Algemeen

I have always been led by a desire to understand life; I went from ecosystems to biophysics to quantum physics and on my way life slipped through my fingers. What’s the point? If the universe is just machinery, a set of differential equations acting on initial conditions, and we are but blips of complexity in an uncaring universe, temporarily self-aware conglomerates of particles that will soon be washed away by entropy increase, then why spend time figuring out just exactly how insignificant our existence is? What’s the meaning of life if there’s no purpose to it? We all have to…

Humanity is making tremendous progress. It is the best time ever to be alive. Why does no one know it? Cities are a dense network of interconnected systems of increasing complexity, all of which use feedback information to exist in dynamic equilibrium. A new era of innovation for our urban future. A moment of recognition/realization The city as the general form of human settlement, as the ecological niche of our species, belongs to the world of antifragility. The city as a system has proven through history to be capable to adapt, self-organize, improve and take advantage of the unpredictable, in…

The Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago with the Sun and rest of the solar system. Life is known to have appeared a billion years later, though that may be a conservative appraisal. No matter the exact date of life’s formation, very soon after its appearance, co-evolution began in which life and the Earth began changing together. The biosphere, which is the sum-total of living organisms, began exerting strong feedback forces on the other geospheres of air (atmosphere), water (hydrosphere), ice (cryosphere), and land (lithosphere). Together, the bio and geospheres formed a coupled Earth system that has evolved as a…

‘Man is destined by his reason to live in a society with men and in it to cultivate himself, to civilize himself, and to make himself moral by the arts and sciences. No matter how strong his animal tendency to yield passively to the attractions of comfort and well-being, which he calls happiness, he is still destined to make himself worthy of humanity by actively struggling with the obstacle that cling to him because of the crudity of his nature.’ – Immanuel Kant Humans are biophysically connected to the biosphere through the flows of materials and energy appropriated from ecosystems….

RETHINKING THE FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTIVE OF OUR URBAN FUTURE AND THEIR DESTINIES. ENTERING THE AGE OF UNCERTAINTY The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence – it is to act with yesterday’s logic. We live in times of certain endings and yet uncertain possibilities. It is easier to imagine the end of the world due to climate change than the measures that could avert it. Meanwhile, the artificial permeates symbolic and natural systems, revealing an infinite horizon of possibilities. Familiar reference systems by means of which we evaluate logics of action are no longer sufficient in this tension…

We live in very exciting times. Urbanization, now on an unprecedented scale, is a major contributor to the systemic clash between biosphere and Technosphere. As cities expand geographically, they encroach on the realms of the biosphere, usurping ever-larger living landscapes and paving them over with tarmac and concrete. The challenge of global regenerative development is sometimes conceptualized as a choice between change by design (or managed transition) and   change by disaster (or forced transition). The upshot is that there is a very high probability that change will come: either forced change or managed change. It is clear that the relationship…

At school I often came into trouble because teachers were irritated and frustrated to continue answering the never-ending ‘why’ questions.  ‘Why do we exist?’ and ‘what was there before the Universe?’ It was not appreciated by my teachers. Education did not go well, and let’s just say I wasn’t hanging out with the ‘right crowd’. I have always been curious about the world and universe we live in, my father inspired me to follow that path and convinced me that asking questions is exactly the right way. And science is getting closer to answer these questions!! Albert Einstein demonstrated that…

Life is possible on Earth because the climate is favorable for it to flourish. In particular, the average range of surface temperatures on Earth allows for abundant liquid water, which is essential for life as we know it. Earth’s average surface temperature has changed over time. But for most of Earth history it has fluctuated within a range that allows for liquid water in the oceans and in land water bodies. Temperature on our planet is controlled, in part, by the fact that we have a thin atmosphere of gases surrounding us; this thin layer acts to hold in some…

Humans are starting to be recognized as an overwhelming forcing factor modulating biosphere dynamics. In this view, the Earth system can be interpreted as entering in a geological era that can be called the Anthropocene, the Technocene or even Capitalocene, depending on the conceptual stance adopted. Human modification of the Earth system has created new dynamics and connections that are causing local ecosystems to behave in new ways, while also having an impact on distant people and places. At the advent of the Anthropocene, life is being pushed to its limits the world over; we are currently living through the…

Living in society has existed since the dawn of human civilization, the history of human society has been characterized by the release of restrictions and the acquisition of freedom through improved capabilities. Moving from hunting society to rural society, humans gained and increased the capacity to produce food, which freed them from hunger. With this, since the existence of Homo Neanderthals and later Homo sapiens, the concept and style of society has been changing over time, evolving with its ways of dealing with different aspects and situations. All life, including human life, ultimately depends on the wellbeing of our host…