March 8, 2015: Business Call

Revision 43012

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Sunday Agenda

Check In

Opening Blessing

We who are gathered here at this meeting are those who answer the call. We come here as part of our practice, to align our thoughts, words, and actions with our highest aspirations. May we do Gaia's work. Blessed be.

WW(W)s from last time

Organize the WWWs by person and then due date. We’ll start checking in on topical community protocol and meditation for each mini-period between workbees. Holacracy founder Brian Robertson says these are bad: http://holacracy.org/blog/the-insanity-of-the-what-by-when

WWWs

Daily Practice (from Sunday to Sunday)

2014-02-15 to 2014-02-21: 28+16+0 = 44 checkmarks

Metrics (from Sunday to Sunday)

0 … articles published (blog, etc) 0 … net signups to the newsletter for the week (104 total) 2 … conversants from signup (people we are talking or emailing with) 0 … bios added to the wiki by conversants 1 … articles added to Gaia.wiki 16 … sessions on Gaia.wiki other than us 88 … sessions on Spacewiki.com 102 … sessions on SolSeed.org (including Portland meetup) ?+0+4 = 4 … topical community touches 44 … daily practice checkmarks for the week

Weekly Events Logistics

Weekend Service rotation: Eric, Shelley, Brandon, Ben

Midweek

Sunday Assembly report

Brandon went to this with family

Spring Equinox

Ben: I was wondering if the Sanders could come to Redmond this time and do the ceremony at my apartment

Mid Summer Kindred (August)

Biosphere 2 report

Biosphere 2 is no longer a CELSS per se. Neither air nor water is closed. They actually often run experiments that run water through an ecosystem only once. That said, they are still the largest climate controlled ecological research center in the world. They can vary temperature, humidity and some other factors pretty much at will. Their biggest experiment these days is the Landscape Evolution Observatory, to run for 10 years. Basically replaced the intensive agriculture biome with large inclined planes covered with crushed lava. They are going to watch the lava as it evolves into soil. (Eric says cool!) The vents that were put into the exterior glass walls are supposed to keep the environments inside and out fairly separate (even though air is allowed through). However, in the desert biome I saw a bird that was not born in the biosphere that snuck in through the vent and was probably going to sneak out again. That was my favorite moment, watching a bird flying through this semi-closed ecosystem … kind of emblematic with what I’m trying to do with my Flight in a Cage novel.

They have tours fairly regularly. It is one of Tucson’s main attractions. But not everyone that goes there is actually a tourist. Most of the folks on the tour I was on were high school students who had volunteered to scuba dive in the Biosphere 2 ocean and clean off the algae. The ocean is sadly diminished. Originally stocked with 40ish species of fish and is now down to 2. They are planning to restore it and revitalize it in a new form to make it a working model of the Sea of Cortez.

I felt a little disillusioned walking into the basement "technosphere." It made it seem like it wasn’t really life supporting life because it needed all this equipment to heat, cool, and circulate air and water. Then again, a large reason for that equipment was to simulate specific environments for scientific purposes. Maybe in a version of this that wasn’t geared specifically for research, they could allow the natural systems to come to a more natural equilibrium. In a larger version of the biosphere there might be a more natural version of the water cycle. What they have now is sprinklers attached to the underside of the spaceframe (the support structure for the windows, one of Buckminster Fuller’s lesser known inventions, with lots of triangles but not dome-shaped).

Another thing that struck me was that they were still working hard to avoid talking about the negative aspects of the project that people tended to focus on. They avoided talking about the difficulties with the human enclosure part of the project, specifically the social stresses and some of the ecological stresses.

Brandon: Is there meeting space on site? Could we hold an event there?

Ben's last thoughts: One of the most startling things at Biosphere 2 was walking into what I think used to be the control centre and finding an exhibit of space art (they had some in the visitor center as well). Speaking of space-related art, I still need to contact Steven Wolfe and ask why, in a novel set in 1992 (smack in the middle of the human enclosure) where the characters spend time in Tucson, he didn't mention Biosphere 2 once!

Evaluation

Closing Blessing

We close this circle, and we step into the mundane, yet we carry in our hearts the spirit of our work together, our vision for the future and humble dedication to Life and our amazing biosphere. Until we meet again, may your time be blessed.