FUTURE

From Anthropocene to Syntropocene. How Can We Create a Positive Energy Balance?

From Entropy to Syntropy is the answer

Our planet Earth is all about emergence. A baby is born and is more than just x and y chromosomes. A baby comes out from behind her parents (the literal meaning of emergence) and has an identity and wisdom of her own. Every baby is a little wiser than her parents. That’s evolution.

All living matter on Earth is emergent. It appears where in the past there was nothing. And that’s good news. Our world is so chaotic right now, that everybody is in danger of missing the wood for the trees.

And that’s exactly what happens in evolution. Things get more complex. But it doesn’t mean they get complicated. We just have to make sense of it. And we have to understand how we can be better humans on this Planet.

My life’s search is about emergence, evolution, and humanness. How do living systems work? How can we create new living systems so we stop being stuck in the dead, mechanical systems we have created right now?

I don’t like the world right now. It’s so full of polluting industry and fighting people. Destruction rules. It has become so gray, linear, and uninspired that I sometimes forget about rainbows and beauty. No wonder there are so many zombie people who cannot feel their hearts. I don’t want a world like this! So, I decided to learn and do something about it.

And luckily, Nature has all the answers.

In the 1970s, the Limits to Growth, a report to the club of Rome has been presented, telling us that we live on a planet with physical boundaries. So we have to stop growing. Our planet cannot produce more stuff (because of our belief that entropy is the truth) and we are just consuming and consuming physical resources as if there’s no tomorrow.

The environmental movement was strengthened. They shouted to everybody: we need to consume less! We need to produce less! We need to save our planet.

Well, let me be clear about this. We don’t need to save our planet, she will survive. It’s our human lives at stake, here! If we don’t find ways to understand our planet and live according to her very clear rules, we humans are f*cked and we will just disappear like the dinosaurs.

After a lot of study time, I’m convinced that if we understand how emergence works and see how we have built our world on wrong assumptions, we can solve all problems. We can create with syntropy instead of just entropy. We can create a liveable future with lots of time and freedom for unique living, and love, and friendships.

And that’s what I want for our grandchildren. And their grandchildren.

Self-regulating System

How about this entropy and syntropy? In order to understand where we got stuck in our current science, physics, and engineering, it’s good to know that the law of entropy in thermodynamics has influenced many areas of our human world. Engineering is an important one of them, but also economics, money systems, laws systems, and medical systems are based on entropy.

How do I explain entropy? The famous quantum physicist Richard Feynman explains it well. In thermodynamics, atoms are jiggling faster when heated. And slower when cooling down. The energy is not going anywhere, it’s just distributed between atoms and surfaces. There can never be more energy, according to entropy. Entropy is also called the law of disorder. Atoms jiggle more randomly and everything collides with everything, resulting in chaos.

In thermodynamics, the term entropy is well-defined and because of the many possible combinations, it seems like a lot of disorder. However, I’m convinced the Universe doesn’t play dice. And if you look with biological glasses on, there’s more order than disorder, e.g. in a gas.

Our combustion engine is based on the law of entropy. It works with temperature differences and is explained here. Our industrial revolution started with a linear business model of the steam engine, forgetting about pollution and waste. All large-scale production methods and business models have three things in common now: entropy, synthetic chemistry, and linear business models.

By now we know how polluting, and toxic, and stupid these ways of production and doing business are. But how can we do it differently when we believe we cannot create more energy on this Earth? Everything is energy. We know that. But if we believe (wrongly) that we cannot create new energy, we start competing. With our belief in entropy, we have created a world of scarcity.

So, what’s next?

Syntropy Is Like a River

Our planet is a self-regulating system. That’s something we know by now. James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis have proven it and if you want to know how it works, just watch the documentary Symbiotic Earth on Vimeo.

Well, the answer is simple. We have to understand the law of syntropy instead of just entropy. Chaos theory is clear about it. We need chaos in a complex living system. Although chaos theory could just as well be called pattern theory. Only 1/3 is chaos, the rest is really patterned if we look close enough.

If we are able to align the atoms to stream in the same direction, we have a river that creates life instead of destroys life. Chaos is there for a reason. And that’s not to divide and conquer as we humans do now…

Living systems work with entropy AND syntropy.

Entropy is part colliding chaos, part aligned patterns, but there is no possibility of creating extra energy. Syntropy aligns and creates. They also collide inside the system, of course. But the overarching direction is the same.

Syntropy is like a river and a rainbow. There are small vortexes and collisions in the flow. But the atoms, droplets, all stream in the same direction. We have to make sure the flow isn’t dammed. And Nature can do what she needs to do. Create extra energy. By giving us information. Through air.

How does she do that? Nature (including humans) feels the horizon pulling.

Syntropy

How does syntropy birth the new? Syntropy is the alternating Sun and Moon and everything else that happens between the planets in the Universe. I’m glad many people study that part of things.

