It is a great question, although as far as my story is concerned, it is only part of another big question.  We know that many real-world systems are complex and interconnected, yet modern humans labor under the illusion that they are all separate parts of the world-machine, the ultimate reductionist perspective.  Technology can be used for good o…[Read more]

I’d like to see more discussion on the original question: how can we imagine future sustainable cities?

On the forum on banning agriculture there is some discussion about farm towers. There may be ways to feed cities that we haven’t thought of yet. But futuristic sustainable cities have other advantages, some of which were mentioned, such as…[Read more]

I really like Melodie’s point. It is echoed in this short description of an attempt to redefine agriculture in a manner inspired by prairies.
https://www.biomimicryinstitute.org/case-studies/case-studies/agriculture.html

There’s also the cabruca system of agriculture in Brazil, which actually helps preserve/ afforest rainforest:…[Read more]

Well, the reason I haven’t posted for so long is that a) I’ve been researching this stuff and other things and b) I’ve been writing my story. To sum up my researches:
1) Ken Caldeira, author of the paper that Greg referred me to, very kindly spoke to me via skype and clarified some things for me. Quoting from my notes: when Mt. Pinatubo blew in…[Read more]

Thanks, Greg. I will read it and think about it and likely have questions later on.

Hi Greg! Thanks for the very interesting idea. I’ve heard of dispersion of reflective particles in the atmosphere but had no idea that serious studies had been done on it, and specifically on SO2 droplet dispersion. One thing that concerns me about geoengineering is that its large scale makes it difficult to see how you’d stop or reverse it if…[Read more]

Thanks, Geoff! Let me know when you and Mary are next in the area!

I am having the most amazing time talking to scientists at ASU and elsewhere about various things, including (but not limited to) methane outgassing. One of the most interesting things I am learning (consistent with my self-study of complexity from the textbook by Steven…[Read more]

Hi Geoff,

I couldn’t find the entire paper on the internet — I don’t know if it explains things any better. I am just as puzzled by some of the statements as you are, although it’s kind of fun to guess what they might mean. The thing about consistency is interesting. A lot of ancient philosophies have contradictory notions that co-exist –…[Read more]

Well, I’ve just been in touch with scientists at Los Alamos working on this problem and they have interesting things to say. For one thing, it seems that the methane clathrates and the permafrost/sediment layer are quite unstable, so it would be hard to do a controlled mining of the methane. In other words, it is possible that interfering with…[Read more]

Rewilding is a lovely idea… I think one essential ingredient in achieving and maintaining a rewilded (is that a word?) Earth is for humankind to change its narrow and inaccurate way of looking at other animals. If we could admit that at least for mammals we have more similarities than differences (new research shows this) perhaps we could start…[Read more]

I love the idea of banning agriculture-as-we-know-it. If I may point out another aspect of it — apart from messing hugely with earth’s ecosystems, its implementation in some areas of the world has given rise to major social justice issues such as the farmer suicides in India, which result from complex factors including so-called economic…[Read more]