permaculture

[christopher nesbitt <christopher.nesbitt@mmrfbz.org>]

Hahahaha! Thats hysterical about Farmville! This is some kind of  
Facebook crack.
On Dec 17, 2009, at 11:47 AM, Tripp Tibbetts wrote:

> In my intro ecology course at Florida we had an ecosystem simulation  
> program that allowed the user to design the species composition,  
> fire frequency and intensity, etc.  It would then run an accelerated  
> succession sequence, and the user could watch the system evolve,  
> burn, grow and decay.  The ultimate goal of the "game" was to design  
> a stable system that wasn't over-run by any particular species, or  
> burned up by fire.  The longer you could get the system to survive  
> in dynamic equilibrium the better.  Even this rudimentary version of  
> what you're discussing was pretty exciting to watch!  And compete  
> with!  Much more fun than Farmville.  I'm always inviting my friends  
> who play that crap over to help me garden.  Invariably denied.   
> Maybe I should design a helmet that would enclose the view within a  
> PC screen and lash a mouse to their hand.  I could even pretend to  
> do their bidding...for a bit.  But I think they'd be disappointed to  
> find out
> that raspberries take a bit longer than 3 hours from planting to  
> harvest...
>
> I might be able to get my hands on that simulation program if  
> someone wanted to use it as a construct.
>
> Tripp
>
>
>
> The best fertilizer is the gardener's shadow.
> -Chinese proverb
>
>
> --- On Thu, 12/17/09, Patrick <forgeadams@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> From: Patrick <forgeadams@yahoo.com>
> Subject: [permaculture] John Ross permaculture post
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Thursday, December 17, 2009, 6:41 AM
>
>
> John Ross is a military theorist/futurist/blogger who I enjoy a lot.  
> He tends to write about geo-politics and a more hard nosed take on  
> ecological design. He recently posted this.
>
> http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2009/12/the-food-game.html
> Monday, 14 December 2009
>
>
>
>             THE FOOD GAME
>
>
>
>             Most
> people wouldn't associate growing food with a game.  It's hard work  
> (as
> the summers in my youth working on our family farm attest to).   
> Despite
> this preconception, gaming software (and particularly MMOs --  
> massively
> multiplayer online games), might be a way to supercharge local food
> production.  Connect these data points:Analysis:  Farming as a MMO  
> gameThere's a new game (both my kids and some readers pointed this  
> out to me), called Farmville,
> that's gaining considerable popularity.  It works as a Facebook add- 
> on,
> and is easily downloaded via Flash.  It turns virtual farming (from
> planting to reaping to going to market) into a fun social experience.
>  The game now sports 60 million active users.Analysis:   
> PermaculturePermaculture,
> the use of designed ecosystems to produce food, might be one of the
> best ways to add food production (and a large variety of other  
> outputs)
> to a resilient community.  Here's why.  Traditional farming is input
> intensive.  From manual work (both machine and human) to energy
> (pesticides to fertilizer), inputs drive output.  In contrast,
> permaculture uses natural ecosystem function to replace many of these
> tangible inputs to provide outputs on par with traditional farming.
>  The problem is designing the ecosystem of a permaculture
> plot to achieve high rates of return (output/input).   In short, brain
> work has the opportunity to replaced brawn but it's tough to  
> do.Synthesis:  The MMO + Permaculture BootstrapSo,
> as with most activities/industries that have replaced brawn and
> physical inputs with brain work and ideas, it probably needs some
> software to get it going (where Moore's law and network dynamics can
> help accelerate its productivity over time).  Unfortunately, the
> current state of software that aids the design of permaculture plots  
> is
> pretty dismal.  The best people can do is cobble together
> mapping software, 3D landscape modeling software, and some auto CAD.
> Of course, it is possible if the resources were available (my team of
> developers could do it), to build software that enables people to
> design, optimize, and share permaculture plots, that misses a great
> opportunity.The real opportunity is to build a learning system
> via software, one that naturally trains the people that use it, gets
> better and more sophisticated over time, and is fun.  The only way I
> know how to do that is build a game.One of the first things to do,  
> is build a simple Farmville type social game that helps people learn  
> permaculture design principles:Conservation.  Efficiency of inputs.   
> Repeating functions.  Redundancy.Stacking functions.  Multiple uses  
> for the same thing.Reciprocity.  Outputs of one part of the system  
> are inputs for
> another.  In other words, cascading processes maximize the energy  
> yield
> of the system.Local scale.  Minimal organizational overhead.  Match  
> production to local need.Diversity.  Lots of different ecosystem  
> participants increases resilience.
> As the game grows, it could move to a much higher level.  For
> example, gaming software that offers the ability to add connections to
> the real world (satellite imagery/topography of actual plots), has  
> high
> end graphics (for more immersive and detailed plot design), and
> provides models/simulation (to test new configurations).  In fact, if
> done through a game, the upfront training requirements for using this
> new functionality would be nearly zero (for new and existing  
> users).  I
> could go on and get much more detailed on this, but I suspect you get
> the picture.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>                 Posted by John Robb on Monday, 14 December 2009 at  
> 02:09 PM | Permalink
>
>
>
>
>
>
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_____________________________
Christopher Nesbitt

Maya Mountain Research Farm
San Pedro Columbia, Toledo
PO 153 Punta Gorda Town, Toledo
BELIZE,
Central America

www.mmrfbz.org