Eight Days a Week – The Fourth Wave

(A study of the present and previous financial and economic crises,

and how to avoid similar crises in the future)

Written by Geert Callens

You can’t judge a book by looking at the cover (Willy Dixon).

Eight Days A Week – The Fourth Wave Author: Geert Callens

Once you have read the book, you will understand the cover.

Summary

The problems we are faced with.

On Bloody Monday, September 15th 2008, The Down Jones Industrial Average dropped by
504 points (4,4%), its largest drop since September 17th 2001, when trading on the New York
Stock Exchange was resumed after the 9/11 attacks.
Since then, most countries in the world are faced with a lot of financial and socioeconomic
problems:
• The most severe financial and economic crisis since the 1930s.
• Lower economic growth.
• Massive layoffs for blue collar and white collar workers alike.
• Budgetary problems for governments in most countries due to the massive
financial support given to the banks in order to prevent a financial meltdown that
could have be the result from the run on the banks by the public in order to save
their savings. Furthermore, governments receive lower income taxes, taxes on
profits of companies and revenues from TVA as private consumption has dropped.
• Problems with financing the social security system and the pension system, due to
the demographic evolution, as the post World War II baby boom generation is now
massively retiring from active duty and people tend to live longer.

In addition to this, there are also some other urgent problems to tackle:
• Environmental problems, global warming, CO2 emission, more severe storms and
inundation’s like in France, Rio de Janeiro and Pakistan in 2010, more
subsidence’s due to heavy rainfall, more forest-fires due to extreme and long
periods of drought.
• Mobility problems around big agglomerations like Antwerp and Brussels in
Belgium and in many other countries, which could be solved by constructing more
roads, viaducts and tunnels. On the other hand, the Belgian government fails to
even maintain the present road infrastructure: due to the mildly severe but long
winter of 2010 the roads in Belgium are currently in a lamentable state. And the
government lacks the budgetary means to solve the problem in a fundamental way.

This seems to be a Gordian knot, which could lead to a social Armageddon. In most of the
articles one can read about this matter, economists and politicians say that the necessary
remedies will be painful for the public. But is this really so? Couldn’t it be that they do not
understand the real cause of financial and economic crises, and thus not the necessary
remedies?

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Furthermore, economists tell diverging things about the way out of this crisis, as most
economic theories are just “ideologies in disguise”. And politicians…, well politicians are per
definition ideological and they seem to know it either.

On the diverging or even conflicting stories economists are telling us about the crisis and the
ignorance of politicians, I can refer to the following rather funny historical anecdote. Edwin
Nourse was economic advisor of Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the USA from 1945
till 1953. Nourse had been fond of saying “on the one hand [statement 1]…, but on the other
hand [the negation of statement 1]…” After some of these “zero-sum-statements”, President
Truman’s reaction was: “Can’t somebody bring me a one-handed economist?”
Solutions for every single problem seem to be expensive or even unpayable. They will surely
lead to higher taxes and/or inflation, eroding the purchasing power of the people and thus also
the opportunities for future economic growth. Many of these measures will be a burden on the
environment (more roads, more industrial zones, less space for nature and leisure-time...) and
create new problems.
In an interview in January 2010 with a UN diplomat I heard that the UN Millennium
Development Goals set at the start of this millennium to reduce poverty in the Third World
countries and the developing countries with 50% by 2015 will not be met, among other
reasons due to the current financial and economic crisis in the western industrialized
countries.
Furthermore, the UN diplomat mentioned that in developing countries with a reasonable
economic growth the income inequality increases: the rich are getting richer, while the poor
are getting poorer. This phenomenon can also be observed in industrialized countries like the
USA, where the purchasing power of the middle class has dropped dramatically and
concentration of wealth has increased since the days of President Nixon.

In a speech given by Mr. Karel De Gucht, at that time Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs,
at the 62nd General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, October 1st 2007, one can
read the following:
“We live in an increasingly complex world, facing increasingly diverse challenges.
Actions taken in isolation are no longer sufficient.”

