2005 – The Technosphere: Revolution, Involution and Evolutions

2005 Conference Summary: The Technosphere

Our Technosphere conference and exploration has drawn to a close.

I’d like to thank everyone who helped make our weekend so enjoyable. This extends from our thought-provoking speakers to the incredible work of our fantastic cuisine crew, including Margret, Michel, Cesco, Chili, Christine, and Nicole, along with all the friends who worked beside them; Laser, Rio, and Gessie, who kept the audiovisual systems and digital documentation running; Marie Harding, Sally Silverstone, and the Synergia Ranch hospitality team, who made us all feel so welcome; Tango, Cynthia Jurrs, and her team for managing the conference; and the Techno Bar crew—Ferdi, Kira, Orla, and 3T. Thanks also to all our friends, new and old, who added their energy and insight to our stimulating weekend.

Our exploration of the Technosphere revealed a wide diversity of perspectives and a healthy dose of controversy.

Tom Hughes opened our exploration with a thoughtful consideration of the drives for control, reliability, and order behind humanity’s creation of the Technosphere—a “second nature.” Tom posed a central dilemma of the evolving Technosphere: technical systems have become so complex and intricate that they defy simple control algorithms. He left us with the challenge of determining the proper role of mind in a world of machines. What responsibility and intelligence are required, and what forces must be brought to bear, to usher in a truly ecotechnological era—one capable of counteracting technological determinism and the dysfunction caused by the unintended consequences of our technologies?

Marty Hoffert reviewed the predicament humanity faces in developing alternatives to our heavy reliance upon nonrenewable fossil fuels. The urgency is heightened by the environmental dangers associated with the accelerating greenhouse effect. He underlined the magnitude of the challenge and reviewed some of the most promising alternative means of supplying the energy that powers industrialization and our present form of civilization. A techno-optimist, Marty believes this can be achieved by technologists and engineers—“disciplined dreamers.” He made the case that our current situation requires an effort comparable to the Manhattan Project to produce an energy revolution for the greenhouse century.

John Allen reviewed the recent emergence of a global Technosphere, tracing key historical steps from the Chinese discovery and mapping of the world’s oceans through the rise of science and the materials revolution. He examined the dangers arising from the present control of the Technosphere by mercantile capitalism, with its focus on profit, conquest, and power. He argued that the Ethnosphere—the planetary value system, which is as recently developed as the global Technosphere itself—is needed to pilot the Technosphere. John then toured the evolution of a series of ecotechnic projects, illustrating how techne and ecology can be brought together in projects possessing both regional relevance and planetary significance.

Constance Adams examined space architecture and architected space from the perspective of the mothership, Planet Earth, where all systems are interdependent. She reviewed the learning process involved in designing TransHab as an example of how new thinking can be implemented, including computer simulation and the use of human factors as the primary design driver. This thinking can be extended to reconsider how we meet human needs in terrestrial architecture, producing forms that enhance our basic needs for a sense of time, place, and well-being.

Gene Youngblood examined the reinvention of the moving image, emphasizing that technology—especially media—is a powerful force in how we create ourselves, since it shapes our constructed reality of the world. He warned of the increasing corporate control of mass media—what he termed “the broadcast”—and its covert agenda. He argued that the potential remains for regaining contact with reality and for resocializing, provided that we remain mindful of the conditioning power of mass media. Concurrently, new technologies are allowing alternative and countercultural viewpoints to be aired. This is occurring through the media-democracy movement, the internet, public-access television, and new satellite-delivered media.

Woody Vasulka shared his artistic engagement with video and digital-imaging technology. He recounted his early focus on deconstructing the image and understanding the nature of the new technology, as well as his effort to escape the limitations of the film frame and honestly deliver the new images and sounds made possible first by video and now by digital technologies. He concluded with an illustration of the power of digital imagery to create new narrative and metaphorical strategies in his Art of Memory. The Technosphere will be enriched by artistic dialogues with the machine and by the new visions they inspire.

Jack Thorpe traced the evolution of networked simulation and the convergence of several key information technologies, including commercial gaming, modeling, simulation, war gaming, and command-and-control operations. He discussed the emergence of these cyberspace applications and the most difficult element to control: human behavior. Jack traced the significant cultural events that coincided with these technical advances, underlining both the unpredictable and diverse societal needs driving the development of distributed simulation. These applications are increasing, making the ability to simulate and game a key component of successful real-world realization in both military and civilian contexts.

Alan Goldstein brought us up to speed on the quiet revolution underway in nanobiotechnology and the momentous promise—and menace—of where it may be headed. He reminded us that, at the molecular level, there is no inherent difference between living and nonliving molecules. The goal of nanotechnology is to enable humans to construct devices at the molecular level with atomic precision. Combined with biotechnology, it allows fusion at the atomic level.

Alan cautioned that we may soon master the technologies required to break the carbon barrier that has defined the nature of all previous life on Earth. On the positive side, this could produce synergies never before encountered. It also raises the danger of initiating a wholly new form of evolution, perhaps extending beyond what we currently consider human.

Bruce Damer mapped the topography of this new mind-space and cyberspace. He took us on a historical and evolutionary tour of the emerging worlds of virtual reality and cyberspace. He illustrated new forms of human community created through avatars and shared virtual environments, along with the emergence of multiplayer gaming and new educational and therapeutic spaces.

Bruce also reviewed some of the new powers of simulation created by his Digital Space Commons group, including virtual space colonies and extraplanetary off-road vehicles. He concluded with a meditation on Biota-space, the evolution of virtual and physical creatures, and the evolutionary destiny of life’s expansion throughout the Solar System and even into the Cosmos.

