There are two forces at work, as complexity science demonstrates: habit and creativity. Nature has laws that perpetuate existing patterns and forms (habits), but nature also evolves, bringing forth ever new and unexpected possibilities through a non-linear process called creative emergence.
-Joan Borysenko, The Huffington Post
Every year I’m drawn to attend the annual Bioneers conference, where social activists, environmentalists, and scientists gather to share inspiration and information. Bioneers look to the natural world for innovative solutions to human problems. (In the last decade, this process has become a science called “biomimicry.” for the latest on biomimicking sharks, among other things.)
While the bioneers study the natural world for solutions to environmental and scientific problems, we can also look to nature for guidance on human development and evolution. For example, one important quality of our natural world is that it is “generatively” creative, i.e., always evolving by bringing forth new and unexpected possibilities. That’s what we humans want to do, as well. We are naturally creative beings, immersed in a non-linear process of creative emergence, just like the natural world. The difference is that we humans have this innately creative process at the core of our being, while trying to live in a linear world.
It may sound kind of challenging, but I’m sure we can do it…let the creative emerge, as it naturally wants to.
