The Biomimicry Confluence Day 1: Going with the Flow
What an exceptional first day of the Biomimicry Confluence it was! The energy was pure, the excitement tangible and participants from almost each continent flowed together (special shoutout to our New Zealand attendee, who joined us at 2am local time).
Our Day 1 speakers definitely knew how to spark conversation, sharing insights leading to meaningful exchanges. Here are our key takeaways - we’d love to know what your highlight was! (You can share your comment at the bottom of this article).
The Power, promise and challenges of AI for Biomimicry
Andrew Howley, Chief Editor of AskNature
The world’s largest biomimicry resource… and leading portal to the wisdom nature holds.
Andrew challenged us to change our perspective on AI: it’s a tool like any other, and it all depends on how we use it. All species use tools. We’re a part of nature. We don’t have to be suspicious or afraid of it, but rather, utilise it for good.
He then listed some of AI’s very useful qualities: Speed, volume, complexity and translation.
Some of its challenges, on the other hand includes: Bias, short-sightedness, overconfidence, laziness and relinquishing human genius.
Lastly, he touched on AskNature’s approach to AI: they make sure to always choose research over design, prompt it with their chosen values, train it on ideal materials, adapting materials existing, trusted instead of generating from scratch, and always maintain human review. They are transparent when using AI and always disclaim its use, and always invite feedback on AI-assisted content.
Learn more about AskNature here.
Biomimicry to B-Corp - A Founder Story Economy
Rana Hajirasouli, Founder of The Surpluss
The World's First B2B Platform for Surplus Resource Sharing
Rana is a Learn Biomimicry Practitioner Programme alumna and shared how her project led to the founding of her business.
The problems she identified in the business world that she is particularly passionate about, are excess and waste of industrial materials. Nature’s solution? Industrial symbiosis.
She asked: how would nature organize the flow of information without a central authority? And found several ways: through autonomous resource flow, dynamic application, and eliminating waste efficiently. That led The Surpluss to build a collaborative digital platform (inspired by slime mold) for interconnected industrial ecosystems. Other businesses can use this platform to find business resources near them, allowing for inter-sector collaboration and repurposing resources to create circularity.
She made a good point: In response to sudden, unexpected challenges, nature often shows us surprising ways to support its ecosystems. An example that she used, which inspired her work, was learning what it means to be locally attuned - tapping into deep root networks to solve for resource scarcity in challenging conditions, like the Ghaf tree.
Learn more about The Surpluss here.
What if Presidential Candidates took Leadership Cues from Nature?
Katie Losey, Head of Conservation at Natural World Safaris
Leading scientific communicator and adventurer, her life sounds like it was written by a novelist with a thing for the outdoors.
Katie took us to an arguably more contentious topic ahead of US elections, pointing out that human leadership has a problem - and those who are under it are consistently affected by environmental neglect, corruption, negligence and several other ego-centric practices (none of which are life-friendly).
But she proposes a solution: Looking to the wild world is looking to a source of wisdom - why wouldn't we look to her for our leadership lessons too? Nature’s leaders are doing the impossible: True progress founded on innovation and benefits all life, not just a select few. Masters of collaboration.
She also referenced some use cases inspired by slime mold (a recurring theme during the day!), showing its unbiased, hyper efficient way of finding paths and solving puzzles.
One example is Project DeepGreen’s resource distribution to displaced people project in Somalia, inspired by how the mold can navigate obstacles.
Finally, here are nature’s suggestions to leaders: be locally attuned, seek collaboration, and promote self-organisation.
You can learn more about Natural World Safaris here.
Biomimicry in the Built Environment
Jamie Miller, Director of Biomimicry at B+H Architects
A leading Canadian architectural and engineering firm actively applying biomimicry
Jamie made sure we had the perfect close to the day, by sharing a host of real-world examples where biomimicry has been successfully applied in the built environment - that’s inspiring stuff. When you bring nature into the conversation, it might feel like a small thing but it always leads to a dramatic end result.
He pointed out that nature has already done whatever we can come up with and asked: What are the secrets that have not been told by nature yet? We can keep discovering forever and still not know everything! Nature is efficient with what is around - a brilliant practice to take into architecture.
You can learn more about B+H Architects here.
In Closing
What an inspirational day of learning and connecting. If you are a Biomimicry Confluence ticket holder, you can rewatch the recordings here at any time!
Now for day two... see you in the flow.