Some Suggestions for Designing a
Sustainable Earth Co-operatively.
(a rough draft)
The need for designing a sustainable world co-operatively is
explained at The Need for
Designing the Future Collaboratively
(http://www.modelearth.org/intro.html).
A design of a sustainable world should start with very basic
components. Once the bare-bone structure of the design is outlined
well, then it would be possible to start elaborating on this basic
design.
The most basic unit, component of a sustainable world design is
the simplest viable community conceivable with its basic
habitat.
Viable community is the smallest possible social unit. It is viable
in the sense of being able to perpetuate itself indefinitely on its
own, without needing, for its biological and cultural survival, any
contact with any other members of its species outside itself.
The basic habitat for a basic viable community is the physical
environment that viable community needs for its optimal
existence.
It is important that the basic design is as simple and transparent
as possible, as "bare-bones" as possible--to the point that it
could not possibly be any simpler!--even if, at first, we might
think it too simple. But the design best start from very simple--if
there are any difficulties to arise from complexity, it would be
much easier to fall back onto a simpler design that is well
understood, rather than start with a complex design and then, if
difficulties should be experienced, we would not know where to go
for safety.
Every simple viable community in the whole world would- have to be
designed with taking its local conditions on mind, and with enough
"buffering" around it to allow for any unforeseen expansions of its
basic territory that might be necessary due to, perhaps, climatic
changes, or just for extra measure to accommodate any, even
unforeseeable, exigencies. The "buffering" zone has to
include more than enough space for all other species that we share
the Earth with for them to be able to live without being
discomforted by us in any way, of course.
However, even that each individual sustainable community design
would be fitted to its own unique local conditions, the basic
principles of the design would be the same--when starting
introducing more complexity into the design, the design has to
continue to support lifestyles at the full width of the spectrum to
accommodate every possible form of sustainable living. Any more
complex societal forms (and there might be many) should organically
arise from the simplest possible one, with no infringements on the
basic capacities, so that if the need would arise, it would be
possible to go back for all members of the community to a more
basic form of existence without any difficulties. In this way a
great variety of sustainable life styles would be possible to exist
side by side without them interfering with each other, without
incurring any demands on any of the neighbors, human and non-human
alike!
In this way it would be possible to have even a very diverse of sustainable lifestyles without anyone being inconvenienced by any of the neighbors' different ways of living.
The design that would be based on the above stated principles would
have the best chance to exist even if the environmental damage
would cause extreme environmental conditions--it would be better
able to withstand many changes that we cannot foresee now.
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