Why Econet?
Andrius Kulikauskas: We are sharing our thoughts below on Why Econet? Please join us and let us see what we can work out together!
Jere Northrop
...Recognize and apply general ecological principles based on recognizing that consciousness and life are what comprises the global environment within which we live. We need to see these with respect and care, communicate and interact, don't try to dominate but work with Nature, be stewards not destroyers. This can lead to ecotechnologies which can mitigate and reverse Climate Change, eliminate the pollution and destruction of the global ecosystem, and restore the biodiversity and beauty of the natural habitat we inherited so many years ago. Specific examples of such ecotechnologies will be given.
... To support the principle that the core human needs of food, shelter, clothing, medical attention, and education are available to all and that the infrastructure that provides these services is not owned and controlled by a few for personal gain at the expense of the many. This also applies to the various modes of communication (phones, videos, internet, television, etc.) that we all use to understand each other and our society. Open source software, diversified ownership, and quality control is essential to prevent misinformation and abuse of the knowledge we all require and depend upon. This is particularly relevant to AI, Artificial Intelligence, which needs to be broadened into Ecological Intelligence to include the human values and beliefs we have as to what is right and good.
...To explain these new ways of thinking and show how they have emerged from current STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) principles, including the reductionist paradigm, and are now being expanded and generalized into a practical methodology that resonates with the basic aesthetic, emotional, and empathetic instincts that we all have. This does not require advanced training in math and science. Such knowledge is useful in certain applications but this is not a barrier for understanding and use by any one of us.
...Econet integrates Math 4 Wisdom research on cognitive frameworks and new ways of thinking with real world applications that can be implemented in scale by a general audience that wants to get involved with solving some of the most important social and environmental problems that currently face humanity. There are three main focus areas for this effort.
Lucy Weir
restore the biodiversity and beauty of the natural habitat we inherited so many years ago.
First of all, 'restore' suggests we can take things back to where they were. I don't think that's either true or desirable. I don't think we can restore things to the way things were because time's arrow appears at least to move in one direction and we have introduced synthesised entities, invasive species, and energy changes into systems that are irreversible, or at least can only change through different forms of adaption, rather than reversal. We can, of course, find ways to remove plastics from oceans, and I celebrate that, but not all plastics will be removed. We can reintroduce species, but they are not the same genetic line of evolution that was there. The thing that this needs to recognise is a) we cannot go backwards and the second thing, is b) we cannot create utopia. We were never in perfect balance, no natural system is, all natural systems, including us, are always in flux. This is why Eastern Philosophies are so important as metaphors that capture the dynamic of this change.
Secondly, or thirdly if the above is two points, the word 'inherited' is problematic to me. Perhaps you mean that we inherited a world from our ancestors, in which case, in a sense that's true, although the implication that it was theirs to hand down is a problem. We don't inherit in the capitalist sense because we don't really own the systems of the planet. We are born into context, and that context includes the systems we are born into and that we contain (and these are always interacting with one another).