Life Principles
Series 2: Life Principles – Introduction
If we want to overcome our social crisis we simply have to build a fair society. A fair or an ecologically sustainable society is not an utopia – its emergence and permanence depend only on what organizing principles we employ.
We are a collaborative species. We lived in harmony and fairness inside our tribes 95% of our history as a species. The ideologies that says that humans are not able to live in fairness are just ideologies! Promoted by those who take advantages by the inequities these ideologies are bringing forth. We are a cooperative species – an incredible cooperative species. To have again a fair social world, we have to design one in accordance with our nature and hence, in accordance with Life principles. This is literally all it takes to have again a fair and sustainable society.
The challenge for us as a species is not how to live cooperatively inside our human-scale communities – this is something we developed almost all our history – but how to cooperate between our tribes. This is what we still have to learn. And we are an amazing learning species too!
It is not a “mystery” at all from where comes all our political or economic unrest: from the organizing principles our society is based on – that are conducive to conflict, inequity and exploitation. Build a fair society and you will not encounter anymore political and social unrest!
We have to find a way to bring to life a living human society – one that mimics a living being – one that could sense its environment and co-evolve with it. This is precisely why we have to employ – consciously for the first time – as our social organizing principles – the principles of Life.
If we want to overcome our ecological crisis all what we have to do is to build an ecological society – a human society organized as an ecosystem, harmoniously integrated in to the planetary ecosystem. This is not an utopia at all. It is just about what kind of world we want to build.
Of course, is all about what kind of metaphysics we employ and what kind of consciousness we have: a self-centered one or a Universe/Planet-centered one?
A Life-centered consciousness, one that could encompass in its self the whole planet, is the only one that actually could create a fair and ecological society. So, if we really want to overcome our ecological wall, we have to evolve toward a more integrative consciousness, one that is able to embrace the planet as our primary reality. Our Planet – the Life that sustains our life – is our primary reality. If we take decisions only from our narrow-minded self-centered perspective – against the Great Circle of Life we belongs, the outcome is exactly the ecological crisis that we face now. We can not solve the problems we face with the same self-centered perspective we have created in the first place. We have to evolve.
The Living Universe metaphysics is the only one that could inform this spiritual evolution and also, the only one that could inform a new civilization based on Life principles.
We have taken a biological approach to find the most adequate social organizing principles. Taking in account the latest scientific discoveries and understanding, we came with seven Life Principles. Of course, the number is artificial. Actually, there is just one living organizing principle, but our approach can easily underscore seven of its main aspects. If you want to know more about these Life principles and how employing them in your life could help you to become more suited for cooperation and thus to better face the challenges of our VUCA world, just engage this series of seminars. I said “engage” because it will be as inter-active as possible for a seminar. I would like that each seminar and each series of seminars to be engaged as a journey of discovery. Everyone of them was thought of as a puzzle of a map. Connecting these puzzle pieces in your own way, you can craft your own map that could help you better orient in our changing world.
Each seminar will have 2 parts. In first part we will talk – around 25 minutes – about 5 ideas. I do not want to make it complicated. I will make it so you to have time to take some notes. The second part – around two hours – each of you could come with its question and I will answer. Hence, the discussion will be always oriented to your interest. Anyway, I will be glad a third part to follow – free discussion between audience triggered by the presentation. I will happily join this dialogue, ready to listen to your points of view and to improve mine.
Seminar 2.1: The Principle of Holarchy
There is one living organizing principle that drives living beings toward self-expression, on one hand, and synergy with others, on the other hand. Living beings want to survive and to be part of something greater than them. Actually no one can survive unless it is a functional part of something greater than it – The Great Circle of Life.
In this seminar we will speak about holons and holarchies:
1. Holons and Holarchies
2. Life develops naturally in a holarchic way
3. The Universe is a historical process
4. The flow of information between different levels of holarchic organization
5. Holarchy as a better way for human organization
Seminar 2.2: The Principle of Synergy
1. A coherent theory of adaptation
2. The synergistic effects of cooperation
3. The purposiveness of living beings
4. The synergy is the main dynamics that drives the unfolding of the Universe
5. It needs cooperation to create a Circle of Life
Seminar 2.3: The Principle of Mutual-Consistency
Have you ever thought about mutual-consistency between people? What could inform such kind of relations and outcome? In this seminar we will speak about:
1. The principle of mutual-consistency
2. A biological approach to social fairness
3. Mutual-enhancing relationship between cooperators
4. These life principles that should become our social organizing principles
Seminar 2.4: The Principle of Symbiosis
1. From cooperation to symbiosis
2. Inter-dependency
3. Group selection and its consequences for human evolution
4. The evolution of super-organisms
Seminar 2.5: The Principle of Intentionality
Life is about intentionality and agency, about intelligence and purpose etc.
But what drives our intentions? From where does our creativity come forth? From where does our intelligence come forth?
In this seminar we will speak about the direction of evolution and the barriers against evolution. We are aware that each decision and evolutionary step forward is driven by living beings intentionality, agency, purpose, creativity and guiding intelligence.
1. The evolution on this Planet has a direction
2. From individualistic life-strategies to collaborative ones
3. The barriers against evolution
4. Toward a planetary-scale human cooperation
Seminar 2.6: The Principle of Participation
Life is a Circle. We have to create a social space conducive to authentic participation. In this seminar we will talk about:
1. Conditions conducive to authentic participation
2. Toward a participative human society
3. The art of social emergent design
4. Stigmergic correlation
Seminar 2.7: The Principle of Co-Evolution
There is no living being floating alone n space. We are all together. We have to evolve together. In this seminar we will speak about:
1.We are living in an evolving Universe
2.What could a living social architecture look like?
3.Conscious evolution
4.Mutually-consistence and co-evolution
What we will learn?
This series of seminars will launch you on a journey to discover what Life is. There is a living organizing principle that is stirring, driving and inspiring the Universe. Our discussion about Life Principles has the power to create an emergent space of meaning from where you can take your own meanings that will help you to align yourself with this living principle. Now we are entering a VUCA world – a bifurcation point in our evolution as a species: it makes sense for us to know more about how Life is organized in order to act wiser. For sure, continuing with the same principles that brought us into this crisis, we will not find any breakthrough.
Be a Collaborator!
Anyone can become our collaborator!
We are searching for artists, trainers, film-makers, web-designers and for everyone that is inspired by the same vision as us.
Whatever the challenges of the future, cooperators will have a clear evolutionary advantage compared to non-cooperators.
In the new VUCA world, we will have to survive and thrive in new ways, different from those that have been successful so far. As a multicellular organism is smarter and has better capacities to deal with its environment than a cell alone, as an ant-hill is smarter and has better capacities to deal with its environment than an ant alone, the cooperative groups will be smarter and better equipped to deal with future challenges than single individuals.
Educators, trainers or artists – those who aim to have a social impact, to spread an idea – have to cooperate, if they want to succeed. However, the evolution of Life has a clear direction: towards ever-increasing scales of cooperation.
Those who want to move forward must learn to cooperate in mutually enhancing ways.
The open project “Butterfly Communities” is an emerging community that is searching for young artists, trainers, filmmakers, etc. that have understood that we have to help each other to have a stronger social impact.
