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I assume because nearly all the works of man are aiming to control and suppress nature. Instead of the natural untidy beauty of an ancient forest, or wild meado

I assume because nearly all the works of man are aiming to control and suppress nature. Instead of the natural untidy beauty of an ancient forest, or wild meadow, with random animal and human tracks through it, we pave, concrete and "neaten". Everything tends to a boring concreted monoculture, with straight lines and walls or fences everywhere, such that even parks are a poor second to the natural world -- though if I ever find myself in a city they are a blessed relief even knowing they are the ersatz second best. It is almost unheard of to work with nature, to produce sustainable, sympathetic houses and cities that are a part of the natural world. The nearest we get is an occasional designer rendering of a sustainable city of the future... A future just about everyone fights hard to ensure never arrives, and we get the sad, brutal ugliness of the city. We could have both. Without much difficulty.

sneak 7y ago
Is a beaver dam an effort to control and suppress nature, or is it part of nature itself? So are the works of man.
- NeedMoreTea 7y ago
  Only with a completely new definition of the word. Oxford: nature [mass noun] The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations. Where in nature, outside human creations, can I find an airliner, or even a fence? A beaver dam involves no human activity so is of nature. By stretching the definition only a little, one might consider a log cabin and other buildings that use natural materials to be of nature, or at least sympathetic -- wood, stone, earth based, but certainly not steel. Once you distance yourself via fossil fuel, tools, rules of physics or chemistry and highly complex industrial manufacturing processes the claim becomes absurd. A 3d printer, airliner, drug production or an atomic clock cannot be part of nature -- they exist only through the confluence of man and fossil fuel.

sneak 7y ago

Is a beaver dam an effort to control and suppress nature, or is it part of nature itself? So are the works of man.

NeedMoreTea 7y ago
Only with a completely new definition of the word. Oxford: nature [mass noun] The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations. Where in nature, outside human creations, can I find an airliner, or even a fence? A beaver dam involves no human activity so is of nature. By stretching the definition only a little, one might consider a log cabin and other buildings that use natural materials to be of nature, or at least sympathetic -- wood, stone, earth based, but certainly not steel. Once you distance yourself via fossil fuel, tools, rules of physics or chemistry and highly complex industrial manufacturing processes the claim becomes absurd. A 3d printer, airliner, drug production or an atomic clock cannot be part of nature -- they exist only through the confluence of man and fossil fuel.