Russell’s coming back with the KCAI students was a homecoming event to two old friends. Russell and the new Cosanti Foundation President Jeffrey Stein both lived here at the same time during Arcosanti’s heyday in the 70s.

The workshop experience is part of the student’s scientific elective, but they also do much drawing and contemplation while they are here. Students typically seem very open and interested with regards to life here. They help out in various departments including Construction, Guestrooms and the Cafe, while they are here. Specially designated “cafe helpers” assist with the cooking and cleanup/dishwashing in the Cafe, to help defray the cost of their field trip.

During his time here in the 70s and 80s, Russell was notorious for his pranks. He is appreciated for his ability to make things interesting with various improvisational acts, especially at Morning Meeting. Also, he is known for his ability to make rock walls – which believe it or not is both a science and a artform. In Arcosanti lore, he is one of the most notable personalities to live here with his storytelling and performance abilities as well as his rock wall building and general experimental approach to life.

For the two weeks the students were here he organized numerous film events in which some of his favorite art films were shown and a discussion afterward.

Some of the students expressed an interest in coming back and indeed one Sal Tellini has actually become a long term resident so possibly her experience her could serve as a model for some of them.

In the first year about 24 students came and it was a nice little boost here for what is otherwise a slow part of the year. The student’s coming here also helps us financially. This year’s group added about 13000 dollars to our project’s financial coffers. Russell by organizing these workshops helps the students broaden their perspective as artists, while also giving the foundation some cash to keep Arcosanti going.

The first year brought a large group about 24 students. Only four came during the christmas of 2010 and that was when Sal came back to the Work Exchange/Scholarship program. This January, we had about 18 students who unlike last time were a bit more established in their school, most being juniors.

Much of the work focused on completing the Energy Apron Research Facility that was initiated by Cosanti Foundation board and faculty member Roger Tomalty. Roger had this idea of using new PVC pipe to make the frame for this greenhouse facility and then covered by a plastic greenhouse membrane. The idea is that it would be sloped up from the valley so it could stimulate air flow from the bottom to the top of the structure. Data collection instrumentation was to be installed to monitor the rate of atmospheric change inside and compare that to the outside measurements. This data were to then be used to develop more concrete planning towards the creation of the Arcosanti Energy Apron idea first conceived by Paolo Soleri in 1970 at the birth of Arcosanti. While the greenhouse project had begun in 2009 with the first group of students they were unable to finish. So this group of students finished off where they started.

Before leaving Arizona, they went to Cosanti to see a magnificent example of art melding with architecture.

There is a sad ending to this…A few days after the students left a wind came and destroyed the structure. However I think the process for the students to come here is still a good one and there is potential in further developing this and similar programs so that students can come here to this unique place and experiences life at Arcosanti as both artists and citizens.

One of the key elements of it was that we are learning from nature and the capstone to that was that nature at the highest level was bound together as Gaia: the planetary consciousness of the earth. Conscious in that it was the sum of all the energy of the species and inanimate matter that made up the planet.

The definition of holistic is that the whole is greater than the sum of its component parts. It was that the systems that uphold our world today are based on reductionistic systems of understanding. Our understanding since it as a result of reductionistic thinking we have in effect commoditized and objectified ourselves. So we are not able to see ourselves in relationships with the larger world and so the idea of engaging in relationships based on mutuality is thus difficult for us. It is not embedded in their memetic DNA to see a collective and shared consciousness of reality. Instead a simplistic understanding of life continues to be affirmed that is based on the patriarchal impulse to dominate through the sword.

Globalization may not so much be a conspiracy of rich individuals as it is of affluent systems of centralized command and control that communicate their influence through money and then revert to weapons when the carrot no longer works. They only have power so long as we cease to take the necessary steps to become whole and complete beings in relationship with the world around us at the macro, micro and all levels in between.

