New Frontier of Intelligence:
Towards “Ecological-Intelligence of Nature” beyond AI
Draft published on the 19th of February, 2025
Revised on the 20th of February, 2025
by Michio Suginoo
Revised on the 20th of February, 2025
by Michio Suginoo
What is the next frontier of Intelligence?
AI is transforming every sphere of our life. Since AI has achieved its capacity that outperforms human performance, it is advertised as being intelligent as its name suggests. Nevertheless, some prominent scientists express their critical views that AI has limited intelligence.
If AI had limited intelligence, what would be the next new frontier of 'Intelligence'?
That is the question that this article contemplates.
There is a notion that ‘nature’ is intelligent in the sense that it creates an intelligent diverse ecosystem that enables the symbiosis among native organisms within to identify problems and optimize solutions by themselves. The notion further implies that it would better operate itself if there were no excess human intervention: excess human intervention would simply compromise the intelligent balancing mechanism of 'natural ecosystem'. For the ease of our discussion, let's call such intelligence that 'nature' inherently possesses “ecological intelligence (EI)”.
As a matter of fact, environmental issues and climate changes are considered as products of anthropogenic causes. For examples, an intense use of toxic pesticides and fertilizers polluted the ecosystem and compromised its bio-diversity, by banishing native insects and micro-organisms and other animals who depend on them. In addition, potential links between an intense use of agrochemicals in farmlands and unprecedented increase in health issues in their neighborhoods are currently under public scrutiny.
Given the notion that “ecological intelligence (EI)” that 'nature' inherently operates is superior to human intelligence, our question can be rephrased as follows:
Beyond AI, would "EI (ecological intelligence)" be one of the next frontiers of 'Intelligence' that we should explore?
That is the notion that this article intends to contemplate.
AI is transforming every sphere of our life. Since AI has achieved its capacity that outperforms human performance, it is advertised as being intelligent as its name suggests. Nevertheless, some prominent scientists express their critical views that AI has limited intelligence.
If AI had limited intelligence, what would be the next new frontier of 'Intelligence'?
That is the question that this article contemplates.
There is a notion that ‘nature’ is intelligent in the sense that it creates an intelligent diverse ecosystem that enables the symbiosis among native organisms within to identify problems and optimize solutions by themselves. The notion further implies that it would better operate itself if there were no excess human intervention: excess human intervention would simply compromise the intelligent balancing mechanism of 'natural ecosystem'. For the ease of our discussion, let's call such intelligence that 'nature' inherently possesses “ecological intelligence (EI)”.
As a matter of fact, environmental issues and climate changes are considered as products of anthropogenic causes. For examples, an intense use of toxic pesticides and fertilizers polluted the ecosystem and compromised its bio-diversity, by banishing native insects and micro-organisms and other animals who depend on them. In addition, potential links between an intense use of agrochemicals in farmlands and unprecedented increase in health issues in their neighborhoods are currently under public scrutiny.
Given the notion that “ecological intelligence (EI)” that 'nature' inherently operates is superior to human intelligence, our question can be rephrased as follows:
Beyond AI, would "EI (ecological intelligence)" be one of the next frontiers of 'Intelligence' that we should explore?
That is the notion that this article intends to contemplate.
Super-Intelligence of Nature: 3 Cases of Permaculture Farming
In order to better illustrate the notion that 'nature' is intelligent, let me present 3 prominent testimonies from the domain of permaculture farming.
Permaculture farming without agrochemicals (toxic pesticides and fertilizer) does not only produce safe and healthy crops for our diet, but also enhances ecological diversity, carbon neutrality, and sustainability.
Masanobu Fukuoka (1913~2008), Akinori Kimura (1949~) and Ernst Gotsch (1948~) are prominent aspirational permaculture farmers who proved that permaculture farming without agrochemicals is not only feasible but also productive. They all share the same value that 'nature' does a better job in operating sustainable farming than human does. All of them articulates that conventional monoculture farming is not an optimal approach because it would only fail to benefit from the inherent balancing mechanism of symbiosis among native organisms in the natural ecosystem. In this spirit, all of them envisioned the symbiosis of the bio-diversity in the ecosystem, to which the targeted crops are native, as an essential condition for successful sustainable permaculture farming.
