Autognomics Institute

General Purpose Statement

Parts of the GSP:

Introduction
What is the Autognomics Institute?
Hypothesis
The AI Mission
Why do we need the Autognomics Institute?
The need for Basic Research
Applying Living Systems Research
Autognomics Institute Areas of Inquiry: A sampling
The Autognomics Institute Vision

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THE AUTOGNOMICS INSTITUTE, INC.

Breaking with scientific tradition of 2500 years to reveal the inherent wisdom, rhythm, and motion of Life, itself...

Bringing Life back to living.

WHAT IS THE AUTOGNOMICS* INSTITUTE?

The Autognomics Institute, Inc.(AI) is a virtual*, physical, and culturally diverse world-wide community, forming to develop a new kind of science*, one that reveals the natural inherent principles organizing Life-itself, its living systems* and processes. Many old and emerging social problems stem from ignorance of this fundamental wisdom. Uniting rational and intuitive mind, this study reveals a new paradigm of interconnectedness, interdependence, coherence and above all, meaning.

Hypothesis:

When applied to Life, current sciences, combined with the profit motive, are misguided and dangerous. We can only understand what we can think fully about and 2500 years of traditional thinking (logics) systematically prevent ways of recognizing the dynamics of any living process. Autognomics is developing new forms of logic to understand the organizing processes of Life-itself.
Life-itself is composed of processes that are generative functions creating patterns of manifestation permitting self-knowing, recursiveness, self-correction, self-organization1 and operate within a hierarchy of values2 to create and produce signs that form a theory of acts3 in a relational,4 triadic5 and rhythmic way. Life-itself is constantly generating a coherence, a rhythm, motion and change6 which is growing, contracting, expanding, forming, maturing, and transforming. Its logic and order transcend traditional thought and logic.7

1. Charles Peirce, Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, & Robert Rosen 2. Robert Hartman 3. Charles Peirce, Floyd Merrell & Gene Pendergraft 4. JR Hamann 5. Peirce 6. Floyd Merrell 7. Norm Hirst.

*Autognomics means self-knowing 1) The study and processes of life knowing itself: its universal and primordial systems of order. 2) Auto-to reflect within and upon self, Gnosis - the processes of knowing superior wisdom, knowledge of mysteries, or spiritual truth.

*Virtual: Existing or resulting in essence or effect though not in fact, form or name; having power of acting with invisible efficacy without the material manifestation or sensible parts, i.e., bringing together people through Internet, world wide links.

*A system is a composite unity; that is, a collection of components integrated into mutual dependencies to function as one entity. Living systems are self-creating. The parts in the whole system arise together by natural processes. The parts are not the same upon removal from the system. Living systems do not obey the laws of classical Newtonian mechanistic physics - they demand a different logic to understand their relational dynamic.…… Norman Hirst, a founder of AI, 1999

*Reductionism involves reducing any object of study to its smallest components with the belief that, when we know how the smallest components are put together, we will know how the object under study works.

The AI Mission

The AI Mission is to bring into consciousness the vast wisdom contained within the domain of Life-itself by developing new logics which reveal aspects of reality that are left out of the current mechanistic and reductionistic* scientific world view.

-To act as midwives to the emerging new scientific paradigm which shifts the philosophical tradition of studying "what is " to studying "the processes of becoming", and ultimately to understanding the meaning of "why life?".

-To provide education and new tools of valuing and reasoning based on Living processes, not only laws of matter or things. AI creates new solutions, programs, and processes for individuals, businesses, communities, and government that safeguard the eco-system of Life-itself during a time of fast evolution in commerce, social dynamics, and human development.

More research on logic has been done in the past few decades than in all previous human history. Many new forms of logic have been produced. Some of them look as if they might be well suited to providing a logic of Life-itself.
Therefore to create a science of Life-itself, living logics are needed to express the full spectrum of Life-itself characteristics.

Therefore to create a science of Life-itself, living logics are needed to express the full spectrum of Life-itself characteristics.
Characteristics of Traditional Logics
· are truth preserving
· are thing oriented (extensional)
· are consistent which denies process
· are static
· exclude self-reference (self-knowing)
· exclude values

Characteristics of Living Logics:
· are creative
· are meaning oriented (intentional)
· allows oscillation
· are dynamic
· requires self-reference (self-knowing)
· are value-driven

The Autognomics Institute PURPOSE

The Autognomics Institute purpose is the discovery, study, and knowing through application, of Life-itself functions, processes, principles and logics that are universal in all living organisms. AI is dedicated to helping us understand the universal properties of Life, but it also directs us to discover the indispensable role values play in life systems and processes.

