In early March I had an opportunity to explore the question, “Are Cities Evolving as Gaia’s Reflective Organs?” My audience was an erudite gathering of the online 3 Horizons University (3Huni for short).
I proposed to explore the case for the evolution of cities, not as a bane on the Earth, but as a necessary stage of maturing capacity of Gaia’s living system. I offered evidence from science, thought experiments and practice, from my Integral City Book Series, Reframing Complex Challenges for Gaia’s Human Hives (2018), Inquiry and Action: Designing Impact for the Human Hive (2017) and Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive (English 2008, Russian 2014).
This is blog 4 of a 4-part blog series – to continue to the next instalments click on the links at the bottom of the blog.
Where is the Evidence?
Now we have taken off a big bite considering the evidence of science, the provocation of thought experiments and the exploration of evolutionary maps.
Is it time to look around us and notice the emergence of Integral Cities through growing “Place” Practices … from community to city to planet of cities to Integral City to Planet of Integral Cities? With just brief nods in three directions, let us consider these examples.
- One of the first people who demonstrate for me the evolutionary patterns of city maturation was, Integral Geographer, Dr. Brian Eddy (the author of our cosmology map above). He mapped out urban development as in Figure below.
Evidence:
2. The second set of evidence comes from the emergence of city associations, that I have been tracking as Smart, Resilient, Integral cities as in Figure below.
Evidence:
3. Finally, the third set of evidence comes from Living Cities Russia who have nicely graphed the emergence of the Master Code in the diagram in Figure below.
Evidence:
Hope for Gaia from Science, Thought Experiments, Maps
My concluding comments come from the inspiration of the Amsterdam Festival 2018 called “We Make the City”. From here I could conclude
Amsterdam: We Make the City
>The City Makes the Planet
>>The Planet evolves Integral Cities
>>> Integral Cities become a Super-Organism
=>Which in turn becomes Gaia’s Reflective Organ
For by reflectively practising the Master Code of Care not only as individuals but as collectives – especially in human hives – humans become a super-organism of reflective Care for the Earth. Another way to say this is that our cities become Gaia’s Reflective Organs of Care (reflecting her Beauty, Truth and Goodness).
It is our job to grow, develop and evolve ourselves, not just as individual human hive organs, but as a collective system to provide Gaia a Reflective Organ System – an organ system who can share stories about a Planet of Integral Cities Who Care.
When will this happen? When Will Human Hives Become Planetary Meshwork of Gaia’s Reflective Organs? Whether it is 2119? 2519? 3019? we are on the evolutionary path to that miraculous emergence.
This blog series explores science, thought experiments and maps to inquire if “Cities are Becoming Gaia’s Reflective Organs?”
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