609
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_65
Chapter 65
The Great Divergence
65.1 Mental and Physical Coefficients of Behavioral
Distribution Patterns
When Edward Steichen grouped 503 photographs together from 68 countries at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York, the famed 1955 exhibition entitled “The
Family of Man,” he asserted in the accompanying publication
1
that “the most important service photography can render…” is to “ ‘explain man to man’ and man to
himself.” The luminous evocations of photography sweeping across a landscape of
tumult and the sublime, from Timothy H. O’Sullivan’s albumen print, “A Harvest of
Death,” scores of dead soldiers in the eerie dark and misty twilight of Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, July 1863, printed by Alexander Gardner and housed in the New York
Public Library, to Ansel Adams’ iconic gelatin silver print, “Clearing Winter Storm,
Yosemite Valley, California,” c. 1944 (self-explanatory), we recall a famed chapter,
“What use is it?” in the 1976 publication, Ecological Relationships in which the
authors suggest that “a scientific explanation must refer some observed phenomenon to its antecedent causes at one or more levels of detail removed” (Fig. 65.1).
It’s in that distance of details, that the human evolutionary drama invokes the
most ambiguous potentials. Potential for a silent end to the species, or some other,
utterly unpredictable frisson of opportunities meeting headlong. “Thus,” continue
the authors of “What use is it?” “photochemical reactions are explained in terms of
molecular orbitals, and nerve conduction in terms of iconic flows. For purely technical reasons, there are rather few areas of ecology where satisfying explanations of
this kind seem to be feasible, at present.” And the authors point to “population
1 Edward Steichen, ed., “Introduction, The Family of Man, Museum of Modern Art/Maco
Publishing, Distributed by Simon & Schuster, New York, 1955, pp. 3–4, as cited in A World History
of Photography, by Naomi Rosenblum, New York, Abbeville Press, © Cross River Press, 1984,
p. 481. One might also compare the 90-minute documentary resulting from 4500 hours of crowdsourced footage from 193 countries, July 24, 2010, https://lifeinaday.youtube/, Accessed July 19,
2020.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_65
Chapter 65
The Great Divergence
65.1 Mental and Physical Coefficients of Behavioral
Distribution Patterns
When Edward Steichen grouped 503 photographs together from 68 countries at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York, the famed 1955 exhibition entitled “The
Family of Man,” he asserted in the accompanying publication
1
that “the most important service photography can render…” is to “ ‘explain man to man’ and man to
himself.” The luminous evocations of photography sweeping across a landscape of
tumult and the sublime, from Timothy H. O’Sullivan’s albumen print, “A Harvest of
Death,” scores of dead soldiers in the eerie dark and misty twilight of Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, July 1863, printed by Alexander Gardner and housed in the New York
Public Library, to Ansel Adams’ iconic gelatin silver print, “Clearing Winter Storm,
Yosemite Valley, California,” c. 1944 (self-explanatory), we recall a famed chapter,
“What use is it?” in the 1976 publication, Ecological Relationships in which the
authors suggest that “a scientific explanation must refer some observed phenomenon to its antecedent causes at one or more levels of detail removed” (Fig. 65.1).
It’s in that distance of details, that the human evolutionary drama invokes the
most ambiguous potentials. Potential for a silent end to the species, or some other,
utterly unpredictable frisson of opportunities meeting headlong. “Thus,” continue
the authors of “What use is it?” “photochemical reactions are explained in terms of
molecular orbitals, and nerve conduction in terms of iconic flows. For purely technical reasons, there are rather few areas of ecology where satisfying explanations of
this kind seem to be feasible, at present.” And the authors point to “population
1 Edward Steichen, ed., “Introduction, The Family of Man, Museum of Modern Art/Maco
Publishing, Distributed by Simon & Schuster, New York, 1955, pp. 3–4, as cited in A World History
of Photography, by Naomi Rosenblum, New York, Abbeville Press, © Cross River Press, 1984,
p. 481. One might also compare the 90-minute documentary resulting from 4500 hours of crowdsourced footage from 193 countries, July 24, 2010, https://lifeinaday.youtube/, Accessed July 19,
2020.