Bio-mimmicry, Climate Change, and Consciousness

Many eco-thinking architects and city planners are taking this hypothesis as plausible - and science on the relationship between environment and emotional well being are being carried out as we speak: the biological-psychological-environment nexus is the bees knees in brain science nowadays.

I personally love the idea of bio-mimmicry. Why would anyone think that streets and all these other unnatural forms don't exert a strong unconscious tension on our personal and collective psyche? Why is it people in cities are so uncouth, strong headed, and narcissistic? The ego - the make-believe - notion of ourselves as ontologically significant, is a phenomena of the process of interaction between caregiver and baby. The final product - the sense of self - is a mishmash of psychoenergetic transmissions between selves. Selves certainly exist - but they are ancillary to the context. The context - the fact that self emerges in such a dyadic way (with another individual) means that our very, deeply treasured idea of our SELF, is secondary to the "other" outside ourselves. I have often found myself amazed at how much stronger someones will becomes when they realize someone ELSE depends on them. It's as if, for their own selves, they simply cant muster the energy; but when they see the pain in another, paradoxically, they become more deeply aware of their own significance: that what they do can help the life of another. And this brings a joy and happiness that is hard to square with our idea of "self interest" as the basic common denominator of human relations.

City streets - rectilinear forms - is like the ego. The ego helps us navigate the world. It enables us to use the world. But it is merely a construct: it doesn't actually represent the world as it actually is. Similarly, a deepening bioconsciousness and sense of our interdependence with the natural world - a perception growing thanks to the state of nature, climate change, etc - is like recognizing the artificiality of the form we use when we exercise reason: linearity. Linearity can help us cordon off certain information so that we can more clearly understand and control something. But it actually doesn't reflect how processes actually work in nature. Not in biology, and Not in the biosphere. Nature is not linear - no lines in nature - but non-linear. It is a chaotic system whose functioning only makes sense as a "state of relationship between particulars". This is a crazy idea. The growing body, for example, starts from one cell: the zygote. And somehow, through a magic, chemical processes build a body of 50 trillion cells. This does not happen linearly: DNA directs the growth of proteins which in turn direct which genes become active. This is a circular process: nothing man actually does mirrors this process. Nature is simply bizarre in how it brings things, as if magnetically, to a final state. But the genes, in themselves, play a role that is causally similar to how we think of causation: genes create proteins that in turn direct genes, which then create proteins - until the organism is finished in it's development. The biosphere - from the stratosphere to the oceans depths - similarly, is affected by every single event that happens within it. A small change here will have a big effect there. Some chemicals accelerate other chemicals, while inhibiting still other chemicals. There is a totality - and life - about it that has led some people to think of planet earth as a living creature.

So, I think, there will no doubt come a time when we redesign our cities. Not necessarily moving buildings etc, but once more efficient and clean modes of transportation emerge, we can expect the removal of large swaths of infrastructure. That might not happen in this century, but certainly, some point down the road, the unseemly sites of 'roads' and city streets will impel a more mindful society to let the earth "breath" again. They'll remove the concrete and grow flowers - or something natural.

Our bodies are acutely sensitive to the world around us. When I say "chaotic system", that only means that the system appears chaotic. In actuality, there is a predictable logic about it. Chaotic systems can controlled: but it has to be on their terms. The body, for example, is dependent on nutrition suitable to it's environment of evolutionary adaptedness (the environment the species evolved in). So, things which are unnatural to the human diet, which the body hasn't evolved the cellular proficiency to effectively process, create long term problems, years later, when people are so lost on the possible cause that they'll reason to themselves that "oh, it's just random", as if there weren't a relationship between diet and health.

Not just diet either. The complexity of our system can be quantified not only as environment + biology = nutrition, but also as Thought/Emotions + Biology. The latest research into psychoneuroimmunology has shown that what we think, and in particular, what we feel, affects how effectively our immune and endocrinological systems function. Scientists have shown that positive emotions increase natural killer immune cells. They've also shown that high levels of cortisol - a chemical released when we become stressed - disrupts immunological functioning so that instead of reducing inflammation - an effect cortisol normally has - it causes inflammation. This inflammatory response may be partly the basis for diseases like asthma, fibromyalgia, crohns disease, etc.