This is indeed the case for the list of problems mentioned above. Looking for isolated
solutions for problems that are interrelated will not work: it is contra-productive and
expensive. On the website of the American activist G. Edward Griffin one can read the
following lines: “One of the most profound differences between dogs and cats is that cats
focus on effects while dogs focus on causes. If you toss a pebble at a cat, it will look at the
pebble. If you toss it at a dog, it will look at you. In this respect, too many people are like cats.
They are preoccupied with the details of their own problems, and they flutter like wing-
clipped pigeons, complaining about this and that without knowing why these things are
happening”.

So let us concentrate on the causes and their interrelatedness rather than the individual effects.
A comprehensive and holistic approach is needed in order to come to a lasting solution. In
this study Eight Days a Week – The Fourth Wave, I do not look for isolated solutions for

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Eight Days A Week – The Fourth Wave Author: Geert Callens

isolated problems. I have included all the socioeconomic problems in an overall picture –
even war. By doing so, I have demonstrated that the current financial and economic crisis is
systemic. But to my own very surprise, all the problems can be solved in a very elegant and
human friendly way. We can avoid the social setback that most of the economists and
political leaders are advocating.

The approach I have used.

Any information processing system, be it automated or not, uses a certain logic on a set of
data in order to come to a conclusion. Also human beings do this.
The logic that is used can be correct or wrong. Obviously, using the wrong logic will not
result in a correct conclusion. Human beings claim to be rational, especially in the academic
world, and it is rather easy to find the faults in a line of reasoning. But on the other hand we
never seem to agree on main topics in economy – even in the academic world – and politics:
everybody claims to be sincere and to tell the correct things.
But ratio is only one part of the picture. Data are as important and – unfortunately – much
more difficult to control, as it is not just a question of being correct or wrong. This is rather
easy to verify by controlling the facts. Next to correctness, data have another aspect: are the
data complete or not? And is all the information we use in our logic relevant? In other words,
is there redundant information in our data set that might confuse us, or others?
In the following table we show what the result is of a perfectly correct logic on a set of data:

Data are → Incomplete Complete Redundant

↓
Incorrect Wrong conclusion Wrong conclusion Wrong conclusion

Correct Wrong conclusion Correct conclusion Not necessarily the

correct conclusion, as
irrelevant data might
have obscured the
correct conclusion.

We will only come to the correct conclusion when we use the correct logic on correct,
complete and no redundant data. That is why in court, the witness has to tell the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Furthermore, deliberately telling half of the truth is worse than telling a lie, as the receiver of
the information can expose a lie by checking the facts, but he will not necessarily search for
the data that were (deliberately) omitted.
And when a problem is correctly and completely formulated, the solution is already half way.
That is the reason why I have used in this study a holistic approach rather than an
reductionistic one, which is doomed to fail anyhow.
In an article by Raghuram Rajan, Professor at the Booth School of Business in Chicago,
written as a reaction of Paul Krugman’s critique on his book “Fault Lines”, one can read the
following lines: “First, Krugman starts with a diatribe on why so many economists are ‘asking
how we got into this mess rather than telling us how to get out of it’ Krugman apparently
believes that his standard response of more stimuli applies, regardless of the reasons why we

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are in the economic downturn. Yet it is precisely because I think that the policy response to
the last crisis contributed to getting us into this one that it is worthwhile examining how we
got into this mess, and to resist the unreflective policies that Krugman advocates.”

