Primarily, life is a process. All living agents are constituted by elements that underlie physics and chemistry. Symbiotic relationships are an important component of life. Symbioses occurs within and across all scales of life, from microbial to macro-faunal systems.
Symbiosis has also played a central role in the pre-biotic evolution, in the emergency and evolution of eukaryotes, in the origin of land plants, and in a myriad of adaptive evolutionary innovations. It is the main rule in nature, and the main evolutionary mechanism in the establishment and maintenance of biomes, as well as the foundation of biodiversity.
Organisms living symbiotically and communicating with each other is the structural base of evolutive success and the hierarchical complexity organization in the web of life. Symbiosis is the way through which the acquisition of new genomes and new metabolic capacities occur, making the evolution of biological organisms possible.
In such relationships, plants or animals of different species may be dependent on one another for survival. They may share habitats or lifestyles or interact in a way in which they benefit from the presence of another organism. The main characteristic of this process is the coordinated organization of complex interactions that we see as protein-based organisms of three domains of life, their reproduction, and metabolism all mediated by complex interwoven gene regulation as a result of communication. Bacteria, plants, animals, and other forms of nonhuman life display an uncanny penchant for self-deterministic decisions, patterns, and actions.
Context-dependent meaningful communication and network formation (and control) are central to all life forms. An organism must live within a complex set of relationships to survive and thrive in any environment. Some relationships will be more positive than others, but it should not surprise that mutualistic symbiosis is so often the key to success.
It is time to reperceive life as a planetary process of cooperation in which a unified whole expressing itself on nested temporal and spatial scales of complexity evolves in intimate reciprocity as a living planet. Life is a regenerative community rooted in patters of symbiosis and cooperation that creates shared abundance and conditions to life. Nature is full of solutions that are inherently regenerative. Learning from bio-inspired innovation – covering disciplines like biomimicry, biophilia, permaculture, living systems thinking, nature-based solutions and regenerative design – and transform our current degenerative value system into a regenerative one, enhancing the world through benign innovation.
How humanity coexist and co-evolve with natural life, non-human life and in the future with other types of living artificial intelligence, brings fundamental challenges to human survival as well as transformative opportunities for humanity.