EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FOR AUSTRALIAN 2020 SUMMIT 19 - 20th APRIL 2008 THE ESSENTIAL ROLE OF THE NOOSPHERE IN GOVERNANCE “Man, by his work and his conscious attitude toward life is remaking the terrestrial envelope, the geological domain of life, the biosphere. He is transforming into a new geological state, the noosphere. … Statesmen should be aware of the present elemental process of the biosphere into the noosphere”. Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky Introduction The noosphere, for all its ubiquity and importance in the future of humanity on Earth and in Universe, is a reality that is yet to enter fully into our collective awareness. However, the noosphere is a relentless force pushing each facet of the human’s personal and social potential to survive and thrive. It is an essential act that our leaders and planners comprehend this evolutionary energy and seek to shape our future in conformity with its definite design. Three eminent scientists, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky and Edouard LeRoy first formally identified and described the noosphere. This summary paper will explain the views of Vernadsky and Chardin. It will also identify and discuss the views of Buckminister Fuller, another important contributor to the development of noospheric thought. Finally, the paper will demonstrate the relevance of the advent of the noosphere- a novel occurrence in the human experience, to each and every identified topic for discussion at the Australia 2020 Summit. A Discussion of the Noosphere Edouard Leroy, a French mathematician and philosopher, first coined the word “noosphere”. It is composed of the Greek word, noos, meaning “mind” joined to the English word “sphere” used in its normal sense of a ball, a globe, or more generally one’s field of action, influence or existence. LeRoy, Chardin- a French Jesuit paleontologist and archeologist, and Vernadsky, a Russian polymath scientist who lectured on biogeochemistry, collaborated to describe and elaborate the concept of the noosphere and its developmental progression, noogenesis. Specifically Chardin conceived of the noosphere as a mental envelope of the Earth that includes human society with its industry, language and other activities. Thus, the noosphere is the sphere of conscious reflection and is entirely a function of human thought and its byproducts. Chardin described the noosphere as a superimposition upon the biosphere, the zone of biological life which is itself superimposed upon the geosphere, the actual planet Earth itself. The term biosphere, coined in 1875 by an Austrian geologist Eduard Suess, was amplified by Vernadsky in his Russian language publication in 1926, Biosphera. A partial English translation appeared in 1986 and a full translation appeared in 1998. The term biosphere was used by Vernadsky to designate a “zone of life” where cosmic energy is captured by the geosphere, the planetary body, and transformed through biogeological processes in its physical, chemical and mechanical properties. This zone of life has definite limits. It extends from several kilometers into the Earth’s crust upwards to the limits of atmosphere supportive of biological life. Vernadsky’s observation that the granite layer of Earth represents past biological life now incorporated into Earth’s geology illustrates his observation that the Earth sphere incorporates the radiation of our star, the Sun, into itself and transforms through successive stages; genesis- coming into being, geogenesis- pre-life origin of the planet, biogenesis- the origin of life, psychogenesis- the origin of thought and noogenesis- the origin of conscious reflection. Vernadsky stated that developments occurring as a result of man’s presence on Earth “should be examined as a part of a single great terrestrial geological process and not merely as historical process.” These are the ideas that inspired James Lovelock and his popular depiction of Gaia. Vernadsky’s views are stated in the Forward to the English edition of The Biosphere; 1. Life occurs on a spherical planet. Vernadsky is the first person in history to understand the real implications of that fact -that Earth is a self-contained sphere. 2. Life makes geology. Life is not merely a geological force. It is the geological force. Virtually all geological features at Earth’s surface are bio-influenced, and are thus part of the biosphere. 3. The planetary influence of living matter becomes more extensive with time. The number and rate of chemical elements transformed and the spectrum of chemical reactions engendered by living matter are increasing, so that more parts of the Earth are incorporated into the biosphere. What Vernadsky set out to describe was the physics of living matter. Life, as he viewed it, was a cosmic phenomenon that has to be understood by the same universal laws that applied to such constants as gravity and the speed of light. The Noosphere in Time The term noosphere was coined to account for the mysterious upward arch of biological life resulting from the involution and complexification of inert geological matter and living biological matter over eons of Earth time. The noosphere is considered to be an evolutionary response of Earth’s geological and biological spheres to accrued pressures from human industrial processes and technology. It is also a function of time compression, an actual speeding up of time, resulting from these same accrued pressures and perhaps, biological response to a great attractor postulated to be recently detected cosmic rays emanating from the NASA identified black hole, Sagittarius A, located in the "nuclear bulge” of the Milky Way. When the concept of biological beings changing through time was introduced into the world syllabus by Charles Darwin, the untenable aspects of static, absolute creation that held sway in the popular imagination became visible and comprehensible to the interested student. The influence of time upon the developmental biology of life became clear. Chardin surveys the expansion of life through time from its origins as micro-organisms and mega molecules, through the tree whose branches successively embody the bacteria, protozoa, plants, molluscs, crustacea, fish, amphibia, reptiles, birds, mammals, primates and finally man as the reigning