And then there's nature. That thing we take for granted. People mindlessly pollute, they throw plastics around, and they seldom ever consider the conditions that keep life the way it is. The fact is, burning fossil fuels at the rate and scale that we have done it over the last 2 hundred years has done to the earths biosphere what long term cortisol does to immune function. The earths "immune response", so to say, would be an act of finding it's state of homeostasis. Similarly, our immune cells kill other cells and even cause physiological and psychological sickness, as a way to restore homeostasis to the organism.

Because fossil fuels cause the temperature of the earth to rise, with a higher atmospheric temperature, the water in the atmosphere will also be different. More water will be extracted from the earth through evaporation because of higher temperatures. More water in the atmosphere will change all sorts of other systems: extreme weather events like hurricances, tornadoes and snow storms, will become more common (as weve been seeing), droughts will likely occur as the soil becomes dryer from the greater heat. Hotter temperatures will also cause more forest fires, which in turn will kill of all sorts of species who no longer have homes. See the catastrophic effects that can accrue from screwing up chaotic systems?

Everything in the world is about balance. We need psychological balance in order to effectively feel ourselves as unique beings, as well as to feel at one with other selves. Too much in either direction will create a psychological backlash in the form of delusions or anxiety. Likewise, our bodies, and the food we feed it; as well as our limbs, heart and lungs, which loves to move and feel alive. So too our lovely planet earth, floating in space, carrying atop it's surface a diversity of life that is quite astonishing.

a reply to: Astrocyte

Whenever I want to have my sense of scientific certainty humbled, I open a copy of Tao te Ching, and it reminds me of what being in tune with nature really means... It can be something beyond what can be grasped with reason.

Some of the stuff you talk about isn't as far off as you think, courtesy of China:
www.dailymail.co.uk... each.html

These 3D printed houses are ready for mass production at low prices, with sustainable materials. But to me, the exciting promise of them is they aren't limited to the boring square shapes that define normal production. They open doors, possibly, to building that's way more in tune with nature.

Great read mate. But yet the matrix thrives on level higher then our five senses. I find this boring grey ego cities in which most us are born, to be very helpful for our awakening. I imagine that one born in a "better world" or "Better constructed Matrix" will have some hard time finding himself, as the ugly face of the trickster would be hidden behind the mask of wellness and prosperity.

Do you remember all this movies about the consciousness of the water and such? In one of them they(the scientists) tested the reaction of water structure according to music played in the room. First they let some classical music like Bach to play. The structure of the water molecules right away formed as a harmonic pattern - very beautiful. Then they put some distortion and feedback guitars of Russian hard rock band. The molecules of water right away turned in chaotic patterns. And with this example I want to make a specific point here. The "bad" influence of hard rock in this case is similar to the point you say about our surroundings, and which I find helpful. Why? Let me explain. This is the same way modern medicine works, established in old times back ancient Greeks. Hippocrates says: The only real difference between medicine and poison is the dose....and intent. What medicine does is to take a small portion of poison, put it in your body, which calls the natural vital forces of the body to concentrate in this particular region or sphere and help for faster cleaning there. I want to stress that this natural vital forces are the only thing that has the power to cure! Everything else is pure stimulator. Chinese medicine has better understanding of this, that is why in that part of the word self-healing practices(Qi Gong) are most common, they very well know that the body cannot be magically cured by outer source, if internal energy is not in condition to do the job. Thus I see the Greyness around us as one very good stimulator to cure our, out of the cradle pre-conditioned minds, from the viral(reptilian) matrix.

However Bach is great for your harmonics, in the wrong hands it can be use in malicious ways. The same, this "Better New World" can soothe the pain and encourage the people to sleep.


-Your sincere distortion friend, the Bar-bar-tender

Star and flag! Great read!

Your view makes sense to me. On the other hand, that of egoismyname does too.
I often think about the way I use my herbs- if I use one that is normally a good treatment for an ailment in particular,
without having that ailment already, it causes the ailment!

I notice that in order to stimulate my skin to make new cells, I need to exfoliate, destroy cells. The death brings about birth.

I watch the interactions of humans, and see how one person can "exorcise" for another, simply in becoming whatever it is the other wish to rid their self of- a mad person suddenly feels calm if another takes over the emotion; the whole reason that professional mourners existed in earlier cultures.

