Humainologie creative dialogue on the Circular Economy Wednesday May 12

“If you do not change direction, you might end up where you are heading.” - Lao Tzu

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” - George Bernard Shaw

Greta Thunberg is one of many young people concerned about our future as human beings. Warning flags are everywhere you look. Our civilization seems to be on an unsustainable course. If that assessment is correct, then we must change direction.

Is it possible that our economic system could become more like the ecosystem? Can our civilization a hundred years from now be not only prosperous but also sustainable? William McDonough https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McDonough and others have been working on this and they think it may be possible.

Trina’s topic for next Wednesday May 12 is the Circular Economy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_economy I have appended her orientation to the creative dialogue below.

Carpe diem!

Arthur

"There is no such thing as waste in nature." --- Proverb

The Circular Economy is more than materials or energy accounting. It is not merely materialism nor a new cutting-edge engineering trend. It can be beyond that. It is beyond that. The idea of circularity is an invitation to expand our sense of belongingness in a socio-ecological fabric / matrix. It is an invitation to confront how physically we are surrounded, and we are part, and we are benefactors of the cycles in nature and the universe. And these cycles and processes, we even embody ourselves.

May 12th Dialogue smorgasbord on waste + disgust + design.

1) How do you really really really feel about waste? How do you process these associated emotions? (A fascinating paper on the evolution of disgust suggesting socio-cultural origins and mechanisms of "disgust" experiences: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/147470491401200209)

2) How is your relationship with material waste translating in your social relationships and worldviews (political or otherwise)? Do you experience disgust against other people?

3) What does a healthy relationship with waste look like?

4) Having an intellectual understanding of natural cycles e.g. decomposition and death etc, how do you transcend your notions and experiences of disgust? How do you see yourself within this material cycle of birth - death - rebirth (?)

Ted Talk Cradle-To-Cradle Design by William McDonough (Architect): https://www.ted.com/talks/william_mcdonough_cradle_to_cradle_design

"We realize that design is a signal of intention, but it also has to occur within a world, and we have to understand that world in order to imbue our designs with inherent intelligence, and so as we look back at the basic state of affairs in which we design, we, in a way, need to go to the primordial condition to understand the operating system and the frame conditions of a planet, and I think the exciting part of that is the good news that's there, because the news is the news of abundance, and not the news of limits, and I think as our culture tortures itself now with tyrannies and concerns over limits and fear, we can add this other dimension of abundance that is coherent, driven by the sun, and start to imagine what that would be like to share."