Failure and survival

Nature and technology are our means to re-structure the tangible world. 'Nature' is understood here as an expanded concept beyond 'the pristine'. It's the totality of (rare) primary nature and human-engendered nature. Our world is a hybrid world.

Every single moment, things could take a different turn, or simply fail. This is not a pessimistic world view. It's simply an acknowledgement that most things are the way they are, because we choose them to be like that – and not because the world is inherently structured as such. This opens up possibilities and fundamentally engenders freedom. It's an empowerment of the mind, and of our physical relation to the world.

Nature and technology are our means to re-structure the tangible world. 'Nature' is understood here as an expanded concept beyond the pristine. It's the totality of human-engendered nature and (rare) primary nature. Our world is a hybrid world.

The (historical) colonist is the archetype of man having to negotiate with new nature. A survival process in which both will irrevocably transform each other. The question is not, should we colonize; after all, migration, colonization and hybridization is what makes us human. The question is, how to ethically colonize, and ultimately how to survive.

Angelo Vermeulen