finally to state space, where a state is defined by the values of all variables or
properties relevant for the system. While spaces became increasingly abstract and
general, the concept of trajectory, i.e. a continuous sequence of points describing a
path through that space, remained in essence the same.
The basic method to determine that trajectory also remained consistent:
optimization. Optimization means that the trajectory is chosen in such a way that
some general property of the state acquires an “optimal” value (maximal or minimal,
depending on the definition of the property). This is essentially the same principle as
what we have called “hill climbing”: at each point on its trajectory the system chooses
as its next “destination” the point with the highest “fitness”—or whatever name is
given to the property that needs to be optimized. In physics, the most common
optimization criteria are potential energy, free energy, or “action”—which need to be
minimized, and entropy—which needs to be maximized. Like in hill climbing, the
choice about what position to move to next is local, i.e. dependent only on the value
of the optimization criterion in the immediate neighborhood of the present state. In
that sense, mechanical systems are not subject to the complex alternation between
prospect and mystery that characterize the narrative dynamics of living agents.
Mechanical systems, such as particles, cannon balls or planets, cannot anticipate and
therefore cannot experience prospect or mystery. They are blind to everything except
their immediate neighborhood.
However, the Newtonian worldview implicitly assumes that there is an
observer who can “see” not just the neighborhood, but the whole state space and
everything that is in it. This observer is typically the scientist who has accurately
measured and mapped out the complete environment of the system, and used these
data to build a mathematical model. Therefore, this observer can foresee or predict the
complete trajectory of the system as it will meander through this space, following the
gradient that points to the successive “optimal” points. In the limit where the system
encompasses the whole universe, this all-seeing observer becomes Laplace’s demon.
(In Newton’s original, more religious interpretation, this ideal observer would have
been the omniscient God). Thus, the Newtonian worldview implicitly distinguishes
two agents: the system, which has zero prospect, and the observer, who has infinite
prospect.
Horizons of Knowability
As we saw, twentieth century science has discovered a raft of limitation principles
that all imply a restriction of prospect [Barrow, 1998; Heylighen, 1990]. Such a limit
on knowledge can be interpreted as a horizon beyond which we cannot see. For
example, in general relativity theory the finiteness of the speed of light entails a so-
called event horizon surrounding a black hole. Beyond that horizon, light is “too
slow” to escape from the gravitation of the black hole, and therefore from the outside
it is intrinsically impossible to observe what is happening inside the horizon.
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