Getting to the point sustainability is not about green tech so much as a new way of thinking about our relationship with the world. Existing systems as Myers astutely noted are not based on that understanding. So they will fail just as countless civilizations have done so in the past that were not driven by a wisdom based consciousness. It makes me think of Arnold Toynbee’s work exploring why civilizations rise and why they fall. But is his work really that brilliant? Isn’t it obvious why civilizations rise and fall? Rome was possibly the world’s greatest civilization as it came to dominate the world for nearly 1000 years and for many years after its influence and imprint is still felt. Possibly it laid the groundwork for what was to become and be referred to as Western Civilization that was to great the framework for globalization.

Now we see that the imprint and coding for this pattern of human cycling is being mimicking again and again because we don’t really learn the lessons of history. That was the point of Toynbee I believe: to show us that we are not really embracing the power of history to tell us about ourselves and to give us illumination about the how the conditions that sustain the miserable notion of the human condition is implanted in the core operating codes for running civilizations. There is a flaw in the coding and it is potentially a serious and even fatal flaw for the future of humanity.

The key is to have global networks in place that are ready to replace the falling house of cards that the current paradigm is based upon.

We are not yet there but the imperative is move quickly so as to prevent a total collapse as we see spoken about in the futuristic lore that takes up a part of what is called science fiction.

Also the idea is why do people stay here? Is it for the views? The social mix of people who come here from all over the world? To build an Arcology as a solution to the problems facing humanity? To document and promote Paolo Soleri’s past glories? Is it for the architecture? Is it because many who stay here fear that they can’t (or possibly a more charitable views is that they don’t want to) survive out there in the real world?

We are a diverse mix of people and so there are many reasons why we are here.

Yet I think the challenge is not to be overcome by the pain of expectation and of what should be.

It has to do with the fact that it is sometimes not clear why Arcosanti is so special to people because we live it everyday and many times struggle with the idea of living amongst a group of people for such a long time without really acknowledging its a community.

Consider that for many years the prevailing “memetic jinjo” coming out of the mouths of Cosanti Foundation operatives was that “Arcosanti is not a community its a construction site.” It was jarring to me every time I heard that I had this vicerial reaction to that kind of thinking. For me it was a denial of the idea that to live well for any period of time among a group of people it cannot be anything other than a community and be graciously acknowledged as such.

Now we seem to have evolved past the need to remind people that the people living and devoting their lives to Arcosanti are not really a community of people. However, there is still lacking a real understanding of the unique conditions here and how to facilitate something meaningful at Arcosanti that improves the quality of life here.

I often say to people that the reason architecture inspires is not so much about the architect itself but about the shared memory of an experience in viewing inspirational architecture. Pierre Teilard de Chardin was a major early influence on Soleri. Chardin expressed some  metaphysical views that were very similar to Carl Jung in relation to the idea that we do have an imprint on our world by developing rings of shared conscious experiences. It is through these experiences that we have intuitions and make what are called telepathic links with one another.

The challenge is of course that we do not really acknowledge this power flow through our lives. The idea is that there are cross-cutting influences in our lives and the power of the consumer culture and its ideological drivers are still great even here at Arcosanti.

Despite this or more precisely because of countervailing influences the Arcosanti metaphysical or metaphysics is denied. The idea of magic in our lives is denied and so the routine takes over to the point where it becomes stifling and even dismal. To acknowledge this reality is problematic because in society we are supposed to say everything is fine or at least OK (which of course is short for okey dokey).

So the problem with keeping an open mind in relation to community development is the premise that you can still have a real community while denying the idea of the role of spirit in creating and sustaining community. I mean something similar to what Jung and Chardin were talking about…That we though our spiritual essence are somehow sharing something important with each other as well as the planet and the universe on a more holistic and unconscious level. To deny this is to deny the very elemental elements of life and at a fundamental level to pretend a very basic life building block is not only unimportant but nonsensical.