Permaculture farming without agrochemicals (toxic pesticides and fertilizer) does not only produce safe and healthy crops for our diet, but also enhances ecological diversity, carbon neutrality, and sustainability.
Masanobu Fukuoka (1913~2008), Akinori Kimura (1949~) and Ernst Gotsch (1948~) are prominent aspirational permaculture farmers who proved that permaculture farming without agrochemicals is not only feasible but also productive. They all share the same value that 'nature' does a better job in operating sustainable farming than human does. All of them articulates that conventional monoculture farming is not an optimal approach because it would only fail to benefit from the inherent balancing mechanism of symbiosis among native organisms in the natural ecosystem. In this spirit, all of them envisioned the symbiosis of the bio-diversity in the ecosystem, to which the targeted crops are native, as an essential condition for successful sustainable permaculture farming.
Masanobu Fukuoka (1913~2008)
Masanobu Fukuoka (1913~2008) was one of those prominent pioneers of the most extreme permaculture in Japan, coined as “natural farming (自然農法)”, articulating that “doing nothing” was the best ideal agriculture to him.
He emphasized that in bio-diversity would enable the natural symbiosis among organisms in the native ecosystem to operate sustainable pest controls and produce optimal organic fertilizers for the native crops by itself. As a result, it would eliminate the necessity of the use of pesticides and minimize the needs for external fertilizer.
In his method, he made his best attempt in minimizing human intervention by carefully selecting human involvement in his farming practice. As an illustration of his approach, he enclosed seeds in special wet cray balls one by one and threw those cray balls randomly over the unplowed land. He envisioned the random sowing as the best learning method to discover the optimal process that ‘nature’ created. The cray did not only moisture seeds for effective germination, but also protected seeds from being eaten by animals in the process of germination. According to him, excess human intervention would only compromise the productivity of natural farming: plowing, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers would kill those beneficial microorganisms in the soil. He further elaborated the importance of the symbiosis of biodiversity (farming multiple plants together) in orchestrating synergies among different organisms to optimize the process of farming.
Here are two videos about Fukuoka method:
He emphasized that in bio-diversity would enable the natural symbiosis among organisms in the native ecosystem to operate sustainable pest controls and produce optimal organic fertilizers for the native crops by itself. As a result, it would eliminate the necessity of the use of pesticides and minimize the needs for external fertilizer.
In his method, he made his best attempt in minimizing human intervention by carefully selecting human involvement in his farming practice. As an illustration of his approach, he enclosed seeds in special wet cray balls one by one and threw those cray balls randomly over the unplowed land. He envisioned the random sowing as the best learning method to discover the optimal process that ‘nature’ created. The cray did not only moisture seeds for effective germination, but also protected seeds from being eaten by animals in the process of germination. According to him, excess human intervention would only compromise the productivity of natural farming: plowing, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers would kill those beneficial microorganisms in the soil. He further elaborated the importance of the symbiosis of biodiversity (farming multiple plants together) in orchestrating synergies among different organisms to optimize the process of farming.
Here are two videos about Fukuoka method:
- The recent Fukuoka’s firm, which is currently run by the third generation, his grandson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYj6hwrah5c
- The interview with Masanobu Fukuoka (activate automated English translation in the subtitle setting for viewing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HveaqQy9hUc
Akinori Kimura (1949~)
Akinori Kimura (1949~) is another successful permaculture farmer. Today Kimura grows organic apples without the use of pesticides and fertilizer. His apple produces, called “Miracle Apple”, sell at premium prices. And his products are used in a top-rated French restaurant. In principle, Kimura follows the same principle that Masanobu Fukuoka pursued.