form of consciousness and action. He observed it was the “enfolding” of bio-matter- “within-ing the without” -whereby life forms incorporate bio-geo materials into themselves (in the same way Vernadsky described the geosphere of Earth absorbing and transforming the radiation of the Sun into biomass) which is responsible for the complexification of life forms as the “tree of life” grows through time. LeRoy, Chardin and Vernadsky agreed the most enigmatic of the involutions and complexifications of bio-matter that first gave rise to life are the dense folds and structures of the human brain. It has taken an immense quantity of evolutionary time, approximately 16 billion years according to scientists’ best estimates, for the geo-biological envelope to develop first, single cell organisms, then the higher forms of multi-cell life and finally the dense, rich mass of convoluted tissues that is a brain sufficient to attain human self-awareness. The planetary influence of living matter, particularly those of man and his activities, becomes more extensive with time. The number and rate of chemical elements transformed and the spectrum of chemical reactions engendered by living matter are increasing, so that more parts of the Earth are incorporated into the biosphere. It is principally the activities of mankind, particularly dating from around 1753 with the appearance of the telegraph and the advent of industrialism in general, that are responsible for the present condition of multiple converging environmental and social crises. We have incorporated into our lives new compounds and chemical combinations. We have transmuted the social ties that bind people to families and society. We have begun to wire the planet with a “Global Brain”. These are the pre-conditions for the emergence of the noosphere, which will spring in an instant from its nascent state to a fully elaborated reality commonly and instantly intuited and shared by all living humans. Vernadsky makes the point clearly; “Man, by his work and his conscious attitude toward life is remaking the terrestrial envelope, the geological domain of life, the biosphere. He is transforming into a new geological state, the noosphere. He creates within the biosphere new biogeochemical processes that did not exist before. A planetary biogeochemical history of the chemical elements is notably changed. An immense new form of biogeochemical energy is represented by the technological work of man, completely guided by his thoughts. It is interesting that the increase, in the course of time, of machinery in the structure of human society also proceeds in geometrical proportion, just like the reproduction of any living matter, man included. Statesmen should be aware of the present elemental process of the biosphere into the noosphere. The fundamental property of the biogeochemical energy is clearly revealed in the growth of free energy (i.e. pollution) of the biosphere with the progress of geological time, especially in its transition into the noosphere.” The Noosphere and the Agenda of AUSTRALIA 2020 SUMMIT The agenda for AUSTRALIA 2020 SUMMIT identifies ten themes to which good minds shall apply themselves for the common wealth and benefit of the nation and its people. When we consider these themes in respect to broad principles with which each discussion topic can be aligned, we see they are concerned with humans- their health, well being, living standards, creativity and self organization. Further, the principle that none of humanity’s activities are sustained unless we provide and account for beneficial physical circumstances and a healthy and sustainable environment receives recognition. Finally, we recognize the general theme of our life in time when we contemplate the future of Australia in the world. These three themes- our people, their environment, and their continued survival - are easily summarized as HUMANS and their EXISTENCE on EARTH. Chardin, in his broad sweep through humanity’s history, describes both our origins and the current situation in which global humanity finds itself. “The first stage was the elaboration of lower organisms, up to and including man, by the use and irrational combination of elementary sources of energy received or released from the planet. The second stage is the super-evolution of man, individually and collectively, by the use of refined forms of energy scientifically harnessed and applied to the bosom of the noosphere. ...In becoming planetized humanity is acquiring new physical powers that will enable it to super organize matter.” Chardin’s “second stage…super-evolution of man” is his envisioned response, the biological response of life, at its topmost level of the biomass with its highly “enfolded” involutions - the dense folds and structures of the human brain- to the complex and converging events which define the crises and opportunities in our world today. It is important to recognize that Chardin identifies science, energy, and the transformation of our physical environment by gaining the power to successfully organize our physical world. Our ability to achieve this is assured in the design and destiny of biology, he believed. Further, Chardin also recognized that humanity continues to evolve under the pressure of celestial, geological, and subjective time. Time itself, he understood, acts under the influence of a great attractor radiating towards the life of biology on Earth. There are many further elements and themes to add to this discussion of the noosphere. They expand far beyond the boundary of a SUMMARY PAPER. Ultimately, a new kind of human is envisioned, homo noosphericus, a human who spontaneously operates from a state of compassion, reason, equity and unity. The Noosphere as Practical Economic, Social and Environmental Policy An important contributor to any discussion of the noosphere and its role in the future success of humanity is Buckminister Fuller. His analysis of “whole systems” thinking particularly synergism and tensegrity (his invention of the geodesic dome is a specific instance of tensegrity) represents his practical approach to applying the general principles of cosmic evolution represented by the concept of the noosphere to the problems of human civilization. Fuller presents a masterful analysis of the application of noospheric thought to