Gregory bateson pattern which connects

As I write these words, for example, the cup of coffee at my side is inevitably losing heat. A similar process can be seen to occur in terms of our ideas, customs, and obviously in terms of life itself.

People are like cups of coffee with internal heaters that last for a certain period before finally packing up DNA, of course, tries to jump ship before we reach that point. We have to work hard in order to keep disorder at bay. Through this work, we are able to create and retain beauty; the "pattern which connects". Influenced by the cyberneticist Norbert Weiner, Bateson saw the concept of 'information' as being a central part of this struggle.

Throughout his career, Bateson was trying to understand the world in terms of relations between parts. The relationships between our fingers were, in his opinion, more important than the fingers themselves the opposable thumb would be nothing without the index finger! It was obvious to Bateson that our mistakes had come back to haunt us. Considering human existence as part of a delicate and much larger ecology, he hoped that we could begin to undo the damage that we've inflicted upon the earth.

The survival of our species is clearly at stake, and yet we are reacting too slowly. He believed that the mind of an individual is immanent not only within the body, but also extending to a larger Mind , of which our own is but a single component.

He wasn't afraid of referring to this 'larger Mind' as God. There are several ways by which the human race might cause its own downfall. At first glance, things like nationalism, wars of religion, or the proliferation of weapons seem to have little in common with the destruction and pollution of the natural world. But there is one important connection.

The musician and writer Stephen Nachmanovitch - a friend and former student of Bateson - sums it up nicely. Our whole way of thinking and seeing has got to be renovated from the inside out. In the 33 years since his death at the age of 76, the world's population has increased from approximately four to seven billion. Today, Bateson's message seems more relevant than ever before.

Gregory Bateson, Photograph by Imogen Cunningham [ o ]. See Merlyn's website. Dark Light. Published: Oct 27, Gregory Bateson — anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist — actively promoted the blurring of lines between disciplines in order that we see the wholeness and interconnectedness of things.

Though his work is not well known today, he remains a powerfully influential thinker whose systemic mindset can be greatly useful to us as we navigate the complex crises of today and what's to come. The human race needs poetry just as much as it needs science. Skip to search form Skip to main content You are currently offline. Some features of the site may not work correctly. DOI: Save to Library Save. Create Alert Alert. Share This Paper. One Citation. Citation Type.

Has PDF. Publication Type. RB Blackney Ed. Meister Eckhart Harper Foerster, H. Haack, S. Hayles, N. Original Luhmann, N. Monod, J. Random Press. Peirce, C. II, no.

Electronic edition reproducing Vols. I—VI ed. Arthur W. Burks same publisher, Charlottesville: Intelex Corporation. Penrose, R. Prigogine I. Ruesch, J. Norton and Company, Inc. Raposa, M. Searle, J.