Biomimicry of Termite Social Cohesion and Design to Inspire and Create Sustainable Systems

Abstract

Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a new discipline that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. The core idea of biomimicry as enunciated by the Biomimicry Institute (Anon 2008) is that nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with. Margulis (1998) considers that the major kinds of life on Earth are bacteria, protoctists, fungi, animals and plants. All have become the consummate survivors. They have found what works, what is appropriate, and most important, what lasts here on Earth. This is the real news of biomimicry: After 4 billion years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival. Termites have been experimenting for over 300 million years on our symbiotic planet and their current abundance and distribution attests to their co-evolutionary success. If we want to consciously emulate nature's genius, we need to look at nature differently. In biomimicry, we look at nature as model, measure, and mentor (Anon 2008; & 2011). Nature as model: Biomimicry is a new science that studies nature’s models and then emulates these forms, process, systems, and strategies to solve human problems – sustainably. Nature as measure: Biomimicry uses an ecological standard to judge the sustainability of our innovations. After nearly 4 billion years of evolution, nature has learned what works and what lasts. Nature as mentor: Biomimicry is a new way of viewing and valuing nature. It introduces an era based not on what we can extract from the natural world, but what we can learn from it. Capra (1997) takes the view that we need to become ecologically literate. Being ‘ecoliterate’ means understanding the principles of organisation of ecological communities (i.e., ecosystems) and using those principles for creating sustainable human communities. We need to revitalise our communities – including our educational communities, business communities, and political communities – so the principles of ecology become manifest in them as principles of education, management, and politics.