<\/a>My review of Gilder’s book published by the Acton Institute follows these preliminary comments.<\/em><\/p>\n I believe that the book Knowledge and Power: The Information Theory of Capitalism and How it is Revolutionizing our World<\/a> is indeed revolutionary. Author George Gilder is first an economist so this book, which he sees as the culmination of his life’s work (Gilder also wrote Wealth and Poverty<\/a>), is appropriately about economics.<\/p>\n But it is much more. Gilder draws on information theory and posits that information, not chemical and physical processes are the ground of epistemology. What does that mean in plain English? Simply this: science itself is discovering that knowledge can not be circumscribed by what we can see and measure; that much more can be known about the world beyond the measurements of the world’s material properties (the chemical and physical processes of things). <\/p>\n This is astounding for for two reasons. The first is that it corresponds to what St. Maximos the Confessor<\/a> taught back in the seventh century, that below the material appearance of things existed what he called logoi<\/em>, the ever present resultant energy of the word that was first spoken at creation and that brought the world into existence. This logoi is energy, hierarchical and even has a personal character.<\/p>\n The second is that, if correct (and science itself will confirm it), it strikes the death blow to Darwininian evolution (single source theory — all living organisms evolved from a single source) by undermining the philosophical materialism (only matter has concrete existence) on which the Darwininian hypothesis stands. If the random universe (a philosophical, not scientific, claim) that makes random mutation and natural selection viable as an explanation for the complexity and interrelatedness of all matter and beings within the world is undermined, Darwin falls. Put another way, if information does indeed exist below, behind, and within matter, than a random universe is impossible because information is necessarily hierarchical. The Darwinian hypothesis will be seen for what it is: a theory of progress hamstrung by its insistence that only matter has any real existence.<\/p>\n Gilder does not delve into these philosophical implications but it is clear that he is aware of them. There are times when he answers his critics by pointing out their reliance on what he calls the “materialist superstition.” By this he means that our thinking has been so influenced by Darwin, Freud, and Marx that we reflexively assume that there is no other way to think. We are driven by materialist assumptions much more than we know.<\/p>\n I believe this book is a game changer, one of those rare books that comes along maybe every few decades or more that really has the potential to change how people view the world. It’s clear that the materialist assumptions that directed thinking for almost two-hundred years is eroding. Of the three great prophets of philosophical materialism, Freud has fallen, Marx has fallen, and it is a cultural certainty in my view that Darwin will fall as well. It is just a matter of time.<\/p>\n One other point. If Gilder is indeed correct, then we also have to deal with his assertion that the discovery of information, the “surprise” that works hand in hand with human creativity and risk (read the book), posits not only an informational universe, but one that is also benevolent<\/em>. The world, it seems, was indeed made for man as Genesis (narrative*) revealed thousands of years ago.<\/p>\n <\/a>*Why narrative? Because if the epistemological ground of knowledge is indeed information (if logoi<\/em> exists behind, above and interpenetrates matter to use St. Maximos’ formulation), then it is decoded through language (math is a language). The decoded elements have to be referenced to a narrative — the story that provides a larger framework of meaning — in order to find their placement and thus meaning. The ancients were right, no sense can be made of the world without a creation narrative and every culture has one. <\/p>\n Looked at broadly, creation narratives are drawn from three religious\/philosophical wells: polytheistic, monotheistic, and materialist. Of the three narratives, the one most lacking is the materialist given its almost exclusive dependence on the monotheistic narrative. <\/p>\n Linear time is the most evident borrowing. If the world was created ex-nihilo then time itself is a created entity, it has a beginning and an end — the philosophical assumption that makes the idea of progress possible. In the polytheistic narratives, the world came out of the stuff and substance of the gods, so time was perceived as eternal and thus circular. Linear time was a conceptual impossibility within the polytheistic narrative. <\/p>\n <\/a>The materialist narrative (“Origin of the Species” functions as a creation story) blindly borrows the concept of linear time to make ideas like the big bang and progress comprehensible. The Darwinian narrative is merely the monotheist narrative stripped of any non-material agency, an assertion that requires a continuing denial of the existence of anything non-material including information. This is why dogmatic Darwinism cannot see this dimension of reality and why we see such resistance against this new way of appropriating knowledge.<\/p>\n This is also why some scientists who prefer science over dogma challenge the mechanism of progress posited within the materialist narrative, i.e: random mutation and natural selection. Using the newly developed tools of mathematics (probability theory and so forth), random mutation and natural selection are increasingly seen as a mathematical impossibility (see: Dissent from Darwin<\/a>, click “Download the list”).<\/p>\n The world is changing. It might be time to dust off that copy of St. Maximos the Confessor. <\/p>\n Source: Acton Institute<\/a> | Rev. Johannes L. Jacobse<\/p>\nInformation, Creativity, and Surprise<\/h1>\n