The Institute founders are combining 170 years of their own research with that of other frontier researchers worldwide to establish this new Life science as a significant field of endeavor. The pioneers together apply a triadic, relational, values paradigm which shifts traditional scientific studying of "what is " to studying "the processes of becoming", and ultimately to understanding the meaning of "why life?".
We form a new beginning moving away from mechanistic, reductionistic, cause and effect driven logics to the discovery of a holistic, epi-logic understanding of the universal creation processes and systems of order in all realms of life. We build from the inspirations of Alfred North Whitehead, Charles Peirce, Robert Hartman, Haskel Curry, Spencer Brown, Francisco J. Varela, Humberto Maturano to mention but a few.

This novel autonomous organization integrates basic and applied research in-residence with education activities, individual and group consultations, principally at the Institute, but with cooperation from researchers from other institutions. In the planning are communication broadcast, publishing and global-links via internet. The AI founders have developed an autognomic- self-knowing - computer system, that will be a major tool in the realization of the Institute vision. These events are organized as a 501 ( c ) 3 non-profit, founded in 1992 with centers in New York & Connecticut, U.S.A.

World wide communication and inspirational events make AI an ever evolving, dynamic, international community of frontier inquirers, basic and applied researchers, practitioners and educators. These communications and events are dedicated to :

· ushering in the emerging living systems paradigm by challenging our most basic logics and beliefs coming from 2500 years of a dominant traditional scientific world view.
· creating new knowledge and a new language about the natural organizing principles of living systems and processes, (not those known through traditional physics) including those that have been intuited, glimpsed, and philosophized about thus far;
· providing an organic-like space (real and virtual) for this on-going process of events, a space that encourages communication, learning and discovery natural to living systems;
· emphasizing the breaking out of old patterns, having some fun, constantly evolving, realizing new realities, creating communion and art that help us contemplate, integrate and build perspective for finding new effective action;
· growing a cooperating spirit of mutual respect for individual intrinsic expression, connection in love with the heart and mind.

Why do we need The Autognomics Institute ?

It is time for a new beginning, since Aristotle, 2500 years ago, the dominant world view of life has been reductionistic or solely cause and effect-driven. This inherited world view has produced beliefs and attitudes which are destructive to life as evidenced in social, technological and ecological problems that never get solved.

Those who use current world views cannot explain a great deal of contemporary experience. The problems that were created under the reductionist paradigm that is also mechanistic have not and will not be solved by a reductionist mechanistic approach. Both science and even common sense have hit impenetrable barriers.

It is the belief of the founders of the Autognomics Institute and a growing number of independent researchers working around the world that…

Humankind is poised for an imminent worldwide paradigmatic metamorphogenesis in the very essence of scientific, technological, humanistic, cultural, social thought and actions… causing fundamental shifts which will reveal new logics, mathematics, even new sciences beyond our current scientific world view…moving us towards a wholeness that transcends a polarized, splintered, separated, competitive and despairing existence. Jon Ray Hamann, a founder of AI, 1999.
Such a time of a paradigm shift of this magnitude occurs rarely in human history. To navigate this massive shift in human thought and action, new ways of processing and perceiving reality are required. The most basic logics and beliefs we have must be challenged. Though laws of living systems have already been intuited, glimpsed and philosophized about, there has not yet developed a common language that expresses them. Capturing what is illusive, but somehow known, is left to the arts and religion. But more specificity in language is needed to apply these laws to meet contemporary human and cosmic challenges. Moreover, this language and this research will cultivate a reliable perception about living systems beyond only one logical dimension.

One motif apparent on this new evolving scientific frontier about life is that applying machine-like thinking does not help us learn about organic life processes. "Laws of nature" as they apply to living systems go far beyond those that are known through traditional physics. Quantum physics, with its paradoxes, comes closest to living systems. Resolutions of these paradoxes requires a paradigm beyond what is currently imaginable. It appears that quantum physics and living systems may require the same new paradigm. Discovery of this new paradigm is the work of the Autognomics Institute.

More has been discovered about living systems in the past 25 years than in any other period of history. Pioneer sciences in this field are emerging all around the world, largely outside the major academic institutions. These discoveries are still largely unknown to mainstream fields, and the information about them is difficult to assemble. There is virtually no unified organized effort to bring this work together and make it available to the public, until now.

THE NEED FOR BASIC RESEARCH:

Scientists have a burning curiosity to know, striving to understand more and more about the great cosmic handiwork. With disciplined rigor of keen eyes, skilled hands, and trained minds, they behold nature in new ways in order to reveal previously unknown facets of the cosmic design. They arrive at fresh insights about the patterns of connections and regularly abandon old models and theories. ……Perhaps the greatest obstacle that frontier scientists ….face is political-the tendency for human systems to resist change, to resist the impact of new discoveries, especially those that challenge the status quo of the scientific establishment. Life at the Edge of Science, Beverly Rubik, Institute for Frontier Science, 1996.