The Sun creates living chemistry and thus matter in the air. A tree is created in the air with the process of photosynthesis as Richard Feynman explains. Sunlight shines on CO2 and splits the C (carbon) from O2 (oxygen). Carbon is captured and creates the bark and branches of the tree, oxygen stays in the air for animals and humans to breathe.

This ‘in air’ bit is entropy and syntropy together. Afterward, the tree connects with the micro-organisms and fungi in the soil and is solidified into matter. By recognizing only entropy, we got stuck in matter without realizing we can create new matter with nothingness. Through air.

The Sun creates the focal point during the day. The Moon creates the flow during the night. One cycle in evolution is never a symmetrical circle. It’s a spiral. Bio geometry and sacred geometry prove it. They use dots and calculate the spirals. Every time a little more energy and a little more complexity.

And it’s also very important that we realize that science doesn’t have all the answers yet. Entropy seems just disorder. But God doesn’t play dice. There’s no such thing as coincidence. And there’s definitely more order than we think when we watch atoms with biological glasses on. We have to keep being curious! Making cracks bigger with every bit of research that we do, so the light can come in and we start to see our current spot in time and evolution more clear.

What can we do as humans when we read this?

1. We can go through the creation spirals of birth, growth death, and decay quicker, so we create more energy (time and movement)
2. We can focus our personal attention on a certain role in order to navigate the ever-increasing complexity (space and focus)
3. We can align with Sun and Moon and planets to get our own personal rivers flowing. We are a tiny dot. And at the same time, we are a hugely powerful droplet in an evolutionary river

What do we do as humans at this moment? We stay stuck in entropy and reductionism. Circular economy is mainly taking place in a physical, industrial circle instead of a natural spiral: in entropy instead of syntropy. We create matter that lasts long or even never degrades (concrete, asphalt, plastics). Materials go very slowly through the creation spirals. We get everything stuck in linear business models that try to slow product life cycles and halt evolution.

We created technological and institutional lock-ins because nobody wants to give up vested interests. And laws are much too detailed, forcing us to use old technologies instead of new ones that will do much better. Again slowing down evolution big time.

We can do better, my friends! We can make laws like holons. Minimal clear boundaries so the activity inside starts to become vibrant, alive, and aligned towards the horizon.

We can also create business models based on syntropy: conscious business models.

Syntropic Farming

Syntropy already has several practical applications. And one of them is syntropic farming. Syntropic farming captures the sun in every design. It’s a way of farming that uses the 7 layers of agroforestry to produce as much food and other functional plants as possible on a very small area of the planet. But it does something extra.

And the ‘something extra’ is creating the emergence. The extra energy in the system. The ‘something extra’ is simply using the extra 2D we already understand. Time and space. It’s what I describe here. Not tree planting but creating optimum conditions for dormant seeds to germinate.

Our Planet knows natural succession. We have pioneer plants and when they have fulfilled their function, other plants emerge. And all these plants have a role in time. All these plants work together. They love the light, so they compete for the sun. But when we design a living system properly, every part of the system has enough sun. And there will be no scarcity.

Only creation of extra energy. And distribution of this energy over nodes, junctions. Weeding is not necessary for syntropic farming. Just designing properly. Harvesting is weeding.

Design and Rationality

Designing a syntropic, living system sounds very rational. It seems to be all about understanding the plants, and the soil, and the interactions. That’s why people think permaculture is complicated.

Well, don’t worry. We don’t have to understand and analyze with our logical, rational brains. We have a second brain half which is much more equipped for dealing with complexity.

This brain half is fed information through the air, which can come into our consciousness as intuition. It is fed by observation and listening. We already know that our human technology uses mainly physical energy sources and solid materials. Nature’s technology uses mainly structure and information.

Well, this story is about the information part, which fascinates me tremendously!

Syntropy is defined in the dictionary as ‘A number of similar structures inclined in one general direction, such as the ribs’. How does Nature ‘know’ how to align the atoms as ribs in a baby? Syntropy! Information through the air. The baby, the mother, her cells, every living structure is a receiver, a recepticle, an antenna.

And if we want to create new value with that, the Superformula, the Gielis Transformations provide the mathematics to make the next steps. Already used in architecture, physics, psychology, nanotech, computer graphics, vision and data mining, and some other fields.

The codes of vedic mathematics, sacred geometry, are creating huge next steps in our practical applications as well. They are also used in architecture, like here in Turkey.

Some older scientists who understood the implications of syntropy are Leonardo da Vinci, the architect, physicist, and painter. Viktor Schauberger, a very wise scientist who has given us huge knowledge on vital water and vortexes. Rudolf Steiner, who definitely saw syntropy and translated it into anthroposophy. And Nikola Tesla (no, I don’t mean the car!), the scientist who has given us everything we need to know to create free energy with syntropy.

Let me give you this illustration by Ernst Gotsch (syntropic farming) to explain how we might understand it.

