Universe (Fuller's Definition)

Not "everything that exists" but everything experienced and communicated -- an ever-unfolding scenario, finite yet nonsimultaneously conceptual.

Fuller's Definition

"Universe is the aggregate of all humanity's consciously apprehended and communicated nonsimultaneous and only partially overlapping experiences" (S301.10). Fuller unpacks each word: "Aggregate" means sum-totally but non-unitarily conceptual at any one moment. "Consciousness" means awareness of otherness. "Apprehension" means information within man's limited sensorial spectrum. "Communicated" means informing self or others. "Nonsimultaneous" means not occurring at the same time. "Overlapping" reflects that every event has duration and events begin and end at different times (S302.00).

"Universe is a scenario" (S321.04). "You cannot get out of Universe. Universe is not a system. Universe is not a shape. Universe is a scenario. You are always in Universe. You can only get out of systems" (S321.02). Fuller likens it to an endless but finite filmstrip: "a great, unending, but finite scenario whose as yet unfilled filmstrip is constantly self-regenerative" (S322.01). Because Universe is nonsimultaneous, "a single, simultaneous, static model of Universe is inherently both nonexistent and conceptually impossible as well as unnecessary. Ergo, Universe does not have a shape" (S307.04).

"Universe is finite because it is the sum total of finitely furnished experiences" (S308.00). Since nothing can be left out when you start with whole Universe, the definition accommodates all yet-undiscovered phenomena by further subdivision, not by addition (S304.00).

Significance in Synergetics

Fuller's definition of Universe is epistemological rather than cosmological. It is the starting point for synergetic investigation: "Universe is the starting point for any study of synergetic phenomena" (S305.01). By beginning with the whole, synergetics avoids the error of leaving out strategically critical variables. The distinction between Universe (the nonsimultaneously conceptual scenario) and system (a conceptually isolable subdivision with insideness and outsideness) structures the entire work. "All that is physical is energetic. All that is metaphysical is synergetic" (S326.02) -- Universe encompasses both, which is why Fuller insists his definition must include metaphysical experiences alongside physical ones.

See Also

• System -- the first subdivision of Universe
• Synergy -- the principle explaining Universe's regenerative integrity
• Generalized Principles -- the eternal laws governing the scenario
• Vector Equilibrium -- Universe as "a nonsimultaneously potential vector equilibrium" (S310.01)
• Design Science -- applying whole-Universe thinking to problem-solving
• Fuller's Coined & Redefined Terms -- includes Universe
• Synergetics -- the system built from this starting point

Sources

• Synergetics -- primary text; S301.10 (definition), S302.00 (word-by-word unpacking), S303.00 (comprehensive definition), S304.00 (accommodation of the undiscovered), S305.01-S305.02 (synergetic advantage, starting with Universe), S307.04 (no shape), S308.00 (finite), S310.01 (nonsimultaneously potential VE), S321.01-S321.04 (Scenario Universe), S322.01 (filmstrip analogy), S326.02 (physical is energetic, metaphysical is synergetic)
• raw/repos/synergetics.md -- raw source stub