The Physics of Modern Crisis Animesh Mukherjee [Roll: 05CS9405]

1. The Physics of Modern Crisis Animesh Mukherjee [Roll: 05CS9405]

2. Statutory Warning… The speaker is neither a Physicist nor a Philosopher!

3. Crisis Crisis Everywhere… • History makes it evident that • The last two/three decades have witnessed a state of profound worldwide crisis • The crisis is multidimensional, encompassing • Health, • Environment, • Social relationships, • Economy and Politics, and even • Moral and Spiritual values • For the first time the most intelligent beings on this earth are threatened of extinction

4. Reasons: The Nuclear Madness • Nuclear Weapons – Oh, we have enough to destroy the world several times • 3rd world countries do business of military equipments more than their national income • A bit of statistics • 15 million people (mostly children) die of starvation • 500 million are undernourished • 40% of the world population hardly know the term “Health Service” • Surprisingly, 50% of the world engineers and scientists spend their life in making “more deadly weapons”

5. Give it a Thought! • PENTAGON (US military industry) • Constantly persuades all other countries to buy more and more nuclear weapons • A really funny ideology • “THE MORE WEAPONED YOU ARE THE MORE SAFER YOU WILL BE” • Hence the age old idea of • “ATOMS FOR PEACE” – is now a painful • reality

6. What Experts Say?? • NOTHING • - A striking sign of our times • Experts fail to deal with urgent problems even in their own fields • In 1979 the Washington Post ran a story under • the heading “The Cupboard of Ideas is Bare” • In this the prominent thinkers round the world admitted that they are unable to solve nation’s most policy problems

7. Why is this failure?? • Probably because • - Solutions were local and lacked a narrow perception of reality • No holistic view, even though the problems were systematic and closely interconnected • Its high time to get rid of the concept of static societal structure and believe in the dynamic patterns of change

8. The Way to Analysis • Crisis and change share a historical relationship • Chinese philosophers use the term ‘wei-ji’ for crisis which means “danger followed by opportunity” • Crisis leads to cultural transformation necessary for the development of a civilization

9. The Challenge and Response • The genesis of civilization is a pattern of interaction – probably like the game of cards • Toynbee identified this fact and called it the “Challenge-and-Response” in “A Study of History” Challenge Response

10. Rise and Fall • Challenge from the social and natural • environment provokes a creative response • Induces the society to enter into a process of new civilization • This response generates cultural momentum and • takes the society beyond an equilibrium – a new • challenge • The initial pattern is again repeated

11. For Whom the Bell Tolls… Growth of civilization as a result of a creative response Decline of civilization as a result of a new challenge • Growing civilization – Versatility & Variety • Disintegrating Civilization – Rigid & lacks inventiveness

12. Yin and Yang • Numerous philosophers observed this • recurrent rhythm of cultural growth • Ancient Chinese – Yin and Yang (two opposite polar forces) • Ancient Indians – Prakriti & Purusha • Saint Simon – Organic and Critical • Herbert Spencer – Integrations and Differentiations • Henceforth we will use the terms Yin and • Yang

13. Transitions of Our Times • Reluctant but inevitable decline of Patriarchy • End of fossil fuel age and the beginning of • renewable energy age • Change in value system (Sorokin) • Sensate – Matter alone is ultimate reality • Ideational – Absolute Spiritualism (beyond the realm of the material world) • Ideal – Intermediate between Ideational and Sensate

14. Do’s and Don'ts • Since such a cultural transformation cannot be prevented so, • They should not be opposed but welcomed – mainly to escape agony • During the change reject the conceptual models that are obsolete in current scenario • Recognize new values that were once discarded

15. Can Physics Help Us ?? • Newtonian Physics • Perhaps not • Mainly due to the reductionist viewpoint which believes • Any complex phenomenon can be reduced to some basic building blocks and then analyzed independently - Most of the other sciences (e.g., psychology, sociology, economics) are biased towards Newtonian concepts

16. The Systems View • Modern Physics • Yes • Mainly by introduction of a holistic framework • This branch of modern Physics is well known as the “Systems Theory”

17. The Cultural Dynamics: What Systems Theory has to say?? Demanding Contractive Aggressive Responsive Competitive YANG YIN Cooperative Intuitive Rational Synthesizing Analytic • YIN & YANG – Properties of living organisms, society, ecosystem …… • More specifically – Two parts of the same human nature • One asserting the self – ego-system • The other integrating with the society – eco-system

18. F1 F2 F3 The Forces of Dynamics Altogether F4 F5 • Any guess about the forces!! • F1, F2, F3 - Ideal, Sensate, Ideational respectively • F4, F5 – Yin, Yang respectively

19. To Conclude … • Other sciences should, • Accept the new concepts of Physics • Believe in the holistic framework • Base their analysis on this framework • In short : it should mark “THE TURNING POINT” of science - Thanks