#151 | Onward, Fellow Humans: Planetary Collapse, Culture Design, & Regenerative Hubs w/ Joe Brewer
In this episode, I speak with Joe Brewer -- complexity researcher, cognitive scientist, and evangelist for the field of culture design. We discuss the social, economic, and ecological collapse we are currently in the midst of as a result of the destructive impacts of human industrial activity and the cultural value systems that uphold these practices. We also discuss Joe's work in designing cultural evolution through "regenerative hubs" -- bioregional centers designed to implement the process of healing and mending humanity's relationship with the living planet and establish a right role within the planet's living systems on the local and global level.
In this discussion, Joe lays out what it means to design culture — “to cultivate the capacities to intentionally guide social change using the best combinations of science, technology, organizational management, and artistic expression.”✧ Joe discusses the growing and well established base of knowledge and practices already in place to facilitate the development of cultural value systems that promote healthy and regenerative systems in human societies and their relationship with the land — whether that be in farming practices and food production, the use and distribution of resources and economic practices, the cultivation of healthy human relationships and collective decision-making practices, and the dissolution of regressive and oppressive institutions and systems of control expressed in the dominant paradigm currently.
As the global economic, social, and ecological systems continue to collapse, what role can we play in developing regenerative practices that can heal the damage wrought in the pursuit of economic growth? Joe understands fully that we have entered into ecological overshoot, and that we very likely are witnessing not only the collapse of our global civilization, but also the end of the human species as a result of abrupt climate change and widespread ecological collapse. I ask Joe to clarify and elaborate on his work in designing regenerative cultural practices in the face of this reality, and what guides him in his work to the present day in spite of this looming predicament we collectively find ourselves in. We discuss this and more in this episode.
Joe Brewer has a background in physics, math, philosophy, atmospheric science, complexity research, and cognitive linguistics. Awakened to the threat of human-induced climate disruption while pursuing a Ph.D. in atmospheric science, he switched fields and began to work with scholars in the behavioral and cognitive sciences with the hope of helping create large-scale behavior change at the level of global civilization.
✧Source: http://bit.ly/JBrewerPatreon
Episode Notes:
- Learn more about Joe’s excellent work at his Patreon page: http://bit.ly/JBrewerPatreon
- Joe’s writings can be found at his Medium page: http://bit.ly/JBrewerMedium
- Support Joe and his family’s move to Costa Rica here: http://bit.ly/JBrewerFund
- The Center for Applied Cultural Evolution: https://culturalevolutioncenter.org
- The Capital Institute: http://capitalinstitute.org
- Follow Joe on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cognitivepolicy
- Follow Joe on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joe.brewer.31
- The songs featured in this episode are “Dawn of a New Day” by Horace Heidt & His Musical Knights and “La Mer” by Django Reinhardt, Stephanie Grappelli & Stéphane Grappelli from the album Bioshock 2.