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Friday, March 20, 2009
Our Panarchic Future
Our Panarchic Future, from Worldwatch Institute, is easily the best article I've read in recent memory. It discusses complexity, systems, processes of adaptation, and the state of the world today. Really can't recommend it highly enough.
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Quite a neat trick to end an apocalyptic piece like that on an up-note: "The only way to approach such a period, in which uncertainty is very large and one cannot predict what the future holds, is not to predict, but to experiment and act inventively and exuberantly via diverse adventures in living."
ReplyDeleteEchoes some of what the Arlington Institute's been saying.
It is somewhat of an odd conclusion, given what the article said about burgeoning diversity during the growth phase of a system -- and how that tends to precede a crash, once over-specialization takes away the resilience of the system.
ReplyDeleteYes, but I'm guessing he means experimentation informed by the possibility of collapse. So who do we place our bets on: meditating monks in monastaries, networked bloggers with yellow+ consciousness, or Amish farmers off the power grid?
ReplyDeleteI don't think experimentation is a viable solution, since the niches that will exist post-collapse don't exist yet. Right now, we're inextricably tied into the existing network, and the possibilities for experimentation are shaped (i.e. limited) by those interconnections.
ReplyDeleteIf we're assuming total collapse, I put my money on the monks and the Amish -- but even they won't be unaffected.