Francisco Varela --In Memoriam

"Order without foundation,
A paradox that some call God "
Francisco J. Varela G.
      (1946 - 2001)
Many Talents,  A Big Heart

On the tenth anniversary of his death, a scientist and philosopher best known and admired outside than in his country of birth [This is a pidgin translation from Google, the origianl  article is in Spanish]






Francisco in his life was essentially a scientist, but also a great thinker who transcended frontiers of knowledge. He was educated at a Christian college, but abdicated its principles and beliefs early, completing high school in the late 1960. Dabbled briefly in politics, who also left after a few years.



The above quote, are not pretty or clever words. Epistemology is a subtle and profound, and not mere cleverness or a pun. Francisco said what he thought and did what he said.



From science, Varela said that although everything appears as it is, and things appear to us to "detail", no wonder it appears to us that in all its many details - has a complete substance and solid, which constitutes in itself.



Border of reality, dreams and subatomic worldThat is, in the subtle frontier where reality ends and dreams begin, Francisco could make this "break", mentioned the "coaching", and is similar to the "quantum leaps of electrons, energy the subatomic world.



Things appear as, but not as strong as they seem. This limit, something uncomfortable, is that Varela, early on, learned to distinguish quite lucidly. Not because I consider that certainly I did, but by a direct intuition of what is happening. Was not happy with his intuitions, the investigating.

 Therefore, each time moving towards a union rather odd experience, a kind of border between "reality and dreams." This ambiguity in the know, even the perception - leaves room for that life appears to us so wonderful, and yet so unpredictable and also as ruthless and hard.
Einstein said it --- as a paradox - otherwise, saying: "Light, shadow of God."

 


Varela devoted the last part of his life (1990 - 2001) to a convergence between cognitive science and spirituality.



Fundo, along with the Dalai Lama (Nobel Peace Prize), the "Mind and Life Institute." A fruitful dialogue of scientists with masters of science of the mind, bringing Buddhism, this can be considered a scientific and spiritual.



What is the power of science? Several, in short, are three: is fallible, it is predictive and systematic doubt. At its best side, is fallible not infallible. Another way of stating this is that their conclusions are tentative and provisional. In science nothing is final, you can change, or you can "maybe" better. Everything can be dissolved with a theory, as has happened several times with "phlogiston" in chemistry, the "ether physics" and the "elan vital" in biology.



All were in his time, postulated to name the "mystery" of the phenomena occur, which, in each case - were difficult to explain. After years and countless experiments and thought every one was falling into disrepute scientific and discarded.



However, each nominated for hard times centuries as the geocentric theory of Ptolemy Egypt, prevailed for thousands of years until the European Renaissance.





Varela, who was to a large extent, was a scientist some border, used to feel comfortable in these paradoxes, a mixture of experimental epistemology and science.



Science also is his best side is predictive. Usually uses mathematical models and biological and says, for example, "the probability of rain, in this geographical area, tomorrow is x%.
As for systematic doubt, science, very close to the skepticism, not to believe anything until proven. Varela was in his life debugging this attitude, daring mix of scientific and epistemological openness,


 
Varela began to systematically doubt very early, it also walked away from politics. Once, having read the book called "Dialectics of Nature" by F. Engels said, "would have to write another book, to be called, the nature of dialectics."



Francisco Varela indirectly influenced education because in 1994 he wrote with Fernando Flores, at the time, manager of the company "Web-Com" (and then owner of the school "Altamira" refounded), unpublished article "Education and Transformation: prepare to Chile for the XXI Century. " The article, which is not public and would be a book --- but influenced many people who read it.



In some respects, and locally to Latin America, those who read, saw Varela, without being a futurist, predicted, to some extent - the "digital revolution of the Internet", in years and its impact on culture media.



Deliberate reflection on the possible impact of Varela's work in education with a new paradigm, is the master of Chilean on your blog, Jaime Valdes, a former Director of the College "Altamira" of Santiago, for ten years, at the time Mr. Flores. His thoughts on neuroscience and education, are very powerful. Valdés, reviews the concept of "enaction" Varela leave statement and perhaps not enough to develop.



Another beautiful posthumous tribute originally appeared on the Blog  Alivio y Crecer and Grow Relief 2005, which was reproduced on other sites.



Varela inside the world of spirit, something beyond or more here, of religion. How does spirituality?, Is a search for the truth of life, by various means. Like science, the spiritual seeker is faced with paradoxes (true "dragons" and "monsters"). Both the true scientist, as the seeker doubt what you see and find.

