Abstract

The question of energy lies at the origin of the ecology movement. This article shows how that question can be answered, by embedding the economy in the ecology. The image of pollination illustrates the new conception of the economy that is called for by the ecology of the future. Bees generate honey, a product that can be put on a market; but their most useful work is the pollination of plants. This calls for a rethinking of the entire program of the old political economy, resting on the notion of scarcity. The early ecology movement, confronted with industrial capitalism, was dominated by the economy of the material world. Today’s ecology movement shows how a chiasmus has formed. The world of political economy appears as an interlinkage of complex systems of different ecologies where the human ecology ceases to be the center. The sphere of mind - of relations between ideas and cooperation between brains - has undergone undeniable growth and constitutes the other half of the chiasmus. Its economy brings forth new forms of efficiency and organization, like networked computers. Cognitive capitalism is the other and the mimetic rival of second-phase ecology. It can accept to give up mastery of the biosphere if it becomes master of the noosphere. The contradictions inherent to cognitive capitalism are then added to those of industrial capitalism.