Many of the tools that will help us build a regenerative future are not only currently available now, but have been for centuries. Emerging capabilities like: Extended Intelligence, generative design, programmable materials, shape-shifting structures, clean energy, and biodegradable components, will further augment our ancient abilities. A combination of traditional and experimental tools will guide humanity in assembling sustainable, adaptive, and regenerative systems to take care of our growing population.
Rebuild: Subchapter II.
Timeless Tools
Reintegrating Ancient Techniques
Math and mechanics haven’t changed as much as their applications have. There is much to be gained from rediscovering the dexterity of long-established craft traditions that reveal the beauty of math and mechanics. We believe these traditions can offer an example of how to design patterns of connection through timeless techniques.
Like textiles, humanity’s societal fabric is a complex arrangement of interconnected patterns. To improve connections between strangers, much can be learned from studying how complex patterns in physical materials can be decoded, understood, and reworked into new practical applications.
The National Science Foundation recently funded a new five-year project called “What a Tangled Web We Weave” to investigate the mathematics and mechanics of knitting. This deft manipulation of yarn is an ancient technology with futuristic potential, and the lead researcher, Dr. Matsumoto, is compiling a knowledge base of different stitches and the ways to describe a knit’s qualities, like “emergent elasticity”. The stitch patterns Dr. Matsumoto’s team are investigating constitute a code that is more complex than binary, and results in much more malleable matter. Through an intersection of applied mathematics, nonlinear elasticity, materials engineering, and “soft condensed matter physics”, Dr. Matsumoto’s project is advancing understanding around “topological programmable materials”.6 The timeless techniques shown in this work reveal beauty not only in their assembling process but also in the resulting products. We feel inspired by the timeless tradition of knitting as an adaptable process that can integrate nearly endless varieties of materials. We sense a connection between learning to strengthen our skills at weaving together textiles and our human need for weaving together stories within our communities and relationships.
Scientific inquiries into ancient practices, allow for innovative interpretations of those practices. In terms of new practical applications for how topological programmable materials can be developed, perhaps the fusion of ancient stitch-work with emerging materials might enable clothing that’s wirelessly connected, with the wires stitched directly into the fabric. Taking a broader perspective, the ways in which we integrate digital layers of information into our physical reality, can benefit from increasingly seamless integrations. We are curious how low-tech skills like knitting might show us a wise way forward.
Biomimicry as a Powerful Tool for Systems Architecture
We can learn to emulate the master craftsmans-hip of all living systems. The regenerative nature of cells offers an ideal reference point for renewal.
“Sensitized to such guidance from the very structure and functioning of the universe, we can have confidence in the future that awaits the human venture.” — Thomas Berry
We are proud of human ingenuity, but it pales in comparison to the inventive genius of nature. There’s no need to be too downtrodden by this; rather, we should be elated by this fact. After all, it means that much of the hard work has already been done for us. We just have to copy what nature has already figured out.
The idea of biomimicry was popularized by Janine Benyus in her 1997 book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. In her book, she proposes that models found in nature should be drawn upon as a rich source of inspiration for industrial design. She believes that we can look to the intricate structures, and biological processes, found in organic entities, and apply the concepts already learned by plants and animals, in order to solve human problems. It’s certainly not a new idea, people have been taking lessons from the natural world as long as people have existed. And we’ve made strides over the last centuries. Observations of flying creatures offered the earliest inspirations for mechanical flying machines. The Chipewyan people, indigenous to what we now call Western Canada, learned more effective hunting techniques through observing how packs of wolves stalk their prey.
Through millennia of trial and error, natural processes have innovated a staggeringly, diverse collection of life-forms. There are countless genetic adaptations that have been made for every living situation on planet Earth. These mutations offer a huge wealth of potential knowledge, to be attained to better see how species learn to evolve with their environment. One area in which nature especially excels is in its efficient use of energy. In the often harsh conditions of the wild, it is a necessity to conserve energy whenever possible. Mathematician Karen Uhlenbeck, in her studies of the structure and behavior of bubbles, revealed how “nature optimizes its every structure for gain at minimal cost.”7
Rapidly worsening climate change conditions, caused by rising levels of co₂ in our atmosphere, means that it has never been more a pressing issue for us to find new ways to capture, store, and use energy efficiently. Already there are examples of this thought process in action. Zimbabwean architect Mick Pearce analyzed the air flow and thermal properties of termite mounds and designed an entire building capable of self-cooling without air conditioning based on these insects’ design model. On the other side of the world, scientists from MIT have been researching how the structure of sunflower petals can be used to configure high-density arrangements of solar panels. They’ve found that by copying the pattern and spacing of their pedals in their solar technology design, that land use can be reduced by 20% with no loss in energy capture. Similarly, researchers at Caltech applied the same thinking in their studies of the vortices generated by the movements of schools of fish, in order to arrange wind turbines more effectively. These examples show us the tangible benefits of imitating the elegance of nature by leveraging forces that do not contribute to further planetary devastation.
At the MIT Media Lab, Neri Oxman has been working at the intersection of computational design, digital fabrication, materials science, and synthetic biology. Her group concentrates on the search for “materials and chemical substances that can sustain and enhance biodiversity across living systems, and that have so far endured the perils of climate change.” One particularly enchanting project called Totems explored the properties of melanin.8
Melanin, known as the “universal pigment”, shows up in skin, hair, eyes, feathers, wings, and even ink sacs of squid. Evidence of melanin’s evolution dates back to giant squid fossils from around 160 million years ago.9 Oxman’s group, Mediated Matter, describes melanin as an expression of “unity in the diversity of life”. The group has created a series of spherical orbs featuring the dynamic compositions, and diverse colors, of liquid melanin, grown into fixed channels. These beautiful structures speak to the ever-evolving expressions of color and distinctiveness throughout various forms of life. By interpreting a feature of evolution, like melanin, into fabricated physical objects, those who come into contact with these structures are able to sense a connection to an exceptional force of creativity. This example of biomimicry brings the vivid quality of a timeless evolutionary occurrence to the forefront of our imagination.
But biomimicry can also go deeper. After all, we do not want to simply appropriate natural phenomena for singular ends. Rather, we want to fully internalize and manifest nature’s most profound teachings. The harmony of biological ecosystems can be our framework for rearranging ourselves on a mass scale.
We are manifestations of nature just like any living being, but we must begin to compromise in our negotiations with the rest of the natural world. Rather than force our demands through coercion, we should begin to show nature the same flexibility we ask of everything else. Other living systems have their own needs and rights themselves. Co-existence is a matter of give and take. As we begin to build relationships between ourselves based on mutual aid, so too must we extend this altruistic notion to the various living organisms on this planet. And if we treat our planet well, it will treat us kindly in return.