So for me those who deny the spiritual essence of all things and our interrelationship with them is denying the very life force that sustains us. It is that we deny this life force that we become depressed, we are cut off from the link to the universe and to our fellow kindred spirits.

The result of the above is hardly surprising. When we are not holistic beings acknowledging on some level the completeness of what we are and what we are a part of in terms of the larger whole, productivity and effectiveness in our lives becomes distant like a mythological vision or dream. We can only wish for it, like we as children wish for Santa Claus to give us presents.

The reality is that without the spirit of community in our lives we descent into a darker world which is driven by shame, denial and pretending. We lie to ourselves and we lie to each other because we often don’t want to face the shame of what we are, what we have become. So we turn to drugs and addictive patterns of behavior to keep us complacent in the dismal and uninspiring realities of our where we are in the moments that we seek to get away from. But each moment is as dismal as the next and so much of our time is spent getting away from the memory of the now and the past and focusing on some unrealistic future vision.

Its been a few months but I’m still musing over the big change here at Arcosanti.

In the Cosanti Foundation Soleri retirement Press Release at Arcosanti’s official website blog (Daily Progress aka Today@Arcosanti) announcing the change in leadership, Soleri supposedly explains that its time for him to “do other things.” What other things are we talking about here? Most recently Paolo Soleri has been focusing his energy on this idea of building a Lean Linear City.

It seems that he might just have a couple of moves up his sleeve. Really though the only other thing he could be talking about is his having more of a focus on Lean Linear City.

I have mixed feelings about the change in that I don’t want him to just fade away but then again it might be a good thing for the project for him to become less involved and let some new blood in to get the project really moving again. However I don’t think there is much worry about his “retirement” as he seems to be pretty much involved as he was in the past but without the title of President.

References/Notes:

1. PR from the Cosanti Foundation website: NEW LEADERSHIP AT COSANTI FOUNDATION  [FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, July 13, 2011] http://www.arcosanti.org/today/2011/07/15/1310744130298.html
2. One documentarian seems interested by Soleri’s retirement http://alifesworkmovie.com/blog/2011/07/paolo-soleri-retires/
3. My report in the Arcology discussion group about the transition: Re: [arcology] Paolo Soleri resigns from Cosanti http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arcology/message/3837
4. The Big Bug News – a local Newspaper reports on Paolo’s retirement: http://www.bigbugnews.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=443&ArticleID=51462

A few weeks ago at the table on the Arcosanti Cafe (aka Cafe@Arcosanti), I felt a bit out of place. It had to do with the fact that I was talking about Hybrids and my increasing interest in getting one or alt fuel powered vehicle. I was met with skepticism/cynicism on the part of several Arcosanti residents as I tried to explain my belief in green technology.

At Arcosanti part of the doctrine of Arcology has evolved to become a resistance to improvements in green technologies that are not part of a high density development model called Arcology. Since we don’t really have much to speak of as far as green tech goes here at Arcosanti, that kind of narrows down the field of legitimate technologies and best practices. Thus my concern is that some of my counterparts here have become a bit too critical of developments in the design and engineering of greener products.

Paolo Soleri seems to say that “green tech” is becoming over-hyped and in many cases not much better than current practices. His notion of a “Better Kind of Wrongness” represents the cynicism many feel when they look closely at how a green technology was developed and how it became packaged into mainstream consumer products. In many cases the compromises needed to make the product suitable for mainstream consumption leads to a cutting of corners so that a frugal and lean product becomes less so, possibly offsetting any real benefit to the environment that the product actually claims makes it “green”.

Visionaries like Amory Lovins in speaking of greening technologies like the electric or hybrid car are seen by purists like Soleri as not addressing the core problems of car culture. Lovins, his ex-wife Hunter and the eco-entrepreneur Paul Hawkins wrote a book called Natural Capitalism that Soleri critiqued in the early 2000s in his School of Thought discussions. The book Natural Capitalism served as a sort of bible for many in the emerging green biz and design fields. What was borne out of this debate was a chasm between Arcology and the ecological design movement that is expressed in the phase Soleri developed at the time: Better Kind of Wrongness.

