Mastery of Environment

The second great working of humanity

A few million years ago, our primate ancestor was entirely subject to its environment. Rain, cold, drought, predators — so many forces to which it could only adapt or perish. The environment defined it completely.

Then something extraordinary happened, unique in its density in the history of life on Earth. Our ancestor began to transform its environment. To chip stones, to master fire, to build shelters, to set out in discovery of its world. Today, humanity has set foot on the Moon, sequenced the human genome, eradicated smallpox, and connects eight billion individuals in a fraction of a second.

Progress and its shadows

This working has produced wonders — and catastrophes. The same intelligence that invented penicillin invented the atomic bomb. The same mastery that irrigates deserts destabilises the climate. This is not a reason for despair, but for situating our true level of consciousness. Mastery of the environment alone, without mastery of behaviour and questioning, is not enough. The three workings must advance together.

Technology, robots, progress, culture — this chapter examines the full arc of humanity's relationship with its world. From Bergson's vision of mechanics and mysticism, to Jankélévitch's meditations on the future, to the question of teleology — what is the meaning of this extraordinary transformation?

A new turning point — taking care

Something new is emerging in contemporary human consciousness. After centuries of conquest and exploitation, humanity is beginning to understand that it is not separate from its environment — that it depends on it, that it is an expression of it. The ecological conscience is not a fashion. It is an evolutionary sign: the beginning of understanding that mastery of the environment cannot be domination, but must become symbiosis.