Topology of Sustainability - Human and Organism Interactions
Human interactions are measured by the degree of assertiveness and cooperation between individuals. There are five basic types of interactions: Avoidance, Accommodation, Compromising, Competing, and Collaboration. All humans have the capacity to interact at any of these levels. Below is a simple graph indicating the various types of human interactions.
Human interactions can be linked to organism interactions. The following human behaviors can be associated with the following organism interactions:
competing behavior with competitive elimination
collaboration behavior with mutual collaboration
avoidance behavior with prey behavior in persistent predation
Competitive Elimination
In nature, if resource competitors become similar in their resource use, the most efficient user of the resource drives the less efficient out. This process is called competitive elimination. Among humans this may result in conflict and war between the competitors.
Any society or species can be more inefficient in its resource use if it has sufficient power to overwhelm any competitor in conflict.
An example is the wolf reintroduction at Yellowstone National Park. There was a conflict between the wolves and coyotes for resource use after wolf reintroduction. The wolves dominated and overwhelmed the coyotes. The coyote population plummeted in the park.
It is important to note that at point "A" where the lines start to diverge there is a great potential for conflict to occur.
Mutual Collaboration
In nature, if two species voluntarily exchange resources in order for both to survive, both species flourish. This interspecies relationship is called mutual collaboration.
Persistent Predation
If one organism needs the resources provided by destroying or severely degrading another organism, this is called persistent predation.
Shifting and Unbalanced Interactions
Among humans and organisms, interactions can shift from one type to another. Generally these shifts occur slowly. Technological adaptations can cause these shifts to occur very rapidly. This can result in the collapse of the interspecies relationship. Even a flourishing interaction such as Mutual Collaboration is susceptible to this process.
