SCIENCE

Can Tech Become Natural and Warm with the Superformula?

A marriage between tech and nature might do the trick

Marriages are in my head all the time lately. Not the romantic kind of boy meets girl but the ones where humans meet nature. And nature meets humanity and they live happily ever after.

Why do I tell you about this in a tech magazine, you ask?

Well, because there are things I see that you might not see (yet). And they might change everything we know and have done so far.

Philosophy Shift

There’s a big shift happening in the world with regard to philosophy. We are shifting from Cartesian thinking (Descartes) to Deep Ecology where humans are part of nature. And nature has an intrinsic value of her own.

It’s no wonder. And it’s high time. Because although Descartes brought us far he was also a very cruel man. He made humans into machines and said it was okay. Because that’s science.

Descartes gave us a good sense of rationality. But he also didn’t believe animals had souls. To test his theory, he nailed his wife’s dog to a board and chopped it open while the poor thing was still alive.

‘I suppose the body to be nothing but a statue or machine made of earth,’ Descartes wrote in Treatise on Man (1664).

Don’t you think it’s time to replace that cruel, limited philosophy with some warmer, more loving thoughts of oneness? Luckily, that’s what’s happening now. I see it every day in business, in governments, and in tech. In tech? What? Yes, in tech.

The current philosophy shift is from Descartes to Deep Ecology

Wild Soul Woman

Tech is full of Cartesian thoughts of ones and zeros. Techies think black or white. And that’s not their fault. It’s what they’ve been taught in their tech educations.

But what if under our noses that has been changing? And no one really noticed because it’s buried in scientific specialisms? Some see the advantages, other don’t (yet). So they won’t go play with it and experiment to find the hugely innovative applications of the future?

The shift I’m talking about is a shift in mathematics. Descartes has been ruling tech for centuries with his definition of circles. The Descartes Theorem has been dominant since 1643. And Cartesian tech followed with the rationale that we only need ones and zeros to make everything. The Cartesian health sciences followed with genetics. Unimaginatively cutting and pasting genes, ignoring the regenerative cells in our bodies completely.

Why didn’t Descartes see the disadvantages then? Why didn’t he hear his intuition and his conscience shouting: stop! You can’t go here! Well, he wasn’t able to look into the future, was he? He was only one man blinded by the customs of that time…

Could it be that he didn’t have a wild soul woman to work closely with? Like Albert Einstein did have with Marie Curie? And James Lovelock did have with Lynn Margulis? I bet all four were much wiser because they worked with someone they didn’t completely understand. Diversity is needed for super-innovative teams. Diversity also takes the sharp edges of the version of the truth we think we see…

I wish he would have had a soulful woman next to him, who had been courageous enough to say: “I understand you think you are superior, René. And I guess you just wanna be famous. But this is just plain stupid. You don’t really think that animal you just cut open is screeching just like a clock, do you? Are you mad? Of course, that animal has a soul and is in pain! Stop it!”

The world would have been a different place right now if he had had a courageous woman with a wild soul like Marie or Lynn at his side…

What if Descartes would have had a soulful woman on his scientific side? One who said: “You don’t really think that animal you just cut open is screeching just like a clock, do you? Are you mad? Of course, that animal has a soul and is in pain! Stop it!”

Other Shifts

The philosophy shift from Descartes to Deep Ecology has many other shifts in its wake. I already wrote often about the changes in business models and material sciences. But there are many more if you zoom out and watch closely.

Here are some more:

• From genetics to epigenetics. We know there are more factors at work to make us healthy than just genes. The environment of a person might cause genes to switch on or off and thus cause diseases or cure diseases
• And if we would include Fritjof Capra’s work on systems thinking, we would easily come to solutions how to include this important knowledge into our health systems
• From a focus on just genes to a focus on regenerative cells, as Lynn Margulis taught us. We know that genes are stores full of historic information. But cells are the regenerative parts of our body. According to researchers, the body replaces itself with a largely new set of cells every 7-10 years
• And if also here we would know how to think systemically, we would be able to change our whole human health system to our advantage

From genetics to epigenetics

Shift in Tech

Well, let’s go back to hardcore tech then. What’s the shift from the Cartesian tech that I see emerging in the world? It is called the Superformula.

