(This is an article in 2 parts.)
The real genius of this universe, it seems to me, is not the incredible beauty which it makes possible, and perhaps not even the amazing love which it makes possible. Perhaps the real genius of this universe which we inhabit is its inherently self-correcting nature.
Of the many potential universes that exist or that could have been created, perhaps only a few would have a system so brilliant that it is self-correcting in all its aspects.
Is the universe really self-correcting everywhere? Well, let's start looking at some examples, and you decide:
Let's begin, for instance, with the current scandal surrounding corporate corruption. It has been and is being discovered that some corporate managements have behaved corruptly in hiding expenses on the income sheet and debt on the balance sheet in order to inflate profits and thus stock prices, and thus the value of stock options held by management.
What I notice is that the media is all over this. I can scarcely turn on a news broadcast or pick up a paper without hearing or reading about it. And of course in the glare of such a spotlight, the worst current excesses of the corporate and accounting worlds will be curbed. In other words, the system can only go so far without inherently bouncing back.
Now let's look at an even more interesting example: the earth. The earth is currently under ecological assault. Gigantic iceshelves the size of states are breaking off into the Antartic ocean. The hottest years of the planet are all occurring recently, and more draughts and heat waves are occurring.
More species are imperilled, from tigers to whales to certain birds and fish. Species are under assault everywhere, and continue to go extinct at an astonishing rate. Carbon dioxide continues to pump into the air at an astonishing rate. Pesticides pollute our streams and coasts at an increasing rate. And so on.
Now if we pull back our view from the details a little bit, we have to conclude that a catastrophe is occurring. Ecologically, the earth is very sick and getting sicker. And yet it is completely self-correcting.
One possibility is that we human beings will adequately wake up to what's happening, and put a concerted effort into restoring the life of the planet by adopting dramatic ecological and organic methods for everything.
But what if that doesn't happen? In that case, the planet will get sicker and sicker until finally the human beings who are causing the problem will all die out. They will go extinct just like the dinosaurs, only in this case they will have brought about their own extinction.
But after the extinction of the human beings, then the planet would recover. Its trees, its forests, its savanahs and jungles and insects and mammals would gradually come back. It might take a little while or a long time, depending on the circumstance, but the green and vital earth would come back. It's an inherently self-correcting system, just like everything else in this universe.
(This is the end of Part 1. Go to Part 2.)
—jim sloman, for 7/5/02
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