The Economic Philosophy
Of
Ecosystems
By Gregory D. Esau
Science is the bedrock of civilisation, science is the bedrock of economic philosophy.
The year is 2022 and the economy is at a crossroads. Life on Earth is at a crossroads.
Before we proceed, we need to make a distinction between economies and their transactional activities; and that of the study of economics and its history.
The two are not the same thing.
Economic Activity is a continuous stream between evolving demand and evolving supply. Commonly known as “the market”.
The Market stands as the exemplar of an intelligent system with no known “Creator” or central planning agency to manage it. This massive multiplayer game which operates on both formal rules and “street” rules is the greatest achievement of human kind for enabling the growth of economic lifestyles.
That is, the ability to make expanding choices of food, housing, clothing, education, means of gainful productivity and growing freedoms of how one moves through their socio-economic environments.
The economic activity of humans as aided by the evolution of technology and social inventions forms a living system that is never truly static or in equilibrium.
The crossroads that humanity finds itself at at the dawning of the 21st millenia is one of economic philosophy that guides our economic policies and codes of conduct for trade.
Economic policy in democracies becomes one of political ideologies and the power that gravitates around it.
The challenges that political ideologies pose for economic performance is one of hearts and minds.
Strategy is philosophy applied. Strategically applied philosophy by its very nature is grounded in the realities of the present moment.
If strategy is a concerted means of collective behaviour to achieve a desired future state, the question of Economic Philosophy based on Science is one of Future States.
“Growth” is a contentious concept in our current dialogue when the effects of our economic activity upon the environment is taken into account.
This is generally framed as, “What is the cost of economic growth on the environment’s ability to support it?”
Clearly, this bears serious consideration.
Hence, the question of, “What is growth?” in terms of today’s economic environment when “all things considered” is not just one of semantics, but one of survival.
To understand “Growth” in the digital age requires a different matrix of lenses than that of growth in the industrial age and that of “what future state are we growing towards?”.
It is at this juncture that we introduce evolution into the conversation.
Life evolves.
Everything we see around us, interact with, depend upon, marvel at, worship and study is a product of evolution and a process of “natural selection”. “Natural” in terms of selecting “winning combinations” for the present day fitness environment is a very key term here. Natural as in nature.
Of further distinction, “human” nature is what most greatly influences our process of “natural selection” of “winning combinations” in our aggregate day-to-day economic activities across the globe.
This is not in dispute, aside from political and religious ideologies. This is not a judgement, rather a recognition of current reality. Nor is it an attempt at stifling political and religious freedom.
What we also must recognise, is that there is a vast spectrum of desired future economic states that need not be in violation of a common human code of conduct in matters of economic trade. Our choices of future economic states is the founding principle of a market economy.
Freedom of movement, or economic mobility, is the foundation for economic flow.
If the 20th century taught us anything, it is that centralised planning and control stifles the flow of goods and services.
As we move through the principles of economic evolution, we have introduced another term that is intrinsically inherent in any well performing symphony of economic activity: Flow.
The natural state of all living systems is Churn and Flow. Stasis is death.
It is here that we arrive at the doorstep of Ecosystems as the founding philosophy of all economic activity on earth, a philosophy that can synthesise our cherished values while satisfying our daily economic requirements for a purposeful life on earth.
Economies are living systems, human economic ecosystems are a very unique form of living systems, as technologies and culture bring components that do not naturally arise in nature, but only through the human mind.
If we are to seek a balance of our common and individual needs based on the freedom of trading choices among a vast array of personal ideologies, it will be through ecosystematic thinking and strategic applications.
As a society at the precipice of hard choices in moving forward, we should be pleased to know that on the score of ecosystematic thinking and strategic applications, we have a deep repository of knowledge and the systematic process to acquire new knowledge for such an evolutionary process of adaptation.
Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom, Code, Architecture
We all likely have some awareness around the famous DIKW Hierarchy.
For ecosystematic thinking and strategic applications as a foundation for our economic activity, we see the additions of Code and Architecture.
In this digital era, where code and architecture are the difference between success and failure in the enterprise, this is a necessary expansion of scope in our means to understand and apply ourselves for economic growth as individuals and as collectives.
Developing an economic philosophy that we can all live within and prosper under begins with these six tiers of interactive, interdependent phenomenon.
All can be used and applied within the independent and collective mind.
If we look closely, we see a “sandwich”.
Data and Information have specific properties that are universal.
Knowledge and Wisdom are our cultural adaptations of data and information.
