Author and scientist Janine Benyus popularized the term "Biomimicry" in her 1997 book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. The book defined Biomimicry as the "new science that studies nature's models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems".
“When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
The new science in Biomimicry has been used in technological innovation and design. The video below shows how design engineer Eiji Nakatsu (also a birdwatcher) resolved the loud sound earlier design of Japan bullet trains made by redesigning the train's components based on different birds.
There's a lot of materials on Biomimicry available in the web. Expounding on that topic will take us away from the real subject of this article. I added a references section towards the end of this post for some additional reading materials, and videos about Biomimicry should you want to learn more about it.
“A massive pack of 25 timber-wolves hunting bison on the Arctic circle in northern Canada. In mid-winter in Wood Buffalo National Park temperatures hover around -40C. The wolf pack, led by the alpha female, travel single-file through the deep snow to save energy. The size of the pack is a sign of how rich their prey base is during winter when the bison are more restricted by poor feeding and deep snow. The wolf packs in this National Park are the only wolves in the world that specialise in hunting bison ten times their size. They have grown to be the largest and most powerful wolves on earth. Photograph: Chadden Hunter/BBC
We can argue on which observation makes more sense, but that's not really the point. I do not believe that the post went viral in social media because of our deep interest in how wolves survive the winter in the wild. The post went viral instead because it offers an observed sets of behavior that can be mimicked for our own survival not necessarily in the wild, but through different challenging situations we have to survive as a society, a group, or an organization.
The video below was shown to the top 50 in-country leaders in a 2018 Strategic Planning Session of my organization last month. I don't believe that the intent is to appeal to our geese loving nature, but rather to take lessons from the geese in how we work together towards realizing our goals as an organization. As a community of Steemnians, we too can learn a lot from the geese.
The book Whale Done! The Power of Positive Relationships was written in narrative form from observations of third person character's experiences at SeaWorld. Wes Kingsley is a manager who took some time-off to escape from family and office life which he is finding difficult to balance. He decided to wander at the famous Shamu Stadium at SeaWorld, primarily to see the show of huge killer whale perform in perfect unison with their trainers, who are less than 2% of the whales' weight.
The key observations from the trainer-whale relationship were then presented in an educational way on how to train and motivate people.
In writing Who Moved My Cheese, Spencer Johnson used the characters of two mice Scurry and Sniff, and how they quickly accepted the loss of the cheese and go off into the maze in search of other sources. He used this in contrast of the two little people who built their lives around the big cheese deeply troubled about the loss of the cheese making them feel "victims", unable to adapt.
"If you do not change, you can become extinct." as Haw, one of the little people very aptly wrote on the wall of the maze can quickly summarize the message of the book. When we encounter a loss whether in wealth, job, or relationship the immediate reaction is that of fear and getting stuck to the previous status of our lives causing much inability to adapt and move on in search of our new cheese. The book spoke about not seeing change as the end of something, but rather the beginning of something else.
There is plenty of things we can learn from nature. Earth, having supported life for more three point eight billion years, will make all the research we can ever do as specie a mere scratch at the surface in comparison. I am closely watching the development of Biomimicry as a new science and its application in design, technology, architecture, innovation, leadership, and sustainability. I also intend to be more observant of nature's responses to our challenges as a specie to extract models and practices that may solve the problems we are about to face in food security.
The decentralized nature of the blockchain is a natural response to growing dissatisfaction of power in the hands of only a few. There are conflicting views however about the fast becoming centralized nature of services relating to the blockchain. The below statements were quoted from Chang Jia in a an article written for bitcoinmagazine.com:
Decentralization is not a new word. Think of the “invisible hand” of Adam Smith; It’s competition in a free market. With competition, the centralization of computational power is not a bad thing. On the one hand, the high cost of computation makes it impossible for pools and miners to launch 51 percent attacks as they are rational economic participants. On the other hand, irrational actors, say a pool with a large portion of computational power, cannot sustain an attack. The computational powers of a pool do not truly belong to it, and it will face constant challenges from new powers and new players.
The centralization of computational power is the natural result of market competition. Specialized labor is the natural result of free competition in any open system, pretty much like a biological organism. Professional miners, professional payment processors and wallets, professional blockchain data providers: These are the natural results of the decentralization of a blockchain, not the consequence that should be deliberately avoided.
On leadership and organizations, I believe there are many yet unexplored responses from nature that can help solve challenges in the corporate world around engagement, retention and loyalty of both staff and customers, team work, resilience, and adaptability to changes.
Credits:
Cover Photo Background Image - Pixabay
Alpha Wolf Photo - Pixabay
Killer Whale Show Photo - Pixabay
Mouse and Cheese Photo - Pixabay
Bitcoin Photo - Pixabay
References:
What is Biomimicry - Website
Biomimicry for Better Design | Andy Middleton | TED - Video
Biomimetics - WikiPedia
Biomimicry (Explained with Drawings & Examples) - Video
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Thank you for the leadership training Red <3 I love these motivational leadership articles from you.
I imagine the Alpha's position in the pack is dependent on the situation the pack is in and what lies ahead or behind. Out of everyone they need to be on guard the most to protect the pack.
You would of course know about that momi being our alpha wolf @ SteemPH and the many other communities you support. Thank you for all that you do to put our interests first.
awww Red <3 That's so sweet of you. Thanks for thinking of me in that way <3 I'm flattered :)
Very interesting article. I have read that book of biomimicry and indeed it is a thought provoking essay on what we can learn from our animal counter parts.
The ideas of alphas, cooperation and an order to.things.
Hey @maverickinvictus, thanks for showing genuine interest in my work, and adding a valuable comment :-)
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As a biomimic and biomimicry facilitator, I am thrilled to see more posts like this on Steemit! I have been away for a few months, so I missed this post, but it makes me happy to have found it now. I hope to add more the biomimicry conversation on Steemit very soon by posting about my work and experiences using biomimicry to design complex projects. I am teaching all weekend, so next week I will get on that. Do you think there is enough support on Steemit for a biomimicry tag?