On our attempt at defying nature

I am away in chilly San Francisco, writing my column this week to send it over using the marvels of info-communications technology. It is amazing how most of us live in a world full of choices, conveniences and modern facilities, well-connected and even generating discussion on, if all of this was the right way to go.

Bonsai lesson

Just the other day, I visited the Oakland Garden Centre and its Bonsai collection. Seeing the trees and plants that would have grown large and wide in the wild, now in little containers I took a deep breath and inquired from the volunteer curator of the gardens on duty that day, “Is Bonsai another attempt of man to defy the process of nature?” He earnestly replied “No, it is man’s way of recreating part of nature and its beauty in a little container”.

The Bonsai plants were lovely to look at and pleased my senses for sure. They were creative in its stunted form. I even took photographs of each of them to share with others and perhaps germinate a discussion. Yet, none of them could give any shelter to any being, let alone help a Buddha to seek enlightenment under one of them. They were sadly inefficient in absorbing COý to assist mitigate global warming or provide wood to keep a family warm from the cold or build some one a house with it, when it is the right time for it to fall and allow another to grow in its place.

The questions that lingered in my mind out of this learning is; “Are we humans actually defying the forces of nature and if we are, can we go on like this and survive?”. “Is human ingenuity and science, adequately capable of finding answers to our future survival?”.

How do we repair the damage done to the environment? File photo

Is what we have today and envisage as technological innovation sustainable?”. In seeking answers, I came across a book written by Indian author Ram Mohan Roy titled ‘Vedic Physics” wherein he claims “What humanity needs is a humane and progressive culture on Earth, where spiritualism and scientific development go hand in hand. A culture based on the principles of love, tolerance, brotherhood and a desire to grow, to move forward” questioning ... “Do we have any precedence for such a culture, such a society?” and went on to claim “That’s where ancient history comes into the picture.”

From simple to the complex

From stone-age to the modern Info-communications led age of creativity, man had developed ways to ride on nature’s ways modifying it or adopting it to suit our own likes and fancies. This process we chose to call ‘development or human advancement’. In present times breakthroughs in the science of molecular physics have brought us ‘Nanotechnology’.

Termed “From simple to the complex” we are presented with new breakthrough areas of ‘nanoelectronics’, ‘nanomechanics’, ‘nanophotonics’ as possibilities for energy saving production processes including ‘supermolecular chemistry’, where self-assembly of processes may be facilitated. All this is somewhat encouraging in that, it may assist further sustain our attempt at maintaining our current lifestyles of consumption based on unlimited choice and not on necessity.

Laws of thermodynamics

On an Internet blog on nature, science and spirituality, blogger Lalith Guneratna had this interesting perspective to share with us. “The second law of thermodynamics is said to be basic to every physical process in our universe.

The second law introduces the concept of entropy, which is a measure of disorder that equals the loss of information and usefulness. Entropy increases with time in the universe as a whole. There is no physical way possible for us to decrease entropy, so this seems like a one-way no return process like our life.

Science tells us that the sun, which gives us all our energy and sustenance, also has a life followed by death. We may not see this in our life time, but it is slowly flaming itself out. Entropy will see the sun get hotter and hotter before it finally burns up into darkness. This is the disorder, the chaos at the grand scale, which also mirrors what happens in the minutest detail of our physical being.

Damage done

This means, even if we lived like our ancestors, with minimum damage to nature, this process of entropy - disorder and destruction will continue. It appears that we have added a tremendous amount of fuel to this destruction in the last 500 years trying to create some ‘order’ in our lives. By ‘order’ I mean, the comforts we seek through the use of technology that actually harm the delicate balance of this earth.

The way in which we seek this ‘order’ - by burning fossil fuels, cutting forests and encroaching on nature’s balance - seem to create more disorder on the whole. Disturbing the delicate balance of nature may exacerbate the downward spiral dictated by the second law. Our selfishness speeds up this process. At least, this is what appears to the naked senses in our current state of mind.

On the other hand, can we blame ourselves that we need food, clothes, shelter, heat from the cold and cold from the heat, to go places, to explore new worlds? As cosmologist, George F. Smoot - University of California, Berkeley says, “One cannot live by the dictum - do no harm. The best one can do is - do minimal damage”.

So, according to this theory our planet is on a downward spiral. If that is the case, we may as well make merry while the sun shines. In such a doomsday scenario, values, ethics, justice can go out the window. If it is all going to end anyway, why bother trying to save this Earth?” As the Bard had Prince Hamlet say “To be or not to be, that is the question”. I present it to you, as yet another interesting perspective to get us thinking... thinking of our children and the yet to be born of theirs.