Dear Pedro and dear Plamen, dear FIS list:
Thank you very much for your kindness.
Can I simply say the following? I call it
"A Confession"
It is beautiful to find oneself in a still existing
theoretical-biological community, as I learned to swim in under the
guidance of my friend Bob Rosen. I also enjoyed the friendship of
Gregory Bateson. And of Michael Conrad, pupil of Dirac's. And of Jack
Hudson. And Okan Gurel and Benoit Mandelbrot and Edward Lorenz. To date,
we all celebrate the ongoing strength of Ralph Abraham who was always
singularly fearless. And there are the Japanese schools of Kunihiko
Kaneko and Ichiro Tsuda and Yukio-Pegio Gunji. And there is the
optimal-foraging genius Eric L. Charnov in the Midwest.
The brain equation was made possible by my early discussions with Konrad
Lorenz in 1966 which led to the distinction between "metabolic
adaptation" (Darwin) and "positional adaptation" which has the asset of
being independent of historical accidents and therefore being
mathematically predictable. I could hereby integrate my experience made
with bonding in a young doomed child which I was not allowed to adopt as
a youth. Later, my young son had to leave at 7 3/4. Most recently,
Szilamandee arose from those combined emotional and
theoretical-biological experiences, if I may call them so: from the
"smile theory." The fact that the therapeutic professions refused to
employ it for 40 years as a causal therapy of early childhood autism, is
a burden on me. In recent times, my courses on philosophy held at
Ottersberg University enabled me to go farther than ever in the
interaction with young minds. But also my Tübingen students are a
fountain of mutual affirmation.
All of this is classical thinking in the footsteps of Teilhard, if you
so wish. But there is this other reality of the quanta and of the
strange observer-centered speed of light. Here I was blessed with the
friendship of John Wheeler and John Bell, and through the latter along a
long line with the Dalai Lama who never learned of this connection I am
sure. Here most recently, the quantum satellite of Anton Zeilinger and
Jianwei Pan's makes it possible to empirically decide between the
rational quantum mechanics of Everett ("the world is made for me") and
the bland irrational version of Niels Bohr's that Einstein abhorred so
profoundly.
If you wish, these theories are also nothing but theoretical biology --
the endophysical approach.
But: none of this has anything to do with the CERN-based dialog which
developed in the present community recently, for which fact I am so much
endebted to you. The insight that only people who have learned to think
in the biological way can shoulder the task of criticizing naive
physicists, is a new one to me.
I mean, to in a maximally naive pride generate the hottest resident spot
anywhere in the universe down on earth (underneath a Swiss town) and to
boast to thereby have "pulled the Big Bang down onto earth" (a deeply
erroneous concept in itself) is odd enough to watch. Even more so is it
to then see them stick for 9 years to the order "zero risk" so that even
their learned old safety report LSAG could no longer be renewed since 9
years was an "interesting" experience to make for a theoretical
biologist. Only people who have learned to think in terms of systems --
not to say in the way of the "Rashevsky-Rosen school" -- are able to
independently judge the naive pseudo-military thoughts and doings of
physicists who never saw any of the complexity of life in their more
narrow-minded education.
I mentioned Szilamandee and the Thailand Royal house? It was my
philosophy students in Ottersberg who triggered the proposed superperson
experiment: That it is possible to find a higher earthly intelligence
who can explain in a tactful manner (as I can't) why humankind was
unable to abandon warfare over 15 millennia. I have to bow before
Mandela here who worked a miracle in history within one country, and
already a second one has followed. He also lost a 7 years old child.
C. Andy Hilgartner, the belated pupil of the Polish theoretical
biologistAlfred Korzybski's, must be mentioned here too, a uniquely
modest and independent active thinker almost a decade my senior. And
without ever having had any contact, I must also acknowledge the
strength and spirit of Freeman Dyson.
Presently, we have the chance to pull a fledgling president over onto
our side. I still hope that one of his advisors can make it plausible to
him that, when the whole physics discipline cannot renew the safety
report of its "Big Bang drawn down onto earth" experiment for nine years
in a row, it is not a bad idea to demand from them to first renew their
for so long outdated safety report LSAG before being allowed to continue
if they can. But at this point the needle in my vinyl has hit a periodic
orbit: Shall I start anew?
Take care, my dear friends -- your brother Otto