Daniel Kranzler communicated to us the power of the fifth medium: cell phones and mobile media, the latest addition to the established media of newspapers, radio, television, and the internet. He reviewed the explosive growth of cell phones and the demographics driving it, along with their convergence with gaming, text messaging, and video streaming. Mobile media are the fastest-growing medium in the Technosphere by an order of magnitude—the entertainment of a new generation that values numerous brief bursts of communication, or “snacks,” which must be simple, relevant, compelling, and fun. He concluded by asking how this rapidly evolving technology will affect our global village and transform our society.

Andrew Wight shared his passion for exploration and the technics of filmmaking, especially in the deep ocean. He took us behind the scenes of Aliens of the Deep and described the challenges of making a three-dimensional IMAX film about the deep-sea vent communities on the ocean floor. The stunning film, even when seen here in two dimensions, illustrates how the Technosphere gives us access to regions of our world—the deep Biosphere—that have never before been seen.

In the future, these technologies will also enable planetary exploration that would otherwise be impossible. They open opportunities for scientists, and for the rest of us, to experience the wonder of life’s origins on our planet and the mysteries of our cosmic neighborhood.

Amory Lovins outlined a strategy for completely breaking our dependence upon oil through the combined application of enhanced energy efficiency and a variety of renewable-energy sources. Much of this energy efficiency could be achieved through ultralight, safe vehicles made possible by new composite materials. Amory argued that intelligent design and efficient energy use can be implemented with immediate economic benefit.

The long-term advantages to our economy and energy security—and the necessity of ending carbon-dioxide emissions that threaten the Biosphere through global warming—make it crucial that we overcome inertia and business as usual. The timeframe for this transformation is within the next 40 years, since we have already entered the oil endgame.

Rick Satava took us to some of the new frontiers of the technological and scientific revolution—especially those “DARPA-hard” biomedical projects of the future. Many involve “disruptive visions” that change the contours of the future. In medicine, these extend from the Visible Human to the Virtual Soldier, including total-body scanning for comprehensive diagnosis.

Rick explored how the information age is transforming healthcare, from virtual-reality simulators for training and education to the operating room of the future. He also outlined the next horizon: the emergence of the Bio-Intelligence Age, driven by modeling and simulation. Its stunning technological breakthroughs will require careful reexamination of societal ethics and responsibilities in light of their profound implications.

Institute of Ecotechnics conferences often have the character of voyages of exploration. We set out this year to examine some of the frontiers of the world of technics—the global Technosphere, which is innovating and expanding exponentially. We have witnessed some of its powers of creation and destruction, as well as its confrontation and potential coevolution with the Biosphere and human culture on every front.

Virtually every presentation reinforced the profound uncertainty surrounding whether these technologies will enhance or endanger our well-being and that of our Biosphere. When complex technologies inherently challenge conventional notions of control, can we meet the demands of living well and sustainably on Planet Earth? Will we shape the Technosphere to fulfill our heart’s desire and learn to deal intelligently with its unintended consequences for ourselves, our cultures, and our planet?

On such issues, there can be no consensus and no definitive conclusions. Arthur C. Clarke warned that those who attempt to prophesy the future are too often beset by failures of nerve or failures of imagination. He argued that “the spirit of curiosity and wonder is the driving force behind all of Man’s achievements,” and warned that “if it ever fails, the story of our race will be coming to an end.”

In seeking words appropriate to our Technosphere gathering, I was drawn to a poem by Walt Whitman—a 19th-century poet whose words remain strikingly contemporary:

Years of the modern! years of the unperform’d!
Your horizon rises, I see it parting away for more august dramas,
I see not America only, not only Liberty’s nation but other nations preparing,
I see tremendous entrances and exits, new combinations, the solidarity of races,
I see that force advancing with irresistible power on the world’s stage,
(Have the old forces, the old wars, played their parts? Are the acts suitable to them closed?)
I see Freedom, completely arm’d and victorious and very haughty, with Law on one side and Peace on the other,
A stupendous trio all issuing forth against the idea of caste;
What historic denouements are these we so rapidly approach?
I see men marching and countermarching by swift millions,
I see the frontiers and boundaries of the old aristocracies broken,
I see the landmarks of European kings removed,
I see this day the People beginning their landmarks, (all others give way;)

Never were such sharp questions ask’d as this day,
Never was average man, his soul, more energetic, more like a God,
Lo, how he urges and urges, leaving the masses no rest!
His daring foot is on land and sea everywhere, he colonizes the Pacific, the archipelagoes,
With the steamship, the electric telegraph, the newspaper, the wholesale engines of war,
With these and the world-spreading factories he interlinks all geography, all lands;
What whispers are these O lands, running ahead of you, passing under the seas?
Are all nations communing? Is there going to be but one heart to the globe?
Is humanity forming en-masse? For lo, tyrants tremble, crowns grow dim,
The earth, restive, confronts a new era, perhaps a general divine war,
No one knows what will happen next, such portents fill the days and nights;
Years prophetical! The space ahead as I walk, as I vainly try to try to pierce it, is full of phantoms,
Unborn deeds, things soon to be, project their shapes around me,
This incredible rush and heat, this strange ecstatic fever of dreams O years!
Your dreams O years, how they penetrate through me! (I know not whether I sleep or wake;)
The perform’d America and Europe grow dim, retiring in shadow behind me,
The unperform’d, more gigantic than ever, advance, advance upon me.

And in closing: may we take heart from our shared weekend of exploration into the Technosphere and, with courage, imagination, and compassion, continue our journeys— forging our new “Songs of the Open Road.”

Mark Nelson, Chairman