The Nature of Nowhere Ryan Lawber In reviewing the processes through the history of landscape and natural history, I think it is safe to say that nature does not exist. What I mean by this statement is that no place left on the planet and within the universe remains unaffected by the human hand. By this statement I am implying that human race is not a part of the natural world. Our connection with nature appears to have ended at the start of agricultural practices, separating us from the primitive characteristics of hunters and gatherers and led to a mechanized and automated society. Our brain, while a natural thing, has removed us from the spectrum of nature. So what is nature? I will define nature as a self-replicating, self-sustaining system. It is composed of interactive/interacting, repetitious components, but not classifiable parts. It is a continuum of resources that create a relationship within itself. It is an exponentially developed system, and an established flux between said components of nature. Nature is the absence of a forced input. As stated before, nature is non-existent. Although humans have not explored the entire solar system or even completely analyzed the oceans on this planet, debris and pollutants created by humans are present within these environments. Many sunken ships and freight lay at the bottom of the oceans and are unreachable to humans because of the extreme surroundings. In many instances this wreckage has become a habitat for components of the sea. Plastic shopping bags from retail stores have been found in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and in Antarctica. Human influence has reached all parts of this world. Satellites, both operational and nonoperational, and the waste of previous space flight's orbit around our planet and the solar system. If there were to be a location that has not been seen by human eyes, even if it somehow managed to escape human involvement, it would become unnatural as soon as it is discovered. But can humans create nature? Looking at my statement from above, it would be simplest to say no. But humans can attempt to create nature. This is being suggested in several parks around the planet -- after an initial planting, letting nature run its course and develop the site accordingly. But what ends up being created is a simple image of nature. All the parts of nature are in place, and the process to reach the goal of a natural system are correct, but the catalyst is human. Unnatural minds are creating these images of nature with nature having no part in the planning. Birds, animals, wind, and water are not the activators for the spreading of seeds as would occur in a completely natural system. This developed/humanized nature cannot be considered as a “real� nature because of the disequilibrium that occurs in natural systems. Humans have been on this planet for only a fraction of the entire course of Earth, and we have found that the common idea of nature as a stagnant feature is false. Nature has a fluctuating equilibrium that many times gets under-analyzed. However, this is not
the case of preservations and parks. Nature preserves maintain areas of land from change, but this change could be part of the disequilibrium of nature. Are certain species failing because of human influence, or would the species have failed without the affect of humans? There would be too many variables in this equation to know for sure. The poaching of many animals has been a direct human affect toward the endangerment of many species, but certain other plants and animals have gone extinct before humans were present. Is the protection of failing organisms the natural way about this? I agree that it is the right thing to do, but it probably isn't the natural thing to do. Buckminster Fuller defined the term synergy as the “behavior of whole systems unpredicted by the behavior of their parts taken separately.� Take, for example, the atoms that make up all material in this world. Individually, the particles are nonliving pieces of material, but within a synergetic system, the behavior of the whole system of atoms is entirely different than that of the individual atom. The image on the right depicts a set of triangles combined to create a 4 sided polyhedron, the whole system is unpredicted by the description of the parts. There is a symbiosis that attaches itself to a Illustration 1: Synergy: 1 triangle + 1 synergetic system, as well. For example, triangle = a 4-sided polyhedron the clown fish and the sea anemone are perfectly stable components of nature, but have developed a symbiotic relationship to aid in their protection and survival. If we only analyze the species, then we do not understand the reality of the system. It is a human notion to attempt to reduce the components of nature to its basic parts. However, by analyzing these basic parts we have no complete realization of the reality of nature. The same goes for most human developments; the university system is broken up into courses under specific topics, when in reality all knowledge contains a relationship with other fields; homes have been designed for centuries containing specific rooms for particular tasks. There has been an attempt for many years to catalog the entire system of nature into words. In reality there is overlap in all content whether it is academic, architectural, or natural. This is overly true for the components of nature. Natural systems contain many external variables that affect the internal system and in turn a reaction imposed on other systems. As stated before, there is a regulated disequilibrium that exists in nature and these external variables aid in this regulation.
Systems in nature vary greatly, but the specific analysis of Physarum polycephalum, a slime mold, has its own unique development and serves as a model organism for research on amoeboid movement. The processes of its growth are as follows (from Wikipedia): “The main vegetative phase of P. polycephalum is the plasmodium (the active, streaming form of slime molds). The plasmodium is comprised of networks of protoplasmic veins, and many nuclei. It is during this stage that the organism searches for food. The plasmodium surrounds its food and secretes enzymes to digest it. “If environmental conditions cause the plasmodium to desiccate during feeding or migration, Physarum will form a sclerotium. The sclerotium is basically hardened multinucleated tissue that serves as a dormant stage, protecting Physarum for long periods of time. Once favorable conditions resume, the plasmodium reappears to continue its quest for food. “As the food supply runs out, the plasmodium stops feeding and begins its reproductive phase. Stalks of sporangia form from the plasmodium; it is within these structures that meiosis occurs and spores are formed. Sporangia are usually formed in the open so that the spores they release will be spread by wind currents. “Spores can remain dormant for years if need be. However, when environmental conditions are favorable for growth, the spores germinate and release either flagellated or amoeboid swarm cells (motile stage); the swarm cells then fuse together to form a new plasmodium.”
This growth and development differs from typical mold growth in that it searches for a food supply. The image below shows the slime mold searching and locating sources of food among an array of sources. The orange slime mold creates a network of protoplasmic veins and secretes enzymes to digest the food source.
Illustration 2: Slime mold growth spreading to food sources
By generically delineating the growth and development of the slime mold, I've come up with a simplified set: 1. expand, 2. eat, 3. reproduce. In a sense, these three rules can be applied to most organisms as they are the foundation for all living things. The different processes that each organism develops to attend to these needs is what provides for uniqueness.
Creating a component and giving it a set of rules similar to the growth of the slime mold, a humanized natural system should develop. I have started with a component with six triangular sides and two open sides (see images). There was no relation between the organism and the choice of the eight faced polyhedron. Based upon this shape, an extremely simple set of rules was created.
Illustration 3: Component developed to create a natural system
Illustration 4: Unfolded component showing faces
Rule set: 1. Attach components by aligning faces with the same orientation to each other. 2. Repeat step 1 with 10-20 components, then go to step 3. 3. Stop. Set the attached group aside and start from step 1 again. Do this until there are no more components. 4. Attach new units together in alternating directions.
Illustration 5: Component addition - added to faces with the same orientation, maintaining the same orientation throughout the unit construction
This rule set simulates a simplistic code that organisms such as slime molds contain to expand, eat, and reproduce. The model components are growing through amalgamation, and since a paper model cannot eat, it continues the rule set by displaying a reproductive step in continuing growth in a different manner. The end result is shown below. This rule set is a very simple one, perhaps overly simplistic, but the outcome is a complex coral-like structure.
Illustration 6: 300 component self-replicating system
Reducing an organism to its basic components and building it from the base up provides an interesting concept for a human-created natural system, but this model still ignores the synergy of the greater systems acting on an actual organism. Moisture and temperature, as well as food sources affect the growth of slime molds. Also, the spores that are released for reproduction are relying on a symbiosis with the wind. There are too many variables to create an artificial component of nature correctly. In the end, nature does not exist any longer and a human-created nature is not a natural system. A humanized version of nature is what exists today, with a relation between humans and human material and everything on this planet, both positive and negative.