On a foundation of Symbiocene life law based on ghehds, we need to develop a replacement concept for economics, one immersed in symbiosis. As was argued in chapter 4, the term ‘economy’ is based on ‘oikos,’ or the Greek word for the household. The general meaning relates to the (male) management of the household. The new term, ‘sumbonomy’ (sum-bon-o-mee), in addition to the ‘sumbios’ (living together) and ‘nomia’ (to manage), has echoes of the ‘summum bonum,’ a Latin expression for the highest or ultimate good. The French word ‘bon’ also means good. The ‘economy’ of the Anthropocene is replaced by the sumbonomy of the Symbiocene.

As such a social structure does not yet exist, I can only offer speculative thoughts on what form it might take. The sumbonomy is the highest form of practical living humans can undertake for a good life. The sumbonomy is the material foundation for humans living in nature, and we can now create the new conceptual domain of sumbonomics. It has a transdisciplinary partner in sumbiology, or the study of humans living together with each other and other forms of life.

Contrary to the degrowth movement, this conceptual domain can align human enterprise with the symbiotically generated growth that can be found in life. To generate this type of growth, we will need new, creative forms of design and technology based on symbioactive production and benign symbiomimicry. It is from the microcosm—the fungi, algae, bacteria, and archaea, the building blocks of complex life—that the human sumbonomy can be created.

The sumbonomy will be the result of sumbiocentric thinking and, because of the potential for mersis in the Anthropocene, will require the most intense period of genuine growth since the Industrial Revolution. I wish to see the pro-parasitic or terraphthoric (earth destroying) ‘economy’ of the Anthropocene totally replaced by the terranascient (earth-creating) ‘sumbonomy’ of the Symbiocene.

Fossil fuels are finite reserves of energy that can be used only once and are not able to be regenerated in meaningful geological time frames, and similar considerations apply to an insane economy that becomes dependent on “rare” earth elements and compounds. Fossil fuels, because of their finitude, can be owned and traded for wealth maximization. Rare earths are like diamonds. While the current technologies we use to generate renewable energy can be privately owned, the source of that energy, the sun, cannot.[i]

In switching from private property ownership and extraction rights to symbiotically produced resources respectful of the ghehds (intersecting life interests) of free-living microorganisms, we metamorphose from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene. In doing this, we give microorganisms the space and resources to do what they would want to do anyway, such as reproduce and grow. That is how we shift from the scarcity of fossil fuel energy and materials to the abundance of life forms powered by the sun, plants, and microorganisms, from morbid dead carbon to vital living carbon.

[i] Ralph Nader is supposed to have said “The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.” The other way of putting this quote would be to argue that if the oil industry owned the sun, we would have had sun powered renewable energy for everything by now. The good news is that nobody can own the sun as it is an inviolable common with an inviolable ghehd that is more powerful by quantum leaps than all the corporations and despots of the world combined.

*Draft material from The Symbiocene: Our Only Future (2027), Cornell University Press.

AI generated image of a solar shrine where humans once again pay homage to our energy common, the Sun.

Sumbiotecture

To design and build according to Symbiocene principles, sumbiocentric thinking, symbiomimicry and the discipline of sumbiology, (sumbios: living together and techne: to build). The archi in architecture means to rule or to command … it has to go. We used to talk about form and function … now we must talk about process, form and function.

Symbioscapes

Symbiotically animated landscapes that require sumbiocentric thinking to bring the scape (a stalk) to life., (symbiosis, living together, from sumbios).

Sumbioversity

A place where sumbiosic thinking and sumbiosity can house sumbiotecture and the study of symbioscapes.

From Earth Emotions (2019):

Habitat

 “Cities, as they are currently configured, owe their existence to globalized gigantism, supported by the carbon-intensive global transport of goods by aircraft, shipping and trucks. Symbiocene planners agree with Bill Rees in seeing cities as “entropic black holes” failing in all superficial attempts at even pseudo-sustainability with their ‘green walls’.^[1] We will need to exit the megapolis and live in what we could call the “sumbiopolis”. I have no clear idea of what this kind of city will look like, but would not rule out the ‘living city’ of Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘Broadacres’ countryside, complete with skyscrapers, forests and factories, surrounded by agricultural fields; an assemblage he described as “patterns of cultivation mingling with good buildings”.^[2] I can also see Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s organic, living design and architecture, informing every aspect of the built symbioment.^[3] Finally, architects and designers will be able to create organic form and flow in their work. The era of the straight line and ‘the box’ ends, as engineers figure out how to replace Anthropocene concrete and steel (two of the highest emitters of carbon) with new materials that satisfy Symbiocene principles.”

 [1] Rees 1997.

[2] Wright 1958, 198.

[3] Hundertwasser 1997.

As the economy undergoes de-growth … the sumbonomy undergoes pro-growth.

My work is pro-growth. However, it is not pro-parasitic or terraphthoric (earth destroying) growth which is tierracide (Earth murder). It is the negation of the above and its re-placement with a form of growth that is consistent with symbiosis, a foundation of life on Earth as we know it. Terranascient (earth nurturing) growth is good and we need as much of it as we can create.

We can call this new form of economy* the ‘sumbonomy’ from sumbios (living together) and nomia, (to manage). The ‘economy’ of the Anthropocene is re-placed by the sumbonomy** of the Symbiocene.

The sumbonomy is a form of economy that enables humans to live symbiotically along with the rest of life and living processes in the one home known as the Earth. To generate this type of growth we will need new, creative forms of design and technology based on symbiomimicry. The sumbonomy will be the result of sumbiocentric thinking and will require the most intense period of genuine growth since the industrial revolution and the rise of the Anthropocene.

As the old indicator of ‘growth’, GNP, rapidly goes down, new indicators, genuine sumbiosic indicators of gross sumbioregional product (GSP) start going up. Cancerous growth is replaced by normal growth, that is, growth that assists maturity and reproduction. The sumbonomy will be both restorative of life, and innovative of new forms of symbiotic activity. It will have a good purpose and a clear direction (directionality). Much of this ‘directionality’ takes place within ‘sumbioregions’ as citizens engage with their unique set of cultural, agri-cultural, biological and physical conditions of existence. 

The Symbiocene entails a real revolution, because the challenge for the current society is to replace every single toxic and polluting Anthropocene essential artefact with an equivalent (if possible) benign Symbiocene ‘sumbiofact’.

There are now so many humans on the planet that the Earth cannot tolerate anything less than the complete adoption of Symbiocene principles. Those who want innovation to drive a new way of life that is productive within the associations of life, now have a new narrative to give an outlet for their creativity. There is no hopium here, it is radical anticipation for a future worth living in.

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* The term, ‘economy’, is based on ‘oikos’ or the Greek word for home. The general meaning relates to the management of the household. The word, ‘ecology’ shares the same root. I have found it problematic to connect the ‘oikos’ to the meme of the Symbiocene, so now I try to avoid the use of both economy and ecology in my most recent work.

** I have used ‘sumboikos’ as my term for the new symbiosis-based economy in the past. Nobody liked it, not even me. This new term, the sumbonomy (sum-bon-o-mee), in addition to the sumbios (living together), has echoes of the summum bonum, a Latin expression for the highest or ultimate good. The French, ‘bon’, also means good. Therefore, the sumbonomy is the highest form of living humans can undertake for a good life. The sumbonomy is the material foundation for humans living in Nature and we can now discuss the new conceptual domain of sumbonomics. It has a transdisciplinary partner in Sumbiology or the study of humans living together with each other and other forms of life.