ABSTRACT
In recent years, we have become witnesses of what I call “the end of the 20th century–atomism,” i.e., the end of “the belief (put into practice with the atom bomb, nuclear reactors, and particle accelerators) that the world, in its deepest essence, is composed of tiniest entities—these ‘atoms’ today being some kind of ‘elementary particles’—such that any object can be considered, at least in principle, as a spatially limited collection of a finite number of such entities” [1]. In contrast, it has become feasible to speak about “holistic” networks where “particles” are embedded in a relevant (i.e., irreducible) environment or “context”.