Indeed, before one can start to improve things, one should first know what went wrong and
why it went wrong. A good starting point is to ask the question “Cui bono?”, as in a criminal
investigation. Who took advantage of the crime?
I think some free market adepts don’t like the idea of a thorough investigation of what really
caused the financial and economic crisis (as was done in the years after 1929, leading to
several measures to restrict financial speculations and to avoid speculative bubbles), not only
because this would lead to more regulation, or this would demonstrate that they have
supported and advocated a system that is inherently unstable and thus wrong, but rather
because some of them are very well aware what went wrong and why, and they don’t like the
idea that these mechanisms would become exposed to a broader public. “Cui bono?” Not the
public in general, but a small élite. The mechanisms that cause the recurrence of financial and
economic crises are indeed also the cause of the mass atrocities all over the world (wars, civil
wars, genocides, famines…).
A lot of people in the rich countries are just NIMBY’s, who are not concerned with
genocides, famines, wars, pollution and global warming, as long as these do not happen in
their back yard and are not too visible on TV. But these same people are also affected by the
financial and economic crisis.
So, if they could understand the underlying cause of their own material misfortune, then
maybe they could be willing to show some solidarity with the people in the poor countries
who are the victims of mass atrocities and the global over-cropping of natural resources.

Reoccurrence of problems and the cause of this.

During the course of history, financial and economic problems have reoccurred on many
occasions: the 1930s, the late 1970s and early 1980s, the early 1990s.
A society functions according to a certain socioeconomic paradigm, which is based on a set of
premises more or less in accordance with reality. Several social groups in society set
objectives and act toward those objectives according to those premises. If some premises do
not agree with reality, but, on the contrary, are based on a wrong understanding or
interpretation of reality or even on ignorance, then the performed actions will not lead to the
desired objective. Instead, one will be faced with unexpected obstacles. This could lead to
problems, frustration, even aggression and crises.

Because one has started from the wrong premises, one will most likely look for the causes of
the failure and possible solutions in the wrong directions too. Otherwise one would have
started in the right direction from the beginning! One will make the wrong diagnosis. One will
even point to a scapegoat as a reason for failure1.

1
As professor Gar Alperovitz writes in the introduction of his book America Beyond Capitalism:
“Moreover, if the system itself is at fault, then self-evidently – indeed, by definition – a solution would ultimately
require the development of a new system… The conventional wisdom, of course, leaves us at a dead end. The
old ways don’t work but no one even imagines the possibility of systemic change.”

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Eight Days A Week – The Fourth Wave Author: Geert Callens

When a society functions according to a paradigm that is not in accordance with reality, and
when, in spite of the crisis, it still follows the same line through, when it does not learn the
necessary lessons and when it does not adapt its paradigm, then that society will again and
again be faced with the same kind of crises - even with increasing intensity -, it will again and
again go through the same scenario just as the principal character in an ancient Greek drama:
“The tragic error in tragic drama is walking in blindness so that the tragic hero who intends to
accomplish a certain result with his actions accomplishes the exact opposite.”2
The cause for recurrence and periodicity in economy can be found in the fact that the current
socioeconomic paradigm is not in accordance with reality. The ever-repeating cycle of
economic crises (and wars) can only be interrupted if we succeed to transcend the limitations
of the present paradigm and if we can expand or even transcend our paradigm, cut the wrong
premises and add new correct premises to it, so it is more in tune with reality.
Does all this implies that events are predetermined and that we have to be their
helpless victims? Not really! All it means is that things move in terms of
predictable cycles that keep occurring time after time until their true cause is
discovered. Once we know their cause, we can stop them. After all, humanity
has broken disastrous cycles in the past and will do so in the future as well.
This is how all evolution occurs. We keep enduring recurring problems of one
sort or another, until they become intolerable; then someone discovers their
true cause and helps us break the cycle. Afterwards a new cycle takes over.
However, in view of the longevity of the patterns described in this work, it is
clear that disrupting them will not be easy. Nothing short of fundamental
reforms will work.
Ravi Batra: The Great Depression of 1990, p 94.

At the start of this millennium, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan stated this as
follows: “We will have time to reach the Millennium Development Goals – worldwide and in
most, or even all, individual countries – but only if we break with business as usual.”
But “braking with business as usual” is very difficult. Change is indeed needed, but in what
direction and based on what socioeconomic premises? What are the wrong premises? And
what are the correct premises we are missing?