Code and Architecture contain the principles that are universal for applying the cultural adaptation of data and information across time and space.
With this, from an Ecosystematic Philosophy point of view; Data, Information with Code and Architecture provide a set of Universal Properties and Principles of which we can all agree, while our personal applications of Knowledge and Wisdom allow us a wide canvas and toolkit with which to craft our economic existence and lifestyles that share commonalities and individual choices.
It is from this foundation that we see there should be no discord between the Collective and the Individual. These are the Yin and Yang of life. “The Chinese philosophical concept that describes how obviously opposite or contrary forces may actually be complimentary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another” [Wikipedia].
Ecosystematic Philosophy draws upon Humanity’s historical Wisdom wherever we find it as it sees every point of economic activity throughout human history as an ongoing experiment of growth and survival over time and space where success is generational.
This continuous exploration of acquired wisdom across all economic experiments over an extended period of history is our greatest strength and with this the growth of the human mind and its ability to play a role in generational wealth creation and distribution. We would not be here today without this evolution.
As we pull back our lens, a more “30,000 ft” type view of our economic selves, we see patterns emerge that we can all recognise with a bit of training.
All economic activity is a continuous flow of exploration and exploitation.
Of this there should be no doubt as a full examination of the evolution of the modern world from the humble beginnings of our hunter/gatherer past would reveal.
The Economic Philosophy of Ecosystems: Applied
Philosophy without applications in the “real world”, aka markets, is just fanciful banter among colleagues. Or expensive lessons where “success” is a moving target.
We generally call these start-ups, or the product of entrepreneurial activities.
Innovation, the very reason for our modern existence, this “continuous flow of exploration and exploitation”, requires certain conditions to flourish.
This “requires certain conditions to flourish” can be attributed to our Collective Wisdom over an approximately 10,000 year period of “exploration and exploitation” over time and space.
We call these “certain conditions” Cities.
Cities are the keystone to modern civilization. None of what we now see around us would exist today were it not for those marvels of initial conditions, Cities.
Cities are the very result of “data, information, knowledge and wisdom” flowing more freely in more concentrated yet diverse forms than anywhere else on the planet as captured through Code and Architecture.
Every City we see today is an evolutionary Tour de Force of DIKWCA practices, properties and principles of the human mind, applied at scale.
It is the Strategic Hypothesis of this paper that for humans to reach the level of performance that is now required of our species due to our current reality, that Cities as High Performing Ecosystems are Humanity’s best course of action for an economic philosophy that will ensure the survival and prosperity of the highest degree of the global population over time and space.
In the age of Digital Freedoms and Autonomy of Choices, Active Flow is our Universal Guiding Principle for the obvious reason that this is our Natural State of Being.
This in turn guides our policy of Urban Mobility and Value Creation.
Cities, as observable, are in a constant state of flow.
Maximising the effectiveness of this Constant State of Flow is our guiding principle that binds together a city and its citizens with the businesses that provide its Goods and Services.
This requires Ecosystematic Thinking, Designing, Development. Leadership, Orchestration and Management.
In returning to our evolutionary path over the last 8–10,000 years, we would see a continuous evolution of our “Social Institutions” that provide the right degree of order for the value capture of our economic activities over Time and Space.
Ecosystem Philosophy likewise requires the evolution of Social Institutions to create just the right degree of order for both freedoms and capturing value for its accumulation and distribution through “Property Investment”.
It is at this point we can return to the concept of “Growth” in this post-industrial economy.
Our concept of Growth here is centred on “Personal Growth” and “Digital Property” within a city’s networks and ecosystems.
It is here that we take a significant intellectual departure from the Industrial Economy and towards the Digital Economy.
The Industrial Economy’s growth was fueled by the mastery of mechanical systems for the mass production of goods. Growth was measured by the expansion of this capacity, capability and efficiency.
Growth in the Digital Economy is based on the mastery of biological systems for the delivery of goods and services through streamed applications as an effective and regenerative cycle of resource management.
“Growth” is measured by the increased expansion of capacity, capabilities and effectiveness of sustainable resource management.
In these living systems it is the “Growth of the Individual’s Intellectual Property and its Utility to the Aggregate Regenerative Cycle of Resource Management” that is the core of Economic Growth Policy and how we measure “Economic Growth” in a Digital Economy.
In this Economic Philosophy of Ecosystems, we can begin to see the concept emerge that Growth and Sustainability are again a Yin and Yang relationship.
As we make our way towards the strategic application of Ecosystematic Philosophy, we return to the Collective Question of Future States.
What do we want our future states to be?
