« The belief that we can manage the Earth and improve on Nature is probably the ultimate expression of human conceit, but it has deep roots in the past and is almost universal. »
wow. A scientific fact I mentioned in several of my books is no longer true. Also, all biology / biochemistry textbooks need to be updated. Oh well. Exciting to see such a major change though.
Been slacking posting more art here, so time for a teensy selection of an old generative/evolutionary system from 2014 (then used for my HOLO 2 magazine guest design). Originally written in Clojure, meanwhile ported to TypeScript & Zig, I've kept working on & experimenting with it ever since... 1000s of screenshots and 100s of versions to sift through. Loosely based on research done by Barricelli[1] since the early 1950s, conceptually and aesthetically it sits nicely between my C-SCAPE and De/Frag and has a similarly huge design space to explore (in some versions coupled with genetic programming to evolve cell replication rules)... There's a 1500 word draft blog post from back then too, which goes into more detail and history of this approach. Maybe its time to publish that one too at last... :)
I need a reference for an argument that the mutualistic symbiosis between two species represents an evolutionary shortcut -- Something that would have taken a lot longer to develop using mutation-sex.recombination etc.
Symbiosis is a vital and enduring interaction between two species in nature, benefiting both organisms involved. Mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism are the three main types of symbiotic relationships. Mutualism benefits both species, commensalism benefits one species while leaving the other unaffected, and parasitism benefits one species at the expense of the other.
Ants of the genus Acropyga maintain vast underground herding empires, where they move their honeydew-producing mealybug "cattle" among systems of tree roots.
Here's an Acropyga goeldii ant, with mealybug, in Brazil.
Climate change is an immediate threat to the majority of the world's population.
We need a local, regional, state, national, and international "moon shot" type of concentration of effort using available resources while developing and advancing new science and technologies to counteract the damage humans have caused.
Without this type of all-out, universal cooperation, human civilization, and perhaps humanity itself, are in imminent danger of extinction.
I know this might startle you, but I'm actually going to post a hopeful article. And for once, I'm not being ironic.
This really is very cool...
Scientists have found microplastics everywhere: in deep ocean trenches, near the tops of remote mountains. In 2019, researchers in Australia estimated that we ingest a credit card’s worth of microplastics every week, with unknown health effects. Other reports document the ballooning impact of plastic pollution on marine life, as well as plastic production’s growing carbon footprint and disproportionate harms against poor communities of color.
Sarah Paiji Yoo was determined to do something about this, and co-founded Blueland in 2019. The company’s mission is to eliminate unnecessary plastics from familiar cleaning and personal care products like dish soap, toilet bowl cleaner, and body wash — all of which they sell in concentrated tablet form, shipped directly to customers in recyclable paper packaging.
The tablets dissolve in water and can be used to refill Blueland’s durable glass or ceramic bottles. Yoo said the bottles are intended to be “the last set” of cleaning containers her customers ever buy: No more disposable plastic, no more pollution, no more hazardous tap water. “We don’t take that lightly,” she told Grist.
Yoo is among a growing number of business owners who have aligned themselves with activists and policymakers who want to move the global economy away from plastics, which are rarely recycled and are laden with toxic chemicals. The broader movement seeks to reduce plastic production, an urgent priority considering petrochemical companies’ plans to triple the amount of plastic they make by 2060. That scenario could cause more than 44 million metric tons of aquatic plastic pollution every year.
But these advocates and entrepreneurs are also envisioning a future free from single-use items altogether. By promoting a “circular economy” — patterns of consumption that reduce waste generation of any kind — they hope to eliminate not only single-use plastics, but also disposable products made from paper and metal. Their vision will require whole new business models and supply chains that prioritize reuse — containers and dishware and shipping packages that can be used again and again rather than discarded after just a few minutes.
American culture needs to “dispose of that disposable mindset, where everything is to be used and thrown away,” said Linda Corrado, a board member for the reuse nonprofit Upstream and an independent consultant in sustainable business strategies. She said she dreams of a day when plastic-free shopping is the default, where customers shop in stores that are “just one bulk bin after another.”
Therefore, technically including ecologically, a free market economy can operate in a way where the regulatory system promotes ecological #symbiosis (AKA commensalism or mutualism. i.e., not parasitism. AKA crony #capitalism )
If the demand (consumers. AKA people) were dedicated to resolving ecological degradation. But, due to ignorance, greenwash, apathy, narcissism et al. that's a big IF