The thought of “Interconnectedness.”
In the movie Mindwalk, the dialogue identifies how we are creating solutions to fix problems that would have never existed if we were to go to the root of that initial problem, and fixed that instead. In the example of medical professionals creating synthetic hearts, if the ailing patient would have changed their lifestyle, diet, and eating habits, then the patient wouldn’t need the heart to begin with and the medical professionals would have never thought to have created one.
“But our system doesn’t encourage prevention…it encourages intervention” (Mindwalk, 1990). René Descartes, a 17th-century philosopher, is mentioned in the movie. His problem-solving format can be identified as taking a larger problem and breaking it down into smaller, bite-sized pieces; small enough as necessary to solve the larger problem.
In the YouTube video, Peter Senge refers to the word “system” as “A simpler word for system would simply be life; which is by its nature systematic, interdependent, interconnected, continually unfolding continually in a state of flux.” Life is always in transition and there is a balance that is always teetering one way or another. As soon as we fix one problem, another problem arises. Humanity is tasked with balancing the never-ending scales of fluctuation.
In the Netflix documentary, I found it interesting that the milk production was growing so substantially in certain areas that with the increased number of cows there was an increased amount of poop and fertilizer. And with the increased amount of fertilizer, was affecting the air quality. Additionally, with the increased fertilizer going into the ground to fertilize the pastures, the groundwater was getting contaminated due to the increased waste. The water cycle had also become contaminated, and the rain was affected by the increased waste as well. This film brought into focus the larger impact of economic changes. One would think that increased productivity is good; however, one must also identify the potential downside and economic changes.
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