human affairs in his final publication CRITICAL PATH. He begins his analysis by acknowledging “humanity is moving ever deeper into crisis- a crisis without precedent.” He states the crisis “is brought about by cosmic evolution irrevocably intent upon completely transforming humanity...into a completely integrated, comprehensively interconsiderate (sic), harmonious whole.” Fuller extends this analysis to include the ideas that “cosmic evolution” is intent upon making humanity “omnisuccessful, able to live sustainingly at an unprecedently higher standard of living …than has ever been experienced by any; able to live entirely within its cosmic energy income instead of spending its cosmic energy savings account (fossil fuels) or spending its cosmic-capital plant and equipment account (i.e., atomic energy)- the atoms with which our geosphere and biosphere are structured and equipped.” Fuller describes humanity’s current energy use as “a spending folly no less illogical than burning your house and home to keep the family warm on a unprecedentedly cold midwinter night.” Although Fuller does not discuss time acceleration or a great attractor his intuition leads him to observe “Science recognizes many fundamentally complementary aspects of Universe. The black hole is not a negative. As implosion is to explosion, the black hole phenomenon is to the inside-out, expanding Universe. The black hole is the inverse phase- the outside-inning phase- of cosmic evolution. What humans have spontaneously identified as good and bad- or as positive and negative- are evolutionary complementations in need of more accurate identifications.” The agenda under consideration for the AUSTRALIA 2020 SUMMIT categorizes and described, item by item, the necessities, the aspirations, and the general welfare of our people and our place in the Sun on Earth. What Fuller envisions, in the various economic, industrial, technological, and social transformations he prescribes to address humanity’s various systematic failures and potential successes, enjoys the benefits of his great talent as a whole systems thinker with holistic solutions. The inspiration for his holistic approach to addressing humanity’s crisis of evolution was sourced deep in his comprehension of the advent of the noosphere. He believed the transition from the present chaotic crisis on multiple fronts to the noosphere would be accomplished by a design revolution in science. He called this “valve-ing the universe” and described how it will release previously unimagined levels of creative energy to raise the standards of living for every person on Earth. He states; “Humanity’s present rate of total energy consumption amounts to only one-four-millionth of one percent of the rate of its energy income”. Fuller had long and intimate involvement with government. He saw his ideas embraced, particularly his geodesic structures, but failed to influence governments to take up his most important message; that the world has resources sufficient to provide for every human the requisites of opulent and secure existence – provided we overcome the limitations and impediments to equitable distribution of the planet’s wealth. Fuller frankly described the main impediment as he saw it. “Tax hungry government and profit-hungry business, for the moment, find it insurmountably difficult to arrange to put meters between humanity and its cosmic-energy income, and thus they do nothing realistic to help humanity enjoy its fabulous energy-income wealth…Ninety nine percent of humanity does not know that we have the option to “make it” economically on this planet and in Universe. We do. It can only be accomplished, however, by a design initiative and technological revolution.” One may be tempted to dismiss the practical importance of a “whole-systems design revolution and the advent of the noosphere as described by its articulators. The fact though that time acceleration plays a vital role in this process imparts urgency. Time acceleration becomes visible in technology particularly in the proliferation of the Internet. Equally, we may cite the rapidly contracting time estimates of environmental scientists who warn that previous projections of expected ice cap melting and other major warning events are being drastically revised downward, in light of unexpected acceleration of these changes. Chardin anticipated that the biosphere would wire itself for instantaneous information sharing as part of the noogenic process. “Teilhard imagined a stage of evolution characterized by a complex membrane of information enveloping the globe fueled by human consciousness. It sounds a little off- the-wall, until you think about the Net, that vast electronic web encircling the Earth, running point-to-point, through the nerve-like constellation of wires… Teilhard saw the Net coming more than half a century before it arrived. He believed this vast thinking membrane would ultimately coalesce into “the living unity of a single tissue” containing the collective thoughts and experiences…” “What Teilhard was saying here can easily be summed up in a few words,” says John Perry Barlow. “The point of evolution up to this stage is the creation of a collective organism of Mind.” An Exercise in Visionary Leadership We cannot effectively postulate solutions if we believe we live in “flat earth” cause and effect, business as usual linear time. The paradigm is shifting. Our comprehension of the nature of time and consciousness will change. The entire context of our comprehension of reality is undergoing evolutionary enhancement. We must acknowledge that this change is occurring right now and recognize absolutely transformed coordinates of sentient existence. It is this unprecedented evolutionary leap to which Chardin, Vernadsky, Fuller, and Arguelles call our attention. In considering how to apply noogenesis as an influential operator in the dialogue and narrative on the path of creative and visionary leadership, we can consider two important ideas and two visual images. The first image is in relation to time as it is discussed within this paper. The noosphere is coming into being under the influence of time in two important aspects. First, the noosphere emerges as the accumulated energy of eons of geological and biological development. Second, a great attractor is drawing biology and