NOOSPHERE: a mini-model

The TWOSOURCE, EXCLUS, INTERACT, CO-OP and STWORLD mini-models were used as basis for a new mini-model of the biosphere with a dominant population (the metropolis) depleting a dominated population (the peripheral system, with natural resources and biodiversity), including the ability to change its psychological behavior and, therefore, we denominated it “noosphere”, the sphere of human thought. The noosphere model accounts for two conditions of change in psychological behavior: one corresponding to the beginning of fossil fuel use by the metropolis, after there was enough time to develop the necessary technology, and the other corresponding to a change from an excluding to a collaborative relationship towards global sustainability. This occurs due to the awareness of human kind extinction risks raised by the world population after its growth climax. An Excel spreadsheet with Visual Basic Programming Software resources was used to allow changes in the parameters and observation of the behavior of two populations aiming to survive, which could be used to assess policies for a Prosperous Way Down. INTRODUCTION Five hundred years ago, at the end of Middle Age, the biosphere developed emergent properties, which consisted on the modification of human societies ́ roles in a global project imagined by a few European countries. At the time, there was overpopulation in Europe and consequently a destruction of ecological productive capacity that led to concentration of resources and the creation of a new kind of social organization. The innovations adopted allowed to overcome the Arabian control of navigation and commerce and the colonization of new lands, which established a more powerful productive capacity based on resources transferred from the colonies and later on the use of local non-renewable resources. This economical and ideological transformation led to the appearance of a global conscience, encouraging a capitalist expansion over the world and starting a period known as Modernity. The mercantile and capitalist expansion transferred richness to central countries and caused the peripheral countries depletion and stagnation, occasioning a global ecological and social crisis. Therefore, there is the need of a global change. Nowadays, the peripheral countries have remnant natural systems that produce environmental services and resources due to the maintenance of biodiversity within their territories, but they under great menace. We assume that the awareness of human kind extinction risks enables a change in the biosphere system ́s behavior by means of the combination of two forces: systemic and critical knowledge and social actions. This requires a change in psychological behavior from competitive exclusion to a collaborative relationship to solve the problems of negative externalities and loss of ecosystem services, as well as to foster autonomy and self-sufficiency in the central and the peripheral countries, ending the relation domination-dependence. The dynamics of these changes are in tune with the work of Odum & Odum (2001), which exposes the risk of a collapse of the human civilization and its system properties that ensure our capacity to self-organize towards a Prosperous Way Down, accepting the decrease and avoiding this collapse.