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23. The Origin of Civilisation

was, in many respects, far morę wigorous and ebullient than the earlier phase had been, an almost classie illustration of a dissipative structure. And yet, when the second major series of earthquakes struck the region around 1430 BC, contemporaneously with the destruction of the island of Thera, only Knossos was rebuilt. The civilising initiative now passed forever to mainland Greecel* The Italian Renaissance might seem to be a recent, but unique example of a cultural dissipative structure, which would thus have been a morę widely obserued phenomenon of antiquity. A consensus view among mediewal historians suggests the centuries of feudalism dominating life right across Continental Europę were an unstable transitional interlude. They enabled the nations of the region to consolidate their political, social and economic structures. If that was indeed the case, feudalism serued as a temporary breakdown period preceeding the creation of a higher lewel, morę differentiated order - the rise of modern European civilisation. On Łhis analysis, the Renaissance acted as a localised dissipatiwe structure helping Western Europę to accelerate towards a fuli scalę civilisation genesis, An alternate wiew of these events might see a prolonged gestation for the evolutionary progression of the modern age. This consisted of a Chain reaction sequence following the wide-spread dislocation after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West. This was followed by a severe dark age interregnum that was not fully shaken off until the shackles of a restrictiwe feudalism were decisiuely ruptured during the fifteenth century. The original flowering of the Renaissance would then have been the opening euent in a counter-chain reaction of intermittent pulses, as modern civilisation unfolded as a further sequence of evolutionary changes. These included the emergence of western capitalism, the scientific revolution, the age of enlightenment and a true spirit of internationalism, ultimately culminating in the rise and gradual spread of industrialisation,

It is possible that the Italian Renaissance was not an isolated example of a cultural dissipative structure, for 1 belieue the concept can be applied to the first half of the twentieth century. Recent history suggests a relatiwely short-lived classic breakdown of an old order led to the emergence of a morę highly sophisticated structure. A great burst of European imperial expansion came to a tragic end with the onset of World War 1, but after a rapid postwar boom, the American economy led the entire industrial world into the dismal traumas of the 1930s depression.*¹ In 1945, when the wictorious allies for a second time in a generation surueyed the wreckage of a war-ravaged Europę, a widely held view preuailed that the 1950s would proue to be a re-run of the miserable 1930s.^a Yet miraculously, such forebodings proved to be groundless. An impoverished Europę received the kiss of life from a relatiwely unscathed United States.^ł23This magnanimous nationa1 gesture for self preseruation was, we can now recognise in retrospect, one pivotal move that was instrumental in erecting the constructive postwar world. Rapidly, the solid foundations of

Through the operation of the Marshall Plan.

this vigorous resurgence were laid, heralding a period of stability and im-proued prosperity which atill continues, albeit a little shakily, in place today. The evidence for co-operative regeneration which allowed a war weary world to rebuild bet ter, even if far frora perfect, global organisattons, must surely be an instance of 'dissipative structures' creating a morę advanced form of civilisation, howewer flawed, than had existed at the start of the century. The wonder remains that mankind was able, not only to restore stability after thirty years of unremitting destructiue behauiour, but that world institutions could be established specifically to ensure that a global community would attempt to operate morę harmoniously.

The Civilisation Conundrum

The question of the origin and birth of a civi.lisati.on is, undoubtedly, the most absorbing part of our search, sińce it is, simultaneously, a source for profound wonder while remaining shrouded in total mystery. The theory of culture dynamics suggests that a se1 f-sustaining Chain reaction is required to generate the necessary critical culture mass to enable a culture to go critical and a civilisation to emerge. Furthermore, the tripartite basis of the culture structure implies that an even balance of subsystem interactions with advances along a broad front affecting all five subsystems will be a necessary precondition or prerequisite before this critical stage can be attained. If the advance is too lopsided, with one or a fęw subsystems only dominating the sequences of change, the vital critical mass may not coalesce. Hence, the crucial difference between a high culture and a ciuilisation event will lie in the vigour and ebullience displayed by the latter, in far greater abundance than in the former, in all the fiye subsystems.

Superficially, this sounds rather nebulous, but in fact it is not as uague as it would seem. Expressed in system concepts, the pivotal requirement is for new energy generation. A nuclear autocatalytic reaction generates immense quantities of energy. Indeed, the possibility of tapping this huge potential was the prime rationale for pursuing the theoretical base of nuclear physics. This laid the foundations for the technological breakthroughs of both the destructive atomie bomb and the constructive nuclear reactor to create cheap sources of commercial energy. Similarly, human cultural activitv requires energy as a major input. It can be provided by man, animals or raw materiał resources. Perhaps, however, it also releases new sources of potential energy in greater and morę diverse directions, simply by the gradual absorption of larger numbers of people, artifacts and natural resources into the expanding sphere of operations. It is eveh possible, by analogy, that cultural actiwity acts as a spontaneous 'fast breeder',²⁴ sińce it often creates morę available energy sources (a form of cultural fuel) than it uses up. The concept of a spontaneous fast breeder would be part of the cultural climate surrounding a civilisation eyent.