The Flow of the Future
Flow will be the core concept of the future. The present version of civilisation is based on the use of depots of energy, materials and knowledge. In the civilisation to come, the essential characteristic will be flows. The climate crisis tells us why.

We are moving ahead from a world dependent on oil, coal, gas and uranium – finite depots of energy that we dig up from the surface layers of our planet and then burn. We use up the limited depots and convert them into depots of waste and pollution – a solution limited in time. The result is a crisis of climate and environmental degradation. Therefore, we are now moving into a world relying on renewable energy sources - wind, solar power, wave energy, biomass. They all stem from the constant flow of energy that hits the surface of the planet from the star we are orbiting, the Sun. The constant flow of sunlight is so rich in energy that there is more than 5,000 times more energy available than the total present energy consumption of all mankind.
We live in an environment with an incredibly rich flow of energy that industrialised societies have not been able to grasp. We have lacked the technology to reach out and pick the light passing by. But now, we are quickly trying to develop technology to catch the solar flow. We need to come on-line with the sunshine again.

But this is not only about power. Moving ahead from depot-dependence to the freedom of being part of a flow is not only about renewable energy. Flow is also the central concept when it comes to matter that we want to recycle, and ideas and links that we want to share.

For most of the industrial epoch we have used metals, carbohydrates and minerals of limited availability. Depots have been emptied and new, ever increasing waste deposits have been the result. This way of handling material stuff in not feasible in the long run. Instead, we have to be part of the flow of the living system of Earth.

All living creatures take in matter as food and give out matter as waste. But the very simple law of life is that the waste of one species has to be the food of another. Plants produce oxygen as a by-product, waste. Animals cannot survive without inhaling this waste product, oxygen. Animals, on the other side, produce carbon dioxide as waste – thus providing food for plants. What is waste to one is food to another. We must all share our shit to keep the rest alive.

This matter flow – converting food into waste into food into waste – goes on and on. It results in no waste build-up at all and no resource shortage either. That is the nature of flows – everything is in constant motion. Change is the elusive yet constant feature of that reality.

All we need is the light from the Sun. The matter flow on Earth can run and run, on and on forever, as long as it gets the energy from daylight.
The flow of daylight is a ubiquitous and soft gift, all that we on this planet need from the cosmos outside to stay active and happily alive.

The task ahead is to build a civilisation based on that simple fact. Forget depots of oil, gas, coal and uranium. Forget depots of metals, carbohydrates and minerals. Reuse. Recycle. Go with the flow. Be soft and gentle. Just add daylight.