The exterior allows us to project outwards one half of our being in order to experience the other. It allows us to experience sadness and joy as two different experiences. Duality is made possible.

I am repeating, in less eloquent words, the same thing as egoismyname, I guess. My mind is just wandering.

The question is- is that necessary? Duality, I mean? Does the separation have to be always so intensely experienced?

Or can the ego continue to exist, even without the mirror, just perhaps in a less intense way?

I don't know. Having been born on the streets of Los Angeles, which I hated, and now living in the mountains, in a house made of the stone around, that blends in with the hill it is built into..... the spring has a spout in the cave in which our water runs in a stone basin, directly from the ground, I feel much closer to the earth, to the environment surrounding me, and I feel at ease. In a way I never did on the cracked pavement and graffiti-covered cement in California.

I know I am,
And we are.

a reply to: Egoismyname

Well, I agree with Jeremy Rifkin (a view consonant with your own) that the first and second industrial revolutions helped create and deepen ego-consciousness. But the problem is, it's simply not a sustainable way of being in the world.

Perhaps the saga of human history - in particular, the last 200 years - is leading to its own resolution, which is to say, human beings becoming aware of all the problems that accrue from abstracting ourselves from the processes of nature.

I find this boring grey ego cities in which most us are born, to be very helpful for our awakening. I imagine that one born in a "better world" or "Better constructed Matrix" will have some hard time finding himself - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

I'm skeptical of that claim. The "self" exists. And the way we quantify it, or experience it, is largely a product of the surrounding environment i.e. the infrastructures of society. So, the self reflects the socioemotional patterns of the culture.

Self and identity are predicated on a sense of differentness and uniqueness: it's not dependent upon strife and discord.
What'll be different in this future world is how children understand themselves in relation with others. Were already somewhat on that path. Kids are being taught the importance of diversity. And diversity essentially means acknowledging the uniqueness and differentness of other selves. In effect, it calls individual selves to reflect upon the existential facts of life: think about your own experiences in this world; now, extrapolate from that, and apply it to the other.

Evolution has already provided us with the neurobiological hardware, in the form of von economo cells (mirror neurones) which respond to actions done by other people which have predictable results. This means we hardwired to sense in others what we sense and experience in ourselves. This awareness - empathy - paradoxically, both deepens ones sense of individuality, while at the same time creating room and space for the other within your consciousness.

The world we live in has created a lot of challenges, but it would be wrongheaded to assume that we should preserve this grossly inefficient, dirty and unsustainable paradigm - where so much suffering still exists - based upon what you've written.

a reply to: Bluesma

The question is- is that necessary? Duality, I mean? Does the separation have to be always so intensely experienced?
- See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

The problem, in my mind, is understanding the relationship between the part and the whole. Duality is an inevitable product of the system. You can't relate with anything, without acknowledging your differentness from the thing you're relating with.

Martin Bubers ideas into relational psychology are at the root of the change we should try to inculcate. When we ignore the relationships that exist between ourselves as agents and the world around us, were treating the world as if it were an "it" - some thing existing "apart" from and alienated from the "I's" own existence. But this is wrong; it's a delusion created by the ego: by the human propensity to ascribe to natural processes the same type of causation that works when we build dams, and engineer buildings.

The things I think, the things I eat, the way I relate to people - there are innumerable effects, both psychological, physical and ecological, that emerge from my own actions. If I persist in treating the world as an "it" I essentially decide for myself that I will ignore this fact. If I do not treat my relationship with the world as antecedent to my own sense of self - and it's own interests - then essentially I renounce all control and awareness of the "field" which determines the results of my actions. To insist on the goals and interests of the ego is to pop the proverbial red pill, abjure all personal responsibility (and even the idea of responsibility) and pretend that I'm living sanely, when in fact, I am acting completely insane.

