Hello I just want to introduce myself. Like most of us I've been a big fan and have followed the principles of Nat Cap for years.

While attending Art Center College of Design from 1995 thru 1998 I tried to simplify the issues facing our future existence on space ship planet earth.

The fact is there are just five things that connect all living things. Housing, the body, the planet, water, food and growing things, energy from the sun and how we use it, and occupation and what we do with our lives.

Housing, water, food, energy, occupation.

I really think it's that simple.

These are the five basic elements that make up our spaceship.

Yours Kindly
Lance Charles

I'm not familiar with the idea behind the elements you site but I believe that a similar scheme may be more informative or useful. I'm thinking that housing, water, food, energy and occupation mix terms unnecessarily, confusing the language.

I use the following as a rule of thumb when thinking about cross-utility comparisons and potential for cooperation between currently unrelated fields, groups or social/biological entities:

set of physical components of identity - Health and Community :: Housing
process of purposeful transformation of objects - Industry and Design :: Occupation
purposeful distribution of objects and ideas - Trade and Commerce :: Energy
preservation of objects comprising agent's identity - Service and Security :: (Housing)
process of representation and abstract communication - Science and Education :: (Occupation)
purposeful deployment of stored energy - Investment and Exploration :: (Energy)

I think these pretty-well describe the essential elements of 'our spaceship' in the sense that these are the unique characteristics of living systems.

Food and Water are objects in a physical universe with qualities required by social and biological entities. Energy is a description of motion, activity and exchange. Occupation is an activity of some sentient being and housing describes a found or created environment beneficial to biological or sentient beings.

Thanks for the thread!

James