character for crisis and its misinterpretation of implying both 'danger' and 'opportunity'.

You can find it here: http://www.pinyin.info/chinese/crisis.html

I would like to draw attention to another angle on this case which ultimately poses some serious challenges. Wéi does indeed mean danger, and of Jí Mair wrote:

"The jī of wēijī, in fact, means something like “incipient moment; crucial point (when something begins or changes).”

Aside from the notion of “incipient moment” or “crucial point” discussed above, the graph for jī by itself indicates “quick-witted(ness); resourceful(ness)” and “machine; device....one might elaborate upon it as the dynamic of a situation's unfolding, when many elements are at play. In this sense, jī is neutral. This jī can either turn out for better or for wors" Secondary meanings were given as follows:

ji: mechanism, inner workings (and by extension secrecy), germinal principle, pivotal juncture, crux, or a witty turn of thought.

The approach taken here is from Chaos theory, or complexity theory:

"Kellert (1993) defines chaos theory as "the qualitative study of unstable aperiodic behavior in deterministic nonlinear dynamical systems" (p. 2). Chaos theory was formulated during the 1960s. Its story is one of many people--scientists who dared to think along new and unsuspected channels. The name chaos was coined by Jim Yorke, an applied mathematician at the University of Maryland (Ruelle, 1991, p. 67)."

According to " findings of modern chaos theory, seeds of order seem to be embedded in chaos, while seeds of chaos are apparently embedded in order. Systems that are stable in relation to their environment can become unstable. Systems that are unstable can return to stability. Another important finding is that the behavior of a system in stability and its behavior after becoming unstable are acausal."

"In terms of systems, chaos is a state space (the condition of any system at a given time) where a system exhibits disorder, confusion, uncertainty, or instability"

"The dictionary defines order as "a fixed or definite plan; system; law of arrangement." In terms of systems, order is a state space where a system exhibits clarity, certainty, or stability. Chaos and order can be considered polar opposites. We can go even farther here because, according to Çambel (1993), order and chaos, or determinism and chance, are like two sides of the same coin, and contrary to traditional thinking, there is no cause-and-effect relationship between the two."

"Most dynamic systems, and all living systems, are open. Our body, for example, is an open system (Atkins, 1984, p. 179). Modern chaos theory addresses complex systems, which are systems with a large number of interrelated parts. It also addresses dynamic systems. There are two main types of dynamic systems: discrete and continuous. Every complex system, and especially every living system (living systems are ususally refered to as self-organizing systems) is also a dissipative structure. Ilya Prigogine won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1977 for his work on dissipative structures, which he defined as any structure that takes on and dissipates energy as it interacts with its environment. A dissipative system, unlike one that conserves energy, gives rise to irreversible processes (Nicolis & Prigogine, 1989). All systems that exhibit disequilibrium and self-organization are dissipative and have a dissipative structure (Briggs and Peat, 1989, p. 138). Thus, not only our physical body itself is such a structure, but every organ and cell as well. The term itself expresses a paradox, because dissipative suggests falling apart or chaos, while structure suggests organization and order. Dissipative systems are those which are able to maintain identity only because they are open to flows of energy, matter, or information from their environments (Prigogine and Stengers, 1984)."

From

http://www.schuelers.com/chaos/chaos1.htm One reinterpretation of the second law is as follows:

" If heat or energy is dissipated from a system such that a state-change reaction is provoked, the energy leaving the system and the corresponding decrease in internal motion will create a composite result, a more complex consequent comprised of a combination of once-simpler components.

It is the realised position of many that we are in such a state change at all levels, these events we see in the forms of riots, revolutions, social, political, and economic unrest, all are mere surface signatures of a deep brewing.I would like to preclude the following with the following (;)

Consciousness and concentration are of an amaterial form of energy whose conductivity is increased by connectivity.

And so, like in the time after gutenbergs printing press, the renaissance , the unfolding of the enlightenment: the scientific method, the industrial revolution and so on as happened with the reverse archaeology of individuated conscious being, we now see the like happen again, there is an increase in said energy coursing through our shared system.

In thermodynamics it is shown that when the energy flow animating a system is increased then the system must adapt new 'gradients' to dissipate the incoming energy. If the system does not do so it becomes hyper-chaotic and breaks down.And so back to our chinese character...there is danger; and if those who see it as opportunity are allowed to continue 'manning' the wheel things all will not be for the best. What is required to avoid the danger is JÍ: mechanism, inner workings, germinal principle, a witty turn of thought at this crux, this pivotal juncture.