Welcome to Issue 17 of SHAPE Journal.
The recent publication of The Theory of the Double Slit was an important step on the way to a comprehensive critique of the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Theory, which is now in preparation. That Theory was, of course, still a classical alternative, and to deliver it had to include some new entities and ideas, but it was always only intended to debunk the claims the Copenhagen theorists. To finish that job, and correct the important flaws in classical Science, which led to it, a major philosophical undertaking was considered necessary. And experience has shown that such a direct attack would simply NOT even be listened to. We had first to start from where many scientists still dwell and establish a crack in the superstructure of Copenhagen. This we addressed with the Double Slit.

The major, two-sided task awaits.

In this issue of SHAPE Journal we commence with the first installment of a paper concerning Evolution entitled Interrupted Development & Bursts of Creation, which considers the phenomenon of Adaptive Radiation and (along with Stephen Jay Gould) points out the differences between steady, incremental change and a sudden, fast turnover, which though impossible to detect in the fossil record, do leave perplexing accelerations in the tempo of species change. Once more such things can again be put down to the occurrence of Emergences, rather than some simple change of tempo due to lesser reasons.

Also it is perhaps a good time to mention two papers, which will commence in Issue 19. One, entitled Moderated Positive Feedback is important because it is just such a process which is considered to be at the heart of the Creative Phase in an Emergence. The other is a return to excerpts from the book A Structure of Diagrams and includes yet another chapter showing diagrams as an unsurpassed means of both investigating and communicating complex ideas.

On the Blog simultaneously there is the extended paper Dominance Breeds Stability, but Rust Never Sleeps, which discusses the opposing imperatives towards both Chaos and Order, and the roles that they play in the establishment of Stability on the one hand, and Emergent Events on the other. These are as usual available at :- :-

http://www.e-journal.org.uk/shape/blog

Our new policy of regularly producing Reviews on our Blog is continuing with the pieces mentioned above. So this will indeed continue to happen at regular intervals from now on.

Read and enjoy, and if moved to do so, react! Send us your views for publication in the Journal. We look forward to such reactions as they inform us of what our readers require. Left to ourselves we will not necessarily produce from our prodigious store of work in the best possible order.

Jim Schofield
FEB 2011