When we relate to the world in a deeper way, not as an act of I-it, where the self attends to the world only in it's external appearances, but in the I-Thou way, where we probe and see into the "other" as a real thing, we bind ourselves with the dynamics of the context. The self doesn't evaporate when this happens. It simply learns how to act and live with wisdom. Wisdom is knowing the other, deeply, and feeling empathy and acting compassionately so that the other, if it happens to be far from this higher level of awareness, may be brought closer by your actions.

a reply to: Astrocyte

By current estimates, by 2030 we are going to need twice as much food as we do now. The global population will be around 8.3 billion, which breaks down to 0.17 hectare of land per person. China's growing middleclass almost single handedly will be driving much of the demand for food, bringing their meat consumption into line with those of us in the West. They are also expected to produce twice as much waste as they currently do. Within 15 years, arable land needs to double it's productivity. Climate change combined with land degradation and ground water depletion need to be urgently addressed if we are to rise to the challenge of feeding a growing population.

If we do not begin the transistion to more effective ways of living, of utilising water and disposing of our waste more sustainably, some peoples are going to suffer horribly, and those people will move en masse, as they have in the past, to where the resources are, to where over centuries, the profits from the exploitation their natural resources have trickled away to. And once again, but on a greater scale than ever before, we will have to sit and watch while masses of people are turned away from our borders and shores to face certain death.

Great thread, what we need now is brilliance and completely new ways of thinking to solve this problem. The picture in your OP, offers not only a new way of co-existing with a more natural environment, but also a means by which water can be more efficently utilised, and if we minimise chemical usage, waste water can be recycled to water the green spaces thereby minimising expensive and resource intensive processing plants. Incorporate any significant drops of water, and you can also add the potential for hydro-power. The ideas are there, the technology too, it just needs the investment, which can be helped along by demand.

originally posted by: Astrocyte

Evolution has already provided us with the neurobiological hardware, in the form of von economo cells (mirror neurones) which respond to actions done by other people which have predictable results. This means we hardwired to sense in others what we sense and experience in ourselves. This awareness - empathy - paradoxically, both deepens ones sense of individuality, while at the same time creating room and space for the other within your consciousness.

Yes, I agree that our sense of I-ness, accept in itself another I's, ofc. But, I am not trying to argue here about marginal issues. No matter if we get this Better World or not, the end is gonna be the same. This awareness that you talked about will be reached - nobody can disobey the laws of balance. Yet the path is never determinate. And excuse me if I will sound too straight, but I will share it straight from my heart - From a spiritual level view, I find this path of a Better World boring and unrewarding. And also I find this thrilling world, even you are right it is unsustainable, very rewarding from the sense of ascential experience.(and my opinion is that the way of ascent is more important than the ascent itself - If we follow the way of strive for ascent, ascent will be delayed, but with letting go everything is reached before you think about it - see Magnetic mind and the flow of Tao). The vibration of the world is like Heavy Metal right now, you propose to play some progressive rock. Well mate, we have musical disagreement right here. Yet be sure I am not a person who pushes the agenda to keep things like they are, neither I advise(as you do) to grew our visions and dreams along the construction of sweeter world matrix. I just sit an watch. Whatever be, I just let it be. In the end it is all the same. So right now as I am enjoying ad in peace, why should I go and push to change the decor. Is this the most important. For me not. I aim my energy at the performance, not the decors, and this is where we take part from each other. So have fun, work for better days, work for the whole, but I hope when you finish your play here, and reach a upper stage, you would see that the world never ever was a bad place to be, the kids there never ever needed a shiny dress, they just wanted to be left and dance, even covered with rags . If you ask me what really is worthy to be done in this word, I will tell you - Show them how to play, patiently enough and with feeling. Show them how you do it, and don't push for anything. let them make their decisions, don't steal their fight. Be an inspiration, let em learn how to be strong. As Glenn Parton says: "Unless people possess an assured, sane psychological core, everything else is in jeopardy."


-Your dancing friend, the Bartender
(and three pondering at the sky cats)

originally posted by: KilgoreTrout
a reply to: Astrocyte
Great thread, what we need now is brilliance and completely new ways of thinking to solve this problem. The ideas are there, the technology too, it just needs the investment, which can be helped along by demand.

You are correct, it needs investment, there is a cost associated with change. Who will be willing to cover that cost? It seems to me that the people with capital want to multiply it, not donate it to those in need.

I see only one way to get the capital, and that is to force people into paying for it against their will. That means that those with capital and power will force those with little money and little power to pay for it. This will be done through governments making laws accordingly, while the rich make more billions.

