“Creative Coherence” is just a name chosen here to symbolize a concept that is central to the shape of thought to come. Since “coherence” usually means being part of a single whole, a correlation between movements or a harmony of oscillations, “creative coherence” would suggest this order is creative and spontaneous, not enforced through law-like control. It is meant to emphasize the ideal of open systems, which through creative exchange with their environment, achieve sustainability.
It also is meant to connote a kind of creativity that is in tune with and helping to influence the collective adaptations of other systems towards this ideal. It is a more general way of talking about the scientific concept of “quantum coherence”, which, as biologist Mae Wan Ho showed, fleshes out the details of what philosophers in the early 20th century were onto when driven to find a true philosophy of nature (specifically Alfred North Whitehead and Henri Bergson, with late 20th century refinements by Gilles Deleuze).
“Quantum Coherence” in physics means a kind of coherence where individual freedom and global cohesion are both maximized. In the long run they both ultimately depend on each other. Quantum coherence was defined by Nobel Prize winner Roy Glauber in terms of “factorizability”. Every element can be seen to be a factor of any other element. There are degrees of being quantum coherent just as there are degrees of being in phase, but the idea is that as something reaches a high degree of quantum coherence, its parts are not moving “as one” as in normal lock-step phase discipline, like a marching band, but are more like what Ms. Ho calls “quantum jazz”, where every part can be taken as a creative center, while simultaneously, every part could be considered an instrument or medium of any other, depending on how one decides to begin.
Life works by maximizing towards this ideal, and as the number of these “factorizable” cross correlations increase, systems become more harmonically inclusive and sustainable. Of course as this happens, as one opens the system, the boundaries become subjective, as do the number of components.
This is the heart of quantum “uncertainty”, described more technically here be Dr. Tosi and Dr. Del Giudice:
“In this state [quantum coherent], the number of components remains undetermined, while the oscillation rhythm acquires a more precise definition. This result is the expression of a principle of uncertainty, valid in quantum physics, which states that the uncertainties of the number of oscillators in a physical system and of their phase are in an inverse relation. It is clear that, in order to reduce the uncertainty of the oscillation rhythm of a physical system and make it more coherent, we have to amplify the uncertainty of the number of the participants in the collective dance as much as possible. Therefore, we have to avoid closing the system, which would keep the number of components constant; on the contrary, we need to open it as much as possible on the outside by amplifying the number of the potential participants to the collective dance enormously“.*
This is what all recent theory has been struggling with since complexity has forced a revaluation of the value and completeness of any single system or logic. From mathematics and physics, to language, social theory, and philosophy, we are learning that we inhabit a context dependent reality, where context is infinite.
We can keep the system closed and predictable, but only up to a point; all the interesting things in the universe depend on a degree of nonlinear interaction between systems. This website is about bringing different systems of thought and activity into productive interaction. The idea is not to build some universal theory or language but to put everything into contexts that allow a cross-fertilization.
The consequence of this is a preservation of the value of differences, as they become seeds of new forms arising in the creative play of open systems. True coherence and harmony are not the enemies of diversity. Deep, rich diversity depends on all differences learning to dance with the creative force of a divine harmony, which emerges from and moves through the infinite medium of heterogeneous variation, a harmony than can never be captured and is only dimly reflected by any single static order, logic, or rhythm.