Some stubborn economic and social misconceptions.

In the capitalistic system, one of the most important objectives of private business is to realize
profit as a reward for the invested capital and for entrepreneurship.
But there is something strange going on with this profit. We will discuss the notion of profit
from the point of view of the businessmen, the (neo-) classical economists and even (neo-)
Marxist economists, and formulate some paradoxes and inconsistencies in the line of
reasoning of all of them.
This will lead us to find the real social origin and the purpose of profit for companies. We will
demonstrate that profit for private companies is a result of the economic growth, which one
could consider as ‘profit-for-society’ as a whole. The way how this economic growth or

2
Claude Steiner, Scripts People Live, p 60-61.

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‘profit-for-society’ is distributed among the several economic and social participants

determines future economic growth thus future profits for companies.
However profit, a result of the economic growth and part of the ‘profit-for-society’, has
become a goal on itself. This shift in emphasis, together with some other wrong social
premises that are discussed later on, are the cause of the recurring financial, economic and
social problems. And even wars!

An injudicious feedback policy of the ‘profit-for-society’ towards the several economic and
social participants, based on the wrong economic and social premises, leads to the erosion of
the purchasing power of the “common people”, and thus to a decline of the economic growth.
A more judicious feedback policy, on the contrary, based on correct economic and social
premises, can lead leads to the increase of the purchasing power of the “common people”, and
thus to a higher economic growth, more ‘profit-for-society’ and thus higher profit for
companies, and even to a more peaceful world.

Some stubborn social misconceptions.

Some other social misconceptions originated since the days of the British East India
Company, and they are even the motive for some forces in society in order to boycott the
Millennium Development Goals:
• John Locke provided an argument that has continued to dominate the modern
worldview down to the present. Once we cut through useless custom and
superstition, argued Locke, we see that society, being made up solely of
individuals creating their own meaning, has one purpose and one purpose only: to
protect and allow for the increase of the property of its members. Pure self-interest
thus becomes, in Locke’s formulation, the sole basis for the establishment of the
state. Society properly becomes materialistic and individualistic because, Locke
maintains, reason leads us to conclude that this is the natural order of things. By
the law of nature, each individual is called upon to act out his role of social atom,
careering through life, attempting to amass personal wealth, even at the expense of
other people. There is no value judgment to be made here: self-interest is simply
the only basis for society3.
• Like Locke, Adam Smith was enamored of the mechanical world view and was
determined to formulate a theory of economy that would reflect the universals of
the Newtonian paradigm. In The Wealth of Nations, Smith argues that, just as
heavenly bodies in motion conform to certain laws of nature, so too does
economics. If these laws are obeyed, economic growth will result. But government
regulation and control over the economy violated these immutable laws by
directing economic activity in unnatural ways. Thus markets did not expand as
rapidly as they could and production was stifled. In other words, any attempt by
society to guide “natural” economic forces was inefficient, and for Adam Smith,
efficiency in all things was the watchword4.

3
J. Rifkin, Entropy, A New World View, pp. 23-30.
4
J. Rifkin, Entropy, A New World View, pp. 23-30.

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Eight Days A Week – The Fourth Wave Author: Geert Callens

