Theory of Emergence

This is, perhaps, the most significant of the SPT Spin-Off’s. That is because it has the potential for explaining the ontology of all of our visible cosmos. It includes, for the first time, all physical as well as living systems levels and natures. In 1859, Darwin published a book that provided a range of evidence for a Theory of Evolution. Quite beyond our usual meaning of “theory” in popular language, this general mechanism of natural selection explains all of the vast number of species that Linnaeus had organized in a static taxonomy that rested upon the concept of special, direct, and unchanging creation. This systems-level theory of emergence is supposed to be the common, repeating mechanism for the appearance of each and every NEW SCALAR LEVEL in the universe starting with the Big Bang.

Its span was suggested in the SPT Founder/Author’s first paper in 1972. Reproduced here in full, it outlined a sequence of origins from the very origin of the universe with new systems (new scales of reality) unfolding naturally from the previous scales of reality. It posited that this comes about because of the action of “systems field axioms” which later became in the SPT, the Isomorphic Systems Processes. SO the SPT-based Theory of Emergence is not only a wider view of sustainability than Darwin’s theory, but it also has a relationship if not identity with the systems-based TOE we cited in the Home Page of this website.