Discipline (noun):

control gained by enforcing obedience or order; self control
training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character
a field of study

What is discipline? Is it a practice? A way of controlling oneself or others? A school of thought?

As a verb, the word can suggest power and mastery, coercion or restraint. As a noun, a discipline entails an approach to knowing and shaping the world. It can be a way of being, seeing, or doing. Or all of the above.

A whole earth discipline implies a discipline that accounts for humans and non-humans, trade-offs and synergies. It also, unavoidably, entails an anthropocentric worldview. A discipline must have a subject and an object. It would seem clear that a whole earth discipline implies some sentient “we,” capable of acting with intent, as its subject and the Earth as its object. A Whole Earth discipline might take account of the interests and needs of other beings, but it is “we,” however defined, who decide.

In this, the ninth Breakthrough Dialogue, we celebrate Stewart Brand, the original ecomodernist, on the 10th anniversary of the publication of Whole Earth Discipline. But our practice demands that we interrogate as well as celebrate. So we will ask hard questions of the ecomodernist enterprise. Is decoupling human prosperity from environmental impacts truly possible? Will land sparing really bring conservation benefits? Can nuclear and other low carbon non-renewable energy technologies get cheap enough to compete with fossil fuels? Can the ecomodernist tent accommodate both its socialist and libertarian proponents? Are humans, terrible at predicting the future, even capable of planning for a “long now” in which humans and nature thrive?

A poorly defined discipline is no discipline at all. In order do the work that we need it to do in the world, ecomodernism will need to continually ask hard questions of its principles and practices. And its disciples will need to continually learn and hone their craft. Whole Earth Discipline was, at bottom, an articulation of all that Stewart Brand had learned about society and ecology in the forty years after the publication of the Whole Earth Catalogue. In this Breakthrough Dialogue, we too endeavor to learn.

The 9th annual Breakthrough Dialogue: Whole Earth Discipline will be held at Cavallo Point Resort in Sausalito, California. The Dialogue will begin with a welcome reception at 5pm on Wednesday, June 19 and conclude at 1pm on Friday, June 21.

Paradigm Award

This year, The Breakthrough Institute will proudly honor Stewart Brand as the recipient of the 2019 Breakthrough Paradigm Award. He will accept the award and be interviewed on stage at the Dialogue.

A Glimpse of the Breakthrough Dialogue:

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Breakthrough Dialogue 2019: Whole Earth Discipline