If we are to understand the future of ecology, we must first understand something fundamental about technology. Technology is neither good nor bad in and of itself; its impact is determined by the values of the culture it exists in.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, technological development occurred mainly in the context of a western culture that undervalued the importance, fragility, and beauty of ecological systems. As a result, vast regions of the natural world were indiscriminately ravaged.

However, in the last few decades, as our ecological awareness has deepened — thanks mostly to public knowledge of the threat of climate change — there’s been a significant shift in how our technologies impact the natural world. Today, green/smart technologies and sustainable design are some of the fastest growing innovation sectors. Breakthrough technologies in water desalination, carbon sequestration, solar, wind, and marine energy production, and renewable energy mini-grids are being furiously pursued by leading scientists and technologists. In a matter of decades technology has gone from being what many considered an inherent destroyer of the natural world to potentially its greatest ally. If our ecological awareness continues to deepen, this trend will likely continue: new technologies will foster environmental sustainability in increasingly deeper ways.

However, this nascent alliance between technology and ecology is just the beginning of what’s possible: as our technology and ecological awareness evolve in tandem, technology and ecology will integrate with one another in increasingly deeper ways.

As our technology and ecological awareness evolve in tandem, technology and ecology will integrate with one another in increasingly deeper ways.

We can see signs of this already. The practice of biomimicry — using nature as model and a teacher for our innovations — allows us to develop new technologies that draw on the intelligence of nature. Existing examples are solar cells that mimic the arrangement of cells on the leaf of a plant, or energy grids based on the network-principles of bee colonies. Biomimicry is growing rapidly. The number of global patents containing the term “biomimetic” or “bio-inspired” in their title increased by a factor of 93 from 1985 to 2005, compared to a factor 2.7 increase for nonbiomimetic patents. “The core idea”, writes biologist, Janine Benyus, “is that nature has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with: energy, food production, climate control… Mimicking these earth-savvy designs can help humans leapfrog to technologies that…create conditions conducive to life.”

Moreover, by mimicking the complexity of nature it becomes possible for our technologies to harmonize and integrate into natural environments at increasingly deeper levels. For example, by combining biomimetic principles with our ability to monitor the flows of natural resources in an ecosystem via networked sensors, we can design our agricultural, industrial and energy distribution systems so that they interface with and integrate into native ecosystems. Similarly, it’s possible for us to create self-sustaining built environments that blend in seamlessly with the natural environment through biomimetic architecture, clean-energy generators, and smart automation.

We can imagine then a future in which our technology evolves to align and assimilate into the natural world in progressively deeper ways — a meshing of technology and ecology. From this meshing a synergistic relationship emerges — where not only is our technological development guided by the intelligence of nature, but natural evolution is also supported and enriched by our technology. Though the responsible use of genetic manipulation or nanotechnology we could increase the integrity, beauty and diversity of biotic communities — technology playing an active, supportive role in the evolution of natural ecologies.

Image: Vincent Callebaut

There is though, a huge gaping clause in this prediction though — one that under no circumstances can be ignored: if our technology is to evolve to support and harmonize with nature, then our growing ecological awareness must keep pace with our technological evolution. In fact, our growing ecological awareness must expand to the point where our identity as an inseparable part of nature is reclaimed. As I have said elsewhere, “We come from nature, we depend on nature, we are nature, and any identity that disentangles us from it is misguided.” This is of course not a new idea. Indigenous cultures all over the world always considered themselves inseparable from the great web of life. “What you people call your natural resources we call our relatives,” said Oren Lyons, Faith keeper of the Onondaga. A return to this identity would merely be recognizing this ancient wisdom for what it is: simple truth.

If our technology is to evolve to support and harmonize with nature, then our growing ecological awareness must keep pace with our technological evolution.

Returning our human identity to its natural roots will have profound effects. As I wrote late last year, “A humanity imbued with an understanding of its true place in nature will organically harmonize with it. A civilization rooted in this awareness will naturally gravitate towards renewable energy sources; it’s architecture instinctively inspired by nature’s symmetry; its agricultural systems naturally in sync with the rhythms of the earth; its economic systems in harmonious balance with the ecosystems they’re nested in.”