...
Similar ontological differences exist in the self-organized emergence of consciousness, morality and the economy. In my recent book, The Mind of the Market (Times Books, 2008), I show how economics and evolution are complex adaptive systems that learn and grow as they evolve from simple to complex and how they are autocatalytic, or containing self-driving feedback loops. It was therefore gratifying to find corroboration in Kauffman’s detailed explication of why such phenomena “cannot be deduced from physics, have causal powers of their own, and therefore are emergent real entities in the universe.” This creative process of emergence, Kauffman contends, “is so stunning, so overwhelming, so worthy of awe, gratitude and respect, that it is God enough for many of us. God, a fully natural God, is the very creativity in the universe.”
I have spent time with Stu Kauffman at two of the most sacred places on earth: Cortona, Italy (under the Tuscan sun), and Esalen, Calif. (above the Pacific Ocean), at conferences on the intersection of science and religion. He is one of the most spiritual scientists I know, a man of inestimable warmth and ecumenical tolerance, and his God 2.0 is a deity worthy of worship. But I am skeptical that it will displace God 1.0, Yahweh, whose Bronze Age program has been running for 6,000 years on the software of our brains and culture.
another cool paragraph from a internet user commenting
Not so. There will always be an energy source to power the work done emerging and maintaining complexity and hence the laws of thermodynamics reman intact. For example, the vast majority of the earth's ecosystems are solar-powered; none of these could survive without the sun.
From the moment of the big bang until the heat death of the universe, essentially all that ever happens is the re-distribution of energy from one place to another or from one form to another, and the net effect of any energy transaction is always an increase in entropy. We can hitch a ride, for a while, and maybe process some information along the way, but there is only one end to the journey. Finally, all lights must go out. Forever.
the article and its readers comment are so cool because they are all like genius with their knowledgable insights...
to me their forum intelligence level is like 95/100
while sgforum level is only 25/100... haha no offence.. sincere feeling...