Balancing trick
A fascinating discussion of the concept of equilibrium, by Ivar Ekeland
of the University of Paris, is published in Nature for 23 May.
Equilibrium, of course, has some close affinity with another concept,
that of holism, which maintains that there is an essential interaction
between all forces and objects in our universe, and that to tamper with
one of them is to throw systems out of precise balance, with consequences
that human planners prefer to ignore. Equilibrium is defined as "a situation
in which a balance of conflicting forces results in rest". In thinking
what we mean by rest, we usually choose to eliminate all forces, rather
than visualise them as countering one another dynamically. Agents that
settle decisions in nature interact in a complex manner. In the social
sciences, which determine to a great extent our destinies, any equilibrium
involves several individuals or groups where every unit of action represents
the best reply to that of every other action.
Situations calling for equilibrium, argues Ekeland, are central to social
life, because they alone are stable enough to sustain us. If anticipation
of action in one quarter turns out to be faulty, the entire system tends
to pass out of balance, and starts to oscillate between alternatives.
Social organisation basically relies on the two entities of power and
trust. Power is really illusory, holding that certain persons are to be
obeyed and certain orders followed without question, a situation that
in the last resort spells violence. These concepts are to be observed
in action at present in the Middle East and Asia, and also in Africa.
Trust, however, is the belief that other people and other organisations
will conform to certain rules of conduct, and to comply with such rules
gives us a personal feeling of trust, whereas to flout them for selfish
reasons results in distrust.
Just as trust engenders trust in others, so does distrust cross boundaries
between individuals and communities. Accordingly, both trust and distrust
can be regarded as examples of equilibrium.
In the universe of living beings natural selection is a method of bringing
competing species into the state of equilibrium with one another, where
the two come to stable adjustments and natural law is the means of arriving
there. Our own ethics of behaviour and sense of justice, social habits
and rights as individuals are not rooted in absolute truths or in human
nature itself, but are determined ideally by the equilibrium which we
or our society has reached. This principle needs to be remembered in our
professional dealings and responsibilities as well as our personal day
to day lives. 0Indeed, claims Ekeland, "our social fabric and our personal
ethics, everything we stand for, rest on equilibria, which we conjure
out of nothing. We are such stuff as dreams are made on." And with that
comment of Prospero I am in full agreement.
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A letter
in The Lancet for 25 May from pharmacognosists and pharmacologists
in Sweden makes some interesting observations on the great antiquity of
the use of mescaline in early cultures. They comment that archaeological
investigations in north-eastern Mexico and Trans-Pecos in Texas have indicated
that the use of psychoactive drugs in that region dates back to around
8500BC. The aboriginal inhabitants of the region had recourse to the mescal
bean (Sophora secundiflora) and buttons of the peyote cactus (Lophophora
williamsii), natural products that contain the hallucinant mescaline
and related tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids.