Manifest for a renaturation of human life
Building a new future from sustainability and bioinspiration
Because of the failure of an increasingly unsustainable progress model, we see the urgent need to establish a new relationship between humans and the rest of nature. This document aims to be a regenerative proposal based on the immense capacity of evolutionary adaptation of life.
As a species, we, humans, have developed far beyond what the available resources allows us, endangering our existence and other living beings. Many of the solutions to the serious problems that threaten us, however, are right in front of us. Biomimetics invites us, precisely, to discover them by projecting a new look towards the world, full of respect and gratitude, renaturing our way of thinking and acting. We firmly believe that we must become aware of our individual, collective and generational responsibility to transform the reality of a present that no longer has an expectation and that will condition forever the existence of future generations. With this manifesto, we reaffirm our willingness to contribute with a biomimetic vision that will become the basis for a genuine sustainable progress based on bio-inspiration. These are the main drivers axes :
Understand the complexity The profound interdependence of a hyperconnected world contrasts with the fragmented perspective that, nowadays, is transmitted to us. From an ecosystem viewpoint, the intensive consumption model fronts sharply with a reality marked by scarcity of resources, resulting from an extractive attitude. Faced with the disjunctive between being or having, we defend the need for a context of thought in which nature is the measure and the mentor, of a new logic in a time when rationalism is no longer sufficient to correctly interpret reality.
Evolutionary adaptation The way in which all species - including ours - have been adapting to the changing environment conditions for nearly 3,800 million years can only be understood from network interactions between individuals, communities and ecosystems. In this sense, we need to develop an evolutionary vision that takes into account past contexts, also from a natural perspective, to expand our focus and have elements that allow us to build a more sustainable future and with adaptive capacity .
Sustainable economy At an economic level we understand that it is absolutely necessary to rethink the need to indefinitely maintain certain levels of growth. One of the great learnings from nature is that when a species grows above its possibilities it ends up destroying the environment that sustains it and extinguishes it. It is necessary to learn to do more and better with less, optimizing processes from a circular economy perspective, closing the circle of linear processes.
Diversity as a wealth It is only possible to sustain the diversity and transversality of a transformative project such as this by distancing ourselves from specific political positions. Even so, our ideological independence is not an impediment to expressing critical points of view. In this regard, we believe that it is necessary to promote systems of direct participation, today possible, that guarantee a space for collective decision-making. On the other hand, interculturality, always linked to respect for human rights, is one more expression of the complexity in which hybridization is a source of enrichment.
Culture of conscious knowledge We understand that there is no single source of valid knowledge, either from art, intuition or empirical observation. It is important, however, to place each bio-inspired learning in its own context to place it as appropriate. At a time when science and technology are decisively contributing to replacing human intervention for autonomous systems, we declare that it is essential to extend the knowledge and awareness of the interrelationships between subjects as well as between subjects and objects on a global scale.
Education for life In our opinion, the only way to build a truly viable future is to expand the perception of people, especially of the youngest, towards natural life, promoting bio-inspired learning linked to sustainability. We believe that the best way to prepare them in the context of high complexity and increasing uncertainty is to provide them with a holistic vision connected to life, instead of dissociating in a artificial and anthropocentric way the human world from the rest.
Activation of consciousness We are at a point of our evolution as a species in which it is essential for our survival and realization to activate ours potentialities and, most especially, consciousness. The consequences of feeding on an accelerated technological development without going hand by hand with the corresponding social maturity are evident to us. We have the common responsibility to make a new Copernican turn, a revolution of the mind that makes it possible to deploy coherent action with new wills, rethinking first our values and priorities to transform our lifestyles, consumption, work and way of organizing
Natural languages We understand that it is essential to build a new conceptual space that allows interpreting and situating the transformative action from a renewed vision of reality, in accordance with the principles for which life is governed. A new language in which the words are rediscovered together with the feeling of vitality and allow to open new perceptions. The passage between a dialogue based on who is right and another type of dialogue based on sharing the various possible reasons is the first step towards moving from competition to cooperation, a fundamental principle for the development of life.
Organic development We express the need to provide a contributory and transformative response to the challenges that threaten the continuity of our species, constituting ourselves as a community of biomimetic inspiration. Our growth, therefore, will be based on a model of organic development in which its parts maintain their functional autonomy, connected by a strong interdependence. A space where vitality flows to be able to develop ourselves as humans, with respect and confidence in the immense transformative and regenerative capacity of life.
Social transformation The mental patterns th at we continue to maintain, valid for other evolutionary moments, are completely reductionist and limited in the current social moment. It is necessary to rethink the need to maintain indefinitely certain levels of growth without having a science and technology based on bio-inspirated learning and activating especially the potentiality of consciousness. Our forms of organization should be rethought today to give rise to a diverse, transversal and inclusive social system in which everyone plays an important role in productive and social contribution. Only an extended collaborative base will allow to overcome destructive dominances in order to rebuild harmony and vital coexistence.
January 2019
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