El Macroscopio

This is chapter 1 of the "The Macroscope" by

Joël de Rosnay

ONE THROUGH THE MACROSCOPE
Today the world is messages, codes, pieces of information. What dissection tomorrow will dislocate our objects in order to recompose them in a new space? What new Russian doll will emerge from it? --François Jacob The atom, the molecule, the cell, the organism, and society fit one within the other like aseries of Russian dolls. The largest of these dolls is the size of our planet, it contains the society of men and their economies the cities and industries that transform the world, the living organisms and the cells which comprise them. One could continue in this way to open successive dolls as far as the elementary particles, but let us stop here. The purpose of this preliminary exploration istwofold. First it is a matter of providing a "primer" in ecology, economics, and biology-- disciplines that force us today to modify our ways of thinking. The three are not often united in a single approach--a situation that offers a risk but also an advantage. The risk is that you may find that the material dealing with the field you know best is too schematic, too simplistic. The advantage(which derives directly from the use of the macroscope) is that you will be able to discover, in other fields, new knowledge that may enrich and enlarge your own personal outlook. Then it is a matter of introducing the concepts of "systems" and "systemic approach," the bases of the new culture of the concerned man of the twenty-first century. The opening of each doll exposes examples and practicalaspects in advance of the general theory. (Remember, there is nothing to keep you from beginning with the second chapter, on systems, if you wish.)

1. ECOLOGY
All life on earth rests on the present or past functioning of the ecosystem, from the smallest bacteria to the deepest forests, from the fragile plankton of the oceans to man, his agriculture, and his industry. Thanks to the reserves ofenergy accumulated during the life of the world, the complex structures of society are maintained: large cities, industries, and communications networks. The ecosystem is literally the house of life, and the science that studies it is ecology. This term was created in 1866 by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel from the Greek oikos, house, and logos, science. Ecology is concerned with the relationsthat exist between living beings and the milieu in which they live.

Yet the ecosystem is much more than merely the milieu in which one lives. In a way it is itself a living organism. Its giant cycles activate everything in the mineral world and the living world. Its biological power plants produce billions of tons of organic matter, matter that is stockpiled, distributed, consumed, recycled inthe form of mineral elements, then reintroduced in the same factories, to be replenished with solar energy and to return through the cycles that maintain the life of every organization. In what movements, what transformations does this "life" of the ecosystem manifest itself? It is shown in atmospheric circulation--winds the movement of the clouds, precipitation, everything that could be seen bystudying the earth at a distance. It is manifested in the flow of water-- streams and rivers moving to the seas, the great ocean currents, the displacement of glaciers. It is seen in the movements of the earth's crust-- earthquakes, volcanos, erosion, sedimentation, and, over a sufficiently long period, the formation of mountain chains. Finally, there are the life cycles in which the basic materialsof living beings are perpetually made, changed, and circulated. All these movements, displacements, and transformations require energy. Whatever their nature or their diversity of being, they draw this energy from three principal sources: solar radiation, energy from the earth's core (seismic or thermal), and gravity. Solar radiation is by far the most important source of energy, for it...