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.

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