Lovins is an energy engineer that saw a problem with the way human society operated that was similar to Soleri’s and other pioneering eco-visionaries. Lovins put forward the case that once you achieve a level of overall system efficiency you achieve a “cost barrier breakthrough” or “tunneling through the cost barrier” which was a title of one chapter (chapter 6) of the book Natural Capitalism. He first applied these design and engineering concepts to the heating and cooling of buildings. So by addressing all the parameters of building design holistically with the best practices of the ecological design field, you can develop a solution that is both compelling in terms of energy savings, that more than offsets the higher costs of building over time.

Later he applied the above mentioned concepts to his vision of a green car that he called the HyperCar. This focus on the car seems to have alienated Soleri from that validity of Lovins’ work in pioneering important concepts of energy efficiency in the ecological design field. The key conceptual elements of the HyperCar are outlined below:

Hypercars have very efficient propulsion, weight-efficient construction, and outstanding aerodynamics. While any one of these characteristics alone can create good performance, when all three are combined the resulting hypercars can exceed typical Autobahn speeds, offer good handling, and achieve astounding fuel economy.

http://www.hypercars.com/

The problem often overlooked by these kind of approaches is that no matter how “green” you make the car, it will never be truly sustainable because the scale in which it is deployed has too great an adverse ecological and social impact on planetary life support systems. So the risk is that as we expend massive resources on developing a green car, its possible that we delude ourselves into thinking it offers a real and compelling solution to the root causes of the ecological problems of the day.

Yet the premise that the car or mobile vehicle is all bad is problematic. Since I use it everyday I recognize the car’s utility in my life. Indeed logistically speaking I am not sure I completely reject the technology as unnecessary and unneeded as to me its obvious that it has value in my life. Yet if we were to build more sustainable cities and habitats I think it would be imperative that the utility of the auto be reduced to address the valid points that Soleri is expressing about the problems with Suburbanization and Car Culture.

As the Doctress points out a possible flaw or oversight in Soleri’s thinking is that he lives in a world where the car is the way people get around and yet he does not acknowledge the utility of that technology in his own life. While no one can dispute his dedication to frugality…If he were to actually live in Arcosanti and mandate that Arcosanti take steps to minimize the car’s use and impact in the everyday practices of the business he owns (Cosanti Originals) and the foundation (Cosanti Foundation) that its proceeds support, he might be taken more seriously by people.

If we are so concerned with this pure (better kind of wrongness) view of technology and development – looking critically as those who invested in technologies to make cars and suburbia more green – we should also look deeply and reflect honestly at our continued investment and support of crucial components of what makes sprawl a success. It wouldn’t hurt to look at other options to source products and materials for our project that are more aligned with the ideals, values and vision of the place. Possibly our reliance on companies that are involved in the perpetualization of sprawl and car culture like Home Depot and Costco should be rethought.

Why not focus more on outfitting our facility with the detrius of industrial society, like so many of the residents here do by shopping at the Arcosanti free store or when things are not available there that they need going to local thrift stores? To create a culture where people collect the reject items and take the time to configure them into usable products and even a compelling aesthetic that people can appreciate. This is what made the Auburn U architectural professor and Rural Studio founder Samuel Mockbee so famous and respected – his ability to source unwanted or scrap materials and make them into usable products and building materials and have the students apprentice under him to learn about this skill.

To demonize the car and or car culture can be counterproductive both in terms of real and productive solutions and in relation to how people in the mainstream perceive you. Of course both of the above are related in that they are about perception and how we are perceived by others. We run the risk of being seen as a group of bad-tempered, pie in the sky idealists who criticize any efforts to green the economy as perpetuating sprawl and overconsumption. Rather we need to look carefully at why these ideas are still not taken seriously after 40 years since the Arcosanti project began. What do we have to offer as a real compelling alternative to what exists in the mainstream consumer and technology driven world?