• Thomas Malthus, who as central information-gathering agent kept statistics for the
East India Company, found that, as population grew with a geometrical
progression while resources only grew with an arithmetic progression, scarcity
would increase. There always would be a fundamental inadequacy of life support
on planet Earth, so only the fittest would survive economically resulting in an “Us
or Them” attitude.
In this study we will demonstrate that these three premises are wrong, they are
misconceptions. We will unravel the true purpose of the economic activity and the social
origin and purpose of profit in a way that is totally different from the point of view of
businessmen and economists, whether they are (neo-)classical or (neo-) Marxist.
As pure rationality, based on incomplete or even wrong socioeconomic premises, combined
with amorality and pure self-interest (read greed) can lead and has led to immorality, these
misconceptions have led to:
• Social Darwinism, social and economic exclusion of part of the own population
(cfr. the books of Charles Dickens).
• Colonialism and imperialism, exploitation of and even genocide on the local
population of the conquered territories.
• Concentration of wealth inside countries and among countries.
• The recurrence of economic crises.
• Social turmoil, violent revolutions, civil wars, wars, and most of all war-
profiteering and even warmongering.
• The erosion of the real wealth of the “common people” due to the creeping
inflation since the introduction of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 and some
other mechanisms like “engineered” financial crises and exploding speculative
bubbles on the stock market.
• An economic system in which a human being is only economically important in
two ways: as a production factor, generating added value for the employer; and as
consumer, with money to spend. The rest are considered, in the words of Henry
Kissinger, as “dispensable eaters”.

A feasible and low-cost solution, based on some ‘humane intelligence’.

This book Eight Days a Week contains a proposal to change “business as usual”, based on
correct social and economic premises. By analyzing and explaining the recurrence of
economic crises and some economic entities and the relation with wars and the activities of
some banks, I have found what one could call the “missing link” between micro- and macro-
economics: the real socioeconomic origin and purpose of profit for companies.
I also formulate a proposal that “breaks with business as usual” and that could very well lead
to a win-win-win-situation for business, governments and private persons alike. My proposal
would solve all of the problems mentioned above at once, and most of all, it would induce the
transition towards a more peaceful world and the abolition of violations of human rights. It
would furthermore allow meeting the objective to spend 0.7% of the GNP for aid to the Third

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Eight Days A Week – The Fourth Wave Author: Geert Callens

World countries5, as well as the Kyoto protocol. The secret power of this proposal lays in the
fact that it focuses on man as man, and not as mere production factor or consumer.
My proposal is not at all painful for the public, on the contrary. It could very well be a win-
win-win situation for business, government and the public as well. I dare to say that there is
no dilemma at all, and a viable alternative road for a social Armageddon is possible, even in
the near future, but only if we start to concentrate on the real purpose of the economy (the
fulfillment of the needs of the people) and not on the consequence of quantitative economic
growth (making a profit and creating money out of nothing).
I sincerely hope that you will pay attention to this book. I know that a book of about 290
pages is rather long, but I guarantee you, it explains the economic process in a whole new way
you have ever read in the mainstream media or heard from economists and politicians. They
usually give a chronological account of what happened, and pinpoint the problems with
Lehman Brothers or the mortgages in the USA as the cause of the financial and economic
crisis. These phenomena are not the cause, just some catalysts that triggered the whole
process. In this study you will read the real cause of economic crises (and wars) plus some
solutions to avoid similar crises (and wars) in the future.
I would like to finish this summary with the remark that I wrote the first lines of this study
already in the early 1980s, after reading Buckminster Fuller’s last book Critical Path. Those
years were characterized by both a 2-digit inflation and high unemployment, which deluded
most economists, and a lot of financial volatility in the exchange rates of the major
international currencies versus the US$, as in 1971 President Nixon had unilaterally decided
to abandon the post World War II Bretton Woods agreement of 1944. Since the 1980s I have
been updating my study with new information and evidence, both from the years since then
and from the past 400 years of history. I think my book is now ready for publication and
distribution to as many people as possible.

Mortsel, Belgium, October 2010.

5
Do we really need tsunamis, inundations and earthquakes before we can mobilize the conscience of
the political leaders and the public in the rich countries in order to organize massive aid to Third World
countries?