Worldwide, there is a dearth of basic research. Yet basic research is precisely what leads to new kinds of questions that help us discover what we don't know.
Basic research in the U.S. was significantly reduced during the Nixon presidential era. It's an unwelcome concept in many organizations, largely because it is not profit-driven, most academics are forced to conduct applied research solely towards product development instead.

Discovery of the unknown should not be neglected. Probing for new knowledge is essential in our exploration of life, itself. Only then can we fully begin to understand the emerging living systems paradigm.

Emerging research takes place largely outside mainstream institutions and consequently, the challenge to organize it, communicate it and evaluate it is monumental. Original thought is neither encouraged by mainstream institutions nor supported by the mainstream press and media.

Those doing original inquiry often do so at considerable cost to their careers. Their work is often hard to get published, and restrictions on funding apply. Nonetheless, pioneer researchers of Life-itself world-wide do, in fact, persist in such fields as anthropology, linguistics, various arts fields, psychology, biology, computer sciences, mathematics, and physics. Though they are demonstrating the tenacity to push the envelope, their uphill battle is sometimes stopped by external or internal lingering old paradigm influences.

There is a popular belief that science consists of a number of crystallized truths - laws and facts about the universe which are empirically verifiable. But science, like all human endeavors, is not infallible. There is no final scientific test for anything. Scientific discovery, like life, is a process, not a set of conclusions. It is a lifetime endeavor of constantly asking new questions….. Life at the Edge of Science, Beverly Rubik, Institute for Frontier Science, 1996.
Independent researchers are also synthesizing unique new fields of inquiry such as electromagnetic fields research, biosemiotics, biophysics. And they are rapidly pointing to new directions and insights.

Living systems basic research is currently taking place in England, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, France and to a lesser degree, in the U.S. However, there is virtually no unified organized effort to bring this work together and make it available to the public, until now.

APPLYING LIVING SYSTEMS RESEARCH

Until quite recently, the typical way to study living organisms was to kill and fix them, or smash them up into pieces until nothing is left of the organization that we are supposed to be studying. This has merely reinforced the Newtonian mechanical view of organisms that has proved thoroughly inadequate to account for life. The situation is changing now with great advances in the development of non-invasive technologies within the past twenty years. We can 'listen in' to nature without violating her. The Rainbow and the Worm, The Physics of Organisms. Mae-Wan Ho. World Scientific, 1998.

The Autognomics Institute researchers and practitioners are creating a new environment for studying Life-itself in its wholeness. The applied research bridges the theoretical basic research to practical applications.

Armed with the new logics, the Autognomics Institute convenes study groups of living processes through circles of inquiry bringing together "frontliners" (practitioners) from a wide arena of fields, to identify what is working and to tell their stories. Through the inquiry circles, the researchers and "frontliners" cooperate in building dynamic scenarios using the Autognomics hypotheses applied towards specific problem settings in education, business, government and the environment revealing amazing new guiding insights.

The Autognomics Institute plans to expand these study groups to include, health and healing, family, workplace, commerce/economy, e-commerce, technology, science and social welfare among others as frontliners and researchers are identified with areas in which they wish to bring attention.
From the inquiry circles, projects of specific nature are identified and funded by members and organizations who can benefit from this research.

Some projects under way are: "Getting at the Roots of Violence," "Creating Learning & Working Environments that Work for Everyone", "Creating and Managing Knowledge Creating Systems," "Exploring New & Old Approaches to Health-Care".

Autognomics Institute Areas of INQUIRY : A Sampling

Life-itself properties being identified in the AI research pose these questions:

-Life-itself is composed of processes that are generative functions creating patterns of manifestation. How does this effect business in the creation of knowledge and its management? How does it drive demand for product? -What if life-itself is trying to create a pattern contrary to management's intention?
-Life-itself permits self-knowing, recursiveness, self-correction, self-organization. How does self-correction impact the current traditional medical paradigm which believes in correction by external intervention?
-Life-itself operates within a hierarchy of values. Can we identify life's hierarchy of values and what if we find it is contrary to what we collectively hold in our beliefs?
-Life-itself creates and produces signs that form a theory of acts in a relational, triadic and rhythmic way. What happens if Life-itself requires cooperation rather than competition?
-Life- itself is constantly generating a coherence, a rhythm, motion and change which is growing, contracting, expanding, forming, maturing, and transforming. Does this explain why strategic planning doesn't work?

The technological and information explosion out pace our human ability to comprehend or discover consequences resulting from a borderless world, a second industrial revolution, the world of digerati. There is both an information and a technology explosion beyond anyone's ability to manage or absorb. Product developments are being driven solely by free enterprise values with little consideration for ethics or consequences to all forms of life. We have no way of knowing short and long range consequences of such as genetic engineering. Based on life-itself logics, AI is developing a technology that will facilitate managing information and knowledge. A more direct consequence of the logic will be to reveal long term consequences of biological based technology such as genetic engineering.

