"Universe is the aggregate of all humanity's consciously apprehended and communicated, nonsimultaneous, and only partially overlapping experiences." (Utopia Or Oblivion, p.353)
Fuller's entire account of Universe is founded on the term "experience", in such a way that the observer is built into the worldview.
Not surprisingly, Universe can never be wholly "taken in" or conceived as a totality. It is described as consisting of a scenario of event sequences. This scenario is an aggregate of transformations which fail to amount to one universal system because the sequences of events are non-simultaneous and only partly overlapping.
Universe is regarded as containing any amount of systems but as not constituting a system itself. The presence of systems in Universe is bound up with its dual nature.
There are two components: the physical and the metaphysical. All that is physical is energetic, and itself consists of two phases:
Each is convertible into the other according to the mass-energy equation E=mc2.
The metaphysical component is described as synergetic and as consisting also of two phases:
It is in this realm of the metaphysical that reside all forms, patterns and principles which enable Universe to be subdivided into systems. In the absence of this non-physical component which serves to pattern the transformations of physical events, Universe would remain absolutely shapeless and chaotic (see Entropy).
Aspects of Fuller's conception of Universe are discussed throughout this document. It is the starting-point of Synergetics, and is essential to his notion of Total Thinking. See also Reduction By Bits
To narrow the focus a little, see Spaceship Earth.
For other outlooks, see Digital Physics, and Rutherford.
For a useful guide, see Asimov (1982).
© Paul Taylor 2001