The Magic of Love - Preserving the Love of Life

From my perspective, Humberto Maturana's "Neurobiology of Love" is the only perspective from which our human biology makes sense. Our biology of love teaches us how to organize ourselves as individuals and communities, in the evolutionary drift of the here and now, through emotion and reflection.

Tenderness and trust heal our relationships as well as our minds and bodies. They reconcile and help us let go. Without this foundation, we cannot develop character as individuals or maintain peace as a community. Without understanding the emotional interplay of love and play as the forgotten foundation of our humanity, we will choke on the bite into the apple of knowledge. If we do not feel tenderness, that sense of well-being through the presence of the other, we will always invent a reason why it is better to exploit or kill the other. We learn and develop through the way we live together, and the consequences of our living together will always depend on how we live together.

For humanity itself, its very survival depends on understanding our role as part of the world. Our civilization is built on the complementary interplay of microlevel and macrolevel. One man alone can’t hunt a mammoth. One man alone can’t reinvent science.

The friendship between the two scientists Heinz von Foerster and Humberto Maturana was crucial for their research. The synthesis of the biology of love and the one-with-the-world attitude is essential for the survival of humanity. We must learn to form communities through which trust is possible. Where we do not have to question each other's actions. Otherwise, we will soon destroy ourselves and the biosphere as well.

I will never forget how Maturana, in his Wittgensteinian clarity, explained love using a spider as an example: "If the existence of the spider is legitimate, I will not think of stepping on it or killing it. I will respect it, and when I observe it, I will develop curiosity."

This curiosity of exploring and creating, which comes from living a life of love, is the origin of science and civilization. From this curiosity comes a culture that can abstract and develop technologies based on the observation of nature. That we recognize ourselves as part of this living nature through the magic of love and create a new way of living together could save us from our self-destruction.