Ilya Prigogine

[charlesfrith]

Thank you for taking the time to post this.

[sgtmcwallace]

this is wonderful

[lmsor1]

Prigogines points out that there arises conditions in nature that introduces irreversible time on the microscopic level, which leads to an ever increasing complexity. That such a theory is a concoction, hardly. The Nobel comity in Stockholm certainly did not think so, since they awarded him the the Nobel price in chemistry in 1977.

[sammygebre]

Science and religion should be married to each, not at opposition with each other.

can they reconcile themselves?

Only time (no pun intended) can tell!

[FeelOfFriction]

Grassroots science ftw.

[lmsor1]

Why is it so difficult for scientists to accept irreversible time? That nature is reversible on a fundamental level, yes. But in nature we find conditions that introduces evolution and a directionality of time. Prigogine has been instrumental in pointing that out. I also find his views on art relevant, and even more so, visit any museum and say hello to irreversible time

[jceepf]

@lmsor1 It is not difficult for scientists to accept the irreversible nature of time. Thermodynamics and statistical dynamics assume de facto the existence of irreversible processes and thus give an arrow to time.

What makes Prygogine controversial is his attempts to concoct theories in which time appears in an irreversible way at the microscopic level. It is not the generally accepted reason for thermodynamic irreversibility.

[mujaku]

"We should destroy laboratories because laboratories are giving us a false idea of men and of their existence" ~ André Breton

[antizac]

@mujaku well he was a surrealist after all ;)

[jceepf]

The comments on this page are discouraging.... As a scientist who had the pleasure to meet Prof. Prigogine in Japan prior to his death, I do not tie his philosophical ideas with his scientific ones.

By all accounts, he is wrong scientifically. In fact he is border krackpot with all due respect.

But that does not mean that his ideas about the world are all crap. Religion, to name one thing, is not derivable from science....

[rgpsv]

Creo que la mente del universo no está preparada para escucharlo. Igualmente no hay que dejar de cuestionar para poder avanzar. No al determinismo!

[snehalshekatkar]

Ilya Prigogine is my greatest hero in science. By the way, the greatest lesson to be learned is the end of reductionist's philosophy to find the reality...something is wrong with physics that is present today...

[dibyendu337]

Important thoughts and important video. Should be made more popular. We need not go to physics to understand irreversibility of Physics. We can see it in our own personal lives too -- both macro and micro! Even the self is constantly changing with time.

[vkpillay]

late Prof Iiya Prigogine, who's book i bought more than a decade ago, far ahead of many and expert on second law of thermodynamics.

[phaedres]

Science doesn't emphasize our alienation from nature; "scientists do"...but what a great mind to walk amongst us! So if time is like space then they both can be curved and manipulated. A circle within a circle is also a spiral.

[suspenso123]

No one of us shed haven created by Prigogine.

[efabri]

great man. I wish he could have debated Kent Hovind.

[0ThouArtThat0]

"science should not emphasize our alienation from nature; science should emphasize our embeddedness in nature."

Wonderful, couldn't agree more.

[manilamac]

Check out his September 8, 1986 Brain/Mind Bulletin article.

[jceepf]

As a physicist I must disagree with the above posts. He was not a bad man (and I had the honour of meeting him once) and did great work originally in non-equilibrium thermodynamics, but all his later pronouncements are rejected by the vast majority of physicists.

He is popular amongst the general public because he engaged in philosophical extrapolation; it is not a criticism but a statement of his interest and personality.

[mikebForJesus]

I take it you mean his references to the metaphysical?

What percent of physicists would you say reject such references?

[jceepf]

Actually not MikeforJesus. I refer strictly to his interpretation of statistical mechanics on which he bases partly his metaphysical thoughts. Equations in physics are time-reversable at the microscopic level. Prigogine and collaborators found non-time reversible solutions to the so-called Liouville equation for the phase space density. But all of that is highly contested in physics. For most physicists, the arrow of time is reversible microscopically. Prigogine maitains that it can't be!

[mikebForJesus]

Time reversibility sounds like strictly abstract, theoretical physics, vs something from the lab, no?

What are your metaphysical thoughts?

[jceepf]

Percentage: I would not know exactly. But when I was at the University of Maryland, they had a huge group on Chaos and the like. (York, Ott, Dorfman, Zwanzig...) You could not find anyone having anything good to say about Prigogine. Of course it was a bit unfair but it shows how he became somewhat of a bizarre character as far as the main stream was concerned.

But who knows where will end up with Super Strings and multidimensional theories... time itself will be re-examined...

[sC11nt]

Heil Hitler ;)

[coliseocolisei]

Very good

[BirdTribesNetwork]

Prigogine is one of the most important theorists of the 20th century. Thanks for posting !

[oipsychobillyoi]

Nice post man!! The guy is f*ckin' great!! Have some more Prigogine?