Video Contents:

Introduction To Evolving / Living Universe Theory:

 

In the early 1960s, historian of science Thomas Kuhn introduced the concept of a paradigm to describe a conceptual model or set of assumptions about reality. A paradigm, he said, allows scientists to interpret data, elaborate theories and solve problems. It can be as all-encompassing as Newtonian physics, or as specific as the notion that life exists only on earth. The trouble is that paradigms are resistant to change. They are like closed systems in which all new data tend to confirm what is already known. As a result, the history of science is punctuated by violent upheavals in which one paradigm overthrows another.

 

Many scientists feel that we are on the cusp of such a revolution today. There is a growing recognition that the old mechanistic paradigm passed down from the Enlightenment does not work very well in addressing the pressing questions of modern science. This is reflected in the emergence of chaos, complexity and other radically interdisciplinary "new" sciences.

 

For example, geobiologist Elisabet Sahtouris belongs to a handful of innovative scientists who are rethinking the classical model and advancing fresh new perspectives. She believes the task of modern science is to shift "from mechanics to organics" and embrace a more holistic, systems-based approach.

Sahtouris is the author of EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution, Biology Revisioned (co-authored with Willis Harman) and A Walk Through Time (co-authored with Brian Swimme).

 

She is a consultant expert on indigenous peoples for the United Nations, a Findhorn fellow, and serves on the advisory board of the Institute for Sustainable Development and Alternative Futures.

Evolving / Living Universe

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