Contact:
Skye Hirst, Autognomics Institute
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CAMDEN, ME – October, 2008 – Norm Hirst, co-founder of the Camden, New York/Maine-based Autognomics Institute, will have an article published in the next issue of the scholarly journal, Cosmos and History, about dramatic changes in the way scientists and philosophers view the nature of life.

Hirst’s article, “Towards a Science of Life as Creative Organisms,” challenges the physics-based view of the universe and proclaims a paradigm shift from a rigid, mechanistic, and materialistic worldview to a perspective that supports interconnectedness, cooperation, and the intersection of science and spirituality.

Hirst graduated from MIT with a degree in mathematics/physics and went into advanced studies in metaphysics and logic at Yale University and the University of Texas. Delving into the foundations of knowledge from physics and mathematics to metaphysics, logics, biology and theology—and then into new findings in biophysics and quantum physics, Norm now brings out the result of this 40 years of research.   It all began when Norm was at MIT— following his tour of duty in the Korean War— that he became deeply concerned about the causes and destructiveness of war, and there he worked with Robert Hartman, the discoverer of the first formalism of values. Inspired by Hartman's premise, Norm dedicated his life to the development of a science of values.

Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy is a peer-reviewed publication that aims to provide a forum for those questioning the most fundamental assumptions about the cosmos and our place within it.

Hirst states that scientific materialism—despite its many triumphs in creating technology—is a limited and incomplete worldview that is being superseded by new discoveries pointing to a view of life, indeed the cosmos, as self-acting organism.

“Recent experiments in physics and biophysics are producing results that cannot be explained by traditional scientific materialism,” explains Hirst.  “There is nothing in our history of ideas, whether philosophical or scientific, that deals with living, self-initiating and self-acting entities. We need a new worldview along with new protocols of inquiry to cope with it—a new science of life.”

The Autognomics Institute is dedicated to promoting, synthesizing, and communicating the results of this new research, as a key step in creating a better world for all through a better understanding of life itself.  Information about the institute is available at www.autognomics.org .