self-awareness to an apotheosis, a grand conclusion. This great attractor has the effect of accelerating time. Time is subjectively experienced at an ever-accelerating rate. The acceleration is reflected outwardly in the rapidly contracting time it takes technology to first conceive, develop and then apply new inventions. In considering the idea of time rapidly increasing its speed, we can recall the image of a whirlpool. We observe that the outermost rings of the vortex move along at a lazy pace; this corresponds to the vast periods of geological and biological time from the distant past. Gradually, increasing in speed and intensity, time cascades into an intense velocity and disappears in a funnel down the eye of the vortex. The emergence of the noosphere operates under just such a time structure imperative. The second image concerns the noosphere itself. Certainly we can intuit that the new geological state will involve a novel subjective experience of time. This moment bears some historical resonance with the transformation of thinking that occurred when humanity began to reinterpret its experience in a round Earth instead of a flat one. We will collectively experience time in an entirely new context. Such observations have given rise to a new Law of Time that has been described and codified by Jose Arguelles, Ph.D. in his 2002 publication TIME & THE TECHNOSPHERE, The Law of Time in Human Affairs. We will apply some of Fuller’s tensegrity to the second image. The tensegrity principle is fully operative in a new generation of camping tents that have replaced the once popular but structurally less efficient pup tents and their larger versions. The new generation tents utilize what Fuller described as great circle arcs and distribute the tension, in counter-posing equity, across two or more of the great arc circles. When we erect a tent of this type we find that, until the last tension point is in place the whole structure lies limp and unusable. When each of the great arc tensions is captured by their terminus in the tent fabric, the entire tent leaps into stable manifestation, held in form by its own balancing of lines of force. Until the final harnessing of tensions is successfully accomplished there is no viable structure. This is the image we can apply to the noosphere. The noosphere will manifest in the instant of its creation. The keystone is the critical mass of creative conscious thought interacting with cosmic rays bombarding Earth’s biomass from the “great attractor”. The noosphere contains new codes for compassion, energy and time. It will also include resolved and efficient solutions to some of humanity’s greatest dilemmas. These two images suggest productive attitudes for delegates to hold as they approach the agenda of the 2020SUMMIT. First, know that it is important to find real solutions now as opposed to “sometime” in the future. Second, understand that the remedy for each agenda item is holistically addressed in the noosphere. To Vernadsky’s observation that “Statesman should be aware of the present elemental process of the biosphere into the noosphere” we might add, that one thousand great minds should be mindful of this elemental process as they sit to deliberate their advice to statesmen and national policy makers. The PHENOMENON of MAN, Teilhard de Chardin, copyright 1959 William Collins Sons & Co Ltd., London, and Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated, New York. Reprinted on Perennial 2002 A Peter A Nevramont Book/ Copernicus/Springer-Verlag, 1998 N.Y. http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~gcnews Email : drb@physics.arizona.edu Title : A Possible Link Between the Galactic Center HESS Source and Sgr A* Author(s): D. R. Ballantyne(1), Fulvio Melia(1,2,3), Siming Liu(4), and Roland M. Crocker(5) Institute: (1) Department of Physics, The University of Arizona, Tucson (2) Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, Tucson (3) Sir Thomas Lyle Fellow and Miegunyah Fellow. (4) Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos (5) School of Chemistry and Physics, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia Paper : ApJ Letters, in press EPrint : astro-ph/0701709 Abstract: Recently, HESS and other air Cerenkov telescopes have detected a source of TeV gamma -rays coincident with the Galactic center. It is not yet clear whether the gamma -rays are produced via leptonic or hadronic processes, so it is important to consider possible acceleration sites for the charged particles which produce the gamma -rays. One exciting possibility for the origin of these particles is the central black hole, Sgr A*, where the turbulent magnetic fields close to the event horizon can accelerate protons to TeV energies. Using a realistic model of the density distribution in a 6 pc*6 pc*6 pc cube at the Galactic center, we here calculate the trajectories followed by these TeV protons as they gyrate through the turbulent medium surrounding Sgr A*. Diffusing out from the black hole, the protons produce TeV gamma -rays via \pi^0 decay following a collision with a proton in the surrounding medium. After following over 222,000 such trajectories, we find that the circumnuclear ring around Sgr A* can reproduce the observed 0.1-100 TeV HESS spectrum and flux if the protons are injected into this medium with an effective power-law index 0.75, significantly harder than the observed photon index of 2.25. The total energy in the steady-state 1-40 TeV proton population surrounding Sgr A* is inferred to be 2* 10^47 ergs. Only 31% of the emitted 1-100 TeV protons encounter the circumnuclear torus, leaving a large flux of protons that diffuse outward to contribute to the Galactic ridge emission observed by HESS on scales of > 1^o. CRITICAL PATH, Fuller Richard Buckminister, Saint Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 (USA), Copyright 1981 Jennifer Cobb Kreisberg; http://www.wired.com/archive/3.06/teilhard.html TIME AND THE TECHNOSPHERE- The Law of Time in Human Affairs. Jose Arguelles, Ph.D. Bear & Company, One Park Street, Rochester, Vermont 05767, 2002 http://www.lawoftime.org/law/law.html, A Microsoft Word copy of this document is included with this correspondence. PERMISSION IS GRANTED TO COPY AND DISTRIBUTE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FOR AUSTRALIAN 2020 SUMMIT