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Table of content

1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 14
1.1 Purpose of this book..................................................................................................... 14
1.2 Cause or catalyst of the present economic crisis? ........................................................ 16
2 Some striking economic recurrences................................................................................ 19
2.1 The evolution of the profit-ratio................................................................................... 20
2.2 The evolution of money-growth and inflation ............................................................. 21
2.3 The evolution of unemployment .................................................................................. 25
2.4 Relation between recurrence and paradigm. ................................................................ 27
3 Information in an economic perspective .......................................................................... 29
3.1 Matter ........................................................................................................................... 29
3.2 Energy .......................................................................................................................... 30
3.3 Matter and energy together .......................................................................................... 30
3.4 Information................................................................................................................... 31
3.5 Ratio and information................................................................................................... 34
3.6 Rationality, amorality and immorality ......................................................................... 35
4 Some strong wrong economic premises........................................................................... 37
4.1 Thomas Malthus and social Darwinism ....................................................................... 37
4.1.1 Malthusianism and colonialism............................................................................ 39
4.1.2 Malthusianism and imperialism ........................................................................... 41
4.1.3 Thomas Malthus was and is wrong. ..................................................................... 57
4.2 Economic misconceptions............................................................................................ 62
4.2.1 Gross National Product per capita........................................................................ 62
4.2.2 Economic growth ................................................................................................. 63
4.2.3 Positive balance of trade ...................................................................................... 64
4.2.4 Profit, the missing link in economics ................................................................... 65
Profit according to the businessman............................................................................. 65
What is profit? What is the origin of profit? ................................................................ 67
Profit according to a neo-Marxian economist .............................................................. 67
First paradox: higher wages for employees, higher profits for the employer .............. 69
Second paradox: is a positive cash flow for one company at the expense of the rest of
the world?..................................................................................................................... 70
Profit according to (neo-) classical economists............................................................ 71

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4.2.5 Active unproductivity........................................................................................... 72

4.2.6 The economic dogma ........................................................................................... 73
5 Basic Theory on the Origin of Profit................................................................................ 76
5.1 Satisfaction of needs: Driving force of the economic process ..................................... 76
5.2 Profit as a consequence of growth................................................................................ 77
5.2.1 ‘Profit for companies’ as part of ‘profit for society’............................................ 77
5.2.2 The social purpose of profit ................................................................................. 79
5.2.3 An idealistic view on economy ............................................................................ 81
5.3 Positive balance of trade .............................................................................................. 81
5.4 Conclusion.................................................................................................................... 83
6 Direct consequences of the basic theory on the origin of profit....................................... 84
6.1 Evolution of the profit-ratio ......................................................................................... 84
6.2 Distribution of profit as driving force – or brake on – economic growth .................... 86
6.3 Zero-growth and its consequences ............................................................................... 91
6.4 The consumer society................................................................................................... 96
6.5 Unemployment ............................................................................................................. 99
6.6 Concentration of wealth ............................................................................................. 102
7 On the origin of wars...................................................................................................... 104
7.1 The economic “importance” of wars – Cui bono? ..................................................... 104
7.1.1 The story of the pram industry ........................................................................... 104
7.1.2 Illustrations......................................................................................................... 107
Illustration 1: The glory of weapons. ......................................................................... 107
Illustration 2: Keep the fire simmering ...................................................................... 110
7.1.3 Disinvestment goods .......................................................................................... 111
7.2 To be or not to be, that’s the question ........................................................................ 113
7.3 Protectionism and its relation with war – An important lesson from history ............ 116
7.4 Inflation and its relation with war – Cui bono?.......................................................... 126
7.5 A 1st mechanism to get hold of the wealth of the common people: Inflation. ........... 128
7.5.1 On the origin of paper money – Cui bono?........................................................ 128
7.5.2 On the origin of democracy................................................................................ 129
7.5.3 Motives for war versus forces for peace ............................................................ 133
nd
7.6 A 2 mechanism to get hold of the wealth of the common people: Income taxes.... 137
7.7 A 3rd mechanism to get hold of the wealth of the common people: Higher prices for
essential commodities. ....................................................................................................... 142
7.8 A 4th mechanism to get hold of the wealth of the common people: Crashes on the
stock market. ...................................................................................................................... 144

