Why are we paying attention to interactions with other species?

By paying attention to how we communication and interact with other-than-human persons around us, we are helping to create emergent co-intelligent system in our bioregions–and ultimately, globally.

A natural system evolves and merges with larger supersystem when information or intelligence on that level is integrated. It then becomes an emergent system, functioning as a dynamic organism capable of intelligent self-regulation and adaptation.

As a society, we view the world around us through an anthropocentric lens. Our economic, social, and political systems only honor and act on the human perspective.

By focusing on our interactions with other-than-human persons, we challenge this perspective and our own notions of the human self. We can go beyond our anthropocentric constructs.

What we’re talking about is enriching our identities.

Over thousands of years, as a species, we’ve created many barriers for ourselves: race, nationality, institutions, disciplines, etc. These are human constructs. We’ve honored these walls and acted as if they are reality.

But we are embarking on a journey of reconnection. Our boundaries are illusions. The reality is that we are all a part of a dynamic, complex, and organized whole. By paying attention to what’s going on outside the human realm, we are creating channels of reconnection with the larger whole. That’s why this matters.

I, for one, will drink to that.