Sustainability

This is a word with nearly endless definitions and perspectives (Google yields 33,000,000 results), so there is thus far no true consensus on its meaning, most likely because any brief attempt at description belies its inherent complexity. It is both quantitative and qualitative, but tends only to anthropocentric dimensions – - and to date, there is not one case of a human society that could be described as “sustainable” by any conventional definition; there are several compelling models, but the element of time in combination with forces such as resource depletion (esp. energy), population pressures and climatic shifts (a.k.a. “ecological overshoot”) always comes into play. Regardless of words, as a concept, it must comprise the core of any sensible design philosophy driving human development or otherwise defining its myriad parameters.