Kimura, illustrating how “beneficial insects” eat “harmful pests” in the natural ecosystem, articulates that the natural balancing mechanism of symbiosis, which the bio-diversity in a sound natural ecosystem would operate, could eliminate the necessity of toxic pesticides in farming. Once, when one of his followers asked him, "why in my orchard I find so many harmful pests?", he replied "maybe in the past you put agrochemicals and chemical fertilizers to kill beneficial insects and beneficial bacteria and destroyed the balancing mechanism of the original ecosystem. It would take years to restore such a natural symbiosis and its balancing mechanism in the ecosystem."
Kimura also prescribes the use of only organic materials in any case that human involvement were necessary in order to restore beneficial symbiosis in the ecosystem. As an example, to protect his plants from diseases, he sprays over trees special organic disinfectant, which is diluted organic vinegar made of ferment rice.
For your reference, here are two links about his production:
Kimura, illustrating how “beneficial insects” eat “harmful pests” in the natural ecosystem, articulates that the natural balancing mechanism of symbiosis, which the bio-diversity in a sound natural ecosystem would operate, could eliminate the necessity of toxic pesticides in farming. Once, when one of his followers asked him, "why in my orchard I find so many harmful pests?", he replied "maybe in the past you put agrochemicals and chemical fertilizers to kill beneficial insects and beneficial bacteria and destroyed the balancing mechanism of the original ecosystem. It would take years to restore such a natural symbiosis and its balancing mechanism in the ecosystem."
Kimura also prescribes the use of only organic materials in any case that human involvement were necessary in order to restore beneficial symbiosis in the ecosystem. As an example, to protect his plants from diseases, he sprays over trees special organic disinfectant, which is diluted organic vinegar made of ferment rice.
For your reference, here are two links about his production:
- A web-based translation of the book about his production, “Miracle Apple” (Trace those links appearing on the right-hand side of the website): https://miracleapples.com/
- A 16 min summary video about his production (activate the translated English subscript): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hbem4Pd6po
Ernst Gotsch (1948~)
Ernst Gotsch (1948~) also practices permaculture farming without agrochemicals. He coined "syntropic farming" to classify his farming style. His "syntropic farming" proved that it can be more productive than conventional farming.
30 years ago, the soil at his land was assessed as poor for agricultural activities based on the soil quality index. Ever since, Ernst Götsch has transformed the land quality without using any agrochemicals. Today, his land yields cocoa about 2,600 pounds per hectare (vs the national average yield of cocoa around 856 per hectare), demonstrating a superb outperformance against the standard.
The YouTube video below shows the case of Ernst Götsch:
30 years ago, the soil at his land was assessed as poor for agricultural activities based on the soil quality index. Ever since, Ernst Götsch has transformed the land quality without using any agrochemicals. Today, his land yields cocoa about 2,600 pounds per hectare (vs the national average yield of cocoa around 856 per hectare), demonstrating a superb outperformance against the standard.
The YouTube video below shows the case of Ernst Götsch:
In the video above, Ernst Götsch articulates his philosophy about Syntropic Farming:
In Paraphrase:
“I am not a missionary. Not at all. I just work with plants, because I like them. Plants don’t lie. They don’t fake. Neither do animals.
Only human do. Humans are only species that spends money to kill their own kin. …
How will I grow my food so that it needs no action or counter-actions, while ensuring that the immune system will require less resources so that the system will produce more?
Nature has all the solutions within. So the principles of syntropic farming are derived from within nature. We can apply the same principles in small scales in your balcony or in larger scales in farm land.
Human, we seek enemies outside, instead of solving problems within. Human civilizations repeated the same mistakes in this way. Although human will not end all the lives on the planet, we might end ourself.
For sustainable food production, we need to listen to the principles that nature operates.”
Eco-Symbiotic Farming and Organic Farming
In a way, Masanobu Fukuoka's "natural farming", Akinori Kimura's "Miracle Apple", and Ernst Gotsch's "syntropic farming"--all share the same principles at core: all of them attempt to benefit from optimizing the balancing mechanism of bio-diversity in the ecosystem. In this context, let's categorize all of their farming methods into one class of permaculture farming and call it "eco-symbiotic farming" just for the ease of our discussion. Here, in order to avoid any unnecessary confusion, I would not profess that this should be the universal name for this class of permaculture farming.
