Next Nature
Image: Van Mensvoort
Nature Changes Along With Us
We debate saving nature, we dream about escaping to nature, but rarely do we ask “What is nature?” In an era when the influence of humanity is impossible to escape, our established notion of nature must be reconsidered.
We must no longer see ourselves as the anti-natural species that merely threatens and eliminates nature, but rather as catalysts of evolution. With our urge to design our environment, we cause the rising of a next nature that is wild and unpredictable as ever.
Contents
- What is Next Nature?
- Next Nature Introduction
- Ancient Man Impacted Environment Already
- The Anthropocene Debate: Marking Humanity’s Impact
- Razorius Gilletus – On the Origin of a Next Species
- Next Nature Services
- 'Nature' words according to Google
- Why are Carrots Orange? It is Political
- Next Nature Movie Top 10
- The World without Technology
Children's dictionary dumps 'nature' words
To make way for modern tech terms such as BlackBerry, blog, voicemail and broadband, the latest edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary has opted to drop terms pertaining to old nature. No longer can a …
Welcome to Earth, Number 7,000,000,000!
Today marks another milestone in the march of the Anthropocene. According to United Nations demographers, the seven billionth person on Earth arrived today, just in time to put on a tiny halloween costume (might we …
Street View of the United States
The All Streets map visualizes of all the 240 million individual road segments in the United States. Although no other features — outlines, cities, or types of terrain — are marked, canyons and mountains emerge …
If the implications of global warming were fair
Contrary to popular belief, global warming is not simply a bad thing: there are winners and losers. While low-lying countries, like Bangladesh, are expected to suffer extensively from rising temperatures and sea-levels, countries situated at …
Bacteria that eat waste & shit petrol
Energy problem? Why not genetically alter bacteria to have them provide ‘renewable petroleum’. Crude oil is only a few molecular stages removed from the acids normally excreted by yeast or E. coli during fermentation, it …
What is Next Nature?
Where technology and nature are traditionally seen as opposed, they now appear to merge or even trade places. Koert Van Mensvoort lectures on our changing notion of Nature.
Next Nature Introduction
This project is about Nature’s brand image. One might surmise that “Nature,” being 100 percent all-natural, can’t have any brand image. The facts suggest otherwise. Try it for yourself: tell a friend that something seemingly 100 percent natural is actually “96 percent natural.” Not a great difference, apparently, yet a profound unease arises. That unease is the subject of the many provocative essays and remarkable graphics on NextNature.net
We rarely allow ourselves any tender reverential, nurturing attitude towards technology.
— Bruce Sterling
Ancient Man Impacted Environment Already
The human environmental impact on our planet is hardly underestimated nowadays. Scientist agree humans are to blame for Global Warming – some are already dreaming up scenario’s of geo-engineering to undo the damage. Untouched old nature is almost nowhere to be found anymore besides perhaps some small areas on the South pole, in the deep sea or if one looks up at the stars – although the brighter ones may well be satellites. “We were here”, is written all over. So when did the writing begin? Much earlier than thought.
According to the common perception the human impact on the environment is fairly recent and thought to have started in concert with the 19th centuries industrial revolution. Presumably, in earlier times humans lived in harmony with their environment. That popular romantic view however, is increasingly being challenged.
The Anthropocene Debate: Marking Humanity’s Impact
Is human activity altering the planet on a scale comparable to major geological events of the past? Scientists are now considering whether to officially designate a new geological epoch to reflect the changes that homo sapiens have wrought: the Anthropocene.
The Holocene — or “wholly recent” epoch — is what geologists call the 11,000 years or so since the end of the last ice age. As epochs go, the Holocene is barely out of diapers…
The World without Technology
I remember the smoke the most. That pungent smell permeating the camps of tribal people. Everything they touch is infused with the lingering perfume of smoke — their food, shelter, tools, and art. Everything. Even the skin of the youngest tribal child emits smokiness when they pass by. I can hold a memento from my visits decades later and still get a whiff of that primeval scent. Anywhere in the world, no matter the tribe, steady wafts of smoke drift in from the central fire. If things are done properly, the flame never goes out. It smolders to roast bits of meat, and its embers warm bodies at night. The fire’s ever-billowing clouds of smoke dry out sleeping mats overhead, preserve hanging strips of meat, and drive away bugs at night. Fire is a universal tool, good for so many things, and it leaves an indelible mark of smoke on a society with scant other technology.
Besides the smoke I remember the immediacy of experience that opens up when the mediation of technology is removed in a rough camp. Living close to the land as hunter-gatherers do, I got colder often, hotter more frequently, soaking wet a lot, bitten by insects faster, more synchronized to rhythm of the day and seasons. Time seemed abundant. I was shocked at how quickly I could dump the cloud of technology in my modern life for a cloud of smoke.
But I was only visiting. Living in a world without technology was a refreshing vacation, but the idea of spending my whole life there was, and is, unappealing. Like you, or almost anyone else with a …
Our technological environment has become so complex, omnipresent and uncontrollable: a Nature of its own
Razorius Gilletus – On the Origin of a Next Species
Is the evolution of the single bladed razor into an exorbitant five–bladed vibrating gizmo the outcome of human needs, or is there another force in play? Say hello to Razorius Gillettus, one of the new species emerging from our technoeconomic ecology. Proof that evolution should be understood as a universal principle rather than a DNA-specific process. Yet if this is the case, how can we become responsible stewards of these new, non-genetic forms of life?
By KOERT VAN MENSVOORT
My first razor I got when I was fifteen. It consisted of two blades on a simple metal stick and I remember it gave me a really close and comfortable shave. In the twenty years that have passed since my first shave, I’ve used nine different models of razors. This morning I shaved …
Next Nature Services
Intentionality separates culture from nature. A dog is intentional, a fox is not; a park is intentional, a forest is not. Since trash, ruined buildings, and automated computer programs are unintentional, they are also a type of nature. Nature provides human society with valuable ‘ecosystem services’ such as water purification or erosion control. Next nature provides ecosystem services of its own, although they might not be what we expect.
BY BAS HARING
2010 was the International Year of Biodiversity. The United Nations introduced …
'Nature' words according to Google
Imagine you were an intelligent alien from outer space that just landed on Earth. Before you can mingle with the earthlings you’d need to learn their language. It seemed like a smart idea to start …
Why are Carrots Orange? It is Political
No, the image above does not some show some collection of freshly genetically designed hypercarrots in various colors of the rainbow. This is the spectrum of colors carrots used to have – and in some …
Next Nature Movie Top 10
1. Quest for Fire / La Guerre du Feu (1981)
2. Being There (1979)
3. Koyaansiqatsi (1983)
4. Blade Runner (1984)
5. American Beauty (1999)
6.The Matrix (1999)
7. Grizzly Man (2005)
8. Avatar (2009)
9. The Terminal (2004)
10. Idiocracy (2006)
Thus our …
