Welcome to the Ecology, Mind, and Systems Wiki
A Site by Jeff Bloom



This wiki site is dedicated to explorations of the ideas and work of Gregory Bateson and many others involved in cybernetics, systems thinking, pattern thinking, and other areas of the complexity sciences. This site values multiple perspectives and transdisciplinary approaches to understanding and representing our emerging understandings of ourselves, our worlds, and the ways in which these are connected. Insightful understandings are not limited to any particular age group, profession, gender, racial or ethnic identity, culture, or economic status. We invite children and adults to participate in exploring a new worldview - a view that sees the interconnectedness of people, cultures, living systems, and the world we inhabit.



People came to our land to take the uranium and coal. Our prophecies had warned us not to let those riches out from the ground as long as humans still practiced warfare. The mining companies on our land were a sign that Earth was in such danger that we must warn the nations of the world. This is why we have come here. The destruction of the natural world is accelerating. The time has come for action.”

Thomas Banyacya (Hopi elder) speaking at the United Nations Conference on Human Habitat in Vancouver, British Columbia, summer, 1976 – from Rex Weyler (2004) in <i>Greenpeace: How a group of ecologists, journalists, and visionaries changed the world</i>, p. 391.



⇒ These are a just a few of the questions we can explore here.



Gregory Bateson suggested: LIFE = ORGANISM + ENVIRONMENT

But, this "equation" is NOT Quantitative.

Bateson also suggested that our inability to see the intricate ecological interdependencies will lead to environmental degradation, whose signs we won't see until after far too much damage has been done. — Sound familiar?


"'There's no place where organic chemistry ends and life begins. Does the mineral compound become life when it enters the root, or the water that carried it there, or when it combines with a biopolymer?… Plants, animals. Organic, inorganic. It's a continuum. We classify things so we can talk about them, but everything exists in relationship. Everything feeds from its environment, takes up water, minerals, air, food…. That means: A flower is your brother."
  • Dr. Patrick Moore — as quoted by Rex Weyler (2004) in Greenpeace: How a group of ecologists, journalists, and visionaries changed the world, pp. 112-113.

FEATURED VIDEOS

  • "Why I Think This World Should End" by Prince Ea

  • Wolves Change Rivers

  • "Introduction to the International Bateson Institute" by Nora Bateson

  • "The State of the World" — a talk by Rex Weyler (co-founder of Greepeace), with discussions including Nora Bateson, Lois Bateson, and Ralph Abraham — a must see talk.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The International Bateson Institute has been established in Sweden. It will be pursuing alternative approaches to researching and communicating about some of our most pressing issues. An IBI ARCHIVE website also is being developed.
Nora Bateson's film, An Ecology of Mind: A Daughter's Portrait of Gregory Bateson is now available for streaming and purchasing on Vimeo EoMDVDcoversmall.jpg





This Site

This site is just beginning. As we develop the content and features, we will provide further information on navigating. For now, please join and add content. In order to provide a high quality site and prevent spam, we ask you to write to the admins at <ecologymindsystems (at) jeffbloom.net> and introduce yourself, unless we already know you.

We've created a number of categories for the emerging content on this site. You can click on the "Categories" menu item to see and explore these categories. Some categories are more technical, others describe approaches to examining content, and still others describe somewhat traditional thematic or disciplinary topics. Various content can occupy more than one category. If you are submitting content and find that we need other categories, please let us know.

Membership

Membership is free.

You can join by following the instructions at the top righthand corner of this window.

However, please send an email to: ecologymindsystems [at] jeffbloom.net. If we do not know you, please briefly describe your interest and background. Unfortunately, we cannot accept membership applications without some connection. Spammers, hackers, and bots wreak havoc, if allowed to join sites. So, please send us a note along with your application. Thanks for your help and understanding!

How to Participate

Students can participate by:
• Posting their projects
• Engaging in forum discussions
• Commenting on others' projects
• Developing their own personal member’s page
• Rating other pages
• Sharing cool links to sites and movies, etc.

Teachers, Researchers, and Others can participate by:
• Engaging in forum discussions
• Developing pages
• Sharing cool links to sites, movies, and other resources
• Sharing news, announcements, and information about events.

Information on how to create pages is available on:
How to Create and Edit Pages



On the EcoMind website © Copyright is held by the original author(s) of materials.
Ecology, Mind, and Systems (EcoMind) © 2011 by Jeffrey W. Bloom

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License