 This, however, exposes him as the scientific frontier, a sweet and severe "agony" of the "dark night" of the soul ": a world of many questions and few answers, and, of course, not many certainties .Varela dared to walk around it.



Francisco, was a scientist and a seeker of spirit, his whole life, a man of questions a journalist described as "uncomfortable" for the official routine. It was not a conformist or a repeater of ideas, sought to innovate and reach the limits of knowledge.



His first book with the Dalai Lama, titled in English as Gentle Bridges, reflects on the meeting of science and spirituality, from the cognitive sciences (third person) to the sciences of mind (first person), which provides contemplative meditation , from Buddhism. This annual dialogue, went up there today in the "Mind and Life Institute, with different topics.



Varela in the fast life of 54 years, joined worlds as diverse as the Latino culture, Europe, The Asian and North American.



An "eternal present" a time "star."Varela could, in some 25-year career as a thinker and scientist, join the "time clock" that almost all live in a hurry, the finite time, business, a limited life, with the "big time" , or no-time, or time "eternal."

 Sometimes called, "an eternal present," who recognize the spiritual leaders in every wisdom tradition. A kind of non-stellar and cosmic time.





As he matured intellectually and academically, it seemed that Varela lived in a hurry, though, that he knew ten years before he died, I had the years, and prepared very well. I look for a liver transplant patient, who finally won as a French citizen, and said their quality of life improved much until he passed away without wanting to fight with death, but accepting.
In this regard, Francisco, could find in his life and his work "an order without foundation", the paradox that some call God.





Artificial Intelligence and ConsciousnessIn many ways, Varela was an unusual and exceptional human being.Impressive culture, Hababa five languages ​​and wrote in several of them. Leia and assimilated the literature around the world and remarked pleasantly. Concentrated all his professional life in various subjects. What interests us here are two: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and consciousness.



Both areas have been expanded tremendously in the last four century.The development of AI has been swift, stunning, just 10 years after his death.



We can mention the recent emergence of a synthesis in the field of cognitive science border in a book called "The Ego Tunnel: the science of the mind and the myth of the self", the highly respected German scholar named Thomas Metzinger, recently, is something that certainly would have been interested Francisco.





Great scientists are not always great inventors. Varela was a scientist and an epistemological, not a technologist, but also a lot of technology used





One of his lesser-known books is "CONOCER: a mapping of current ideas (" Conâitre "in French). In this book, takes up expands and deepens the ideas that appeared in the 1980's, in one of his first book "The Tree of Knowledge" which he wrote with Humberto Maturana.





In his book, "CONOCER ", reviews the biological basis of knowledge, review the basics of Artificial Intelligence in the light of biology and the philosophy of phenomenology, IA at conferences llaamadas "Macy" (from the 1950 and makes a concise review of the ideas of self-regulation (mechanical and biological). and throwing some theoretical and practical applications.



Powerful AI ideas, are a foundation of systems "cyber" self-regulation mechanism (as the "silent WC" of the house, and thermostats) mimic the natural world (the homeostasis of the bodies of mammals). The book "know", he wrote, apparently as a series of conferences for a consultancy on the knowledge that made him the multinational Royal Dutch-Shell "in London.





Consciousness comes in ScienceThe other issue that interested him was the consciousness that even the 1980 was a questionable issue in the international neuroscience conference, which is only spoken in the coffee-break "



Gradually, journals appeared consciousness, and brain scans, functional magnetic resonance imaging, brain and consciousness (which are different) were validated by the scientific community specialized.



Consciousness in First and Third Person 


Brain research, functional magnetic resonance imaging and EEG powerful automated systems, recorded the brain of advanced meditators. One well known is the French Buddhist monk Ricard Mathiu the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2005 nominated him as "the happiest man in the world", in honor of his great calm and mental and emotional stability. Could inhibit, in the laboratory, the startle reflex (startle response), which is innate. This is one of the indicators of mental and physical control very advanced.

 In it, Varela did not participate, but indirectly influenced the Mind Life Institute under "in the laboratory of Dr. Davidson, in Madison, Wisconsin, who conducted the research and measurement.

Use 10% of the Brain: What about the rest?


If you know, and is a common saying, that humans use 10% of our brain capacity. It is less clear, however, what we do with the remaining 90%. Computers and automated machines seem to work backwards from human use 90% of its chips and software, leaving 10% vacant.The unfortunate thing is that while we have more and more devices partially intelligent humans or stayed behind in cultural evolution or have been fixed on resilience in relation to the progress of the machines.



Hamlet Shakespeare and spoke in his famous monologue, saying that "conscience does make us all to be cowardly."