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7.9 The North-South relationship..................................................................................... 146

7.10 The dangers and excesses of the banking industry ................................................ 149
7.11 “War Against Terror” in order to defend “The Sixth Freedom”............................ 152
7.12 Summary ................................................................................................................ 154
8 Some feasible solutions.................................................................................................. 157
8.1 Boundary conditions .................................................................................................. 157
8.2 Qualitative, sustainable growth .................................................................................. 158
8.3 Fair distribution versus concentration of wealth ........................................................ 159
8.4 The dual active-recreational society: “the fourth wave”............................................ 165
8.4.1 He had a dream, that one day…. ........................................................................ 166
8.4.2 A complicated problem ...................................................................................... 168
Mobility...................................................................................................................... 169
Economic efficiency................................................................................................... 169
Personal quality of life ............................................................................................... 170
Public finances ........................................................................................................... 170
8.4.3 A possible solution ............................................................................................. 171
8.4.4 The quaternary sector. ........................................................................................ 178
8.5 Fair collection of taxes ............................................................................................... 178
9 Epilogue ......................................................................................................................... 181
10 Schematic synopsis ........................................................................................................ 187
10.1 Current geo-political and socioeconomic paradigm, based on wrong premises. ... 187
10.2 New Gaia-political and socioeconomic paradigm, based on correct premises. ..... 188
10.3 Some thoughts to brood on..................................................................................... 189
11 Some recommendations: where do we go from here? ................................................... 190
12 Appendix A: Some Notions on Communication Theory ............................................... 194
12.1 The process of communication .............................................................................. 194
12.2 Information............................................................................................................. 195
12.3 Shannon’s Law....................................................................................................... 198
12.4 Signal-spaces and paradigms ................................................................................. 199
12.5 Effective Communication ...................................................................................... 204
12.6 Trade-off between time and energy ....................................................................... 211
12.7 Implications on education and science................................................................... 214
12.7.1 Education............................................................................................................ 214
12.7.2 Science: academic versus scientific ................................................................... 216
12.8 Conditions for effective communication................................................................ 220

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12.8.1 Unambiguous Coding......................................................................................... 220

12.8.2 Time and energy................................................................................................. 221
12.8.3 Signal-space ....................................................................................................... 221
12.9 A thought to brood on ............................................................................................ 221
13 Appendix B: Economy and dissipative structures.......................................................... 223
13.1 Energy and entropy ................................................................................................ 223
13.2 Dissipative structures ............................................................................................. 229
13.2.1 The origination of dissipative structures ............................................................ 229
13.2.2 The evolution of dissipative structures............................................................... 231
13.2.3 The relation between the micro and the macro level ......................................... 233
13.2.4 Symbiosis ........................................................................................................... 234
13.3 Socioeconomic systems.......................................................................................... 235
13.4 Dissipative structures, communication and creativity............................................ 241
13.4.1 Extension of Shannon’s communication-model ................................................ 241
13.4.2 Scientific evolution ............................................................................................ 246
13.4.3 Evolution of the brains ....................................................................................... 247
14 Appendix C: Economy and Control System Theory...................................................... 250
14.1 An Economic Two-dimensional Flatland .............................................................. 250
14.2 A Multidimensional View on Economy................................................................. 255
15 Some Loose Ends ........................................................................................................... 262
15.1 Justification of the methodology ............................................................................ 262
15.2 Model of social evolution....................................................................................... 265
15.2.1 Evolution of social classes ................................................................................. 267
15.2.2 Evolution of geographical classes ...................................................................... 267
15.3 Possible transitions and visions of the future ......................................................... 268
15.4 The “other” alternative ........................................................................................... 273
15.5 The rebirth of mankind........................................................................................... 275
15.6 An additional message to some scientists .............................................................. 278
16 Bibliography................................................................................................................... 286

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