19 - 20th APRIL 2008

THE ESSENTIAL ROLE OF THE NOOSPHERE IN GOVERNANCE

“Man, by his work and his conscious attitude toward life is remaking the terrestrial envelope, the geological domain of life, the biosphere. He is transforming into a new geological state, the noosphere. … Statesmen should be aware of the present elemental process of the biosphere into the noosphere”.

Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky

Introduction

The noosphere, for all its ubiquity and importance in the future of humanity on Earth and in Universe, is a reality that is yet to enter fully into our collective awareness. However, the noosphere is a relentless force pushing each facet of the human’s personal and social potential to survive and thrive. It is an essential act that our leaders and planners comprehend this evolutionary energy and seek to shape our future in conformity with its definite design.

Three eminent scientists, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky and Edouard LeRoy first formally identified and described the noosphere. This summary paper will explain the views of Vernadsky and Chardin. It will also identify and discuss the views of Buckminister Fuller, another important contributor to the development of noospheric thought.

Finally, the paper will demonstrate the relevance of the advent of the noosphere- a novel occurrence in the human experience, to each and every identified topic for discussion at the Australia 2020 Summit.

A Discussion of the Noosphere

Edouard Leroy, a French mathematician and philosopher, first coined the word “noosphere”. It is composed of the Greek word, noos, meaning “mind” joined to the English word “sphere” used in its normal sense of a ball, a globe, or more generally one’s field of action, influence or existence.

LeRoy, Chardin- a French Jesuit paleontologist and archeologist, and Vernadsky, a Russian polymath scientist who lectured on biogeochemistry, collaborated to describe and elaborate the concept of the noosphere and its developmental progression, noogenesis.

Specifically Chardin conceived of the noosphere as a mental envelope of the Earth that includes human society with its industry, language and other activities. Thus, the noosphere is the sphere of conscious reflection and is entirely a function of human thought and its byproducts. Chardin described the noosphere as a superimposition upon the biosphere, the zone of biological life which is itself superimposed upon the geosphere, the actual planet Earth itself.

The term biosphere, coined in 1875 by an Austrian geologist Eduard Suess, was amplified by Vernadsky in his Russian language publication in 1926, Biosphera. A partial English translation appeared in 1986 and a full translation appeared in 1998.

The term biosphere was used by Vernadsky to designate a “zone of life” where cosmic energy is captured by the geosphere, the planetary body, and transformed through biogeological processes in its physical, chemical and mechanical properties. This zone of life has definite limits. It extends from several kilometers into the Earth’s crust upwards to the limits of atmosphere supportive of biological life. Vernadsky’s observation that the granite layer of Earth represents past biological life now incorporated into Earth’s geology illustrates his observation that the Earth sphere incorporates the radiation of our star, the Sun, into itself and transforms through successive stages; genesis- coming into being, geogenesis- pre-life origin of the planet, biogenesis- the origin of life, psychogenesis- the origin of thought and noogenesis- the origin of conscious reflection. Vernadsky stated that developments occurring as a result of man’s presence on Earth “should be examined as a part of a single great terrestrial geological process and not merely as historical process.” These are the ideas that inspired James Lovelock and his popular depiction of Gaia.

Vernadsky’s views are stated in the Forward to the English edition of The Biosphere;

1. Life occurs on a spherical planet. Vernadsky is the first person in history to understand the real implications of that fact -that Earth is a self-contained sphere. 2. Life makes geology. Life is not merely a geological force. It is the geological force. Virtually all geological features at Earth’s surface are bio-influenced, and are thus part of the biosphere. 3. The planetary influence of living matter becomes more extensive with time. The number and rate of chemical elements transformed and the spectrum of chemical reactions engendered by living matter are increasing, so that more parts of the Earth are incorporated into the biosphere.

What Vernadsky set out to describe was the physics of living matter. Life, as he viewed it, was a cosmic phenomenon that has to be understood by the same universal laws that applied to such constants as gravity and the speed of light.

The Noosphere in Time

The term noosphere was coined to account for the mysterious upward arch of biological life resulting from the involution and complexification of inert geological matter and living biological matter over eons of Earth time. The noosphere is considered to be an evolutionary response of Earth’s geological and biological spheres to accrued pressures from human industrial processes and technology.

It is also a function of time compression, an actual speeding up of time, resulting from these same accrued pressures and perhaps, biological response to a great attractor postulated to be recently detected cosmic rays emanating from the NASA identified black hole, Sagittarius A, located in the "nuclear bulge” of the Milky Way.

When the concept of biological beings changing through time was introduced into the world syllabus by Charles Darwin, the untenable aspects of static, absolute creation that held sway in the popular imagination became visible and comprehensible to the interested student. The influence of time upon the developmental biology of life became clear.