Varela was able to establish what, from what he called the "experimental phenomenology", following the work of French phenomenologist, Merleau-Ponty, is that consciousness "is not a thing", but a subtle process, very interactive and unstable, the world external and internal, "but without being in any circulating in both - in a narrative, or images and feeling, very subtle.



Varela believed and hoped that consciousness can be trained, cultured and clarified. It is here where quiet meditation and intuition (shamatha viipahsyana in Sanskrit) that he practiced at advanced levels for many years (first person).



That "spliced" Varela with the "science of the mind", meditation comes from the ancient tradition of monastic Buddhism.

 Varela was not about dogma, but facts and insights profound. Quiet meditation and mental clarity and compassion, sustained and nurtured as a discipline, says that the qualities of human consciousness, you can "raise" a staggering levels, which glow in health, wisdom and community service.



Therefore, Varela was fascinated not only with machines or digital wonders, he admired, trusted also in humans and our ability to evolve culturally. When the Dalai Lama says he remembers it: "Now I will use the hat Buddhist scientist now wearing the hat," and then laughs. In this example, the Dalai Lama refers to the metaphor of the British Edward  de Bonno, to characterize the different perspectives or approaches that may be the same person.



Hence his interest in working with the Dalai Lama who is interested in the science in all its spectrum in a convergent line, we might call "lucid consciousness."



The machines are spoiled, but not "wrong" are disconnected. To err is human an appropriate adjective. Computer programmers, however it is common mistake. This is another area of ​​knowledge between human intelligence and mechanical, very interesting, that he liked Varela.
The cerebral control of devices and games, is now a reality after 2008, with a helmet or appliance that attaches to the head, to record the EEG brain and transmitted wirelessly to a computer software. This is getting increasingly sophisticated. Varela always interested in all these developments border.





"Cognitivism" radical and subtleWe understand the theories of cognitivism know, there are several.Varela professed a way to know, that was powerful but very subtle and difficult to assimilate. He had said in his second book "The Tree of Knowledge" (with Humberto Maturana) that the brain is a computer.Was exhaustively in this and differed greatly in their field of neuroscience.



To do more subtle, Varela said that the mental construct that we have, we call ideas (experiences, emotions, perceptions) are not "out there or in here," are a sort of circle dance between "reality" and "body."Therefore believed in an "embodied mind," Embodied "and assigned a central role in the body. Similar position was Merleau-Ponty, and other thinkers lucid
An idea "is me" instead of "I have an idea"Going beyond the game of words used to say: I have an idea "and a" mantra recited me "instead of the usual" I have an idea "or" I recite a mantra. " It was not just a witty play on words, is a posture of epistemological border.




Varela, reflected on ethics, by the end of his life. His penultimate book is about ethics. It's called "Ethical know-how, action, wisdom and cognition", apparently not translated yet.





Varela embodied in his life what he thought. Is perhaps his masterpiece, "The Embodied Mind: cognitive science and human experience" which he wrote with the American contemplative psychologist Eleanor Rosch, University of University of California, and the cognitive Canadian philosopher, Evan Thompson, University of Toronto. In this book, Varela makes a thorough and lucid, including first-person meditation and brain neural registers of cognition in the third person.






His influence in the world of Management is reflected in the work developed by Dr. Otto Scharmer of MIT in the U.S., who developed some of the ideas to meet Varela, in his book "Presence", referring to the way of "bringing hand worlds "expressing Francisco.
Scharmer redesign and further develop their own theory and interactional model and calls "implementing the future, as it arises."Dr. Scharmer, founded the Institute Presencing, high prestige, to show leadership at a very high level business





The so-called "Theory U: Leading the future as it emerges" from Scharmer [free translation would be "Theory U: Leading the future as it emerges"] includes experiences of meditation and shows as a form of leadership business.





We see that Francisco Varela, as a human being, was multiple, not stay quiet or science, or epistemology and penetrate to the frontiers of culture. Even promoted a brain model to help epilepsy patients to anticipate their attacks.





He was interviewed on TV several times for your program Eric Goles and Christian  Warnken for "Beauty of Thinking" Fernando Flores ask him a few times and leave records videos. Finally, the Swiss filmmaker Franz Reichle, filmed a video called "Montegrande" where recorded history. Party or the selection appears on You Tube.



One of his last interviews in the video said: "Life is so fragile, and the present is so rich," ("Life is so fragile and this is so full.") The beautiful video swiss Montegrande "collects some of his thoughts.



Francis lived and worked in Chile, USA, Germany and died in France.
He was cremated in France, to rest in Montegrande, Chile, a plot of his grandparents, where he often vacations with his family.



His life, in many ways, was a paradox. Many talents, a big heart.