11/03/97 10:22 PM Ignorant Genius Are there any truths we can determine from the story of science, technology

and the business activity that has been founded on the knowledge derived from it? Its a fundamental underlying assumption in scientific inquiry that the laws of nature can be discovered by diligently exploring the region of awareness that we associate with sensory perception. Why is it that such dedication and devotion to the lifelong search for the laws of nature are quite common among scientists of renown? Some of them tell us that the devotion has to do with experiences in science that are very similar to the experiences of mystics. Yet the trend that developed at the time of the radical cosmology of Copernicus, and has been handed down to scientists of the twentieth century in the form of the scientific method, was and continues to be motivated more by a rivalry for political influence than by the personal ecstasy of the mystical experience that is often reported to us by scientists when they experience realizations that become significant scientific truths such as the quantum theory of Planck and the special relativity theory of Einstein, Newtons mechanics and Heisenbergs uncertainty. At the time of Copernicus, the church of Rome in alliance with the interlocking monarchies and aristocracies of the European countries, was an authority which we of the twentieth century would label as totalitarian. Copernican science soon became the first wave of dissent that sought a new world in which the despotic and corrupt power and influence of the monarchist/church alliance was removed. It worked. Science aimed at an understanding of the material world and predictably this understanding has made it possible to appeal to the natural physical appetites of humanity - and this appeal to physical appetites has in turn guaranteed political power to the proponents of science, technology and business.

The greatest achievement of the scientific method and the technology and business that it has generated, is the improvement in the freedom of choice of the peoples fortunate enough to live in countries that protect freedom of choice. The cost however has been high. The cost has been born by humanity and even more so by the living ecosystems of the planet that have been subjected to human physical appetites - to consumer demands - to the satisfaction of human greed and with it the destruction and death of both human and non-human species of life. The freedom of choice to consume has been the principle by which the authorities of the industrial age have wrested and maintained political power from the monarchist-religionists who held totalitarian control in the European world of the early sixteenth century. Just as in the day of Copernicus, today there is a growing sense of the inadequacies and failures of the political authorities who are in positions of power and authority in the most powerful nations and corporations of the world. In the sixteenth century, the discontent that gave rise to the liberation movements and revolutions in England, the US, France and other countries, were motivated primarily by human suffering due to the indulgence of the power elite. In the twentieth century, the suffering that gives rise to the growing discontent with political authority is not only human. It is the suffering experienced by the whole integrated global ecosystem of interconnected and interdependent populations of living species and beings. Here is the experience of more than four hundred years. The story takes on greater clarity when its viewed in the perspective of the history of the Universe and the ten thousand years approx. of recorded human history. The industrial experiment really got off the ground with Copernicus, Keppler, Galilao, Newton, Des Cartes and others of their era. The beginnings of the cultural philosophy offered by these heroic persons go back to Thales, and

the other ancient Greek philosophers. Today its well documented that it was the discovery of the ancient Greek writings of Plato and Aristotle, left behind in Spain by the former Arab rulers, that gave rise to the scientific revolution and the political and cultural revolution that evolved out of the Copernican cosmology that was the first stake driven into the heart of the existing power structure of the time. The scientific view of reality was and is that the preferred and approved pattern to follow in life, rather than being a life of devotion to the church and obedience to the instructions and laws of priests and aristocrats; is a life devoted to an understanding of the sensory world and the satiation of the physical appetites. Underlying the scientific view of human identity and ethics, is the central belief in the supremacy of scientific knowledge. What exactly is scientific knowledge then and how is it differentiated from other types of knowledge; if there are other types of knowledge? Firstly, science approves of sensory perception and forbids and punishes explorations of non-sensory experience. The scientific world view and view of human identity, establishes a system of ethical rules of conduct that approves the unbridled satiation of the physical appetites. Consumption, even in excess is not only approved and encouraged but is celebrated and applauded. The political system that has come into power to replace the monarchist-religious political system of the prescientific age, is firmly based on the popular support to be gained by servicing human physical appetites via the production of all sorts of products and services that pander to human physical appetites. Political power in the twentieth century comes not from the barrel of a gun or from the divine sanction of a clergy, but from a tacit and unspoken agreement between the majority of the ruled people and their rulers. The agreement consists of a contract under which the majority of the people agree to grant uncontested authority to the political leadership in return for the political leadership providing support and encouragement of the growth of economic activity and productivity aimed at improved satisfaction of the physical appetites.

