Image copyright Getty It is very easy to think of nature and technology as two immersed entities in a boxing match that has lasted centuries and is to end in a knockout at any instant.
Selfies hinder the sight of a beautiful sunset. Hundreds of thousands of tons of “e-waste” toxic are dumped into rivers and wetlands each year. Names of plants and animals lose protagonism in dictionaries to make way for such terms as “broadband” and … “selfie.”
We call for the wi-fi invasion in the most remote places, but declared Internet access as a human right. We reject poaching, but we ended up helping the bad guys find rare animals through our posts in social media. We dream relax in a quiet beach in the Maldives, but we demand cheap flights and ecological nothing to get there.
There is no doubt the motives behind these conflicts. As the scientific philosopher Christopher Potter says in his book How To Make Human Being (How to make a human being, in literal translation):. “The human being has never been part of nature always made part of technology. “
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Desire natural for innovation
From the time the modern man managed to control fire, he put us on the path to world domination. And never look back.
The technology is simply a set of strategies that our species has developed to cope with the fact that a conscious creature of herself in a chaotic and often hostile planet.
This makes our will to innovate something as “natural” as the structure of our brains.
More and more sacrifice our natural habitat for the sake of instant gratification of change and quick solution to problems . economic and political
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inspiring nature
But though many of our digital inventions serve to distance us of the world they should improve the technology and nature are also continuously feeding mutually highly positive ways.
Consider, for example, in the field of biomimetics, wherein natural elements and processes are used as model for the development of new materials, equipment and tools.
A famous example is the invention of Velcro by Swiss engineer George de Mestral in 1941 after he noticed how some plants from the mountains clung to their . clothes and by her dog
Among the most recent advances in this area are: the creation of a surgical adhesive tape postpartum that molds the structure of cobwebs; imitation of the virus to create nanoparticles that rearrange themselves and take drugs directly to cancer cells; or still a super-efficient screen for electronic books, reflective and colored based on the way the butterfly wings glistening in the bright light
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Technology for preservation
In addition, technology is increasingly used to help preservation projects and sustainability. One is the Technology for Nature, created by the University of London, the Zoological Society of London and Microsoft.
Among the project’s initiatives are a service “cloud” Free digital and fast it allows experts access accurate data on climate change in any region of the world, or the development of new devices to record the behavior of animals in their habitats.
Lucas Joppa, one of the project managers, admits that there are still challenges to unite scientists from disciplines traditionally seen as opposites. “The language, the terminology and the motivations are different. Just about everything,” he jokes.
“But we have conservation issues that need to be addressed immediately, such as monitoring of protected areas, the trace species high commercial value and the online detection of the illegal trade in plants and animals, “says
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For Joppa, the technology had more positive impact than negative about the nature in the last ten years.
Of course, nature is not only pandas and forests, and the technology is also helping to tame its most cruel side. Tweets and Instagram photos with hashtags and geotags become a valuable way to share real-time updates on natural disasters.
The Person Finder, Google created to meet relatives during the 2011 tsunami in Japan, It is currently active in Nepal. And in America the application of the Federal Emergency Management Agency allows communities affected by disasters able to make a crowdfunding to get groceries.
In all this, we still have the concept of “green cities”. Imagine skyscrapers transformed into vertical crops with plantations lining the ceiling and walls; Empty square meters being used to grow biofuels based on algae; and trees capable of illuminating streets at night as a result of bioluminescent genes.
Personal Appreciation for the planet
Clearly, the news is not bad in terms of technology and nature together on a large scale. But how this tug of war is hitting us personally?
Given the addictive nature of digital platforms, it is difficult sometimes to challenge the belief that Potter “technology evolves to a life behind closed doors.” And when we finally ventured outside, cell phones and other gadgets can keep us trapped in our own world, even with the most beautiful scenery.
But in reality, is emerging around a software ecosystem that have designed to enhance our appreciation for the planet we live:. applications that use facial recognition technology to identify tree species to others who teach us to reconnect ourselves with the environment
The technology also helps us contribute to environmental preservation. Car sharing services or devices that monitor the energy consumption of a house are just the beginning.
The technologist Kevin Kelly believes that technology is “a force of nature,” which evolves following the same principles of any living species.
Maybe you’re right. Or perhaps the nature, like humanity, is a kind of mysterious technology.
Anyway, we need to stop seeing both as rivals and focus on getting them to become partners.
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Read the original version of this story in English at BBC Earth .
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