Violence and war have had a long, storied role in establishing future states. This is not a role that retreats into the passive state easily. This is simply a recognition of two billion years of evolution and the full examination of Human Nature.
It should be noted that this particular strategy tends to concentrate power and wealth within weaponry and its applications. Digital weaponry in the form of cyber usages is simply the latest phase of the evolutionary process.
The choices we face as digital citizens in the material world of cities is one of the development of Personal Intellectual Property or that of strategic relations with Weaponry.
Again we return to Yin and Yang.
If our desired Future State is one of Individual Prosperity and Regenerative Resource Management, we have a full palette of choices from which to proceed.
Can weaponry be a form a detente?
History suggests yes, with major caveats around its deployment.
How does business and The Corporation fit into this new economic philosophy?
This is the most vital question of all, as Ecosystems by their very nature must provide a healthier environment for all living entities and/or species within it or it is an ecosystem in decline.
The answer thus becomes one of strategic choice and positioning within the ecosystem and how the firm creates unique value in the continuous streams of goods and services in a world where the citizen is designing their individual and collective choices to meet their growth and needs.
In an economic future which is actually raising all boats within its tidal forces, this is a rich environment of flora and fauna within which to do business.
Ecosystems do not eliminate ‘Competition”, but rather package the spirit with that of Cooperation and Collaboration that firms will master to separate their offerings from this that can’t. We could call this the 3C of value creation in ecosystems, where relations form the glue and trust of transactions.
This forms the basis of Ecosystem Orchestration, which supplants the Firm’s industrial age model for resource and supply chain management.
Firms that continuously pursue a Mastery of Ecosystem Orchestration will be the biggest winners in the Digital Future of Possible States.
The Citations for this paper and the Economic Philosophy put forth are as wide as they are deep and can only be traversed through the collective exploration process that cities are most noted for. The process of discovery is a vastly better way to acquire the new knowledges, wisdoms and applications necessary for increasing one’s Personal Intellectual Property and Growth (PIP&G), and as such, it is a social activity.
For the Firms of the Future, their Mastery of Ecosystem Orchestration will be a continuous symphony of flow between the growth of the PIP&G of its agents and that of the Firm’s IP&G.
It is with this in mind, that I note two specific citations that are vital to this ongoing work of Economic Philosophy of Ecosystems:
The Wikipedia entry for Yin and Yang, which has in no small part provided infinite wisdom over centuries for working through the dichotomies that confront our human potential and development.
Celine Schillinger’s “Dare To Un-Lead: The Art of Relational Leadership in a Fragmented World” that likewise proved to be an invaluable guide in pulling together the Universal Principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity that underpin the intellectual and economic foundations of vitalic civic life and democratic engagement.
These two citations represent a unifying platform drawing on the Eastern and Western philosophies that have contributed to our understanding and navigation of our modern economic, social and cultural environment for centuries.
Principles that have stood the test of time.
Science is the practice of discovery.
Philosophy is the practice of the mind.
Religions are the spirits of our souls.
Each contributes in their unique way to our growth and development.
They are complimentary, not oppositional.
Ecosystems by their nature are both competitive and unifying across all their inherent flora and fauna.
Our economic ecosystems can mimic these strengths, as ecosystems are the time proven masters of regenerative resource allocation employing data and information in its “decision making” process. Ecosystems are collective intelligence, drawing on two billion years of research and development as sorted by natural selection.
When it comes to surviving and thriving over the great expanses of Time and Distance, I go with experience and proven results.
That would be nature, not human kind.
Yet if we can remove our ego from our collective wisdom, as these two citations show, we have a staggering breadth and depth of our intellectual resources upon which to draw that have shown to endure over time and space.
I will leave us with these considerations for your contemplation.
Sixty thousand years ago, give or take, homo sapien was just another species competing for survival among all other species.
Our future was not pre-ordained. For that matter, it was often tenuous.
This specific variation of natural selection had operated in the same basic manner for some 150,000 years previously with little distinction to separate itself from the rest, so to speak.
What changed 60,000 years ago when we began this accelerated evolutionary trajectory towards this point in time where we are at now?
Music. And Language.
That’s what changed.
What did this allow in our development that superseded everything that life had ‘designed’ previously?
The ability to transfer data, knowledge, information, wisdom through code and architecture over time and distance.
Which is to say our Collective Intelligence.
Look around you. The results are present in everything you see.
Think about it.
Gregory D. Esau
SmartSwarms Proformance Ecosystems
Ecosystem Designer, Developer, Orchestrator.
