Metabolic order is the maintained pattern of planetary and infrastructural flows that keeps a world habitable. Social order sits on top of it. Keeping it going is, IMHO, our primary collective task as a species.
How the word moved
It was the thesis of the Planetarity Syllabus in January 2026: institutions have to sense, coordinate, repair and reproduce, or the order frays. By July 2026 I was calling it planetary autopoiesis, with technology in its service.
In my words
"The maintenance of planetary metabolic order is our primary collective task as a species."
from A Planetarity Syllabus, 19 Jan 2026
"Metabolic order is not an ideal. It is a working condition."
from A Planetarity Syllabus, 19 Jan 2026
"The Leviathan won’t save us, even if he wears a green cape."
from A Planetarity Syllabus, 19 Jan 2026
Related
- Related Metabology - metabology is how the order gets designed.
- Related Habitability - the order is what keeps a world habitable.
- Related Planetary City - I picture the planet as a fractal city that governs metabolic order.
- Related Planetary Steward - stewards keep the order going across the longue durée.
Still open
I haven't squared a maintained order with polyconflicts that never settle back into equilibrium. I don't know how to yet.