Answers From LaRouche Q: Is the universe a profound idea, by a sovereign intelligence? And if so, what are the implications of this for humanity? - from February 15, 2023 International Cadre School |
Question Mr. LaRouche, thanks for speaking to us. I was wondering: You mentioned Kepler, and how he related the harmonic motion of the planets to musical scales. And you mentioned several other things about how the goal of Classical composition and physical science is the communication of ideas, and I was wondering, could the universe itself be one massive communication of a profound idea, by a sovereign intelligence. And if so, what are the implications of this for humanity? LaRouche: Obviously, yes! [laughter] You won the $64,000 question, or something. But more significant is the implication of that as opposed to simply the fact--Okay, yeah sure. In other words, if the universe has three phases, where we can say, from an experimental standpoint, from a Vernadsky physical-chemistry experimental standpoint, we define three phases in the universe: one, the abiotic, defined experimentally, physical effects defined experimentally; second, living processes, types of effects which are defined, again, experimentally, and living; third, physical effects which are defined only as products of human cognition, i.e., discovery of universal physical principles, and so forth. And including the principles of communication. Then, this comes into an additional question: How the most efficient of these, in the long term, is the human cognitive powers. The most efficient power in the universe! Because we see, for example, in the case of the biosphere, that the long-term effect is that the biosphere dominates the abiotic. The planet is having more and more of the mass of Earth being determined by living processes and their fossils, as opposed to abiotic processes. The Earth, physically, at the same time, is being changed more efficiently by human intervention of cognitive principle, than by the biosphere, otherwise. Therefore, cognition is the most powerful long-term force in the universe. The act of cognition occurs how? It occurs as a sovereign act of discovery by an individual mind. You can not peek into another person's mind to see their cognition working. You can not wire it. You can not make it out of spare computer parts. It is something that occurs in the human mind, which is not penetrable by the senses of another person. You communicate this only by replicating the experience of discovery in a second mind. Which is the principle of education. You don't teach somebody to learn to repeat after you. That's monkey-talk. That belongs in the zoo, not in the university. Unfortunately, we have more zoos than universities these days. A guy goes to a university; he says, “I thought this was a university. It turns out to be a zoo. I'm being given monkey training,” eh? Learning to repeat after me, and how to pass a pre-determined set of multiple-choice questions, which are scored by computer. And do I get scored? Not really. It's the university that wants the scores, to get their rating system. If they get a high score for their students, they get more money! More prestige. And the student gets, what? As they say, “bubkes.” So, the point is, that the act of the transmission of knowledge is the stimulation of the replication of the act of discovery, as a sovereign act of the individual mind in another person. I'm referring to the two things which are accessible to sense-perception: One, is the paradox which provokes the investigation, for which there is no simple solution, but only a cognitive one. This leads to the generation of a hypothesis. Now, the process of generating the hypothesis can not be visually seen by the senses of another person, but the hypothesis can be stated. Then, the third step is the testing of the hypothesis, experimentally. If the hypothesis experimental test works, and proves that the answer is universally true, then the hypothesis is true, then you have a solution. Then both person A, who make the discovery, and person B, who's being exposed to the process of the discovery, now can come to an agreement, that they have both generated an hypothesis, which is the same. And the fact that they've generated an hypothesis which is the same, enables them to know, in terms of the definition of the problem, the paradox, and the solution, the experimental proof, that they both know the same thing. That's the essential business of the communication. Now, from what we know, this occurs in the universe only in that way. Only as the generation of an hypothesis, which is experimentally provable by an individual sovereign mind. Therefore, how is the universe composed? Whence do all principles flow? By an individual sovereign mind, which we, by facing the paradox involved, can generate an hypothesis, which we can verify is the intention of the Creator, by experimental proof. That's what we know about the universe. I mean, we don't know anything else! That's the only thing we know about the universe. That's what we mean by “universe.” This sovereign creature up there, which does this thing we do, called “hypothesizing,” generates, or, has generated, the principles of the universe. We can have access to this through the power of hypothesizing the hypothesis, which we can then verify that we know that we're talking about, by experimental demonstration, which qualifies as a universal proof. So that's how the universe is organized. Isn't that wonderful? [applause] -30-
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