Health and healing practices such as herbal and vibrational medicines and psychic healings are being rediscovered that work, but current scientific world view doesn't really know why they work. More recent disciplines such as biophysics and biochemistry raise new considerations. Who should be referred to as the authority in the treatment of certain diseases-- physicians or biochemists or psychic healers? However, living organisms are continuously self-creating and based on their organization. In the future, health and healing practices will address self-creating processes rather than the existing biological structures and symptoms.

Most glaring are social problems whereby individuals and entire communities experience levels of frustration and helplessness in large part due to intolerance for difference and change, rampant cynicism towards simplicity, and from a dearth of compassion, caring, and community within our schools and businesses. Issues of racism and discrimination lead to acts of violence. The logic of life shows that survival depends upon cooperation. By showing the relatedness, unity of all life and valued necessity of diversity, the logic of life will provide self-organization towards a world that works for everyone.

During time of such rapid change, a time for reflection, integration and getting perspective occur less and less in most people's lives, yet they are vital during a time of exponential change. Professionals have neither time nor adequate funds to study the results or consequences of their day to day practices in their field. The logic of life shows that integration time and reflection are essential to health and well being or the system becomes overwhelmed and unable to find effective actions. AI provides professionals the opportunity to learn from what they are experiencing and to find new meaning from which to work.

Our historical traditions of thinking commonly lead to questions that attempt to elicit one truth. Yet, if we ask questions that simply attempt to get at a singular truth, misleading answers are common. In fact, wrong or even dangerous answers can result, since only a limited number of facets of truth are exposed. Recent frontier research demonstrates that in life, truth oscillates. Furthermore, it shows that there are many other realities to consider which can guide us in finding effective acts, as opposed to a singular truth.

...Science, when properly perceived, is far from being alienating and dehumanizing. Instead, it is consonant with our most intimate experience of nature. To me, science is surely not about laying down eternal 'laws of natures' to dictate what we can or cannot think. It is to initiate us fully into the poetry that is the soul of natures, the poetry that is ultimately always beyond what theories or words can say. The Rainbow and the Worm-The
Physics of Organisms, Mae-Wan Ho, World Scientific, 1998.

The Autognomics Institute Vision

Therefore, The Autognomics Institute has been created to do both basic theoretical and applied research with education towards a new science of Life by:

· inviting individuals and groups who are reaching beyond the mainstream of thought and experience, who are willing to question everything about our most basic logics to reveal the wisdom of life-itself using and creating new mathematics, metaphysics, value theories, and original inquiry towards the creation of a new science of life ;
· drawing on the deepest artistic, philosophical and scientific wisdom about life-itself, ranging from ancient knowledge to emerging frontier insights;
· developing rigorous, (primordial) meta-theories of life (semiophysics) and living systems processes;
· applying a triadic, relational, and values paradigm which shifts the focus from "what is", to "the processes of becoming", and ultimately, to "why life";
· revealing a non-mechanistic, more complete understanding of Life and Life processes;
· growing awareness of realities left out of the current scientific world view using applied research, education, global links, broadcast, publishing and inspirational events;
· creating and using a new language, tools and environment applying the new principles to day-to-day life problems that members pose;
· providing a space (real and virtual) for this joining together-- a space that encourages communion, learning and discovery with the heart and mind natural to living systems. The organic-like processes are democratic, emphasizing intercommunication and total participation; everyone working with and paying attention to everyone else; everyone simultaneously boss, worker, choreographer and dancer; a constant evolution, with no predetermined order for which our actions are organized allowing for natural patterns of organization to develop freely and spontaneously, moment to moment;
· even the architecture and organizational processes of the Autognomics Institute will reflect the new paradigm for living systems. A physical facility is in the planning stages; an organic-like physical environment that will support AI members in their breaking out of old patterns, realizing new realities, creating heart connections and experiences that inspire and lift the human spirit, provide time for contemplation, integration and build perspective for finding new effective action.

Our nation's founding fathers relied on the Laws of Nature, of Life:

The laws of nature have been pointed to by Thomas Jefferson and William Blackstone in his Commentaries on Laws published in 1765. It was a source of Common Law and one of the most quoted documents by our Founding Fathers The philosophy of The United States of America's Declaration of Independence asserting "self-evident" and unalienable rights" of people granted by the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God came from Blackstone. The United States Supreme Court and the American Court system used these Blackstone definitions for over 160 years to settle disputes and examine procedures.. Cf. Oversoul World Ministries's Websites discussion on Laws of Nature.