Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • The name of this presentation is 'Visualizing a Systems Approach.'

  • This is a single aspect

  • regarding the direction advocated by The Zeitgeist Movement

  • and of interest to me since it's a key factor in understanding

  • human decision-making and problem-solving beyond this political sphere.

  • As you go through the materials we often reference,

  • you will come across many terms and phrases that sound impressive

  • and are actually fun to say. Some examples of this would be:

  • A Resource-Based Economic Model,

  • Technological Unemployment, Dynamic Equilibrium,

  • The Scientific Method for Social Concern,

  • A Systems Approach (to resource management), along with many others.

  • We spend a lot of time in the Movement speaking about the root causes

  • to persistent problems of social operation on the planet,

  • especially in regard to the more notable, negative outcomes

  • such as crime, poverty, war, pollution,

  • debt, and other forms of corruption.

  • While it's logical to understand the problems first,

  • we can sometimes miss the focus on aspects of the solutions we propose,

  • even though there is plenty of information available.

  • At the foundation of what The Movement advocates is a global system

  • which can be termed 'A Resource-Based Economy'

  • made known to many of us by the work of The Venus Project in Venus, Florida.

  • A resource-based economic model is a social structure

  • that is global in its operation, based entirely on the Earth's resources

  • as the starting point for societal decision-making,

  • where all goods and services are available without the use of currency,

  • credit, barter or any form of debt or servitude.

  • All social and industrial operations are arranged in what we call

  • 'A Systems Approach,' which logically treats the planet Earth

  • as a single system it happens to be.

  • We also advocate the application of technology to the automation of labor

  • to free humanity from the mundane and arbitrary occupational roles

  • which have no true relevance for social well-being;

  • and at the end of the day, we want to encourage a new value

  • and incentive system through this social design

  • which maintains a focus on attributes such as community,

  • human well-being, relevant education, social awareness and creativity.

  • That's as far as I'm going to go into the overall direction

  • since it's far too much information to share with you tonight.

  • Instead I wish to spend a few minutes visualizing a core attribute of this model

  • to give us a working understanding of one piece of the technical jargon.

  • The attribute of focus in this presentation will be a Systems Approach.

  • Our relationship to the earth and the environments we live in

  • is not a political issue or a religious ideal.

  • It is a technical relationship.

  • Separate a living organism from its surroundings and it will die

  • from a lack of oxygen, water and food.

  • Organisms are open systems that cannot survive

  • without continuously exchanging matter and energy with their environment.

  • Since we observe systems interacting with each other as part of a whole,

  • it is then logical to start with the unifying system of the biosphere

  • in which we all inhabit.

  • 'Systems Thinking' can be defined as an approach to problem solving

  • by viewing problems as part of the overall system

  • rather than reacting to individual problems

  • as isolated or unrelated phenomena from the larger order.

  • When taking it separate, such patchwork notions

  • may further the development of unintended consequences,

  • such as trying to resolve the problems of monetary inflation with more inflation

  • or trying to fight the destruction of the rain forests

  • or the increase in plastic waste in our oceans by more laws and legislation

  • rather than addressing the cause of the behavior to begin with.

  • Systems Thinking is not one thing but a set of habits or practices

  • within a framework that is based on the principle that the component parts of a system

  • are best understood in the context of relationships,

  • rather than in isolation from one another.

  • This brings us to an attribute that is often mentioned,

  • which is a systems approach.

  • A systems approach to resource management on the planet

  • is comprised of real-time data and statistics.

  • This approach combined with the attributes of peak efficiency,

  • strategic preservation and conservation

  • become necessary components to what we would call a sustainable society.

  • The process of unfolding, which you may call decision-making,

  • is based on natural law and reason,

  • not on political ideologies or religious notions or a group's opinion.

  • When using a systems approach we are arriving at decisions,

  • as opposed to making them.

  • Making a decision is a subjective act often based on incomplete information

  • or affected by one's cultural bias.

  • Our goal is to remove the basis of one's opinion as best we can

  • by using the most up-to-date knowledge we have to align with natural processes

  • to the best of our abilities at a given time.

