D2_Agraria_Journal_21_OPT

AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 7 other and the planet we inhabit. This thinking is evident in agricultural systems that suggest we can kill major parts of the food web, such as insects and soil, without harming ourselves, and confine animals in darkness as if they could be reduced to a piece of a corporate food “chain.” In other systems, materialist thinking shows up in siloed institutions and professions— like urban planning systems that separate the engineers who design roads from the biologists who deal with the challenges of toxic run off. Also witness energy systems created without a concern for the limits of their component parts, and health systems that ignore nutrition and the need for people to be in community with each other and nature. The atomized separateness epitomized by a one-size-fits all materialist culture urges us toward an evermore brittle centralized control of all systems by an evermore distant other. When drone strikes that kill people on the other side of the planet are done by an “operator” in an air-conditioned office, and AI- enhanced humans are promoted as an evolutionary option, we know that we are on the edge of an historical cliff. We are on the verge of breaking the delicate threads that bind us to each other and the planet. Yet fully embracing the arising quantum paradigm gives us reason for hope, and a toolkit for change available to all. The double-slit experiment that forms one basis for quantum physics was first performed in 1801—and has since become the most replicated experiment in scientific history. This experiment shows that light is both wave and particle—and that waves become particles when they are observed. The collapse of the wave function into concrete reality, in other words, happens when we pay attention. This linking of consciousness to the creation of concrete reality, coupled with an understanding of the unity that underlies all life, gives us principles and practices for re-mending our relationships with nature and with each other. Quantum theory is the scientific underpinning of the Gaia hypothesis and deep systems thinking. Our understanding of frequencies as communication helps us to see that trees and plants are talking to one another and whales and bees are navigating by sonar. In fact these are just a few known examples of how the fundamental underpinnings of life are akin to a field of energy that connects us in magical yet potentially traceable ways. Practices based on the understanding of this unity, and the need to repair the systems that threaten it, are proliferating across the planet. In natural systems, through rewilding projects and wildlife corridors and bridges, we are helping to restore biological communities. In our human communities, degrowth and cooperative initiatives; alternative work and currencies; and doughnut and ecological economics are helping us to mend the divides between us— and pull us back from the ecological edge. Permaculture and regenerative agriculture are showing us ways to feed DENNIE EAGLESON