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Renaissance of the environment and psychology of sustainability
Cognitive Embodiment of Nature Re-cognized Systemically (Part #4)
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Systemic re-engendering of species? It is however possible that the extinction of natural species, understood in systemic terms as a loss of requisite variety, may engender the emergence of an equivalent pattern in human behaviour and "insight" -- as a human cognitive modality, otherwise understood. The possibility has been intimated by various authors (Henryk Skolimowski, The Participatory Mind: a new theory of knowledge and of the universe, 1994; Darrell Posey, Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity, 1999; David Abram, Becoming Animal: an earthly cosmology, 2011; Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants, 2015).
Understood in this way, any successful effort to eradicate species in nature ensures their re-emergence, although seemingly otherwise, yet recognizable in systemic terms through a pattern language. How many "species", understood cognitively, are required for sustainability? Is this consistent with various arguments for human speciation -- reframed in cognitive terms? Given the cognitive significance of weather and topography, long cultivated through the symbolism variously valued in different cultures, there is similarly the possibility of reframing the cognitive relationship with the environment -- in contrast to the detachment from nature widely deplored.
Lost behavioural characteristics, in information processing terms, may become manifest in strategic modes of cognition by individuals and groups. Arguably, as a speculative provocation, the extinction of dinosaurs might subsequently have engendered the emergence of multinational corporations (Systemic Biomimicry of Dinosaurs by Multinational Corporations: clearing the ground for future psychosocial evolution, 2011).
Renaissance of global civilization may then be understood as implying a cognitive rebirth of the environment in which humanity is embedded -- not simply a Renaissance of human civilization alone, replicating its misinterpreted role in dominance of that environment (Embodying Global Hegemony through a Sustaining Pattern of Discourse: cognitive challenge of dominion over all one surveys, 2015). Curiously the crisis of humanity could be seen as rooted in the inability to reconcile fruitfully the sense of rightful ownership implied by dominion (dominus) with the sense of stewardship and dwelling implied by home (domus). So framed, humanity could be considered unduly skilled in domestic violence.
Psychology of sustainability: More speculatively, it is possible that such considerations are fundamental to the psychology of sustainability, as separately discussed (Psychology of Sustainability: embodying cyclic environmental processes, 2002). As a contribution to reflection on viable strategies for sustainable development on the occasion of the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002), that document focused primarily on environmental cycles in the following sections:
Given the recognized importance of keystone species, namely a plant or animal that plays a unique and crucial role in the way an ecosystem functions, the cognitive identification with such species merits particular consideration. Without keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether. Arguably any approach to sustainability necessitates ensuring appropriate activation of the systemic role of such species, notably in cognitive terms.
"Extraterrestrials", "radicalisation" and "reincarnation"? More intriguing, given the desperate quest by science for alien life elsewhere, there may well be a sense in which "alien life" is engendered and coexists with "normal" human behaviour, as previously explored (Sensing Epiterrestrial Intelligence (SETI): embedding of "extraterrestrials" in episystemic dynamics? 2013).
Could radical extremists be understood otherwise, as separately argued (Coming Out as a Radical -- or Coming In? Risks of cultivating negative capability in a caliphate of normality, 2015; Radical Localization in a Global Systemic Context, 2015; Identifying the Root Cause Focus of Radical Identity: reframing the complex space of radicalisation dynamics, 2015).
There is also a case for reframing the meaning of reincarnation cultivated by some cultures. As information processing patterns, "humans" may well be able to "reincarnate" in animal behavioural patterns (or be effectively obliged to do so by their behaviour). Hence the intuitive recognition of this transformation through nicknames and adoption of totems.
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