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This book develops a new energetic/thermodynamic basis for the
cyclic nature of civilizations. The growth of a civilization is due
to the ability of the civilization to acquire and utilize resources
for growth. The theory developed turns out to be identical to
Blaha's previously developed theory, which successfully matches the
history of 50+ civilizations. The energetic/thermodynamic theory
appears in studies of superorganisms such as ant and bee colonies
as well as other organisms including colonies of microbes. It also
appears in theories of predator-prey populations such as wolves and
rabbits. The consideration of superorganisms, predator-prey
population cyclicity, and human civilization cyclicity suggests
that there is an underlying unity in Nature in the growth of large
groups of organisms and leads to the conclusion that civilizations
are superorganisms. Thus this new model of civilizations is called
SuperCivilizations. The book begins by overviewing superorganisms
including some exciting new evidence for microbial superorganisms
on land and in the deep sea. Subsequently we discuss almost all of
the known human civilizations within the framework of this theory.
We also consider the Richardson theory of arms races and show that
Richardson's equations are identical to those of our
energetic/thermodynamic model of civilization dynamics. With a
suitable choice of parameters the arms race theory has cyclic
solutions (as well as the exponential solutions studied by
Richardson) that describe the dynamics of armaments growth in the
United States - Russia confrontations from 1981 - 2010. The book
also describes a program for the exploration and the colonization
of the Solar System and a new means of travel to the stars and
galaxies with a view towards the development of a space
civilization. The probable effects on contemporary human
civilizations of meeting an alien civilization are also described
in detail. Because of a close analogy with Newtonian dynamics, and
realizing that chance plays a major role in human history, the book
also develops a probabilistic theory of civilization dynamics. The
cyclic theory of civilizations is also generalized to a
civilization theory for populations with three interconnected
population segments: a dominant minority/leadership, followers, and
external immigrants. This generalized theory leads to the cyclic
theory of civilizations under reasonable conditions.
This book examines the true core of philosophy and metaphysics,
taking account of quantum and relativity theory as it applies to
physical Reality, and develops a line of reasoning that ultimately
leads us to Reality as it is currently understood at the most
fundamental level - the Standard Model of Elementary Particles.
This book develops new formalisms for Logic that are of interest in
themselves and also provide a Platonic bridge to Reality. The
bridge to Reality will be explored in detail in a subsequent book,
Relativistic Quantum Metaphysics: A First Principles Basis for the
Standard Model of Elementary Particles. We anticipate that the
current "fundamental" level of physical Reality may be based on a
still lower level and/or may have additional aspects remaining to
be found. However the effects of certain core features such as
quantum theory and relativity theory will persist even if a lower
level of Reality is found, and these core features suggest the form
of a new Metaphysics of physical Reality. We have coined the phrase
"Operator Metaphysics" for this new metaphysics of physical
Reality. The book starts by describing aspects of Philosophy and
Metaphysics relevant to the study of current physical Reality. Part
of this development are new Logics, Operator Logic and Quantum
Operator Logic, developed in earlier books by this author (and
revised and expanded in this book). Using them we are led to
develop a connection to the beginnings of The Standard Model of
Elementary Particles. While mathematics is essential in the latter
stages of the book we have tried to present it with sufficient text
discussion to make what it is doing understandable to the
non-mathematical reader. Generally we will avoid using the jargon
of Philosophy, Logic and Physics as much as possible.
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