Might part of what Soleri terms the “reformulation” process include an understanding of the difficulty of real change both here and in the larger world? Could it also include an exploration of the glimmers of transformation that exist in many global oriented efforts to retool and green the economy with a bit of a more open mind? Possibly we can see that  Lovins in his effort to make the car more efficient in terms of how it transports people is part of a global effort to rethink existing mechanisms, strategies and systems of production, consumption and transportation.

Realistically Arcology can be vision of something that can lead to the creation of more integrated and densified habitats that result in the more frugal and respectful use of resources. However, part of that practical idealism involves the reality that cars will continue to be a vital part of modern life for many years to come and that efforts to green the car are vital. When we need to use them, we can have the piece of mind that we are part of a movement that is driven by a commitment towards using the resources invested – in making cars and propelling them – wisely.

Well of course this sort of shocked me but hey if you can't see her nipples then its not porn right? And besides its for a worthy cause; the promotion of the one of the 6 Cs of Arizona's economy.

As a Arizonian I have heard ’bout them about Arizona’s 5 Cs but I often have trouble remembering what they are. Now I have to add another one to remember. According to most recent economic statistics… “Arizona’s 5 Cs: Casinos now the 6th ‘C’ industry.”

The fact that casino investments continue to be seen by many as a good thing underlies the flawed thinking and mis-prioritization of values and goals that has led to a crisis in the modern nation-state.

The East Valley Tribune reports that the “Five C’s” that traditionally made the bulk of Arizona’s economy – copper, climate, cattle, cotton, citrus should make room for a fifth – Casinos.

Revenue from Arizona’s 22 casinos far surpassed cattle, cotton and citrus in the most recent figures available for each. Casinos took in nearly $1.7 billion during fiscal 2011, which ended June 30, according to the Arizona Department of Gaming’s annual report.

By comparison, cattle industry receipts totaled $637 million in 2010 and another $650 million from dairy products. Cotton receipts bounced back from a poor 2009, but the crop’s $206 million take was just a fraction of casino wins. And although Arizona’s biggest citrus crop, lemons, accounted for nearly 10 percent of U.S. production, it produced just $34 million in receipts.

Bad Karma for Natives & Whites Alike?

The money is not in producing real things – things we need to live and live prosperously – its in producing “casino wins.” Native Americans in a bid to cash out on their special “first nation peoples” legal status are providing fuel to enable the proliferation of the gambling industry in America. The fuel is in the form of the simple fact that many tribes own properties that place them in important strategic locations that are key growth areas for the gambling industry such as Phoenix. Most states still prohibit gambling casinos but through a federal loophole can be allowed on Native American Reservations. Yet the idea, intent and values of the gambling industry contrary to the values and wisdom native peoples of their cultures.

Some are concerned that this action by many Native tribes constitutes not only a sell-out on their values and integrity, but that such a decision is actually representing the actual spiritual death of many of these people’s traditions and cultures.

Financial Problems Revolve around a Question of Values

For many people gambling is an addiction and it can have a destructiveness similar to alcohlism and other vices

The rise of gambling as a legitimate economic sector in contemporary society, underlies deeper problems with value creation and consumer spending in the American economy. Some people (usually on the Right) are enamored with facts showing the wastefulness of government. Yet a considerably smaller degree of social commentary is expressed about the total impact of questionable consumer behaviors such as tobacco consumption, over-eating and other addictive behaviors such as gambling.

