In the next series of blogs I’d like to point to core principles that could inform a Planet of Integral Cities.
The first place I start is with Planet. Bucky Fuller called our Planet, Spaceship Earth. This draws my attention to the family of planets we belong to orbiting in our Solar System, within our Milky Way Galaxy and speeding through the Cosmos of (apparently expanding) Space/Time.
The second view I take, comes from James Lovelock who calls our Planet, Gaia. He reminds us that Earth is a Living System; that through her evolution, she has emerged expressions and patterns of Cosmological and Biological information, energy and matter. Furthermore he acknowledges that humans have a special evolutionary contribution to make to Gaia, as her “reflective organ”.
Thirdly I think about the City as the collective habitat of the human species. It is an Anthropocentric creation. I think about the city as the most complex system that humans have yet created.
I appreciate these three spheres as the basic A-B-C realities (as formulated by Integral Geographer, Dr. Brian Eddy) for framing a set of Principles for a Planet of Cities :
- Cosmosphere
- Biosphere
- Anthroposphere
Let’s see where this starting point leads us in discovering the Core Principles for a Planet of Integral Cities.
[…] « ABC’s Frame Core Principles for Planet of Integral Cities […]
[…] Natural – the Principles must be derived from how Nature operates. This would embrace the sum total of our Cosmo-Bio-Anthropo-centric heritage (A-B-C). […]
I like this approach of starting with the big picture and zooming in!! It expresses an even prior principle of a different kind: “Context is everything!” (well, not quite Everything, but some people say that so I include the quote.)
Could you say why you consider cities
“the most complex system that humans have yet created” ?
How are they more complex than countries, nations, counties, some multi-national groups and businesses, and even some cyberspace global groups?
I am not challenging your assertion; it makes intuitive sense to me. But I would like to unpack it a bit to understand from what considerations you assert this.
And if that’s all in your book, just cite chapter and page, LOL!!!
[…] Anthropic Principles for a Planet of Cities can be derived from an examination of the levels of complexity. […]
[…] we explored the evolutionary context of the life-giving Principles of Anthro-Bio-Cosmo emergence (thanks to Integral Geographer Dr. Brian […]