Welcome to the Regenerative Renaissance
Last updated
Last updated
"...people were generally more capable than we are at imagining alternative social orders and therefore had created societies against the state... They had self consciously organised in such a way, that the forms of arbitrary power and domination that we associate with 'advanced political systems' could never possibly emerge". - The Dawn of Everything
The Dawn of Everything is a book detailing what we know, and more importantly, what we don't know about the incredible diversity of human cultures, social structures, economic systems, and more of our forgotten past. It is part of the many resources that have inspired SEEDS and sets the stage for what is currently happening today in what we call the "Regenerative Renaissance".
SEEDS is the practical application and experimentation of the many ideas shared in the wisdom that has inspired us, as we work to co-create new types of economic systems for humanity.
How do we scale our coordination efforts to achieve our goals while ensuring the systems we use are resistant to fraud, coercion, and hostile takeover by existing or future concentrations of power?
More importantly however, is how do we build social system that are Regenerative (ecologically and socially) by design, so that we can reverse the damage caused by the dominant social systems of the past few millennia?
“Good questions do not have answers at all, let alone right or wrong ones.” - Nora Bateson, Small Arcs of Larger Circles
Our software systems on our computers are updated weekly and our coordination tools for work have dramatically evolved in the last few decades from telephones to the internet.
Yet, our social systems (economic, political, etc) are stuck in centuries old logic and coordination technology.
Everywhere you look we see the fallout of the failure of these systems from climate breakdown to political unrest as our economic and political systems aren't designed to handle the complexity and enormity of the combined challenges we're facing. So, the failing systems remain paralyzed, like a deer in headlights they remained unmoved as they stare on certain death.
However, across the globe groups are coming together to practically experiment and build a diversity of alternative social systems. We're doing so using interoperable technology so we can more easily learn and evolve together.
Some call this global transition from degenerative and exploitative economies into regenerative, stewardship, and purpose based economies "the Great Transition" or Solarpunk & Gaiapunk, Permaculture/Sacred Economics, Late Stage Capitalism, "Transitory Inflation", and so many other names...
For now, we're calling this period the "Regenerative Renaissance".
2017; when a global team of permaculturists and activists set out help local food systems thrive.
We wanted to make local, organic, regenerative, and real food the cheapest and most convenient food for people.
As we believe food and how we nourish ourselves is at the heart of our personal and planetary health crises (many caused by our food systems and the lack of real nutrition in our food).
“The destiny of nations depends on how they nourish themselves." -Jean Brillat-Savarin, Food Philosopher
We saw that in our global world and economy its no longer just destiny of a single nation, the destiny of humanity depends on how we nourish ourselves and our destiny looked bleak.
We would provide communities with a citizen-governed financial system that could subsidize and support local food systems.
Central banks print trillions upon trillions of their currency units and use this money to subsidize and finance things that are harming humanity such as:
Housing: Cental banks inflating the housing bubble (outpricing houses for many),
Degenerative Agriculture: "Nearly all global farm subsidies harm people and planet";
Deforestation and fishery collapse: "20 Years of Money-Losing Timber Sales in the Tongass" (not even profitable to clear-cut these last ancient forests, yet subsidies ensure the destruction continues);
War and murder: "Costs of the 20-year war on terror: $8 trillion and 900,000 deaths";
Bailouts for Wallstreet and the wealthy: "'No Lessons Have Been Learned.' Why the Trillion-Dollar Coronavirus Bailout Benefited the Rich"
and the list goes on...
What if instead the people created their own central banks and used the power of money creation to subsidize things humanity actually needs, such as:
local regenerative agriculture,
free education,
trauma and relief support from war and ecosystem collapse,
pollution remediation,
reforestation,
circular economic systems,
and the list also goes on...
This "simple" idea has grown into a movement taking on a task much more audacious, yet necessary, creating entirely new economic systems.
"Today's economy is divisive and degenerative by default. Tomorrow's economy must be distributive and regenerative by design." - Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics
Most of us within SEEDS had never been a part of an open, emergent, and co-creative global process before.
We weren't prepared for the explosion of creativity, generativity, and possibility that emerged as more people brought unique tools, pieces, and perspectives that they've been working on.
We believed that our founding premise to be "Citizen Governed" was going to be able to help us evolve to best serve what the movment needed, if it were to be more than tools for local food systems.
As more Citizens joined bringing their pieces the scope and audaciousness of the task we we're taking on grew. As did our capacity to achieve it.
an open-source, Citizen-governed, and regenerative economic system.
Or, more accurately we can call SEEDS a "Regenerative Culture" that has its own:
Marketplaces and sharing platforms;
and more, which are all detailed in SEEDS Foundations and other sections.
Most accurately though, we can't actually say that SEEDS is just one thing, as it's an emergence that's been continually evolving (as more and more join and contribute their perspectives).
However, we can say that SEEDS' role in the wider Regenerative Renaissance is to serve as an economic foundation for our global movement.
So, instead of organizations attempting systems change using the tools of the dominant systems:
traditional corporations,
capitalism,
central bank currencies,
zero-sum games,
etc....
We instead co-create new tools that we're continually redesigning to be more regenerative to better support our shared goal of creating a more beautiful world.
Then our movement can coordinate within our own economic systems and amplify our ability to impact change at the same level (or hopefully better) of nations today.
From here we get to co-create a wide diversity of new types of economic and social systems to actually solve the many global crises we're experiencing today.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” – Buckminster Fuller.
SEEDS is a 100% grassroots funded and decentralized ecosystem of people and organisations that are here for the shared purpose of creating healthier civilizations.
“We are all here to contribute our gifts toward something greater than ourselves, and will never be content unless we are.” - Charles Eisenstein, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible
It doesn't appear people are in SEEDS to play competitive games and try to be the "1 platform to save humanity". Instead many seem to be here to collaborate and to experiment with healthier and more generative social systems. To bring their unique organisations, tools, resources, and wisdom and integrate it into the whole creating a more effective an generative ecosystem.
From this perspective we first seek to ally and partner with the tools our movement needs, before we put resources towards building them ourselves. The SEEDS Economy itself has set aside a pool of funds that Citizens can give to alliances so that they can be compensated should they provide their tools to the community (by open-sourcing the tools and integrating them into the community).
As you explore this space we encourage you to do so from an active perspective while you discover how SEEDS may be able to help you and your communities create regenerative, circular, purposeful, and stewardship-of-the-land based economic systems.
This is not a new idea nor it was born with SEEDS. Ancestral economies had these values. Original nations around the globe know this and continue to live in harmony with these principles. SEEDS is an attempt to bring these ancestral and newly developed technologies together.
Exploring this space is a great first step into exploring the world of SEEDS and how you can get involved and join the broader Regenerative Renaissance.
This Gitbook is an attempt to tell the most complete story of the Regenerative Renaissance and serve as a highly curated source of clarity, resources, tools, maps, and support for our movement.
This Gitbook is intended to help capture some resources of this renaissance and how people can get involved, share wisdom, and more effectively coordinate.
It's an alternative to the dominant economic systems (capitalism) and social structures (nation states and corporations) many humans currently spend their entire lives living in. You can think of SEEDS as a "Startup Nation" that isn't restricted by a particular piece of land (yet many "" across the globe within SEEDS may steward their own land).
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and Governance Systems;
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That purpose is laid out beautifully in our .