The hijacking of the national political-economic discourse is a complex affair that at its roots has less to do with traditional or conventional notions of ideology than it does about the power addictions of the 1% of the richest and most powerful people in humanity. By pretending to support traditional conservative thinking and causes the 1% has successfully manipulated the political discourse and re-framed it away from the discussion about the roots of complex social problems and towards superficial, obsessive compulsive thinking that enables the stifling of personal growth and intellectual development among the general public. Getting to the roots of America’s financial crisis means that we have to go deeper than the financial mis-appropriation of funds on the part of Wall Street and Washington Elites, its a cultural, moral and spiritual bankruptcy whose responsibility is shared among all income groups

The Real Problem: Mis-Appropriation of Wealth

Military or government spending and a loss of public faith and trust in government as a result of corruption and bad decisions made by political officials and leaders is no doubt a problem but its not the core of what is driving this nation in the wrong direction. There is a crisis in the age of affluence, whereby money is mis-allocated towards activities that do not create wealth creation effects at all levels of humanity.

To say we are driven by values implies that we are thinking about things that revolve around something deeper than our own financial enrichment. Its a vision of America leading a globalization process, whereby people are empowered to solve problems and improve their lives using state of the art “smart technologies” that increase productivity and quality of life but without adverse ecological and social impacts on surrounding systems.

To understand the problem is to see that a downward spiral or trend will continue within humanity as long as global investments grow in guns, drugs, gambling, the military industrial complex, unhealthy food production, and a health care sector that perpetuates sickness. In these areas, the US is providing the wrong kind of leadership and has actually moved the world away from real and serious sustainable models of human development.

Gambling and Suburbia

The imagery of gambling culture leads us to make assumptions about the people who live the gambling culture lifestyle. The airbrushed look of this image only plays into those assumptions.

What’s wrong with the picture this picture? Gambling culture is based on deeply rooted addictive behaviors combining the worst of them into a system of self-destructive and unsustainable thinking and living. At the worst end of this we see it in the glamorization and worship of money and icons of materialistic culture. So the problem is not just about how it synergizes with other aspects of sprawl culture to facilitate increased levels of hyper-consumption, but that it also leads to cultural corruption, whereby people are encouraged to elevate money and material things over more sacred and intrinsic values in life.

One thing about Casinos is that they usually are not about creating a durable and compelling aesthetic. Its all about getting people to consume, spend and of course gamble!

What about the aesthetics of gambling culture? Just like the people in that picture above, its superficial allure is only mesmerizing to certain types of people. The glitzy gambling lights and signage combine with a building architecture and interior design aesthetic that is as inauthentic as the intentions of the people getting rich from convincing people that there is something worthwhile in gambling and spending a lot of their hard earned money at casinos.

With the exception of City Center in Las Vegas and maybe the Bellagio, what’s produced is of no real cultural or aesthetic value. Indeed the 6th C of Arizona’s economy in particular seems often wrapped in big boxes much like the ones you would find housing a Best Buy or a Home Depot. Except that instead of finding hardware of computers inside there’s isles of slots and gambling game tables.

Another key point is to see the relationship between the corrupting influences of gambling and suburban living. While many who gamble do come from urban areas, its credible to consider that suburban living creates a certain soulless feeling that leads to the proliferation of addictive behaviors and lifestyles that the rapid growth sectors of today’s economy (such as guns, unhealthy foods, porn and gambling) feed on.

The Bottom Line

The healing that human beings crave will not come from an economy that is based on the exploitation of human weakness through divide and conquer mentalities/industries such as gambling.

The move is a positive for two main reasons:

1. It is good move for Paolo Soleri to “retire” and let someone take the top leadership role. It shows that he has someone he can trust to run the project after his death
2. One issue we struggle with is that the people running the project have limited experiences and perspectives beyond the Arcosanti bubble/fishbowl. Stein has had to deal with the challenges of being a dean and running a small college that is influential in the architectural community

One of the challenges Stein faces is to build a cohesive effort around the idea Paolo Soleri has tried to popularize by seeking to make Arcosanti into a “Urban Laboratory.” With a limited budget the Cosanti Foundation is engaged in the following areas:

1. Archival efforts of Paolo Soleri’s life work
2. Promoting large scale urban development projects such as Lean Linear City
3. Seeking to initiate various efforts to revitalize the building and development process at Arcosanti.

