Thanks for the link to Marguerite Hampton.
Unknown Author
Natural Intelligence: All organisms ~ plants, animals, fungi, algae, and bacteria ~ must grow, maintain, feed, and reproduce to ensure their short-term and long-term sustainability. The same can be said for humans. But the way industrial humans have gone about meeting their needs is quite different from the way other organisms survive, and therein lies the root of our sustainability crisis.
Non-human organisms, by and large, meet their basic life requisites within the confines and constraints of their environment. Within that habitat context, they either adapt, migrate, or go extinct. Adaptations, both behavioral and physiological, help sustain individuals in the short term, and ultimately lead to genetic adaptations that sustain the species in the long term. Over the last 3.8 billion years, these adaptations have led to the evolution of 30 million species (and possibly upwards of 100 million) ~ each with its own unique way of meeting its needs in harmony with its environment. Ecologists have long been intrigued by how complex, efficient, and effective these adaptations are. Despite their immense variety, natural systems ~ from microscopic amoebas to entire ecosystems and biomes ~ share at least one trait. They are limited in their adaptations by the constraints of their environment and by the natural laws of biology. Following these biological laws, it seems, is essential to maintaining long-term sustainability.
The Human Approach: This is where we diverge from the evolutionary pack. Although modern humans are also organisms with a complex set of life requisites, and although we too adapt, we have chosen to do so without regard to environmental constraints. As organisms, we tend to be long-lived, mobile, migratory generalists with moderate reproduction but high survival rates, large energy requirements, and complex communication and social systems. With these characteristics, we have created a set of life requisites which include demands for products and services that we feel are necessary ~ not only for survival, but also for human happiness. In our modern industrial world, we have created a life style to meet these demands, yet our adaptations no longer follow biological laws. In fact, we often adapt our environments and attempt to change the very constraints that force our own adaptation. Indeed, in our industrial, financial, and civil systems, often the antithesis of biological laws are prescribed. As a result, there is considerable evidence that we are pushing the limits of our existence. And, as the limitations of the world’s natural resources and environment become more apparent, human systems worldwide are seeking solutions to ensure our own sustainability.
It was not always this way. Adaptations by peoples of prehistoric and indigenous cultures closely followed biological laws, because of their close and intimate relationship with nature. These cultures, in seeking to meet life requisites, observed and learned from those organisms sharing their environments and with similar needs and demands. For example, Eskimo cultures of northern America learned from the polar bears to build snow houses and to use fur for warmth; people of the Amazon Basin observed the toxic effects of the poison dart frog on its predators and apply that same toxin to their arrows; and early peoples of Africa observed primates for clues on edible plants. These peoples, living within the context of their environment and biological laws, evolved cultures that have sustained for almost 20,000 years. Perhaps the key to their sustainability was their habit of looking to nature for their best ideas. If we wish to maximize long-term sustainability for the human race, we must emulate nature in the same way. In recreating our industrial, financial, even our civil systems, we must ask, “If nature had to create a system that performed the services and functions that we as humans demand, how would she do it?”
The Sustainability Dilemma: Despite the popularity and abundance of books and advice on simple living, “back to land” approaches, and ecological consumerism, demands for products and services will not disappear. They will, most likely, only increase in number and complexity. The challenge is to find a means to meet the needs of humans while simultaneously ensuring our well being and our long-term sustainability within the context of our natural systems. In our industrialized societies, natural systems are considered wholly separate from our human systems. However, the characteristics displayed by natural systems ~ evolving, adaptive, and sustainable ~ are the exact same characteristics that we strive for in our human systems today.
All designers of human systems can learn much from the natural world, but nature in her wealth has not been effectively consulted as a source of information, inspiration, and innovation. We can look at solar-powered transpiration in trees as a means to silently move tons of water up hundreds of feet, at how mangroves desalinate water, and at how termites thermoregulate their shelters through structural design. That is, we can strive to make our artifacts function, to the greatest extent possible, with the same environmental savvy as time-tested biological organisms. And maybe even use the same techniques that they’ve perfected to pull off that trick. In a ground breaking book, Janine Benyus has explored this idea and brought together innovators from around the world who are turning towards nature as a mentor. She calls this emulation Biomimicry. She poses the essential question-“How might we apply biological designs, processes, and laws to the design of human systems? How can we all be biomimics?”
Availability of information is not the limitation, especially in a world populated by highly trained specialists filling every niche and with the advent of the Internet and global communication systems. Entire academic disciplines are devoted to understanding the designs, processes, and laws of nature. In fact, our understanding of the natural world, i.e. biological information, doubles every five years. And the demand for more information can be met–according to the National Science Foundation over 10% of PhD’s in the field of biology are struggling to find work or are in unrelated fields. Of scientists employed in research and development, less than 17% in development are biologists, while only 7% in the design sector are biologists. Yet, almost 28% of PhD’s in science and engineering are biologists. We clearly need a means to bring biologists and biological information to a future world of biomimics.
Small steps have been taken in the application of biological law to human system design. The principles of sustainable agriculture, green building, environmental design, and industrial ecology are based on natural systems. However, the information available for developing creative solutions in these disciplines, among others, has not been translated into a form for assimilation. The designers of these human systems need more than a cursory understanding of ecological principles. Biological designs, processes, and laws must be translated for accessibility and applicability. It is time to for the metamorphosis from theory into practice.
Biological Models for Human Systems: The process of transcribing and translating biological designs, processes, and laws in living systems provides an excellent framework for application to human systems. Biological designs, processes, and laws are written in the building blocks for all living organisms: DNA. Stored in the nucleus of all living cells, DNA are strands of nucleic acids: guanine, adenine, thymine and cytosine. These four nucleic acids are assembled into long sentences of biological laws. These biological laws guide the function of living cells through an elegantly simple and universal process. Information contained within DNA is transcribed in the nucleus by RNA polymerase and sent out of the nucleus as messenger RNA. Messenger RNA is then translated at the ribosomes into amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Proteins are the foundation for all life: from the cellular level to the organismic and play a central role in the manifestation of populations, ecosystems, biomes, and global dynamics. All of life is acted out based on the functions of proteins.
We can use this process as a model for application to human systems. DNA are the biological laws that trained biological scientists are actively researching today. These biologists perform the transcription process of the living cell, publishing biological information, and like strands of messenger RNA, their papers float out of the nucleus of the lab. This information should then be translated by a system acting like ribosomes, so that it can be used to build amino acids. Designers of human systems (i.e. industry, banks, governments, civil societies, etc.) seek these amino acids to build the proteins of the goods and services that humans demand, today and in the future.
A simple model ~ yet surprisingly, we have no human equivalent for ribosomes. Biologists transcribe biological designs, processes, and laws at an amazing rate, but this information is seldom translated for designers of human system needing the blueprints for manufacturing the goods and services that the modern world demands. We are missing the translation process in incorporating biological designs, processes, and laws. By creating a system like the ribosomes, we can take the sustainable solutions that life has evolved and apply them to human dilemmas.
Visit the Biomimicry website.