Thanks for the great depiction of natural succession, as a path of ecosystem learning. There’s another key piece of science for it, that can help guide a Type II to Type III transition for an economy. It’s that the resources used in *every phase*, for building the next, is the system’s own surplus products. For economy’s that’s its $savings accounts people accumulate, that are used to pay for the resources invested in building the next form of the system, its creative cycle.
Today $savings are managed only by maximizing the rate of growing $savings, and as a Type III system their purpose of $savings would change from multiplying themselves to securing the economy’s health, and relationships with the other communities it relies on. So, $savings would stop being invested for wealth as that undermines the whole, and is then largely used like endowments, for other values needed for securing the whole.
Absolutely brilliant! I will be citing this work in my research for The Bionic City – http://www.scoop.it/t/the-bionic-city – as this comic strip has succinctly summarized one of the key principles my hypothesis embeds. Exciting work Stuart, it’s made my day! Will ping it to a few folks I think will be excited about it too, inc the Earth2Hub.com crew.
This is the coolest comic I’ve seen. Just a great look at ecosytems that either we create by design or by default. Inspirational, beautiful and directional.
Nice analogy there Stuart -really liked this one; it’s a complex topic for a cartoon to tackle! Interesting to muse on what a ‘Type 3′ *modern* human civilisation would look like… actually…I think we have already been a type 3, the Australian aborigines’ traditional way of life would probably fit the bill, and I’m thinking back to the ‘conserver’ society my grandmother inhabited, before the advent of the mass-production and consumption we have nowadays -nothing was wasted or thrown out, everything was conserved and reused because to replace it was unaffordable. We can still go back to that way of living if there is the will…but our economies are dependent on the cycle of consumption, and ‘consumer confidence’… what would happen if we stopped spending, consuming (and wasting, prompting the need for more consumtion)?. Recession! Let us know what a type 3 modern human civilisation looks like!
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Brilliant – as an industrial ecologist, I love this!
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Awesome! Reppin’ work man ill add your site to my news feed
Excellent Comic, I will do some advertisement in a social network
great work stu, i’d love to see this as a backdrop in the council marquee for the next greenheart fair… make it happen stu, make it happen
greg
Thanks for the great depiction of natural succession, as a path of ecosystem learning. There’s another key piece of science for it, that can help guide a Type II to Type III transition for an economy. It’s that the resources used in *every phase*, for building the next, is the system’s own surplus products. For economy’s that’s its $savings accounts people accumulate, that are used to pay for the resources invested in building the next form of the system, its creative cycle.
Today $savings are managed only by maximizing the rate of growing $savings, and as a Type III system their purpose of $savings would change from multiplying themselves to securing the economy’s health, and relationships with the other communities it relies on. So, $savings would stop being invested for wealth as that undermines the whole, and is then largely used like endowments, for other values needed for securing the whole.
A full model is: “Adopt natural system principles to keep economies profitable at their limits” http://www.synapse9.com/signals/2012/05/10/natural-principles-to-stay-profitable-at-limits/
Absolutely brilliant! I will be citing this work in my research for The Bionic City – http://www.scoop.it/t/the-bionic-city – as this comic strip has succinctly summarized one of the key principles my hypothesis embeds. Exciting work Stuart, it’s made my day! Will ping it to a few folks I think will be excited about it too, inc the Earth2Hub.com crew.
The ecological portions of this were painful to read. That view of succession is considered quaint and outdated by much of the scientific community.
This is the coolest comic I’ve seen. Just a great look at ecosytems that either we create by design or by default. Inspirational, beautiful and directional.
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Your style reminds me of Scott McCloud, very direct and and interesting. Keep up the good work, Stuart!
Nice analogy there Stuart -really liked this one; it’s a complex topic for a cartoon to tackle! Interesting to muse on what a ‘Type 3′ *modern* human civilisation would look like… actually…I think we have already been a type 3, the Australian aborigines’ traditional way of life would probably fit the bill, and I’m thinking back to the ‘conserver’ society my grandmother inhabited, before the advent of the mass-production and consumption we have nowadays -nothing was wasted or thrown out, everything was conserved and reused because to replace it was unaffordable. We can still go back to that way of living if there is the will…but our economies are dependent on the cycle of consumption, and ‘consumer confidence’… what would happen if we stopped spending, consuming (and wasting, prompting the need for more consumtion)?. Recession! Let us know what a type 3 modern human civilisation looks like!