Chardin surveys the expansion of life through time from its origins as micro-organisms and mega molecules, through the tree whose branches successively embody the bacteria, protozoa, plants, molluscs, crustacea, fish, amphibia, reptiles, birds, mammals, primates and finally man as the reigning form of consciousness and action. He observed it was the “enfolding” of bio-matter- “within-ing the without” -whereby life forms incorporate bio-geo materials into themselves (in the same way Vernadsky described the geosphere of Earth absorbing and transforming the radiation of the Sun into biomass) which is responsible for the complexification of life forms as the “tree of life” grows through time.

LeRoy, Chardin and Vernadsky agreed the most enigmatic of the involutions and complexifications of bio-matter that first gave rise to life are the dense folds and structures of the human brain. It has taken an immense quantity of evolutionary time, approximately 16 billion years according to scientists’ best estimates, for the geo-biological envelope to develop first, single cell organisms, then the higher forms of multi-cell life and finally the dense, rich mass of convoluted tissues that is a brain sufficient to attain human self-awareness.

The planetary influence of living matter, particularly those of man and his activities, becomes more extensive with time. The number and rate of chemical elements transformed and the spectrum of chemical reactions engendered by living matter are increasing, so that more parts of the Earth are incorporated into the biosphere.

It is principally the activities of mankind, particularly dating from around 1753 with the appearance of the telegraph and the advent of industrialism in general, that are responsible for the present condition of multiple converging environmental and social crises. We have incorporated into our lives new compounds and chemical combinations. We have transmuted the social ties that bind people to families and society. We have begun to wire the planet with a “Global Brain”. These are the pre-conditions for the emergence of the noosphere, which will spring in an instant from its nascent state to a fully elaborated reality commonly and instantly intuited and shared by all living humans.

Vernadsky makes the point clearly; “Man, by his work and his conscious attitude toward life is remaking the terrestrial envelope, the geological domain of life, the biosphere. He is transforming into a new geological state, the noosphere.

He creates within the biosphere new biogeochemical processes that did not exist before. A planetary biogeochemical history of the chemical elements is notably changed.

An immense new form of biogeochemical energy is represented by the technological work of man, completely guided by his thoughts. It is interesting that the increase, in the course of time, of machinery in the structure of human society also proceeds in geometrical proportion, just like the reproduction of any living matter, man included.

Statesmen should be aware of the present elemental process of the biosphere into the noosphere. The fundamental property of the biogeochemical energy is clearly revealed in the growth of free energy (i.e. pollution) of the biosphere with the progress of geological time, especially in its transition into the noosphere.”

The Noosphere and the Agenda of AUSTRALIA 2020 SUMMIT

The agenda for AUSTRALIA 2020 SUMMIT identifies ten themes to which good minds shall apply themselves for the common wealth and benefit of the nation and its people.

When we consider these themes in respect to broad principles with which each discussion topic can be aligned, we see they are concerned with humans- their health, well being, living standards, creativity and self organization.

Further, the principle that none of humanity’s activities are sustained unless we provide and account for beneficial physical circumstances and a healthy and sustainable environment receives recognition.

Finally, we recognize the general theme of our life in time when we contemplate the future of Australia in the world. These three themes- our people, their environment, and their continued survival - are easily summarized as HUMANS and their EXISTENCE on EARTH.

Chardin, in his broad sweep through humanity’s history, describes both our origins and the current situation in which global humanity finds itself. “The first stage was the elaboration of lower organisms, up to and including man, by the use and irrational combination of elementary sources of energy received or released from the planet. The second stage is the super-evolution of man, individually and collectively, by the use of refined forms of energy scientifically harnessed and applied to the bosom of the noosphere. ...In becoming planetized humanity is acquiring new physical powers that will enable it to super organize matter.”

Chardin’s “second stage…super-evolution of man” is his envisioned response, the biological response of life, at its topmost level of the biomass with its highly “enfolded” involutions - the dense folds and structures of the human brain- to the complex and converging events which define the crises and opportunities in our world today.

It is important to recognize that Chardin identifies science, energy, and the transformation of our physical environment by gaining the power to successfully organize our physical world. Our ability to achieve this is assured in the design and destiny of biology, he believed. Further, Chardin also recognized that humanity continues to evolve under the pressure of celestial, geological, and subjective time. Time itself, he understood, acts under the influence of a great attractor radiating towards the life of biology on Earth.

There are many further elements and themes to add to this discussion of the noosphere. They expand far beyond the boundary of a SUMMARY PAPER. Ultimately, a new kind of human is envisioned, homo noosphericus, a human who spontaneously operates from a state of compassion, reason, equity and unity.

The Noosphere as Practical Economic, Social and Environmental Policy

An important contributor to any discussion of the noosphere and its role in the future success of humanity is Buckminister Fuller. His analysis of “whole systems” thinking particularly synergism and tensegrity (his invention of the geodesic dome is a specific instance of tensegrity) represents his practical approach to applying the general principles of cosmic evolution represented by the concept of the noosphere to the problems of human civilization.

