In the last post I asked these rather odd questions:
Is Economics based on the assumption that assets are divisible from their environment and therefore subject to ownership and management. If so, how did we arise at such an assumption, what sustains that kind of thinking and is it in fact sustainable at all?
Resources
Well resources clearly are removable from their the original environment and we are capable of modifying them and placing them back into the environment. What is less obvious are the costs and benefits of doing so. Who reaps the benefits and who wears the costs and how those decisions are reached is becoming increasingly critical.
What we are doing is changing the relationships between species and their habitats, this process began slowly but is now exponential. The level of inter-relationship and the complexity of biodiversity occurred over at least 4 billion years depending on when you want to start the clock.
We value resources and their alternate applications based upon markets and regulations, How sensitive to species and their habitats are those markets and regulations and what does "sensitive” actually mean?
What about the jellyfish, the "siphonophore" in the previous post?
I was hoping to find some insight into cooperation and division of specialised labor in colonial as opposed to regular cellular organisms, but It eludes me. All it did was solidify the ideas that both specialisation and the sharing of common infrastructure increases "benefits" to all the parties within such a colony.
Specialisation
Specialisation could basically be seen as, doing what your good at and avoiding what your not, but also doing what is most valuable to both you and the organisations within which you depend.
Effective Infrastructure in this context, allows you to both receive only what you need and share what you produce from those resources.
Infrastructure enables colonies
This infrastructure needs to be both sensitive and flexible, so that it can adapt both to the individuals within the colony and the environment within which it operates.
The colony as a whole must remain aware of the availability of resources and the value of what is being both consumed and produced by individual members.
The more sensitive to their surroundings and aware of the roles those individuals play within the colony, the less reliant on the infrastructure they are for regulation. By regulation I refer to the control of an individuals inputs and outputs.
Responsiveness
The individuals in human colonies have something unique, they have awareness or access to real time change as it is happening, they also have the ability to choose actions based upon that “fresh” information.
The Infrastructure that allocates resources, and effectively empowers or de-powers the influence of the individuals within the colony does not have awareness, though it may contain individuals or parties of individuals who do.
How does “awareness" differ from memory and how is that relevant to the subject of economics?
So glad you asked, before we delve into that, It is time for a break and little more quiet contemplation.
Thank you for reading,
=8-P