The Institute for Holistic Biomimicry

What is Holistic Biomimicry?

After billions of years of evolution, Nature has evolved many processes that are efficient and enduring. The idea behind biomimicry is that, given nature has already solved many of the challenges that humans are facing today, rather that approach her as a foe to be wrestled with, we can ask, how can we learn from her in order for life to flourish?

Holistic biomimicry is a term we use for an attitude to learning and action from the abundant explosion of life that comes together and is embraced by whole interconnected communities of organisms from bacteria, mycorrhiza fungi, slime molds, grasses, forbes, trees, humans and other animals; from their biomes to their social collectives.

Biomimicry (by humans) can be described as

      The design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modeled on biological entities and processes.
or
      The imitation of natural biological designs or processes in engineering or invention.

Biomimicry is an approach to innovation and practice that seeks to translate the resiliency of nature into human productivity by emulating nature’s time-tested structures and strategies. Some historical examples of biomimicry include the Chinese efforts to invent artificial silk around 3000 BCE, and the study of birds to enable human flight.

Holism is a philosophy in which the formulation of activities are conceived as part of a whole interconnected system rather than as individual activities isolated from each other. As a philosophical theory, Holism posits that parts of a whole are in intimate interconnection, or cannot be understood without reference to the whole, which is thus regarded as greater than the sum of its parts. It is common to describe a major feature of holism as synergetic; the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their individual effects.

Philosophically, Holism is the opposite of Atomism.

Why Holistic Biomimicry?

In biomimetic thinking, nature is considered as a source of advice, rather than as just a provider of materials. This approach considers the resilience of the natural world to not only find a way to invent better materials or products, but also to better navigate how to live and thrive under the impact of negative externalities, such as environmental catastrophes. It is encouraging, then, that there is an increased interest in careful and systematic investigations of living systems, together with efforts to emulate them, certainly at the component level, in biomechanical engineering. This activity is in-keeping with human's great ability to isolate individual observations and reduce them to activites independent of the system in which they are observed (reductionism). Left to its own devices, Nature "solves" problems in ways very different to the way than human do.

When an abundant explosion of lifeforms come together symbiotically in communities, these communities act synergistically. That is, the resilience of the whole is greater than the resilience of the individuals involved.

Holistic biomimicry promises to stimulate new forms of creative expression (in music and in the other arts) which communicate on an emotional and intellectual level to the citizenry at large. The visceral, embodied nature of the arts has always played a major role in cultural shifts and can play a supportive and enlivening role in improving the regeneration of Nature, at the same time as contributing to resilient, sustainable, and adaptable built environments.

Holistic Biomimicry in Regenerative Agriculture

The widespread adoption of holistic biomimetic thinking is in an early phase in most modern cultures, spurred on (as are most of human history's major cultural paradigm shifts) by the production and distribution of food. Without food, there is no culture, and agriculture is the basis of all non-nomadic (sedentary) cultures.

The terms "biomimicry" and "biometrics" describe sciences in which biological patterns are assumed to be important. We don't just wade into biological patterns and assume they are dysfunctional. The fact that an herbivore doesn't eat carrion should make us assume that herbivores eating carrion has dangers. And yet for several decades, the USDA and its British counterparts encouraged farmers to feed carrion to herbivores–i.e, dead cows to cows.

What Joel Salatin is saying here, is something different to a "mimicking nature in her ways and means" understanding of biomimicry. His question is not simply "How does nature do something?" but "Is this something nature doesn't do?" And if not, perhaps "Why not?"; implying, by inference, that caution is required. A characteristic of holistic biomimicry, then, is the inclusion of both deductive and inductive thinking.

The application of biomimetic techniques to provide solutions to individual problems is not new. However, to apply the idea through a complex systems approach, as outlined in permaculture design, requires vertical integration and multi-speciation. The principles of Permaculture have been given a more general expression in Regenerative Agriculture.</ref>. In many ways the rebirth of this historically conventional approach, currently in its relative infancy, when compared to industrial agriculture involves a major conceptual shift on behalf of farmers as well as consumers, because it challenges the current paradigms of mono-cropping, animal feed-lots and factory food manufacturing, and places a primary focus on soil production and health and the role of animals in that process. Such a shift is necessary if we are to arrest the devastating decline in human and planetary health consequent to the introduction of industrial agriculture, factory farming and CAFO. This paradigm shift is not just required of consumers of food (all of us!), but of farmers and ranchers who need to transition even from some traditional ways (such as the ~7000 year old practice of plowing the soil), as well as the (Post WWII) addiction to artificial fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and other "anti-biotics".

Holistic Biomimicry in Design and the Arts

Biomimetic thinking also encourages systems-thinking in creative practices. For instance, it might require a product designer to work in close collaboration with a biologist, a manufacturer and all possibly relevant stakeholders to incorporate trans-disciplinary perspectives to fully understand the ecological context of each activity. Such an approach it is full of relationships, partnerships and communities that are more resilient when they work together.

Dance, music and mirror neurons

We are embodied beings that live in environments, and microbiomes, a subset of which is the human microbiome. Many indigenous dances are imitations of their daily activities and mimicry of the movements of animals they see around them. Throughout history, dances have been performed to serve various purposes such as to pay respect or show reverence to the spirit of their ancestors and to celebrate significant moments in their lives and communities. Traditional and ceremonial music and dance has been a part of Australian Aboriginal cultures for tens of thousands of years. Such activities, often in context of a Corroboree , frequently incorporate imitations of certain animals, to assist in the storytelling and bring the dreamtime to life. In the Americas, Pow wows provide the same opportunity: dances that are specific to certain First Nations, or that commemorate certain events or elements of nature, or that originate from observations of nature and animals. Many other cultures employ mimicry that can be analyzed biosemiotically and these are perhaps the earliest forms of biomimicry known to us. Nor is mimicry restricted to human behavior: What is camouflage, if not a form of mimicry? And does a calf not imitate its mother when learning how to forage? Recent work in neuropsychology has discovered the presence of whole networks of Mirror neurons which are believed to be the biological basis of empathy.

Notes and References

References