In the historical present of perpetual warmongering, it becomes ever more important to preserve and strengthen the unity of the human family.
So we want to appeal with a truth that has never been more relevant than it is today: We are all part of the same earth, solar system, galaxy and universe. Through our thoughts and actions, we shape the world in our own image. What world do you want to live in? In an inferno of hate and mutual destruction or in a world of love and mutual support?
Our mission is peace on Earth. We are convinced that peace depends not only on political decisions and economic circumstances. Today scientists and engineers hold a key position, not only in the development of knowledge and technology, but also regarding the possibility of war.
Any discovery can be a contribution to the happiness and evolution of humanity or to its self-destruction, but the point is not the research, neither the discovery. Crucial is the ethical position which is the motivation of scientific research and its technical application.
However, it is not enough to say “We want to be ethical.” We must understand the deeper meaning of ethics. What does “ethics” mean?
Everyone knows that “ethics” signifies a responsible and correct relationship. But what are the criteria for such a relationship? Today it is indispensable to define it in a scientific vision.
Think of the personality of the Hiroshima B29-Commander: A highly educated engineer with profound knowledge of the natural sciences. He has a family and he loves his children. Naturally he knows, that the Christian religion teaches to respect and to love your fellow man. Nevertheless, he obeys the inhuman military order and bombs a city, knowing full well that he cremates thousands of harmless people, also children and infants. In his consciousness he did his job as a soldier, and he was awarded and became a national hero. This fact is absurd, but it is very important to understand, why it could happen, otherwise this dark side of humanity’s civilization will never end.
The main question is, why are highly educated individuals, scientists and engineers able to violate basic humanistic principles? Surely, the patriotic American pilot would not be able to bomb his own house, killing his own family. Why, then, was he able to drop the bomb to kill thousands of Japanese children?
The cause of this terrible ability is a profound limitation in the scale of one’s ethical consciousness. The current vision of the human being sees everybody as an individual and does not go beyond the system of moral rules that have been created to control people. Power neither knows ethics nor morality.
Beginning in the spring of 1945, John von Neumann, mathematician and physicist, inventor and polyglot, was included in the Target Selection Committee responsible for choosing the Japanese cities of Hiroshima, Kokura and Nagasaki as the first targets of the atomic bomb. Von Neumann and other scientists and engineers oversaw computations related to the expected size of the bomb blasts, estimated death tolls, and the distance above the ground at which the bombs should be detonated for optimum shock wave propagation and thus maximum effect of destruction and mortality.
Indeed, Hiroshima and Nagasaki became military scientific research objects in the interest of political and economic power. On August 6, 1945, an American B 29 aircraft carrying a nuclear bomb was accompanied by two other B 29s. One of them carried instrumentation for measurements of the effects of the explosion, and the other was the photographer’s aircraft.
The history of the war did not end in 1945, but it continued in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yugoslavia and today in Ukraine where the international power players test modern weapon systems and use young people as cannon fodder. This practice is an outrageous violation of the United Nations Charter that prohibits the use of force in international relations.
How can we maintain peace on Earth and develop relationships of responsibility and respect? What can we do? What is the solution?
First of all, we must become conscious of the fact that humankind can only survive if it is able to live ethically. Only then will our humanity reach cosmic consciousness and become an integral member of the galactic life space. For this reason, we must develop a scientific vision of ethics which is based on the laws of the universe.
What is missing in current ethics?
There is no interscalar vision. As a matter of fact, all notable systems of moral rules only speak of relationships between humans. But we cannot develop a genuine ethics if we consider humanity alone.
Not too long ago, it was customary to massacre native American Indians because they were classified not as human beings but as wild animals.
During the Second World War, “annihilation and extermination rhetoric” was tolerated at all levels of the U.S. society. According to the British embassy in Washington, Americans regarded the Japanese as “a nameless mass of vermin”. Caricatures portraying Japanese as less than human, for example as monkeys, were common. A 1944 opinion poll, that asked what should be done with Japan, found that 13% of the U.S. public were in favor of “killing off” all Japanese men, women, and children. Is this not reminiscent of Nazi propaganda? What is the root of megalomania, national hatred, extreme collective aggression, dehumanization and mass murdering?
Any true ethics must be universal and planetary, it must include all life forms, it must be interscalar.
An interscalar vision does not only consider the existence of different scales, but learns to recognize and respect life in all scales because life is interscalar communication and cooperation.
The interscalar vision of life allows us to recognize our planet as a life form — not just the biological organisms that inhabit the biosphere, but also those of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the lithosphere are integral parts of a larger life form. According to the interscalar paradigm, the solar system is alive, even the galaxy and the universe are life forms.
The interscalar view of life and the interscalar concept of ethics are essential for the survival of humanity. This change of the paradigm in science is therefore very important for our future. We need to change our vision of the world, to reach a new understanding of life in order to realize the importance of life in the universe.
Only when our children can develop an interscalar consciousness and learn to respect life in all scales, and only when this view is supported at home, at school, in the cinema, the supermarket and the internet, can our ethical consciousness increase and will war cease to be an option for human relationships.
New science for life in peace – that is our commitment.
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
John Lennon
How can science and education contribute to peace?
What are the causes of war and how can we avoid them?
Which economy can work for a peaceful future of humanity?
How to avoid commercialization of science and medicine?
What is the role of science in the progress of social welfare?
Three days of full immersion in debate and confrontation. Scientists, engineers, medical doctors, economists and educators of international renown, recognized for their commitment for common good, have been invited to give the possible answers to essential questions.
The International Conference took place in Città della Pieve, 2018, October 19 – 21. Presentations, video and audio records are still available.
Over the last seventy years, with extraordinary speed, almost all humanity is acquiring a planetary consciousness that was virtually completely lacking previously. As human beings, we are understood to be the crew of a vessel, the planet Earth, which travels in the space. We understand that we have only two choices: to cooperate in taking care of the ship and let it remain hospitable so that the journey continues well; or to drift, destroying one another.
Planetary consciousness is a huge step forward for humanity. Although there are still many people who profess or pretend to ignore it, this step is one of the basic developments of our present civilization. Nobody can shirk it, including the people who affirm that the planet has the property of self-regulation and regeneration and that humanity is not obliged to be responsible for it.
The Online Conference took place in 2020, October 1 – 4. Abstracts are still available.
If our planet needs something, then it is Peace, and this Peace can only be built from each of our hearts. We are committed to work together for Peace on Earth, and we invite you to undertake this journey together that will lead us to discover the best part of ourselves and how to share it to create among all the Peace we need.
More than 40 recognized international experts in the main areas of human activity explain how to raise the level of Humanity Awareness through a systemic and integrative vision.
The Online Conference took place in 2019, June 15 – 21. Presentations, video and audio records are still available.
Peace cannot be maintained by force.
It can only be achieved through understanding.
Albert Einstein
Independent scientists investigate the fundamental problems of modern physics and discuss alternative approaches.
Among the speakers: Hartmut Müller, Alexander Unzicker, Ray Fleming, Andre K. T. Assis, Jan Rak et al.
The International Conference took place in Prague, 2019, October 18 – 21. Presentations, video and audio records are still available.