Learning to Organize Naturally

We constantly learn from other cultures.  And we also learn directly by observing nature.

Nature has been organizing on Earth for about 4.5 billion years.  And in 'outer space' - for over 10 billion years before that.

We can learn by looking at the mineral realm - at rocks, and land, and all those 'out there' stars and planets.

There are just over 60,000 inorganic molecules found in nature.  This means that mineral molecules are organized, i.e. there are 60,000 ways nature actively sustains the organization of inert physical matter. 

Organic matter is far more complex than minerals. It far exceeds the apparent 60,000+ cut-off in ways of organizing.  Nature sustains organic molecules an estimated 1.6 million, to 2 million ways.

Everything that is alive is organic (and I don't mean health food claims of no man-made mineral content.)  Something organic is not called 'inert' because organic matter will burn, like gasoline, of like wood after it has been dried.  We refer to 'burning' as the situation of carbon-carbon links being broken, and carbon linking to oxygen from the air, to release carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide, and lots of energy.  Therefore inert matter was not seen as a source of heat for a long time before we invented water turbines. 

Organic matter includes links amongst carbon atoms, known as carbon-carbon bonds.  
An organic way of organizing applies to molecules all the way from methane gas and ethanol liquid, up to DNA and surprisingly, viruses.  DNA is actually a complex series of molecules with double-spiral symmetry forms, and viruses are molecules that need to take over the functioning of the DNA of a host cell before it can 'get a life'.

We can also learn a lot from how the approximately 60,000+ plant species in the world are organized.  In fact manufacturing plants start out much like organic plants, only they go on to higher stages in a hierarchy based on complexity.  There is a hierarchy throughout nature, in that nature gets more complex structurally to function or perform in more complex ways.

Both organic plants and manufacturing plants initially organize in a way that tends to be radially symmetrical.  They sit there at centre, and draw resources along radial lines from points around themselves, and and produce benefits / products that are distributed and dropped along approximately radial lines. 

Just imagine what we can learn about how to manage resources i.e. economics, from the study of how animals' and humans' bodies organize?  Bodies are way more complex than mineral, organic matter or plants.  Animated life forms have several centres, and draw on resources and produce benefits from points around each centre.  Note that the bodies of animals and humans initially organize around several centres in a way that results in bi-symmetry, or mirror symmetry overall.  You would get two relatively equal sides if you divided it about a central vertical plane.

So plants are approximately radially symmetrical about a central line (or axis,) and living bodies are bi-symmetrical about a central plane.

Central lines and central areas.... So, what's left?

Ask yourself, what's approximately symmetrical about a central volume?  To get a handle on that, you need to look at star cultures.  Aboriginal cultures have always been star cultures.

This entire range of organizing, from atoms to humans, plants to forests, is called self-organization.  All these ways of organizing are not only sustainable, but also self-sustaining, i.e. running on practically zero effort, and without outside effort required either.

It's high time we learned about the 'self' or the pattern used in organizing throughout nature.  What we are referring to as the organizing of nature, is the 'self'.  Understanding the 'self' as the pattern for organizing throughout nature and society is the basis of the economy of conscious evolution. 

That is just a glimpse of the past and future of organizing.  For more on this topic click this link to more on our educational initiatives.