Descartes came up with mathematics for a circle. It was a rather static affair. No flexibility at all. Just a circle and a radius, leading to the super-rational tech of 1-s and 0-s. It’s limited. It’s black and white. It’s not of this time and age anymore. But many tech-professionals don’t know any different.

Lamé’s ellipse-theories gave mathematics somewhat more flexibility already. And after many other mathematicians had added their wisdom to the formulas, Johan Gielis made it into the Superformula.

The Superformula is a formula for all shapes of nature. That’s what I like as a woman with a wild soul. All shapes! Imagine! Curved. Flower-shapes. Spirals and fractals. I can imagine the physical and immaterial spheres changing. Imagine we can make a curved building in an efficient way. No sharp edges no more, no unimaginative, ugly boxes. It would change buildings, art, production methods, materials, and health, health, health…

Johan Gielis said to me: “It’s really amazing if you look at nature and notice there are no real circles or even ellipses. Nature does it differently. And embedded in a formula, we can copy nature and make all kinds of flexible solutions in efficient ways. I’m working on Superformula in relation to music now. And when we have progressed further, the Superformula might even replace the Theory of Everything.”

I’m having weekly talks with Johan now. And the more I learn, the more I see the shift is already happening. The Superformula is already used in scanning devices, antennas, internet technologies, and MRIs. And the possibilities are endless.

If Descartes would have had a wild soul woman on his scientific side, the past might have turned out different as well. She might have been able to gaze at the future with her vast intuition, and whisper: “Go on, my dear René, go on. I just know there’s more to discover. An animal without a soul… you can do better than that…”

And together they would have painted pictures of buildings full of natural shapes, flexible and healthy materials that do not off-gas and are fully biodegradable. They would have healed the past with sacred geometry and not doubt the value of its wisdom. They would have measured results qualitatively and quantitatively. And be immensely happy with the beauty and health created.

Well, Descartes missed his chance. But what’s stopping us right now? Mergers of wise women and wise men, who do know all genders and cultures and races are different and don’t need to derive superiority from that fact. We can dance with diversity knowing that everybody is a unique being anyway.

Descartes missed his chance. But what’s stopping us from creating the regenerative future now anyway?

Art with a Compass

Nobody is able to see clearly into the future. There are just possible paths with lots of crossroads where we have to make decisions. Left or right. Full control or dancing with systems, as Donella Meadows used to call it.

I like to dance with systems and make transition paths accordingly. Full of opportunities and solutions for humans and ecosystems.

Art can help to visualize the possible future. Make it tangible. So, my dear artist and storyteller friends; here’s a role for you. Visualize the healthy future based on regenerative sciences. A future in which we are all able to heal ourselves from the scars we inevitably get while living. A future in which the planet can heal herself too.

No dull, unadventurous life for us. We want to stand strong in our intuition. And we want to leave enough space for other humans to stand strong as well. Just like other species. They deserve their space as much as the rest of us.

If we take health for all and regeneration as a compass and imagine the new world from that perspective, it will be a beautiful one. One in which our grandsons can thrive. And that’s something I treasure…

A role for all artists and storytellers: re-imagine the regenerative future…

Utopia — Dystopia

This story is a standalone but also a reply to Edward Robson, PhD who refuses to jump the dystopian bandwagon:

“We are meaning makers. We aren’t the problem. We are the solution.”

I agree completely. We can imagine and find viable transition paths. We just need to feel our strong compass in our wise bodies.

• Translate it to one word in your head: HEALTH FOR ALL
• Build up your knowledge: REGENERATION

And dance, my friends. Re-imagine our future and dance…

Want to connect? You can find me somewhere on our beautiful planet, with my hands in the soil and my eyes gazing at the stars. Or find me via Linktree.

© Désirée Driesenaar