We got the left, red, earthly, rational, analytical part right. Form, matter, atomic, and plasma. And I have changed the drawing a little to make you understand how Nature does the right, syntropic, part.

First of all, the centripetal part is bigger than the centrifugal. A river is for 2/3 part meandering and 1/3 is direct flow. So, you can say we only create with 1/3 of what’s available to us from our Planet right now.

Also, what many people experience as spirit, completely aligns with Sun & Moon. We are Nature, we feel the pushes and pulls of the Moon and the rays of the Sun as much in our bodies as the oceans do.

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

— Albert Einstein’s perspective

The Idea loop is the observer in quantum physics that lots of scientists struggle with.

I work with the observer practically by making a vision for an organism (company, society, community). The purpose. Clear intentions. Then we need boundaries. The holon, so inside everything can start resonating. Moving, colliding, jiggling, and aligning.

I trained to work with holons from a distance. Creating resonance in a field with clear boundaries. And it definitely worked to heal larger ecosystems as done in Russia, Scotland, England, and Costa Rica by my peer practitioners. I’m sure it’s not the only way though. If we have a clear vision and laws that are a closed holon, it would work as well. Especially when people inside are becoming more and more conscious.

The Function loop can be created with the new mathematics insights. Bio geometry and sacred geometry. I don’t understand exactly (yet) how some of this geometry is linked, but I’m sure it is because I already observe clear results of both, so the scientific proof will follow. And I will keep studying and applying at the same time.

And then we are in the Form loop again. Nothing woo-woo about it. Just Nature.

My friends, it’s time we start to work on the centripetal side of living systems, syntropy. On the meandering part of the river. So many things about emergence are still to be discovered!

We need you all to add your puzzle pieces so we see more and start to apply more! Speed up the river from entropy to syntropy just by becoming conscious of what’s happening…

Living Systems vs Mechanical Systems

The centripetal part reverses the direction, from the inside out instead of from the outside in. Viktor Schauberger has proven that vortexes like these are cleaning rivers naturally. One sweep to go back to simple (kill all bacteria) and the next sweep to renew the biome, start afresh, and become even more complex with more energy.

This is how our human bodies regenerate their cell structures in 7–10 years' time. Everything is regenerative. And if we start to create with syntropy in our minds, using both our brain halves, we can create all we need on this Planet. For humans and for other species.

We can deal with complexity in simple, diverse ways.

We just have to embrace the arational next to the rational. We have two brain halves for a reason! And we only use one now. The rational, analytical one. How stupid is that?

Some examples of how I do it personally?

• I practice using holons and resonance within boundaries as I was taught. I work with intentions, informators, and transformators. I study Nature. And most important of all, I feel my way through and then the rational explanations enter my brain and I write them down
• I change my fear into joy by transcending my anger and grief. This way, my personal river starts flowing a little more freely
• I embrace space. Space and time are more important in my life than ever. My nights are the time for creation. I don’t know exactly how I do it, but apparently, my brain is an antenna in the night and the next morning I know what to create that day. What to write, who needs attention, what needs my attention. Everything I need for my role on this Planet emerges. The people I meet. The knowledge I gain. The opportunities for further creation come on my path. I’m one droplet in the river flowing towards the Syntropocene and beyond
• Embracing space means meditation, although I don’t need it that often anymore, now that my nights have become so productive
• Embracing space definitely means nature connection. Being outside as much as I can. Opening my brain for the air, the wind, the rain. Putting my hands in the soil and my feet in the sea or a lake or a river
• I embrace the flow. Not getting stuck in my past personal stories, no attaching my memories to stuff I own. Everything is evolving rapidly, and I embrace movement literally in my nowadays nomadic life
• I observe and I listen closely. To people and to space. And by doing that I get a strong feeling about what wants to emerge in a certain location and a certain time. This is how I design everything in my life now. In my personal and work life. Everything!
• Create a spiral and let go of the results. Then again, create a spiral and let go of the results. Always making fierce choices, driven by the same gut feeling. Because I know I can only do one thing at one time. Focusing on my role. Not trying to be everything to everybody.
• I give myself boundaries. A holon. Choose. Choose. Choose. What’s my focus right now?
• I use design thinking in all of my projects. Divergence and convergence. Broad exploration (inspiration) alternating with design sprints (focus) to get some quick results. Zooming out to the biggest and zooming in to the smallest I can feel. My own body.

In earlier stories, I called our current shift in the world ‘from Anthropocene to Symbiocene’. But now I know better. We are on our way from Anthropocene to Syntropocene. And I’ll keep telling you what I see on my path.

And of course, I’m very interested in what you see. How do you experience the shift? The law of syntropy? Do you already see good examples in the world?

Let’s talk…

You can find me somewhere on our beautiful planet, with my hands in the soil and my eyes focused on the stars. Abundanism and Linktree. Thank you, Mike, for adding your wise energy to my words.

© Désirée Driesenaar 2021