10 Comments
User's avatar
Paul_'s avatar

It is said that it’s the natural tendency of the universe to disintegrate, I.e. exhibit Entropy. However, as you demonstrate in this article, it’s also the natural tendency of the universe to integrate, I.e. exhibit Extropy. People overlook that.

Expand full comment
Janette Dean's avatar

Thank you, Jim & to all empathetic human beings worldwide! This excerpt is so crucial for all to know & act upon to help each other locally and globally. Time to resolutely rescue humanity & life on our home planet Earth through mutually-beneficial social cooperation, not division! As Shakespeare also wrote in Measure for Measure: “Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.” When evil rises, goodness must overwhelm it and overcome it promptly and invincibly with the convictions of ethics and physics!

“Good and Evil

Observably, American society—and civilization more generally—are undergoing a period of decoherence—a systemic breakdown in governance that is damaging the geopolitical well-being of the nation and the world. But what is the defining characteristic of it all? Lack of empathy. The absence of binding. “The cruelty is the point.”

When Elon Musk destroys USAID, Donald Trump deprives people of insurance, or Stephen Miller sends ICE to terrorize cities, they are demonstrating and propagating the unbinding of America. When Pete Hegseth destroys Venezuelan fishing boats, or Vladimir Putin sends drones on human safari in Kherson, they are unbinding the world from one another.

This is not a moral judgement but a fact—the accelerating movement toward less connection is recognized by its own propaganda: “globalism” is a conspiracy; a “multipolar” world is ideal; empathy is “suicidal.” These are all arguments for apartness—a desire to deprive us of the ubiquitous emergent force that governs the universe, the strong force that binds us together.”

Expand full comment
CC Ballou's avatar

I really love the science stuff. Great article.

Expand full comment
VEE LAVALLEE's avatar

Thanks for that easy to follow story. I am also not a religious person but I do allow for good and evil. If the cohesiveness is necessary then we must fight against those who would make us "evil" in order for our own survival. Just as you say, it's like a cancer. Empathy IS needed for that survival.

Expand full comment
Timothy C. Tucker's avatar

As an engineer I liked how you used nuclear physics to make this point.

I agree, good is not political. It's upheld through truth and accountability. Disinformation can and will be defeated.

Expand full comment
Ronald Wieland's avatar

Jim transects the noosphere in numerous ways to demonstrate the underpinnings of humanity, as ”quarky” as it may be, reminding me of Father Thomas Berry’s comment some 30 years ago, that there might be “tunnels” of knowing through the subatomic world, which I speculate as some form of spirit guidance. He mentioned it in passing so I can only speculate his meaning.

Expand full comment
Allan Crow's avatar

Brilliant. :)

Expand full comment
Karen Scofield's avatar

Yet, here we are, Jim 😩 Thank you for your Annalise this evening, and will reStack ASAP 🙏

Expand full comment
Blue Moon Pie's avatar

Beautiful. Truth. Thanks.

Expand full comment
Mindy Conway's avatar

Your section “Binding” reminded me that Nikola Tesla once said, “Though free to think & act, we are held together, like stars in the firmament, with ties inseparable. These ties cannot be seen, but we can feel them.”

Expand full comment