Our global civilization can be seen as an entity made up of many interacting social units or smaller groups, just as a large organism is made up of many interacting cells. This entity appears unstable and not sustainable in its present form. If we can learn to live without depleting the resource base that provides our material sustenance, we may solve the defect apparent in civilizations past that caused them to succumb to catastrophic collapse after a period of development and expansion.
The History of Life
A noticeable trend throughout the history of life on Earth is the nearly continual, albeit unsteady, progression from simpler, small-scale organization to more complex and large-scale organization. Simple entities elaborate themselves into more complex forms in response to changes in the environment; changes that are often brought about by the very life processes of those simpler entities. [Alberts, et al]
