X-Message-Number: 3099 Date: 09 Sep 94 17:05:16 EDT From: John de Rivaz <> Subject: CRYONICS: bureaucracy Robert Ettinger said that he never used lesson plans and bureaucracy in his teaching carreer, and recommended that people use personal knowledge and trust etc. instead of complicated legal frameworks. I would like to mention a scientific reason why bureaucracy does not work. That is Chaos Theory. A system with many people and processes within it, such as a bureaucratic control system, can easily be deflected from its target by a small chance somewhere along the line that it amplified to produce a huge error. It has been suggested that one reason Communism self-destructed is that the scientists in the movement, who are well respected, understood chaos theory and that a totally controlled society was a scientific impossibility. Dr Benoit Mandelbrot, of IBM, may in fact be one of the architects of the failure of Communism, not the cold war. Delegates to Terra Libra's recent conference (available on tape) were told recently that whether Terra Libra as an entity survives or not, government as we know it is bound to fail for scientific reasons relating to modern communications. However, individuals could be killed by "the swish of the tail of the dying dinosaur". The Dora Kent case springs to mind in this context! Incidentally Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw are billed to appear at their next conference, as well as Dr I. William Lane of shark cartilage fame. The subject of Chaos Theory and history, economics etc is advertised as being covered in a book called "Chance and Chaos" by David Ruelle. It is available from Media Magic (800-882-8284 in USA, catalog free). I have ordered a copy and may have more to say when I have read it. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=3099