[[The Upward Spiral]] is an hour-long video by [[Paul Krafel]], describing a novel way to look at the natural world in terms of [[flow]]. The full version is available on [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7159959880810159488&ei=bSRBS9nrFoeYqAOR3fnNDg&q=%22upward+spiral%22+paul+krafel Google video], as is a [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1452672721626540278&ei=bSRBS9nrFoeYqAOR3fnNDg&q=upward+spiral 40-minute edit] by [[Arthur Brock]].
== What the film says ==
=== Flow is a wondrous dance ===
* Rules: when inflow greater than outflow, things accumulate; when outflow greater than inflow, things diminish
* Everything flowing out of one place is flowing in somewhere else
* Relative balance between inflow and outflow
** Ex. getting more money by either earning more or spending less
* Two levels
** Ex. difference between a car backing up and traffic backing up
* Balanced flow makes the flow invisible and makes it easy to take stability for granted
** Many of the problems we grapple with are the result of unwittingly shifting the relative balance of some flow
=== Living with the Second Law of Thermodynamics ===
* How is creation possible within a universe where energy bleeds away?
** Life is like an eddy in a stream: bits of water moving upstream within the larger downward flow
* First solution: Your survival requires something else to be sacrificed, so get good at it
** Absolutely essential part of being alive in a universe that is shaped by the Second Law
* Second solution: Positive feedback spirals
** Example: Salmon return nitrogen and phosphorus from the sea, and predators move those nutrients back to the land, countering the flow of nutrients to the sea
=== Examples of upward spirals ===
* Succession (forest filling a glacial valley)
** In the beginning, rock touches sky (one surface) and water washes away anything that could form soil
** Moss grows on deposits of sand and gravel, sucking up rock grains and expanding, then dying and becoming soil, and even slowing tumbling boulders
** Small plants form dams contoured across the bedrock, allowing rock grains to accumulate against them, absorbing moisture that helps the plants grow taller
** Deciduous trees create leaf dams that self-heal and form more soil to support more trees
** It's all about the creation of surfaces
*** Plant surfaces hold the rain and buffer the wind
*** Soil's power comes from the vast combined surface area of all its particles
* Water cycle
** Only 11 inches of rain on land comes from evaporation off the ocean
** Beaver dams create lakes where water evaporates
** Plant transpiration: most of the water on leaves evaporates and falls again as rain, almost tripling what falls on land
* Kelp absorbing wave energy, preventing erosion of beaches, allowing the land to grow, increasing the lengths of coastlines where kelp live
=== The two powers: upward vs. downward spirals ===
* Gullies form through a feedback spiral of erosion
** The steeper and narrower a gully gets, the faster water in it flows and the faster it steepens and narrows the gully
** Gullies cut into the underground water table, and outflow becomes greater than inflow
* Rain can either flow quickly and wash away soil, or soak in and create soil
** You can't slow/stop the flow in the gullies themselves, only high in the drainage
=== Quotes and paraphrases ===
* Remember, you always create a new path before opposing the current path.
* You can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you can't count the number of apples in a seed.
* "The Fit": when two parts of the world fit together so perfectly that you know they're both part of the same story.
* The world is like clouds: everything is made of flows, but it's easier to see the upper-level, solid-seeming appearance than the lower-level flow.
* Feedback spirals contain a magical power to bring things into existence.
* The environment is an upper-level accumulation of all these flows toward more surfaces and possibilities. This is the Upward Spiral.
* Don't let your current understanding stop you from doing this work (nurturing upward spirals). The work will grow on itself as shifts in the relative balance transform enemies into allies.
* Science and religion both point to a truth: There is a direction to the universe.
== Discussion at [[Sol 2009]] ==
=== Participants ===
* [[Paul Krafel]]
* [[Alysia Krafel]]
* [[Arthur Brock]]
* [[Brandon CS Sanders]]
* [[Kim Edwards]]
* [[Ben Sibelman]]
* Steve Sibelman
=== Examples of upward vs. downward spirals ===
* [[Art]]: Main St. vs. Wal-Mart's "gully economy"
** When people's local rural economy gets too weak to support the Wal-Mart, it moves out, leaving nothing
* Paul: Education: making kids passive vs. responsible
* Politics: where are the "headwaters?"
** Bottom up: school boards and city councils
** Top down: President is at the headwaters
** Alysia: our goal should be to act in our own spheres of influence
* Paul: divorce between science and religion is a big gully
** Or there might be three entities involved, the third being magic/enchantment
=== Advantages of fast-moving civilization ===
* [[Brandon]]: We're not just wasting natural resources, we're making an investment
** Need to figure out how to make it "pay back"
** [[Art]]: We've built a nervous system for [[Gaia]]
** Steve: Can we "harness" existing consumerism to move in a better direction, or do we have to retreat?
** [[Brandon]]: People are already reconsidering what it means to be happy
=== Lessons for individuals ===
* Paul: Start by studying the power within ourselves, making our inner energy flow more and be more visible
* Author of book ''Small is Beautiful'': We shouldn't be optimists ''or'' pessimists about the future; just do the work
** Quote from the movie: "Don't let your current understanding prevent you from doing this work"
* [[Kim]]: Example of individual "upstream" action: went to a local college's council and brought up the idea of benefits for domestic parnters of college employees
** The effects rippled up to the state chancellor
* Defining "what's right" is a never-ending process
** Increasing possibilities makes it more likely that a "right" path will be available
== Discussion at [[Seed 2011]] ==
=== Participants ===
* [[Brandon]] (convener)
* [[Ben]] (note-taker)
* [[Gus]]
=== Discussion ===
* Gus: Acting high in the drainage = acting locally
** Brandon: If you act in many local places rather than at the national level, you will be more effective
*** Ben: Until you're exposed as a secretive group that funds a vast conspiracy
** Ben: Or you can act in one locality and have [[kindred]] in other localities working for the same things
*** Gus: This is made far easier by modern telecommunications
* Brandon: Growth is fine as long as it's growth in possibilities, not growth in consumption
* Conversations where you have to give up lots of things you value in order to "stop being wrong" are deeply unattractive
** Even if we're aligned with the values of the person who's asking us
** Gus: Silverton People for Peace don't define themselves as anti-war
*** Even the most strident war hawk will eventually realize that we can't afford empire anymore--it's not effective
*** "High in the drainage" = community security
**** Brandon: Seeing the world as a community instead of a dangerous place
**** Gus: Harder in a big city, where everyone locks their doors, reasonably enough since larger populations include larger criminal populations