Mary Metzger
While there are many approaches to it, there is only one truth: that the world is One and thus that all is internally related. The genius of Einstein is that he expressed and established this as the physical truth of the universe by negating Newton’s profound misconception of the world as separate and isolated units coexisting in an ether which had no effect upon them. He reformulated and unified time and space, into a continuous fabric which shaped and in turn, was shaped by various densities of matter in motion so that matter bent space and gravity slowed time. No less, in his most famous formula he established the unity of energy and matter. Nor was Einstein alone; it could be said that much of modern science has arrived at the same conclusion. The big bang theory unifies reality by providing a common point of origin, the double slit experiment and the formulations of Heisenberg and Schrodinger established the unity of observer and observed to be such that subject and object could no longer be separated. Evolution shows us nothing less than our internal relatedness to our physical past and our environment. DNA tells us that we are all related to a single “Eve” from Africa. Recent research in genetics and epigenetics point to how the totality of our environment shapes our genetic structure in ways that lead diseases of body and mind. Recent research takes it a step further by hinting at the possibility that we have a genetic memory such that the experiences of our ancestors are transferred to us generation after generation The popularized version of chaos theory is that the flapping wings of a butterfly have repercussions on the weather patterns of Europe.
Of course the philosophy of internal relations is not derived from or based on modern scientific proofs, but rather is supported by them. Way before Einstein, Hegel dedicated his life to logically elaborating the implications and subsets of the philosophy of internal relations, and Marx, following Hegel, turned it into a social and economic theory which led inexorably to communism. Thus the logical formulation of the philosophy of internal relations preceded any scientific proofs.
My purpose here is not to explain the philosophy of internal relations, but rather to focus on one logical implication of it and apply it to an understanding of the current state of the world. According to the PIR, the result of internal relatedness is constant churning change. This is the logical outcome of the unity of different bundles of relations. The nature of this change is both evolutionary, slow and gradual change, and revolutionary, sudden and drastic phase transitions. Hegel would bind these two together by asserting that at a given point in time a change in quantity produces a change in quality. I would like to tie this philosophical concept to the science by referencing chaos theory. Chaos theory says the same thing with a slightly different twist. It says that in the midst of chaos there exists a point of structured order which over time grows and grows until it flips the chaotic system into equilibrium. Likewise and conversely, within that equilibrium there already exists the seed of chaos which grows and grows until the system undergoes a phase transition into pure chaos.
That the world now is in a state of nearly absolute capitalist and patriarchal chaos is reflected in a multitude of ways that can be measured: war is ever expanding, the world is increasingly dividing into those few who have everything, and the vast majority, who have nothing, the brutal rape and slaughter of females even before they are born, has hit epidemic proportions in much of Asia, the pollution of the world has carried life forms to the brink of disaster, racism has been transformed in American into the nearly ritual daily killing of people of color, , and the “revolutionary” force of society is has taken the sad form of religious fanaticism.
Yet in the midst of it all, is the one small kernel of transformation that has begun to grow and expand in world’s absolute chaos, and that is technology. Technology in general to be sure, But in particular, one new form of technology which has the potential to dissolve the archaic social and economic structures of a putrid capitalist world. This is not to say that it will make the world perfect, for in fact, the “owners” of these new social forces are already capitalists-people such as PavelDurov. However, they will redefine capitalism, move its social structures into a new phase transition, a phase transition which will, because it both it embodies and reinforces the internal relatedness of all, take the world one step closer to communism.
This technological development is called blockchain technology (https://medium.com/animal-media/3-use-cases-of-how-blockchain-technology-is-already-unlocking-value-ec0b01129b03). It is the technology powering Bitcoin, the technology that threatens to bring banks as we know them to their knees. It has turned individuals into millionaires in a matter of months, and created a new class of entrepreneurs and investors. The more idealistic blockchain advocates see it as one of the most revolutionary and disruptive discoveries of our age, and argue that it will end global poverty, and revolutionize the ways in which politics and business are conduct. It will, at the very least, make all transactions both absolutely secure and perhaps even ethical Ostensibly, it will eliminate the ability of one human being to dupe another. Beyond this it will redefine the nature of “value” itself. According to its advocates, as the power and scope of blockchain technology grows the world will change for the better. This technology which will reflect the structure of the world by creating a technological “One” which is not based on knowledge but on human interactions will hopefully restructure the chaos and, of course, become the crucible for a new form of chaos. But kid yourself not, it is the new, revolutionary force of society.
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