We are all a puzzle piece of a larger whole. A whole that keeps us alive and takes care of us as long as we contribute to it. It adapts to good and bad times as a completely dynamic system. This dynamic system is called society.

A society is a population of humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive culture and/or institutions. More broadly, a society is an economic, social and industrial infrastructure, in which a varied multitude of people are a part of. 

Wikipedia EN

Our society has formed throughout the centuries. With new technologies we can abstract our lives further from simple food-gatherers to a compartmentalized group where everybody contributes to one piece of keeping us alive as a whole. We can live closer together and abstract our food, water, waste and energy production. We can now because of this group effort build huge buildings and go to the moon. What’s next?

The inner workings of this holistic system has kept me fascinated for the past few years. As society grows more complex we begin to loose grip on it. Nobody can have a complete view anymore now it is a global interconnected system. 

Mapping the pieces

But what are all the puzzle pieces? And what are the challenges for each piece? Maybe we can understand better what is happening around us.

In the coming time I want to make a journey through each part that keeps our society standing. I will begin with our direct environment: our homes and all we need to keep alive there like walls, power, water, gas, waste management, furniture etc.
Along the way I want to look at the whole system behind each part like energy, transportation, communication or healthcare and try to find the whole industry that is needed to bring a person this good. I always want to end each post with the coming challenges for that piece of society.

Along the way we will try to find a larger picture. What are the main challenges for the next centuries? What will new influences like a global networked internet do to our society in the long run? To what kind of society will we grow to? I think this awareness is the key to form something better and more stable than we are living in now.