One challenge for the president is to more clearly articulate to the public as well as people coming to Arcosanti as workshoppers what Arcosanti is, what it aspires to become and how its current priority projects relate to its mission/vision.

Comparisons are made between the two projects as both were started by maverick architects seeing the need for change away from ecologically unsustainable building construction models.

However there are major differences in relation to Arcosanti and EarthShips. For one thing Paolo Soleri founder of Arcosanti waxes endlessly about the evils of Sprawl, Consumerism and Car Culture, while Reynolds seems to side-step many of those issues. At Arcosanti the focus is on higher densities and alternatives to car culture. Taking a different approach, the EarthShip community seems to emphasize the need for getting off the grid and building with local and recycled materials.

It would be interesting to combine the innovative use of recycled materials (such as aluminum cans, bottles and tires) that are associated with EarthShip construction with the idea of a integrated and reasonably densified Arcology themed built environment. The key is seeing that each project has their focus and also their blind spots and that combining the best of the two could make for a rather interesting and in my view could make compelling statement forwarding Ecological Design on a practical level.

Garbage Warriors is a documentary about Michael Reynolds that documents his struggle to realize the EarthShip vision. One interesting aspect of the story apparently is that earlier in the development of his work the state and local authorities tried to shut him down because it did not fit to code. However he was able with the help of someone who knew how to work the political system in Santa Fe to pass a bill in the state legislature to allow the continued construction of EarthShips.

Years back I had a chance to come across the idea of Collective IQ. Many progressives are concerned with the lack of wisdom and foresight in terms of how society or societies make decisions in the modern world. During this time I met Bill Veltrop who came up with a game called The Infinite Game – a game of possibility and potential.

More recently a colleague Mark Roest reminded me of the above by linking me to a post by George Por titled “On the way to conscious humanity: the infinite game of regional metamorphosis.”

Below are some comments I made to the post which reflected my sentiments at the time:

What I suggest is that one consider that a game that gives people a real world sense of how to apply collective IQ to the field – that is what is needed. For example I came to Arcosanti years ago after school in search of an alternative to the rat race but instead I found a mutant variant of the very mentality I sought refuge from. Yet still I persist in my belief that Arcosanti aspires towards something compelling or at least my interpretation of it and that aspiration somehow relates to CI.

Part of this could be that we need to be more rooted in systems of reevaluation, that not only question and reconsider but also reflect on how to create a new model. Of course that is not good enough because we need centers for innovation in which this concept of CI can be tested. Ecovillages could be one model and yet I think it still needs a push away from stingy progressive thinking that ends up being a hang up inhibiting real innovation. So really what we have are social barrier that are our own making or at least we reinforce them by our own sub or unconscious behaviors. So what we are really seeking is not the super duper system of managing resources but rather an effective healing process. So how to do? Again my thought is people need healing spaces where things are designed intelligently. Well thought out systems of design and living and production that reflect the values and aspirations of the progressives.

I feel so many of us are addicted to talk because we fear taking risks by actually trying to organize people along these principles and getting stuff done. Recently I saw a great example of collective IQ that is actually doing something. All Power Labs has been able to set up a wiki site about gasification of wood. People can built their own with the open source plans, buy one used via the network, collaborate with the network, buy a kit, buy one complete or hire them as consultants.

What is most significant is that people want to get off the grid and out of the matrix of corporate control. We need more CI than we now see among progressives to do that. One issue is that we are not clear about how to invest effectively in ensuring and securing a future worth living.

Indeed I feel so often we complexify things as humans so much that we lose sight of how to apply the theory into practice. What better case of that than Arcology where the visionary architect Paolo Soleri creatively injects leading edge ideas challenging the status quo into a unique architectural experiment called Arcosanti. In the process the complexity and the fear of collaborators stealing the show (as understandable as that may be) inhibits any real CI towards the realization of this very ambitious vision of a city enclosed within a megastructure.

