Cosmos: A Co-creator’s Guide to the Whole World

Stephen Budner sent me a book about the reawakening of humanity around a new world view. Its by Ervin Laszlo and Jude Currivan and the title of it is Cosmos: A Co-creator’s Guide to the Whole World (thanks!).

Skimming through the book I see many references to complex math equations about the changing reality of human existence.

Laszlo is a founding member of the Club of Budapest

The idea of the Club of Budapest was developed in 1978 in a discussion between Aurelio Peccei, founder and first president of the Club of Rome, and Ervin Laszlo, systems philosopher and also member of the Club of Rome at that time. They were convinced that the enormous challenges to humanity can only be dealt with through the development of a cultural and cosmopolitan consciousness. Based on these ideas, the Club of Budapest was founded by Dr. Laszlo in 1993. The founding city and namesake of the Club lies at the heart of Europe and is spread out over both banks of the River Danube. The successful merging of the two cities Buda and Pest is symbolized by the famous Chain Bridge. It visualizes our ambition to build bridges between generations, disciplines and cultures. Therefore, it was selected as the logo and signet for the objectives of the Club. The main essence of the global efforts lies in the initiation of dialogue.

Interesting to note some of the people involved:

• I briefly met Hazel Henderson at Planetwork in 03 she was a speaker there.
• Richard Tarnas is writer and philospher who spoke at one of the Paradox conferences and also is one of the profs at the California Institute of Integral Studies
• Gunter Pauli is founder of Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives
• Elizabeth Sahtouri presented at the Digital Earth conference organized by Timothy Foresman
• Paul Ray Paradox III @ Arcosanti and talking about Cultural Creatives

I saw Laszlo speak at the Digital Be-In 15 in the spring of 2007.

When I received a newsletter about Pachamama Alliance Partnering with the Unity Church to celebrate 11 Days of Global Unity between September 11 and the 21st inviting their churches to organize meditations, prayer circles, and Awakening the Dreamer Symposiums, I recalled Laszlo citing in his book that researchers have quantified the impacts of global prayer events. Some might further interpret this as having an impact on what Peirre Teilhard de Chardin called the Noosphere (the idea of a global consciousness web that links us and all life together in a massive matrix that could somehow be linked with the notion of Gaia).

Considering the Practical Implications of Philosophical Discourse

Many of us can theorize about the ideas of Chardin or even Soleri and yet the idea of practical philosophy is to link to theories with our practical experiences. Many times I felt frustrated listening to School of Thought (and I know I am not the only one who has felt this way) observing that Soleri had created a barrier between the reality at Arcosanti, and the philosophical theories behind what he calls Arcology. What’s more is that ideally a linkage between our own practical goals of being more sustainable and effective in this world and the vision of sustainability that many of us seem to share would be clearly marked out. I dont feel this is the case at Arcosanti.

Chardin & Arcology Theory

On the tours I often mention that Teilhard de Chardin’s influence on Soleri is revealed by the fact that he wants to name a building at Arcosanti after him.

While his influence on Soleri’s Arcology vision and philosphy is unmistakable it is a bit confusing to consider the links between an aethist philosopher and one who was religious. Yet in seeing the Arcosanti video that tourists view before the tours it is also evident that Soleri has attracted many spiritual thinkers such as Harvey Cox of Harvard Divinity School.

In the article “The Cosmos, the Psyche & You” by Carter Phipps we see many interesting connections such as the mention of The Acquarian Conspiracy by Marlyn Fergerson. Fergerson was one of the panelists at Paradox III in 2001. The book is seem as popularizing the new age movement according to Phipps.

Yet he attributes the real relevance of New Age Thought to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Carl Jung.

Since Chardin is the focus of Soleri we will focus on him here. Arcology would not be Arcology if it were not for Soleri’s discovery of Chardin. The key components are all there Interiorization, complexity and meta-evolutionary theory – that is seeing Darwin’s evolution as part of a larger universal process of development that transcends the neo-Darwinists reductionistic understanding of life as revolving around Selfish Genes. Indeed what we see is a conscious universe in communication with itself through subtle means. Hence the term Noosespere. It was de Chardin he saw the evolutary process as indicating an emergent point that he called the Omega Point. Soleri then followed up on this with his book the Omega Seed seeing Arcology as the vessel or container upon which to germinate that seed and bring it forth as part of common and dominant human experience. As in a previous post I note the Technology Singularists and their notation of patterns emerging within technology development which seem to be converging in a synthesis that will fundamentally alter the human experience of reality as human beings and as living creatures.

Yet the question comes back to an essential understanding of the universe. Are pheonmena connected and links together in a holistic system that we little understand because we are bound by the conventional scientific understandings of the day that are based on the philosophy of modern reductionism? And while Soleri’s polemic against animism continues unabated, it seems that the very notion of noosesphese is saying that there is a life force around the planet that consists of energy flows between conscious beings. Possibly for monothests the idea of consciousness applies only to human beings and thus for Soleri Monothesism is the lesser of two evils (Animism being the greater evil). And yet why do we have to close our minds to the possibility that humans do not have a universal or even an earthly monopoly on consciousness?