Tag Archives: ethics

Fixing agriculture with agroforestry and diverse agroecologies

https://blog.ecosia.org/fix-agriculture/

“regenerative agriculture practices. Combined with reforestation, they could take most of the CO2 emissions which have been released in the last century out of the air again. We also believe that regenerative agriculture will play a key part in providing nutritious food to our ever growing human family.”

“Instead of vast monocultures, we should combine various species on one and the same field. When done right, the different plants support each other’s growth and dramatically reduce damage from pests. Intercropped fields have higher yields than monocultures without depending on chemical fertilizer or pesticides.” Diversity vertically and across the landscape provides resilience, hedging bets against things that can go wrong and for things that can go right with different species and processes.

success ion: be the change

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In the USA and now in Brazil, we see powerful nations viscerally divided between elected officials. Objectively, neither is perfect. Subjectively, the opposing side is so bad it *must* be avoided. Sadly, the side which is the most outspokenly hateful and disregarding of universal human rights is in the lead. Continue reading →

Peace via Mutually Assured Destruction

Reminiscent of Dark Forest Theory, Yuval Noah Harari spoke with Sam Harris about mutually assured destruction. Humanity faces various existential threats now (nuclear war) and in the future (AI), with some threats coming from human enemies (cyber warfare) and some from a common enemy/ourselves/no enemy (climate change). Yuval pointed out how the common enemy of mutually assured destruction itself may be our salvation. When two parties recognize that it is in their best interest to avoid any potential catastrophies with nuclear war, because of the mutually assured destruction that can come with such a path, they step back from that precipice. The same applies for future potential catastrophies both parties might pursue or affect, like AI or even climate change. ‘The only way to assure I am not destroyed is to work together with them to ensure none of us get destroyed.’  By recognizing the potential for mutually assured destruction, we can work together to overcome existential risks.

Dark Forest theory is from Chinese Sci-Fi series In Remembrance of Earth’s Past, also known as Three Body Problem. It focuses on various existential threats at a bewildering set of scales, from neighboring alien civilizations’ mutually assured destruction, to the mutually assured destruction of All in the Universe.

Eidos in the Mystical Ocean

Are mystical practices commonly found in perennial philosophy to be considered idolatry (as in, a breaking of one of the prime commandments of Abbrahamic spiritual currents)?

There are a range of mystical practices which could be considered idolatry. From the purely mental (contemplative) to utterly concrete (tangible offerings, alters, amulets and mezuzahs, and shrines) and a wide variety in between (contemplation of tangible things, from the more subtle like the Tarot, to the more gross like natural phenomenon in light of animism). To understand what qualifies as idolatry, we need to first define idolatry, which is not as clear as one may initially think.

Continue reading →

TRY – elements of surviving and perhaps even improving this crazy world

In the darker modes of the forest
Dreary and reminding of the precursors of death
I am guided by simple elements, that I may be guarded by them too

For dread easily distracts, and in fact it is only a few simple ingredients needed to be at least contented. When we’re far up and startled by the far down, we do well to find a common ground.

Fire to inspire, Earth to shelter
Water to wander wonders, Air to move too
Spirit to animate, as Earth is to space It is to time

On a cold and damp occasion each element may seem lacking. Each needs proper attention to be haven wholly. The fire is built and tended at a steady pace; the shelter is assembled, disassembled, reassembled, opened and closed and again; water is gathered, strained, purified; air is embraced and not left to waste. With all these elements in place, contented in our space, what are we to do with our time? I find

Having come from dreary to docile we move from idle to inspired, tinkering with each aspect of livelihood to enhance that which enhances us and remedy or leave aside that which would diminish us.

TRY

For in a complex world our content & contentedness is still made of these ingredients one way or the other. Like with one’s condition in the forest, there is an essential impact from the way one maintains warmth, shelter, water, food, and inspiration.

The more chickens, the merrier?

On differences between human population limits and those of other organisms,

“Both the jayhawk and the man eat chickens; but the more jayhawks, the fewer chickens, while the more men, the more chickens.” – Henry George, in the Criticism section of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe

“[T]he more men, the more chickens” can pan out in a few different ways, and the pros and cons of those ways will probably write the future history of our population. This highlights a great potential we humans have for bringing about heaven or hell here in Middle Earth. A key metric distinguishing the two: agricultural externalities. The food you eat, where does it come from? How it’s grown, what does that do for all creatures involved and affected?

Real recognize real

Unless we learn to recognize and accept all parts of ourselves – dark and light, near the surface and in the depths – we may be destined as a world to a prejudice far worse than what we face now, due to more extreme conditions in the near future testing our patience about ourselves.

What to do with the dark parts of ourselves we cannot reconcile with? I think it depends on perspective. All things have a place in nature, eating someone and being eaten by someone else; those things which have no place can cease to exist, eaten and not returning, or migrating to a more suitable habitat. What is the force of succession within us? What are your internal ecosystems, where your light and dark exist? Are they at peace, or are they troubled and troubling?

The task at hand – the sort of psychological progress Carl Jung focused on – is a deeply personal one. Yet, it may be a critical work for the future of humanity.

I & I