How can CI be applied as a methodology for global change? How can this address world urgent issues by reversing compelling problems and their interconnected perversity of synthesis that creates the problem matrix which is like a tangled mess of wires all wrapped together tightly into a ball of confusion. It is only a intuitive understanding of CI which leads to wisdom that will enable us to transcend the current reality and expand/evolve to something higher.

So IT can help us to manage the complexity so we need more models of that. They seem to be slow in coming and I would dare to say it has to do with the threat of CI in relation to giving people more power in their lives to make effective and meaningful decisions. Because CI is connected to management of data and the collective decisionmaking process of society that go basically untalked about. These phenomena stay “mystified” with the faulty assumption that they will magically drive and sustain themselves like Smith’s invisible hand of the marketplace – keeping everything in balance. They stay mystified because the public awareness of the truth of their existence challenges the whole order of the global economy and relative handful of people who really control it.

So lets create a wiki that outlines the best of best CI and identifies complementarity in terms of seeking out the best of each lineage of CI to combine as an example and test of CI in action.

Then lets consider options for the modeling of CI that includes games such as the one mentioned and its/their use as a way to help people see the practical importance of CI. Lets also consider how to advance this idea of combining modeling/gaming in the field and using these systems to do real world rapid prototyping on all levels: funding, promoting/social networking, innovation/integration, marketing/sales and replication/scale-out. Lets consider charrettes and how to create centers for innovation by which people who want to be involved in what they focus on can join bother virtually and physically and spiritually to create critical mass.

To close I suggest we consider CI as a toolset or set of approaches that can be applied in the field to promote sustainable development and right livelihood so that people can see how they can work hard and dedicate themselves to something much greater than their own financial affluence or success. Let us envision a global network of sustainable human habitats in which the practice of global healing can be refined so that people see how to apply their psychical energy in the most appropriate and effective way to create the change they desire to see in the world. That is the vision of CI that I believe is needed to reverse current unsustainable patterns and trajectories of modern industrial existence.

The Fusion Architecture team has come by Arcosanti several times to look at the place and engage in discussions with some of the staff. Their work is diverse and experimental yet they hope to have a pragmatic impact. Most recently they were featured in a article by the Phoenix New Times regarding their submission to The Netherlands’ Afrika Museum and African Architecture Matters which made the finals of the “Blueprints of Paradise”, competition.

While FA was at Arcosanti, we had a chance to discuss their vision on the future of urban Africa. As their research notes, the challenges are many and includes effectively managing the rapid rise in people living in Ghana as a whole as well as urban areas. Their perspective on this is a human scale, oriented densification process that includes taller buildings, but interspersing that verticalization with more open space and community aspects. A key component to this is helping develop thriving marketplaces for local commerce.

Garden City Park is plan for a 1.7-mile-long, 19-square-acre Linear Park. It is to be located in Banning’s native Kumasi, Ghana, West Africa and “incorporates the area’s Ashanti-established traditions while taking into account the modern hustle and bustle of Ghana’s second-largest city.”

The proposed site, located at an abandoned spot next to a disused railway station, lies adjacent to the Kumasi Central Market, an area that’s so mammoth in size and all-encompassing in products that locals have joked that you can even find human body parts for sale (which is a definitely an urban myth, though niche items, such as vulture heads, are available for purchase). The park would act as a welcome reprieve to the urban chaos of the Central Market.

The forward-thinking design of Garden City Park is bold yet realistic, and also considers overall sustainability while incorporating solar-powered applications in the perpetually warm region. The design includes a public transportation system, an art gallery, a community football (aka soccer) field, and a “Living Kiosk” project that modernizes the street vendors’ shed-like spaces that populate nearly every roadside in Ghana. (FA’s “Living Kiosk” was also submitted to the Afrika Museum competition; it received an honorable mention designation.)