The currently dominant carbocultural energy regime is turning against itself by overshooting the carrying capacity of the habitat. This cannot go on, and a new energy regime must emerge. I discussed the possibility of a nucleocultural regime in Part 62. But if humans do not make that choice fully, what else is possible?
Niele (2005) has argued in favour of drawing inspiration
from what was done by the blue-greens two billion years ago. They were the
rulers of the phototrophic regime (cf. Part 57), just as we
are the rulers of the current carbocultural regime. They went for a
partnership, or symbiosis: The self-induced crisis of oxygen emission,
which was poison for the blue-greens, was overcome by the evolution of a new
type of cell: the eukaryotic cell, which had organelles limited by membranes.
In the new (aerobic) regime, respiration provided the main fuel-burning
mechanism: The
atmospheric oxygen was conducive to the aerobes, but poison for the
blue-greens. The evolution of a symbiotic ‘pact’ between oxygenic
photosynthesis and aerobic respiration was at the heart of the oxo-energy
revolution, resulting in the emergence of the aerobic regime. The eukaryotic
cell design embodied sunlight-harvesting photosynthesis, as well as protection
against oxygen toxicity.
A similar
symbiosis can happen again, this time for saving man from the
consequences of the loud and clear macroscopical signal of unsustainability. We may be
heading for the emergence of the Symbian Man, who will
effect a symbiosis of the various energy options. It
will be a symbiosis of many things, born out of our perception that system
Earth is one big complex superorganism.
It would be a
symbiosis between:
- Imperial man and Arcadian man.
- Scientific reductionism and scientific holism; or simplicity and complexity.
- Knowledge of natural disciplines and knowledge of cultural disciplines.
- Anthropocentrism and ecocentrism.
- 'Nature mastery' and 'back to Nature'.
- Techno-scientific virtues and socio-ethical virtues.
Although energy
from the Sun will form the backbone of this regime, there are other
renewable-energy options also. To quote Smil: 'Beyond the fossil
fuels the world can tap several enormous renewable flows: direct solar
radiation and wind energy in the accessible layer of the troposphere are both
several orders of magnitude larger than the current global total primary energy
supply and they can be supplemented by hydroenergy and geothermal flows'. The
watchword will be: sustainable energy.
The Symbian Man
will consciously bring about the 'Heliocultural Energy Revolution'
(Niele 2005). The aim will be to develop 'closed-loop' technologies
enabling the solar-driven recycling of matter. Even wind energy is of solar
origin. There will be partnerships or symbiotic relationships of all kinds:
from local to regional to global, and emphasis will be on integrated and
cascaded flows of renewable energy and recyclable matter.
The energy
carriers will be green electricity, solar hydrogen, and green biofuels. 'The
beauty of green biofuels is that Nature looks after carbon recycling through
photosynthesis, with energy storage for free. And albeit efficiencies are
relatively low, residues of food and wood production nevertheless grow. In the Sun
Valley, socio-metabolisms could differ regionally with ecological circumstances
and heliocultures. They show optimised configurations of large-, small- and
also medium scale solutions . . ' (Niele 2005).
The Symbian
approach favours distributed small-scale and decentralised medium-scale
socio-metabolic sites and corresponding infrastructures.
To suppress the discharge of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the environment, the Symbian Man will seek to exploit geological and chemical sequestration.
An interesting
aside regarding carbon dioxide is the large amount of this and other greenhouse
gases released by cattle: They emit from both ends! Their population
should be reduced. In fact, there is a strong case for reduction in the use of food
products of animal origin. Their production is very energy-intensive, with a very large carbon footprint. Humans
should move towards a larger use of foods of plant origin. Not to
mention the fact that a voluntary and phased reduction of the total human
population will also be an important step in the right direction.
Centralized/remote
production or processing of electricity, drinking water, sewage, food, and fuels
results in huge transportation and loss problems. Self-sufficient local
communes with closed-loop economy are the answer. This will also help in the
use of direct local use of heat produced in industrial processes, instead of
first converting heat to electricity, transporting the electricity over long
distances, only to convert it back to heat. All this would call for Symbian
partnerships between governments, NGOs, universities, and R&D companies.
What we have
at present are three possible approaches: the Green Valley, the Nuclear Valley,
and the Sun Valley. There may be an evolutionary battle between the Arcadian
Man, the Imperial Man, and the Symbian Man. Better still, a symbiosis may
emerge wherein the best features of the Green Valley approach and the Nuclear
Valley approach are adopted and subsumed in the Heliocultural Energy Regime.
The Masdar City in Abu Dhabi is an indicator of the shape of things to come.
Efforts are already afoot for spreading awareness regarding a variety of conservation measures. For example, a case is being made for 100% utilisation of 'wet waste' from kitchens for composting etc.
NB. From
the next post onwards I shall take a break from the description of biological
evolution of complexity, and move towards a discussion of artificial
evolution. A major landmark in the biological-evolution story was the
emergence of humans, with brains so advanced that they ultimately became aware
of this evolution, courtesy Charles Darwin. Our brains have also made us develop
computers with ever-increasing capabilities in terms of speed and computing
power. And we have been investigating evolution using computer algorithms. We
build computational models, and study evolution occurring inside a computer.
This is artificial evolution because humans rather than natural processes are
causing it. And we are evolving computer-based robots of ever-increasing sophistication.
It is only a matter of time before the robots (our 'mind children') become
superior to us in every respect. The possibilities are truly exciting, even
grave. The least the public at large can do is to be aware of how it is being
done, and what is at stake.
Thanks
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