In the United States of (North) America, the government influences economic activity indirectly but very significantly. Elections are based primarily on the condition of the economy. When people feel that they are better off economically they tend to vote for the party who is incumbent. When economically dissatisfied they tend to vote for the opposing party. Tax policy is the primary means via which the government is able to directly influence economic satisfaction of the electors. Even though there is an unprecedented level of economic prosperity for the people of the US, there is a growing dissatisfaction with those who exercise power - a dissatisfaction that is not directly connected with the satisfaction of individual physical appetites. The weakness of the scientific-industrial world view and view of human identity is that it has failed and continues to fail to take account of human and non-human needs and desires that are nonphysical and non-sensory, non-material in their nature. Human beings have spiritual needs and the scientific world view, while it aims at satisfaction of physical appetites, neglects to authentically recognize spiritual needs. Even as the words: spiritual needs were being written above, there comes with it a vagueness and uncertainty about the meaning of the words. Contrast this with the readiness with which we can clearly identify the physical appetites to which the scientific-industrial-corporate-consumer culture appeals and depends on for its sustenance. The physical appetites are easily understood because we are constantly bombarded with the objects of physical satisfaction. For the poorest people it is adequate food, health care, clean water, clothing and shelter. For those who have their basic needs already met, what is offered to the physical appetites are automobiles, vacations, summer homes, restaurants, computers, big screen TVs, beer, drugs, videotapes, music, sex, drugs, expensive wine, drugs, diamonds and emeralds, designer clothing, drugs, fur coats, drugs, BMWs, Mercedes, Rolls Royces, drugs. Affluence is held up as that which is most desirable and affluence is defined in terms mostly of a second or third or fourth home and unlimited choice of

automobiles, a boat, a plane, snowmobiles, recreational vehicles, trailers, jet skis, all terrain vehicles, motorcycles, the art works of past masters, investment port-folios. If we examine the assets of a typical affluent person such as a physician, a lawyer, an executive level corporate manager, an entrepreneur, a politician, business owner, dentist we will find that their most highly valued possessions are their homes and their transportation equipment. Thats where all the money goes. When the cost of fueling both the homes and transportation equipment is included the supremacy of the value placed on shelter and locomotion is even more pronounced. But is it only the value of locomotion and shelter that the affluent are expressing when they purchase the multi-million dollar home in Telluride or Malibu? The Rolls Royce, BMW, Maserati, Ferrari etc. Perhaps there is an expression in these affluent choices of a need that is deeper than the physical appetites. The need to feel a certain way about ourselves. That we are valuable in ourselves. That we are successful, powerful, influential. Entities to be reckoned with. A person with status. People of superior talents to be admired and respected. People perhaps even to be feared and revered. Where do the affluent people go to satisfy the inner needs they feel that are not satisfied by their possessions and all the things that money can buy? They go places such as Aspen, Jackson Hole, Park City, Maui, Telluride, Vail, Sundance, Esalen, Sun Valley, Acapulco, Cancun, Cozumel, Martinique, Majorca, the Greek Islands, the French Riviera, Nepal, the Maldives, Tahiti. Places of physical beauty. Places suited to leisure activities like sun bathing and swimming, skiing, gambling, scuba diving. Does the story of science and industrial consumer culture tell us anything about the belief structure that sustains it? The assumption is that we should focus our awareness in sensory perception? It tells us that the result is environmental degradation, ecocide, crime, drugs, corruption, over-consumption, self indulgence. The scientific world view and the consumer culture fails to satisfy the deeper inner needs that we can only describe as spiritual. The need to feel good about ourselves. The

need for self esteem. The need to feel loved, The need to adore ourselves. Adoration. The scientific world view is based silently in the limiting belief that consumption and satisfaction of the physical appetites leads to satisfaction, to self esteem, to contentment, to a state of adoration and love. The affluent people of the world, past, present and future, know from personal experience that the satisfaction of physical appetites fails to fill the need we have for inner contentment, for adoration. This pervasive emptiness is the motive force behind the cultural transformation that is evident in the emergence of a mutant cultural system founded on the supra-scientific knowledge that spiritual needs cannot be satisfied by consumption. Spiritual needs are very difficult to define because they have been so much neglected by the industrial consumer culture that has dominated our lives and experience in the twentieth century. What can we say about spiritual needs? Spirituality is a very ambiguous word. In its essence it has something (actually everything) to do with liberation and emancipation, with freedom of choice and salvation. But what is it we feel so compelled to be saved, liberated, emancipated or freed from? We feel a need to be freed from the constraints of our normal everyday routines. We feel a need for emancipation from the irritations of spiritual poverty of our urban environments; from the rigors and agonies of our work places and routines. We desire most of all to be able to choose what to do, where to go, how to feel and what to think at every instant of our life experiences. We feel compelled to surrender and sacrifice the freedom of choice we long for, in order to have a job and earn an income to pay the bills for provision of the basic physical needs of our own and our families and loved ones. We are so busy we dont have the time to realize the tragedy of our situations. We submit to spiritual poverty in order to have a roof over our heads, warm clothing, food, health care, entertainment and transportation. Most of what the majority

of people in developed countries earn goes to pay for their homes, their automobiles and their utility bills. Why do we submit to spiritual poverty? Perhaps we surrender freedom of choice because we lack the knowledge we need to choose where to live and how to earn a living in ways that not only satisfy our physical appetites but more important, satisfy our deep longing and agonizing need for spiritual satisfaction. Spiritual satisfaction, contentment is concerned with freedom of choice. It can only be experienced when we find the courage to follow our inner intuitive guidance rather than submitting to the guidance of authority figures in our government, our churches, our media, our education institutions and in our places of work. Spiritual poverty is experienced when we suppress our inner intuitive guidance and submit to the instructions of authority figures.