But even with that, is it not a hopeless cause? At some point the government will tell the people Sorry, there is no more water - we can only give you a maximum of a quarter of a gallon per person daily, for $100. Who will vote to allow tens of millions of African refugees to enter the US then? Eventually, society will break under its own stress.

originally posted by: ThinkingHuman
But even with that, is it not a hopeless cause? At some point the government will tell the people Sorry, there is no more water - we can only give you a maximum of a quarter of a gallon per person daily, for $100. Who will vote to allow tens of millions of African refugees to enter the US then? Eventually, society will break under its own stress.

I know of so many environmental professionals that do now think it is a hopeless cause, it is heartbreaking really. There are people who have been warning of these problems for decades, when there was still plenty of time to turn it around, that are now so burnt out and disillusioned, and the world is finally waking up to the future we face if we continue to do nothing. It is not just water, it is land degradation, and the US is one of the worst effected. It will not simply be a matter of turning away refugees but also of paying through the nose for imported food and thereby out paying the domestic markets. Literally taking the food out of people's mouths.

Personally, I don't think that it is hopeless, and I see little rays of light emerging all the time, but it does require action and I think that the US particularly, has to be careful that it doesn't get left behind. Obviously, it will be commerce and innovation that will drive this change, coupled by demand, and that demand is growing. The EU are leading the way technologically, Germany is decades ahead of most nations and therefore most likely to reap the major economic rewards. The sooner nations, in terms of the populations en masse, get behind it, the less damage there will be in terms of internal conflict.

An excellent book on the subject, in a historical context, is Steven Solomon's Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power and Civilisation. It is unpopular with many environmentalist because it takes a capitalist view, however that lends it a certain realism in my opinion.

originally posted by: KilgoreTrout
An excellent book on the subject, in a historical context, is Steven Solomon's Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power and Civilisation. It is unpopular with many environmentalist because it takes a capitalist view, however that lends it a certain realism in my opinion.

Thanks for the insight. It is indeed a good idea to approach the subject with realism. I don’t know if any of the action is going in the right direction though. War against CO2 is a waste in my view, just like the other wars. We only fight the wars that make more money for the billionaires. But we allow the big corporations to buy a small piece of land and to use it to drain the groundwater. They get the water for free and sell it to the people for more than the price of gas.

Conditions of an approaching abyss are created on purpose to give the impression of an emergency. In the process, the public gets scared and thus willing to pay out trillions of dollars for a fake cause. Which makes the corporations even more happy. The only way not to be left out is to become a shareholder. If and when we turn communist the oppression will be even greater. If you are Christian, you can also find the recipe for exploitation in the Bible, especially the book of Revelation.

But if you want to convince me otherwise, can you tell me what actions you are referring to which the people in power impose not on the public but voluntarily on themselves?

originally posted by: ThinkingHuman
Thanks for the insight. It is indeed a good idea to approach the subject with realism. I don’t know if any of the action is going in the right direction though. War against CO2 is a waste in my view, just like the other wars. We only fight the wars that make more money for the billionaires. But we allow the big corporations to buy a small piece of land and to use it to drain the groundwater. They get the water for free and sell it to the people for more than the price of gas.

The issue of CO2, at this stage of the game, is an irrelevence. The water issue, ownership of it, rights to it, is of much greater importance. The situation as seen in Bolivia supports your example, but also in terms of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, where the Israelis control the water and have over exploited that resource for agricultural irrigation purposes while in the process destroying less water intensive, native, agricultural practices. That is a much more far reaching issue, and one that is being repeated elsewhere. Another example is in the Nile Valley, where the Aswan dam has led to the depletion of the soil down river because it limits the amount of fertilising silt that reaches the fields where it fertilised the land for thousands of year. In addition, due to the reduction of flood waters in general in causing the salination, by increasing the evaporation of water upward through the soil profile. Elsewhere, you have acquifers that took hundreds and thousands of years of rainfall to fill being drained dry over the last 50 years, making farming in those regions increasingly untenable. CO2 emissions, in the scale of the problems that we face in the immediate future, is hardly even a blot on the landscape.

originally posted by: ThinkingHuman
Conditions of an approaching abyss are created on purpose to give the impression of an emergency. In the process, the public gets scared and thus willing to pay out trillions of dollars for a fake cause. Which makes the corporations even more happy. The only way not to be left out is to become a shareholder. If and when we turn communist the oppression will be even greater. If you are Christian, you can also find the recipe for exploitation in the Bible, especially the book of Revelation.

