Limits - Intertwingled: Information Changes Everything - page 112

Figure 5-12. The consequence of quantum entanglement.
In his topic, Yanofsky explains the philosophical consequences of the nonlocal effects of entan-
glement.
One consequence of entanglement is to end the philosophical position of reductionism. This position says
that if you want to understand some type of closed system, look at all the parts of the system. To under-
stand how a radio works, one must take it apart and look at all its components, because “the whole is the
sum of its parts.” Reductionism is a fundamental supposition in all of science. Entanglement shows that
there are no closed systems. cxlvii
All systems are interconnected. This subatomic truth resonates equally at global scale. It's this
vital insight that motivates people to care for the health of their environment, and it's the first of
Barry Commoner's four laws of ecology. cxlviii
1. Everything is connected to everything else.
2. Everything must go somewhere.
3. Nature knows best.
4. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Interdependence is also the basis of systems thinking. It explains why the whole is more than the
sum of its parts and why our ability to predict or control the behavior of complex adaptive sys-
tems is less than we think. In 1972, Donella Meadows and her colleagues at MIT explained the
potential consequences of interactions between natural and human systems in their landmark
topic, The Limits to Growth. cxlix They used a computer model with five major variables - world
population, industrialization, pollution, food production, resource depletion - to explore a range
of possible scenarios.
They saw that if growth trends remained unchanged, we'd experience a sudden, uncontrollable
decline in population and industrial capacity within the next hundred years. This scary conclu-
sion garnered worldwide attention. The topic sold more than 12 million copies in 37 languages
and helped launch the environmental movement. But it was also widely criticized as a Malthusi-
an doomsday prophecy that failed to recognize the enormous power of technology, democracy,
and capitalism.