We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make choices wisely.

James Lovelock is considered the founder of Earth Systems Science; his struggle to get the concept of Earth as a superorganism, a system of co-dependent, co-evolving systems, met with resistance when first proposed over forty years ago as "the Gaia Hypothesis."

This page focuses on the overlap of Earth Systems Science and collaborative intelligence, emphasizing the need for systemic approaches to global problem-solving, to be able to apply the old dictum to "act locally" such that local actions together achieve global impact. While energy-saving technologies are continually being developed, our greatest challenge is to decision support.

• A Brief History of the Superorganism, Part One
• A Brief History of the Superorganism, Part Two
• Thoughts on Ants, Altruism and the Future of Humanity
• The Early Science of Altruism
• The Future Science of Altruism
• Is Homosexuality an Evolutionary Step Towards the Superorganism?
• Honeybee Weapon in War on Cancer
• Complexity Theory Takes Evolution to Another Level
• Evolution as Biological Thermodynamics
• Superorganism as Window Into Complexity and Evolution
• Complexity Theory in Icky Action: Meet the Slime Mold
• Biologists Take Evolution Beyond Darwin — Way Beyond
• The Complexity of Evolution

Forty years earlier James Lovelock encountered substantial resistance to his formulation of the Gaia Hypothesis showed that the Earth and its biosphere can be viewed as an integrated, coherently functioning organism. At first his hypothesis was met with resistance, then disbelief, and later aroused debate. Although it appeared plausible, based on observing Earth’s unique atmospheric behavior, because his hypothesis was based solely on observation, Lovelock couldn’t prove it. He sought ways to confirm the Gaia Hypothesis, refining it to focus on how life on Earth might regulate its atmosphere to make it suitable for life on Earth.

Practical Applications. From non-living cellular automata, left, to bees, above, to mapping attributes of the biosphere, rules govern effective coordination of systems.

Sustainability is the optimisation of tradeoffs to maximise environmental stewardship within the context of project planning priorities and, as defined by the Brundtland Commission, “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

INCOMPLETE . . . .

©2011 Zann Gill Please attribute, linking to this site.
Contact: webmaster at collaborative-intelligence. org

Image of Bees. Courtesy
Wired Science.

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