ABSTRACT
This paper provides a basic, simplified overview of the field of self-organization, stressing those parts of the field - - like thermodynamics and nonlinear systems dynamics -- where there really does exist a coherent, unifying mathematical theory. At the same time, it points towards some basic unanswered questions in this field, and suggests a variety of heresies which merit further research. For example, the paper will conclude with a "caricature model" of cosmology, suggesting how life and order could have evolved in the universe without any need for a Big Bang or for the exogenous mechanisms used in some of the classical alternatives to the Big Bang. Another paper presented at this conference by IIya Prigogine (discussed in more detail below) takes a position on this issue, which I regard as even stronger (if more tactful): it argues that the basic phenomenon of time-forwards evolution, which underlies life and order, can be deduced entirely from local microscopic effects, without any need to invoke assumptions such as the Big Bang, or special initial conditions, or the special kinds of field effects exemplified in my caricature model.