Fuller presents a masterful analysis of the application of noospheric thought to human affairs in his final publication CRITICAL PATH. He begins his analysis by acknowledging “humanity is moving ever deeper into crisis- a crisis without precedent.” He states the crisis “is brought about by cosmic evolution irrevocably intent upon completely transforming humanity...into a completely integrated, comprehensively interconsiderate (sic), harmonious whole.”

Fuller extends this analysis to include the ideas that “cosmic evolution” is intent upon making humanity “omnisuccessful, able to live sustainingly at an unprecedently higher standard of living …than has ever been experienced by any; able to live entirely within its cosmic energy income instead of spending its cosmic energy savings account (fossil fuels) or spending its cosmic-capital plant and equipment account (i.e., atomic energy)- the atoms with which our geosphere and biosphere are structured and equipped.”

Fuller describes humanity’s current energy use as “a spending folly no less illogical than burning your house and home to keep the family warm on a unprecedentedly cold midwinter night.”

Although Fuller does not discuss time acceleration or a great attractor his intuition leads him to observe “Science recognizes many fundamentally complementary aspects of Universe. The black hole is not a negative. As implosion is to explosion, the black hole phenomenon is to the inside-out, expanding Universe. The black hole is the inverse phase- the outside-inning phase- of cosmic evolution. What humans have spontaneously identified as good and bad- or as positive and negative- are evolutionary complementations in need of more accurate identifications.”

The agenda under consideration for the AUSTRALIA 2020 SUMMIT categorizes and described, item by item, the necessities, the aspirations, and the general welfare of our people and our place in the Sun on Earth. What Fuller envisions, in the various economic, industrial, technological, and social transformations he prescribes to address humanity’s various systematic failures and potential successes, enjoys the benefits of his great talent as a whole systems thinker with holistic solutions.

The inspiration for his holistic approach to addressing humanity’s crisis of evolution was sourced deep in his comprehension of the advent of the noosphere. He believed the transition from the present chaotic crisis on multiple fronts to the noosphere would be accomplished by a design revolution in science. He called this “valve-ing the universe” and described how it will release previously unimagined levels of creative energy to raise the standards of living for every person on Earth. He states; “Humanity’s present rate of total energy consumption amounts to only one-four-millionth of one percent of the rate of its energy income”.

Fuller had long and intimate involvement with government. He saw his ideas embraced, particularly his geodesic structures, but failed to influence governments to take up his most important message; that the world has resources sufficient to provide for every human the requisites of opulent and secure existence – provided we overcome the limitations and impediments to equitable distribution of the planet’s wealth.

Fuller frankly described the main impediment as he saw it. “Tax hungry government and profit-hungry business, for the moment, find it insurmountably difficult to arrange to put meters between humanity and its cosmic-energy income, and thus they do nothing realistic to help humanity enjoy its fabulous energy-income wealth…Ninety nine percent of humanity does not know that we have the option to “make it” economically on this planet and in Universe. We do. It can only be accomplished, however, by a design initiative and technological revolution.”

One may be tempted to dismiss the practical importance of a “whole-systems design revolution and the advent of the noosphere as described by its articulators. The fact though that time acceleration plays a vital role in this process imparts urgency. Time acceleration becomes visible in technology particularly in the proliferation of the Internet. Equally, we may cite the rapidly contracting time estimates of environmental scientists who warn that previous projections of expected ice cap melting and other major warning events are being drastically revised downward, in light of unexpected acceleration of these changes.

Chardin anticipated that the biosphere would wire itself for instantaneous information sharing as part of the noogenic process. “Teilhard imagined a stage of evolution characterized by a complex membrane of information enveloping the globe fueled by human consciousness. It sounds a little off- the-wall, until you think about the Net, that vast electronic web encircling the Earth, running point-to-point, through the nerve-like constellation of wires…

Teilhard saw the Net coming more than half a century before it arrived. He believed this vast thinking membrane would ultimately coalesce into “the living unity of a single tissue” containing the collective thoughts and experiences…”

“What Teilhard was saying here can easily be summed up in a few words,” says John Perry Barlow. “The point of evolution up to this stage is the creation of a collective organism of Mind.”

An Exercise in Visionary Leadership

We cannot effectively postulate solutions if we believe we live in “flat earth” cause and effect, business as usual linear time. The paradigm is shifting. Our comprehension of the nature of time and consciousness will change. The entire context of our comprehension of reality is undergoing evolutionary enhancement. We must acknowledge that this change is occurring right now and recognize absolutely transformed coordinates of sentient existence. It is this unprecedented evolutionary leap to which Chardin, Vernadsky, Fuller, and Arguelles call our attention.

In considering how to apply noogenesis as an influential operator in the dialogue and narrative on the path of creative and visionary leadership, we can consider two important ideas and two visual images.

The first image is in relation to time as it is discussed within this paper. The noosphere is coming into being under the influence of time in two important aspects.

First, the noosphere emerges as the accumulated energy of eons of geological and biological development.

Second, a great attractor is drawing biology and self-awareness to an apotheosis, a grand conclusion. This great attractor has the effect of accelerating time. Time is subjectively experienced at an ever-accelerating rate. The acceleration is reflected outwardly in the rapidly contracting time it takes technology to first conceive, develop and then apply new inventions.

