In order to constitute a complex system, the elements have to interact, and this interaction must be dynamic. - Paul Cilliers

There has to be a constant flow of energy to maintain the organization of the system and to ensure its survival. Equilibrium is another word for death.

At the heart of the matter... our technologies have become more powerful than our theories... We can do with technology what we cannot do with science.

I do not know whether it was the will of God, or just an evolutionary accident, but as it happens I am Afrikaans. This is a circumstance with which I am normally perfectly content. <p> The truth is that I actually do not think about it too much, just as I do not think about it too much that I have a liver. The current flutterings about Afrikaans, however, I find disturbing. It is not doing the image of Afrikaners, and hence also of Afrikaans, any good.<p>A mere ten years after the end of apartheid (yes, there was such a thing, and it was evil) to beat one's chest in such a self-justificatory manner, is bad taste morally.<p>...
We are … being called up by certain parties to mobilise for Afrikaans, to fight for the survival of Afrikaans, and for minority rights. The problem is, however, that I do not see myself currently as part of a minority.<p> When, in the 1970s and 1980s, as an Afrikaner, I resisted apartheid – and not in the 1990s when it became fashionable – then I felt myself part of a minority. At present I mainly find myself with an enormous feeling of moral relief.<p> I would now like to carry on with my life and make a constructive contribution at the level of content. I do not wish to have to write letters like this one.