Certainly, the Bible, and Christianity has taught us that the land is infinitely abundant. And it ain't. The current social disorder in the Middle East, the Arab Spring as they call it, has more than a little to do with the fact that, in those regions, lies 36% of the total global reserves of Phosphates. Yes, you are being misled but unless you actually look beyond the obvious, you are also misleading yourself. There are groups out to exploit the situation by controlling essential minerals, as well as water. Russia is taking back control of the Ukraine because of the rich, fertile black soil that it doesn't want Europe to use as it's bread basket. The World Bank has pumped billions into Tanzania in order for that to become it's bread basket. Roughly 1300 square miles of land turns to desert every year. Who gives a # about CO2 when we are facing an inability to feed a growing global population, the CO2 situation is decades off reaching a critical point, if indeed it ever does, the food and water situation is going to start reaching critical point in some regions in the next 15 years.

originally posted by: ThinkingHuman
But if you want to convince me otherwise, can you tell me what actions you are referring to which the people in power impose not on the public but voluntarily on themselves?

In any nation with a democratic system you have already, passively or otherwise, made those decisions over the past few decades. Whatever is 'imposed' upon you, under a democratically elected government, you have volunteered for. I don't need to convince you of anything, nor do I have any interest in doing so. From this point on, it comes down to the conscience of the individual, in my opinion, both in terms of individual responsiblity in all actions and consumption, and in taking responsibility for how your central government tax contributions are spent. Without knowing about your particular circumstances, location, etc, I couldn't possible tell you what can be done by you. Taking responsibility for your governance though is a start. If you feel powerless, take power. Organise. As I said, at this stage of the game, this very, very late stage, it is much more about the conscience of the individual and where you draw your line in the sand.

a reply to: ThinkingHuman

I think it depends. Andrew Guzman wrote a book on this subject last year that I'm just finishing up on. Basically, some states will be worse off than others, and of course, the vast majority of those in the category "worse off" off are poor countries. There are varying reasons for this.

Glacier melt will wreak havoc on water supply as the years pass by. Especially vulnerable areas are the rivers that receive their water from the Himalayas, such as the indus and the ganges, as well as the yellow river. The Rhine and Danube rely upon the alps, and various other cities and towns worldwide derive the bulk of their water from glaciers. Bolivia will probably be the first victim of the melting of glaciers from climate change. It's projected that by 2030, vast swathes of Bolivians will need to move from valley cities like La Paz and El alto.

The REALLY bad thing though is how climate change will disturb historical weather systems. We take for granted, for example, that the earth tends to have consistent patterns of where it'll drop rain and how much. An increase in temperature by 2 degrees (low ball estimate) to 4 degrees (a more likely estimate) will probably change normal precipitation patterns. Thus, water distribution is going to be greatly effected. Existing water infrastructures essentially surround the source of water. For some areas, this is rivers that depend on glaciers; for others, it's reservoirs. Thus, we can expect a diminished supply of water because of melting glaciers (and the flooding/drought that this will create) but also changed weather patterns will prevent us from making efficient use - certainly not by todays standards - of the water that falls.

Some areas are bound to benefit. The Great Lake Regions, for example, and the states/provinces which control the waters, are bound to make a lot of moola selling it to states which already deal with water shortages i.e. califorinia.

North America will be least hit by climate change. Africa and Asia are likely to be the biggest victims. Bangladesh is screwed with rising sea levels. Maldives will probably not exist by 2050 - and thats 350,000 people. Tuvalu, and other pacific islands will probably vanish before the Maldives. Areas already prone to drought - such as sub saharan africa - will be absolutely ravaged by higher temperatures. Their economies are already highly dependent upon agriculture. High temperatures = more droughts = famine. Africa just cant get a break.

I believe we'll be able to transition out of this difficult period, but probably not without a lot of pain, suffering and loss. It should be possible to bring co2 emissions to 350ppm (the consensus between scientists of what would be safe), but that probably wont happen as co2 emissions keep increasing and present co2 ppm levels - 400 ppm - will probably reach a peak of 450, or, 500, before were able to bring it down to safe levels. I suppose planting trees and not using dirty fuels will help lower the ppm of co2 in the atmosphere.