Now, let's draw the difference between the following two ends of permaculture farming: organic farming and eco-symbiotic farming.
Now, let's draw the difference between the following two ends of permaculture farming: organic farming and eco-symbiotic farming.
- “Organic farming aims to replace chemical fertilization (usual in conventional farming) with primarily organic fertilization (composts made from organic waste, green manure, manure, etc.)” (E. Gotsch, 2018) (Some might argue that "Organic Farming" is not a permaculture farming. That would be subject to how you define permaculture farming. I leave the distinction out of the scope of my essay for now.)
- On the other hand, "Eco-Symbiotic Farming" (Masanobu Fukuoka's "natural farming", Akinori Kimura's "Miracle Apple" and Ernst Gotsch's "syntropic farming") in principle can be categorized as a pristine type of regenerative agriculture that aims at optimizing agricultural outputs without external input such as agrochemicals.
"Eco-Symbiotic Farming" as observable variables of "Ecological Intelligence"
Repeatedly, the implication of all these three examples of "eco-symbiotic farming" is that "Ecological Intelligence" of 'nature' is far much more intelligent than Human Intelligence (thus more intelligent than AI that is created by Human Intelligence) and human interventions would rather compromise the sustainable productivity of 'nature'.
Here, a limitation is that we cannot observe "Ecological Intelligence" of 'nature'. It probably has no boundary and, most likely, it would be difficult to define it. A slight hope in the face of this limitation would be to research the intelligence that we can observe from "eco-symbiotic farming": call it "eco-symbiotic intelligence." That could provide us with the means to capture observable variables associated with "Ecological Intelligence."
Given such an implication, let's compare these two classes of permaculture farming.
On one hand, "Eco-Symbiotic Farming" is much stricter than "Organic Farming" in the sense that
On the other hand, "Eco-Symbiotic Farming" could demonstrate both the process and the results of "Ecological Intelligence", the balancing mechanism of bio-diversity in the natural ecosystem. In other words, "Eco-Symbiotic Farming" can provide us with observable variables of unobservable "Ecological Intelligence".
Here, a limitation is that we cannot observe "Ecological Intelligence" of 'nature'. It probably has no boundary and, most likely, it would be difficult to define it. A slight hope in the face of this limitation would be to research the intelligence that we can observe from "eco-symbiotic farming": call it "eco-symbiotic intelligence." That could provide us with the means to capture observable variables associated with "Ecological Intelligence."
Given such an implication, let's compare these two classes of permaculture farming.
On one hand, "Eco-Symbiotic Farming" is much stricter than "Organic Farming" in the sense that
- "Eco-Symbiotic Farming" allows less human intervention than "Organic Farming".
- "Eco-Symbiotic Farming" requires more pristine environment than "Organic Farming".
On the other hand, "Eco-Symbiotic Farming" could demonstrate both the process and the results of "Ecological Intelligence", the balancing mechanism of bio-diversity in the natural ecosystem. In other words, "Eco-Symbiotic Farming" can provide us with observable variables of unobservable "Ecological Intelligence".
In this sense, "Eco-Symbiotic Farming" could provide us with a benchmark to optimize "Organic Farming". We can apply AI together with sensor and robotics (drone) to learn "ecological intelligence" by studying the process of "Eco-Symbiotic Farming" as observable variables. Then, we can attempt to design the conduct of "Organic Farming" in order to approximate the process of "Eco-Symbiotic farming."
Furthermore, in the optimization of "Organic Farming", AI can be adopted with sensor and robotics (drone) in the following areas:
Furthermore, in the optimization of "Organic Farming", AI can be adopted with sensor and robotics (drone) in the following areas:
- Soil Quality Assessment: Monitor analytics of soil quality and suggest solutions, if necessary.
