Negentropy, Economic Abundance, and Reasons for Hope
Adam Bell is a graduate of Arizona State University's Master of Science in Biomimicry Program. He innovates at Isomers of Nature Biomimicry
Our new Alumni Perspective section highlights the thought leadership our Alumni are bringing to the world
Today’s zeitgeist includes many oversimplifications and misunderstandings of scientific theories and principles. Avoidable problems occur when generalizations obscure reality. One example previously addressed here by Dr. Dayna Baumeister is the mistaken understanding of Darwin’s phrase “survival of the fittest”. Another is the second law of thermodynamics and the common belief that “entropy is ever-increasing.” It is correct that entropy, a lack of available energy, can never decrease within a closed system and that, eventually, all such systems must end frozen in chaos. What’s erroneous is the statement that, for all practical purposes, most of the systems in which we operate are closed, and the subsequent assumption that entropy writ large will manifest itself significantly on human time scales. In fact, most of our earthly systems enjoy relative openness, which is to say that resources, such as sunlight, can be added. Further, over geologic timescales: epochs, eras, indeed for 3.8 billion years, life on planet earth has evolved in defiance of entropy; life on earth has exhibited negentropy.
Negentropy was fundamental in the formation of the biosphere. Earth didn’t start with an oxygen-rich atmosphere. After single-celled life started in the oceans, further evolution and specialization occurred. The only thing added to Earth’s system was sunlight, but that was enough for cyanobacteria to develop a rudimentary form of photosynthesis, which produced oxygen. Over millions of years, this helped create the oxygen-rich atmosphere we know today and allowed the development of more efficient (aerobic) metabolism leveraging that oxygen, as is seen in most complex life today, including humans.
Cyanobacteria such as these were responsible for creating the oxygen rich atmosphere that we breath today
Negentropy (literally negative entropy, or syntropy) is an ecosystem principle which tells us that, as long as additional resources can be added to a given system—be that our planet, a forest, or an economy—that system’s components rather than decaying into disorder, may coalesce, more and more over time. The result tends towards specialization, differentiation, and, finally, mutualistic interactions that yield emergent properties. This is the nature of living systems and the basis of circular economies.
Perhaps the most robust example of inter-species communication, resource sharing, and benefits beyond the direct symbionts is the so-called “wood wide web.” These underground mycorrhizal networks are mutualisms in which tree roots from different plants connect through living fungal networks. These networks serve to transfer not only nutrients, water and various defensive compounds, but also demonstrate communication, or the propagation of signals, between the plants. Rather than paying for their network data transfers in dollars, trees pay in sugars. In other words, plants pay in energy. Such interactions between two or more niche operators which produce results or properties greater than the proverbial sum of their parts are the loam from which abundance grows
"Open business models, mutualistic collaborations, and circular economies are the components of a negentropic heart-beat that can yield sustainable abundance”
When we apply the principle of negentropy to prosperity in civil societies and economic systems we see that we can climb the mountain of progress only so far by means of zero-sum competition. Embracing negentropy takes us to the summit. Open business models, mutualistic collaborations, and circular economies are the components of a negentropic heart-beat that can yield sustainable abundance, prosperity, and, due to interdependence, peace.
Nature has shown us, time and again, that it’s simply inefficient to fight, and that when we work in concert, each adding their own tones to make music we can’t make alone, we don’t need to take things from one another to have “enough”. Through examples of negentropy, nature shows us how to work together. When the by-product of my process, or our collaboration, can provide tools for some other entity, we all move towards abundance and prosperity while eliminating the idea of waste as separate from resources.
“We need to move from a scarcity mindset, which promotes an unnaturally concentrated allocation of resources, to one of abundance”
What then are the barriers to this future of progress and prosperity? We know our agreed-upon beliefs can shape the world. Two examples are money and stock markets; these are shared fictions-become-reality due to our collective agreement. We need to move from a scarcity mindset, which promotes an unnaturally concentrated allocation of resources, to one of abundance. When we don’t hoard, but rather act with generosity, we increase the pie for everyone and thus assure ourselves of the safety we seek.
This all sounds nice, but will competitors really work together? Will they really share ideas and resources? Will they really collaborate to create abundance that no one feels they need to dominate and control? Yes! Biomimicry 3.8’s Project Positive is one example in which FORD, Microsoft, Google, Kohler, and others come together to seek a future in which manufacturing and cities actually provide ecosystem services like clean water, shelter, and energy, rather than draining those benefits away through single-use models.
Once we agree we should work together for mutual benefit, and hopefully for the benefit of other parties as well, the second large problem is siloing. With great specialization has thus far come a great lack of communication. We need to grow the feedback loops between expert niche operators so that, with a common language, we can communicate discrete areas of knowledge to everyone. We need to foster consilience between disciplines. Perhaps that’s a new niche to be occupied: another iteration of what translator can mean.
One example from nature is cross-pollination, a transfer of information encoded in DNA. Different pollination vectors, from winds to bees, take information from one flower and transfer it to another, the emergent hybrids having qualities neither parent exhibits.
This translates metaphorically to human endeavor, for example, the development from the prior silos of psychology, biology, and neuroscience to the synergistic field termed evolutionary psychology. Another example is the hybrid fruit of the union between biology and design: the emergent field of biomimicry. Such intersectional synergy is what will lead to breakthroughs and abundance. Let’s sit down together and learn how to leverage nature’s past lessons for our collective futures.
If you would like to engage with us to apply these principles to your business start by taking our brief survey