  • This is an emergent process because the body of knowledge

  • of human understanding changes over time as

  • new discoveries are made; there is no final frontier.

  • Human management of the environmental equilibrium on this planet,

  • which is an initial variable to how well society functions,

  • comes first from understanding

  • what the carrying capacity of the earth actually is.

  • It follows that the needs of the human population must be in balance

  • with the resources of the Earth or negative outcomes occur.

  • So, where do we start?

  • What is the first step to determining the carrying capacity of the Earth?

  • This is where a systems approach comes in.

  • A logical start would be with a full survey of the Earth's resources

  • since we must know what we have to work with in order to arrive at any decisions.

  • There are many natural resources to be considered such as forests and oceans

  • and energy, along with arable land, water and minerals;

  • but for the sake of simplicity, let us refer to these components

  • as natural resources.

  • If anyone is currently thinking "Well, this makes sense,

  • but how would it even be possible to create this kind of global system?"

  • or perhaps you might be thinking that the technological know-how

  • for such a comprehensive survey is a bit too futuristic.

  • At this point I'd like to make use of a few visual examples

  • of current, real-world technical systems

  • that are working in this regard right now.

  • This is an accurate visualization of many current

  • and former NASA Earth-observing satellites.

  • With names like TRIMM, Landsat 7, Terra,

  • EO-1, Jason-2, Grace, iSat and Aquarius,

  • these unmanned probes are quietly beaming down information

  • that has transformed our understanding of how the Earth works

  • and what we know of the human fingerprint on our climate.

  • Together, they represent an application of technology in real-time,

  • working as part of a global surveying system,

  • not something from Star Trek, not something 100 years away,

  • but orbiting the planet right now.

  • Let's look at a closer example. The satellite Aquarius

  • is designed to take comprehensive salinity measurements of the Earth's oceans

  • in their entirety every week.

  • The data obtained from these measurements

  • help answer some of our most pressing questions about climate change.

  • Why salinity? The density of the ocean water

  • is determined from its salinity and from its temperature.

  • Density of ocean water drives the patterns of deep ocean currents,

  • and ocean currents drive global change.

  • In recent decades, scientists have seen that our ocean salinity has shifted

  • in ways which only climate change seems to be able to explain.

  • From 400 miles above the surface of the earth,

  • Aquarius can detect differences in ocean salinity

  • to within a pinch of salt in a gallon of water.

  • With this visualization we're witnessing an example of current technology

  • being applied via the methods of science

  • for environmental and ultimately, social concern.

  • The collection of all of this data can be used for understanding our environment

  • or even predicting possible outcomes.

  • In this example, what you're seeing was not photographed from space.

  • Every pixel here was calculated by the GEOS-5 super computer.

  • This supercomputer can accurately model

  • and simulate the Earth's atmospheric conditions for short periods of time.

  • In this example this model was giving data leading up until Feb 2, 2010

  • and then it proceeded to predict the atmosphere's response

  • for the next 20 days without any further input.

  • This model simulated real-world weather events that actually took place,

  • including snow storms, tropical cyclones and many other climate conditions.

  • Continuing these examples, the Terra and Aqua satellites

  • gather data of the Earth's surface every two days.

  • This animation shows where the world's food is grown

  • versus where the world's food is consumed.

  • The movie starts with global croplands, then fades to the countries

  • that produce over 80% of the world's wheat, grain and cereal.

  • It then overlays the world's population density,

  • and then fades to show the countries that are projected to double

  • and triple their populations by the year 2050.

  • There also exists a mineral resource data system,

  • which is a statistical survey done by the USGS

  • (United States Geological Survey).

  • This map is a collection of reports

  • describing mineral resources throughout the United States.

  • The survey actually expands out for the entire globe,

  • but this map just shows an example/serves a purpose for this presentation.

  • This is an example of information that would be part of the so-called

  • 'Geo-database' if you will.

  • Integrating the dataset into a global knowledge base

  • of our resource-management system