- Crop Monitoring and Management: Monitor the health of crops and identify disease, if any, and suggest solutions, if any material disease is identified.
- Pest and Weeds Control: Monitor and detect pests and weeds and suggest solutions
- Irrigation Control: Efficient use of water
- Climate Change Prediction: when drastic change in climate is expected, it can help human to plan the change in the types of plants to sow for the next harvest.
Is AI intelligent?
Next, let's take a look at an example of critical view on AI.
The video below shows a discussion about the quantum physics among three prominent thinkers of our time. Apart from contrasting arguments on the quantum physics, toward the end of the discussion, the panels present common critical views on the current hype on AI.
The video below shows a discussion about the quantum physics among three prominent thinkers of our time. Apart from contrasting arguments on the quantum physics, toward the end of the discussion, the panels present common critical views on the current hype on AI.
Robert Penrose, a Nobel Laureate scientist, articulates that “artificial intelligence” is a misnomer: to be intelligent it has to be conscious about what it does; in this sense, while it can outperform human performance, it will remain simply as a computational system, which overwhelms human capacity in computation, but never be intelligent. Penrose further makes an ironical remark on the common notion that AI will take over human being:
“There are dangers. The dangers are not that AI will take over and will become more intelligent than us. The dangers are that it could be misused in ways in which it could fool us.” (Robert Penrose)
Bernardo Kastrup, another panel in the same discussion, agrees with Penrose: (in paraphrase) if AI could behave like a human, it would be only because it is trained to mimic human but not because it is intelligent. Kastrup goes further that the illusion that AI is intelligent is so compelling to persist and it creates ‘grotesque none-sense’.
In order to avoid confusion, all panels agree that AI could be useful tools for human, given that it is properly used.
In order to avoid confusion, all panels agree that AI could be useful tools for human, given that it is properly used.
Concluding Remark
Whether AI is intelligent or not remains subject to discussion beyond the scope of this topic.
My interest here is to contemplate whether it is possible to design an innovative optimal "organic farming" by applying artificial intelligence as a tool to learn, replicate (or accelerate, if feasible), and scale the superior "ecological intelligence" that 'nature' inherently possesses.
I tend to see human as a part of ‘nature’. Thus, it would be an inevitable and natural conclusion that ‘nature’ has higher intelligence than human intelligence as well as, needless to say, AI that is created by human. This view agrees with the shared principles envisioned by those three prominent aspirational permaculture farmers: Masanobu Fukuoka (1913~2008), Akinori Kimura (1949~) and Ernst Gotsch (1948~).
In a way, I am hoping for an increasing attention to "Ecological Intelligence" as a new frontier of Intelligence. Since "Ecological Intelligence" is unobservable, "Eco-Symbiotic Farming" can provide us with observable variables of the unobservable intelligence. Thus, "Eco-Symbiotic Intelligence", the intelligence that we can obtain from "Eco-Symbiotic Farming", would be the frontier research subject.
Let's see.
Thanks for reading.
Michio Suginoo
My interest here is to contemplate whether it is possible to design an innovative optimal "organic farming" by applying artificial intelligence as a tool to learn, replicate (or accelerate, if feasible), and scale the superior "ecological intelligence" that 'nature' inherently possesses.
I tend to see human as a part of ‘nature’. Thus, it would be an inevitable and natural conclusion that ‘nature’ has higher intelligence than human intelligence as well as, needless to say, AI that is created by human. This view agrees with the shared principles envisioned by those three prominent aspirational permaculture farmers: Masanobu Fukuoka (1913~2008), Akinori Kimura (1949~) and Ernst Gotsch (1948~).
In a way, I am hoping for an increasing attention to "Ecological Intelligence" as a new frontier of Intelligence. Since "Ecological Intelligence" is unobservable, "Eco-Symbiotic Farming" can provide us with observable variables of the unobservable intelligence. Thus, "Eco-Symbiotic Intelligence", the intelligence that we can obtain from "Eco-Symbiotic Farming", would be the frontier research subject.
Let's see.
Thanks for reading.
Michio Suginoo