Technomimicry as implied by potential of biomimicry

Reimagining Principles Enabling an Existential Ecostery (Part #15)

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The value of biomimicry -- using patterns in nature as a key to innovation -- is increasingly well-recognized (as noted above). A similar argument can be made with respect to technology -- using patterns in one technological domain as a key to innovation in another -- a process potentially to be named as technomimicry.

Again that argument can be extended to suggest possible cognitive implications, as discussed separately in the light of insights from helicopter design (Engendering a Psychopter through Biomimicry and Technomimicry: insights from the process of helicopter development, 2011; Technomimicry as analogous to biomimicry, 2011).

The totality of technological systems then implies an array of possibilities for cognitive organization of a nature yet to be understood and explored (cf. Erik Davis, Techgnosis: myth, magic and mysticism in the age of information, 1998; Robert D. Romanyshyn, Technology as Symptom and Dream, 1989).

The point can be briefly emphasized through consideration of the justification for:

• the number of cylinders considered appropriate for a combustion engine
• the number of gears in a transmission system
• the number of tuning systems variously considered appropriate to musical harmony

From a systemic perspective such questions call for reframing understanding of the number of religions, as exemplified by Stephen Prothero (God Is Not One: the eight rival religions that run the world -- and why their differences matter, 2011). The argument could be extended to other belief systems, including political parties and their distinct policies (Tuning a Periodic Table of Religions, Epistemologies and Spirituality -- including the sciences and other belief systems, 2007).