VIII. Earth Earns: An Open CoCreative Earthropocene to Astropocene PediaVerse

C. Hearthica: Astro Sapiens Achieves a Unified, Peaceful, Gaiable,Worthy, Home Base

Sole, Ricard and Simon Levin. Ecological Complexity and the Biosphere: The Next 30 Years. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. July, 2022. In a special issue with this title, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona and Princeton University senior scholars introduce and survey this perilous challenge that we Earthlings must face over these decades. But as we have just seen with the US climate act, whether the biosphere can be saved and sustained, or not (kinder or cinder), can be addressed by a common initiative and a strenuous, concerted effort to make this really happen. From the author’s experience, 21st century nonlinear science such as complex adaptive systems, network topologies, resilience theories which is now known to underlie natural phenomena need be fully implemented to inform and advance this global (Earthropocene) project.

Among the authoritative entries are How the Living World Evolved and Where It’s Headed Now by Peter Raven, A Resilience Sensing System for the Biosphere by Timothy Lenton, et al, Circling the drain: The Extinction Crisis and the Future of Humanity by Paul R. Ehrlich, et al. Scaling Up our Understanding of Tipping Points by Sonia Kefi and Modelling Coupled Human–Environment Complexity for the Future of the Biosphere by Madhur Anand, et al.

Global warming, habitat loss and overexploitation of limited resources are leading to alarming declines in biodiversity. Ecosystems are complex adaptive systems (search SL) with multiple alternative states and can abruptly shift from one to another. In dealing with a biosphere where humans are part of a complex, endangered ecological network, novel theoretical and engineering approaches are vitally needed. Using a 30-year window, we explore ways to sense, preserve and restore ecosystem resilience as well as interventions from afforestation to bioengineering to mitigate ecosystem collapse. (Excerpt)

Indeed, our only hope for a sustainable future will be for us to find a way to overcome our unremitting greed at all levels and to love one another while building social justice. (Peter Raven)

Som, Sanjoy. Common Identity as a Step to Civilization Longevity. Futures. Online August, 2018. The author has a doctorate in planetary sciences and astrobiology from the University of Washington and is cofounder and director of the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science in Mountain View, CA. Please visit that site for an incredible array of people and projects as human valiance begins to explore and expand into this open expanse. However it is here said that this wondrous future will not happen unless we peoples get altogether and achieve a true Earthling ethnicity.

A common identity among humans coupled with existing local identities may be key to the longevity of our civilization. We posit that societal stability, defined here as the potential for humans to avoid either physical or ideological conflict with members outside of their group, is enhanced by perception of common identity. Teaching the Earth from space as a corner-stone of common identity, leveraging on the “Overview Effect” described by astronauts, can help introduce a neutral worldview to students and offers a framework for cross-cultural exchange. Introducing psychology in the early curriculum provides tools to handle emotional complexity on par with the cognitive development of students. We suggest that a positive outcome in the development of common identity and emotional awareness would lead to the emergence of empathetic behavior. (Abstract excerpt)

Blue Marble Institute We are an international community engaged in building a sustainable future and nurturing scientific interest among the public. Our mission is to explore life as a universal phenomenon and empower the next generation of scientists. Areas of research include: planetary habitability, origin of life, space biology, climate change, sustainable development, remote space exploration, and global catastrophic risk. Our international research team includes Laura Barge, Jacob Haqq-Misra, Jim Cleaves, Julia DeMarines, Betul Kacar, Ivan Lima, and Sara Walker.

Soto, Hernando de. The Mystery Of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs In The West And Fails Everywhere Else. New York: Basic Books, 2000. In this widely cited book, the Peruvian economist argues it is because of a workable balance between personal initiative, the availability of investment and legal restraints. In Peru and many other countries it can take years to get a business loan or a deed to property.

Spretnak, Charlene. The Resurgence of the Real. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1997. A graceful essay to rehabilitate and celebrate the knowing body and sense of natural place through the appreciation of a creative cosmos just appearing at the frontiers of holistic science.