In considering the idea of time rapidly increasing its speed, we can recall the image of a whirlpool. We observe that the outermost rings of the vortex move along at a lazy pace; this corresponds to the vast periods of geological and biological time from the distant past. Gradually, increasing in speed and intensity, time cascades into an intense velocity and disappears in a funnel down the eye of the vortex. The emergence of the noosphere operates under just such a time structure imperative.

The second image concerns the noosphere itself. Certainly we can intuit that the new geological state will involve a novel subjective experience of time. This moment bears some historical resonance with the transformation of thinking that occurred when humanity began to reinterpret its experience in a round Earth instead of a flat one. We will collectively experience time in an entirely new context. Such observations have given rise to a new Law of Time that has been described and codified by Jose Arguelles, Ph.D. in his 2002 publication TIME & THE TECHNOSPHERE, The Law of Time in Human Affairs.

We will apply some of Fuller’s tensegrity to the second image. The tensegrity principle is fully operative in a new generation of camping tents that have replaced the once popular but structurally less efficient pup tents and their larger versions. The new generation tents utilize what Fuller described as great circle arcs and distribute the tension, in counter-posing equity, across two or more of the great arc circles.

When we erect a tent of this type we find that, until the last tension point is in place the whole structure lies limp and unusable. When each of the great arc tensions is captured by their terminus in the tent fabric, the entire tent leaps into stable manifestation, held in form by its own balancing of lines of force. Until the final harnessing of tensions is successfully accomplished there is no viable structure.

This is the image we can apply to the noosphere. The noosphere will manifest in the instant of its creation. The keystone is the critical mass of creative conscious thought interacting with cosmic rays bombarding Earth’s biomass from the “great attractor”. The noosphere contains new codes for compassion, energy and time. It will also include resolved and efficient solutions to some of humanity’s greatest dilemmas.

These two images suggest productive attitudes for delegates to hold as they approach the agenda of the 2020SUMMIT. First, know that it is important to find real solutions now as opposed to “sometime” in the future. Second, understand that the remedy for each agenda item is holistically addressed in the noosphere. To Vernadsky’s observation that “Statesman should be aware of the present elemental process of the biosphere into the noosphere” we might add, that one thousand great minds should be mindful of this elemental process as they sit to deliberate their advice to statesmen and national policy makers.

A Peter A Nevramont Book/ Copernicus/Springer-Verlag, 1998 N.Y.

http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~gcnews

Email : drb@physics.arizona.edu

Title : A Possible Link Between the Galactic Center HESS Source and

Sgr A*

Author(s): D. R. Ballantyne(1), Fulvio Melia(1,2,3), Siming Liu(4), and

Roland M. Crocker(5)

Institute: (1) Department of Physics, The University of Arizona, Tucson

(2) Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, Tucson

(3) Sir Thomas Lyle Fellow and Miegunyah Fellow. (4)

Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los

Alamos (5) School of Chemistry and Physics, The University

of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

Paper : ApJ Letters, in press

EPrint : astro-ph/0701709

Abstract:

Recently, HESS and other air Cerenkov telescopes have detected a source

of TeV gamma -rays coincident with the Galactic center. It is not yet

clear whether the gamma -rays are produced via leptonic or hadronic

processes, so it is important to consider possible acceleration sites

for the charged particles which produce the gamma -rays. One exciting

possibility for the origin of these particles is the central black

hole, Sgr A*, where the turbulent magnetic fields close to the event

horizon can accelerate protons to TeV energies. Using a realistic model

of the density distribution in a 6 pc*6 pc*6 pc cube at the Galactic

center, we here calculate the trajectories followed by these TeV

protons as they gyrate through the turbulent medium surrounding Sgr A*.

Diffusing out from the black hole, the protons produce TeV gamma -rays

via \pi^0 decay following a collision with a proton in the surrounding

medium. After following over 222,000 such trajectories, we find that

the circumnuclear ring around Sgr A* can reproduce the observed 0.1-100

TeV HESS spectrum and flux if the protons are injected into this medium

with an effective power-law index 0.75, significantly harder than the

observed photon index of 2.25. The total energy in the steady-state

1-40 TeV proton population surrounding Sgr A* is inferred to be 2*

10^47 ergs. Only 31% of the emitted 1-100 TeV protons encounter the

circumnuclear torus, leaving a large flux of protons that diffuse

outward to contribute to the Galactic ridge emission observed by HESS

on scales of > 1^o.

Jennifer Cobb Kreisberg; http://www.wired.com/archive/3.06/teilhard.html

TIME AND THE TECHNOSPHERE- The Law of Time in Human Affairs. Jose Arguelles, Ph.D. Bear & Company, One Park Street, Rochester, Vermont 05767, 2002 http://www.lawoftime.org/law/law.html,

A Microsoft Word copy of this document is included with this correspondence. PERMISSION IS GRANTED TO COPY AND DISTRIBUTE