Regenerative agriculture and the Cybernetic Mind

I am one of those people who see connections everywhere. Things that happen in my personal life are shown in new light against what I am reading and learning in my job. Those great breakthroughs at work often come after a period of reflection about where I'm going in life. I enjoy observing remarkable coincidences in what people are doing and thinking when they've never even spoken about it. My favourite word (or should I say, philosophical concept) is "zeitgeist".

We recently bought a farm in the Upper Lachlan Valley. It is beautiful country, where Ngunnawal, Gundungurra and Wirajuri nations meet. At 980m above sea level, it is high in altitude (for Australia!), with snow regularly falling in winter. We had very few plans; just drawn to the country.

Being who we are, before rolling up our sleeves we opened up books. My parents-in-law gave us a copy of Charles Massy's The Call of the Reed Warbler, and I dug in.

Before I go on, you need to know a little more about me. I work at the School of Cybernetics, at the Australian National University. It's a new school and the only one quite like it in the world, so far as we know. It is built on the vision that cybernetics - the many ways it was previously conceived and the new modern take on it; all of it - holds the key to designing and implementing technology "solutions" (especially those incorporating AI and automation) in ways that also take into consideration the human and environmental costs and benefits, at scale. We are working in technology, but are determinedly not tech-utopian. We see the system beyond the technology at hand, and know that for successful technology adoption, we need to understand how complex systems of people, tech and the environment work, the dynamics and feedback between and within them, and how we observe and understand the various objectives that are held by parts of that system (human and non-human).

(It is not easy to grasp, but I challenge us to try. What other choice do we have?)

Prompted by the work of our Director, Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell, we frequently reflect on the industrial revolution, and Genevieve's provocation "If James Watt had known the steam train would result in such terrifyingly rapid deforestation, would he have designed it in the same way?". In other words, if they had the opportunity to think about it cybernetically, what might those generations of people have done?

So here I am, opening up the pages of The Call of the Reed Warbler, thinking about the farm. Forty-four pages in I had one of those freaky connection moments. Chapter 2 is entitled, 'The Rise of the Mechanical Mind'. Characterised as a slow shift from early domestication of plants and animals, through to the industrialisation of agriculture today, Massy describes the Mechanical mind as having been hugely successful and immensely destructive, rendering the older Organic mind that once characterised humanity's relationship with the environment inaccessible.

Much broader than just the practice of organic farming, the Organic mind represents ancient ways of doing and being, in harmony with the natural world. Indigenous peoples of the Earth still nurture this mindset, and we must listen to and learn from them. Massy advocates (re)igniting our Organic mind, with the knowledge of the Mechanical mind.

For this is a move that is not so much an 'about turn' - back to something embedded in the old Organic mind (though this is part of it) - but a truly radical and transformative turn that overthrows (and yet utilises the best components within) the Mechanical mind. Involved, therefore, is an evolutionary shift towards a new mind: one that looks to ‘natural ecosystems' and 'nature's wisdom'.

~page 44, Call of the Reed Warbler, Charles Massy, 2020

Those words, when I read them, were a clarion call, summing up for me what we are doing at ANU. They brought into clear relief what could be called - and dare I say, should be called - the Cybernetic Mind.

Now I am off to think more on this, to discuss with colleagues and friends, to find unexpected views in unexpected places, to nourish this kernel of an idea into something we can use.

Have you been thinking about the Cybernetic Mind without realising it, too?