Spretnak, Charlene. Relational Reality: New Discoveries of Interrelatedness That Are Transforming the Modern World. Topsham, ME: Green Horizon Books, 2011. Among her lifetime credits, found on www.charlenespretnak.com, is professor of philosophy and religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Amongst several other books noted there is Missing Mary: The Queen of Heaven and Her ReEmergence in the Modern Church (2004) and States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age (1991). This latest work informs and embellishes the rising, imperative turn to an emphatic age to leaven competition and consumption, if we are to survive mind you. Typical chapters cover Relational Revelations, The Relational Shift in Education and Parenting, Health and Healthcare, Community Design and Architecture and The Relational Shift in the Economy.

Relational Reality reveals the coherence among numerous surprising discoveries of the interrelated nature of reality. These discoveries are part of a new perspective that has been emerging gradually for the past several decades but has gained momentum and is now transforming every mainstream field of human endeavor. All our basic assumptions (built on the old idea that everything in the physical world is essentially separate and functions mechanistically) are being reconsidered. No longer a marginal perspective, the Relational Shift is based on the realization that all entities in this world, including humans, are thoroughly relational beings of great complexity who are both composed of and nested within networks of creative, dynamic interrelationships. Nothing exists outside of those relationships. As we try to grasp the interrelated nature of reality, emergent relational approaches are already transforming the way we educate our children, attend to our health, green our communities, and rethink economic activity. (Synopsis)

Sterling, Stephen. Sustainable Education. Devon, UK: Green Books, 2001. The mindfulness we need to live in an ecological, participatory way depends so much on learning - which must change from information transmissive to transformative, from managed objects to whole living systems.

Stojkoski, Viktor, et al. Multidimensional Economic Complexity and Inclusive Green Growth. Communications Earth & Environment. 4/130, 2023. Center for Collective Learning, University of Toulouse, including Cesar Hildago (search) make note that present endeavors are not able to consider active trade data so fall short, e.g. income inequalities. Their work results in an animate geography of commerce, sensitive technologies and sustainable studies. A special validity is achieved by a deliberate intentional facility of a group intelligence.

The Center for Collective Learning is an interdisciplinary laboratory working on economic complexity, the ethics of artificial intelligence, and digital democracy. The CCL is composed of a highly motivated team of scientists, scholars, and entrepreneurs based at the Artificial and Natural Intelligence Institute (ANITI) of the University of Toulouse and at the Corvinus Institute of Advanced Studies (CIAS) in Budapest.

Strassmann, Diana. Editorial: Feminist Economics – It Flourishes. Feminist Economics. 10/3, 2004. This journal and associated books advocate a quite different economy from the destructive obsession with material wealth and social power. A typical paper contends that egalitarian “social provisioning” should be a primary concern, if we truly care about the well-being children, women, and men within a sustainable biosphere.

Swimme, Brian and Thomas Berry. The Universe Story. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1992. Chapter 13 and the Epilogue envision an “Ecozoic Era” of communal, sustainable rapport between peoples, cultures, all diverse creatures and bioregions if we are to survive, fulfill and celebrate a prodigious, still developing creation.

Without entrancement within this new context of existence it is unlikely that the human community will have the psychic energy needed for the renewal of the Earth. (268)

Taverne, Dick. The March of Unreason: Science, Democracy and the New Fundamentalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. A reasonable case that Western societies are increasingly beset by an irrational intolerance and disregard of evidence. This results in a categorical rejection of genetically modified (GM) foods, globalization, capitalism, vaccines, etc. without even study of these multifaceted issues. In the case of GM crops, for a third-world land where its indigenous populace gets sick from untreated rice because of insect toxins, a successful, well researched strain of rice resistant to this blight is presently blocked by protests. On the other hand, rapacious corporate policies are surely to be opposed. A timely discussion of this contentious area.

Thomashow, Mitchell. Bringing the Biosphere Home. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002. Our inadequate response to the magnitude of pollution, waste, et al, ultimately stems from a lack of awareness that we live on a finite biosphere. In response, practical ways to relate ones local life style to this global ecological context are offered.

Timme, Marc, et al. Focus on Networks, Energy and the Economy. New Journal of Physics. 17/11, 2015. We cite this endeavor as an example of how a worldwide knowledge of generic network phenomena can serve as a natural way to effectively reconceive our human social infrastructure. Here German and Macedonian scientists, with postings such as MPI Dynamics and Self-Organization, first cite these universal features of distributed, networked systems, discuss usages for power grids and so on, and then pose projects for “our future in a networked world.”

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