Morphogenetic fields have been proposed to explain phenomena not fully accounted for by genetic or biochemical factors alone. For instance, studies on cell differentiation, embryonic development, and tissue regeneration are areas where the theory has been invoked, though its mechanisms remain controversial. You may have heard about the 100th monkey effect where a group of monkeys developed a skill. Another group that was separated from the first independently started to develop the same skill. We may have seen this with the rise of remote work. Yes, the tools were available to everyone, but people who got it did so quickly without much formal training. There’s also been an emergence of ideas about community that seem to be specific and didn’t really exist before covid.
Morphogenetic What?
Morphogenetic fields are often described as non-material or informational constructs. Unlike physical forces such as gravity or electromagnetism, they are thought to operate as a kind of “formative influence,” possibly linked to yet-unknown physical mechanisms or emergent properties of biological systems. I believe that we are more connected than what is covered by our current physical laws. Ideas are being shared openly once we are aware of them, but they are emerging in many of us because others have the same idea. This idea either makes sense to you or it’s a little bit ‘wu wu’. If you aren’t sold, it’s only a few more paragraphs and you can form your own conclusions.
British biologist Rupert Sheldrake popularized the idea of morphogenetic fields in the 1980s, proposing the concept of “morphic resonance.” Sheldrake suggested that organisms inherit collective memory patterns through these fields, which shape biological development and behavior. This idea extends the field theory beyond biology into the realm of psychology and cultural patterns. They did experiments with American students learning Japanese poetry. Students learned poems written hundreds of years ago significantly faster than poems written recently.
Looping back to the concept of remote work and what constitutes a community, these are old ideas. We’ve just gotten away from them in the last 75 years thanks to commuter culture. Then we had a pandemic and most people were forced to do things a different way. Some viewed it as a temporary condition but more realized, that this was a new way of doing things, even if some of the concepts were very old. Then people all over the world started putting the pieces together and arriving at similar places.
Global Connections
If you are reading this and we are connected, it’s probably a relatively new occurrence. I wasn’t talking about these ideas 5 years ago. They had largely been in storage for the previous 30 years. I majored in Architecture and Urban Planning in college and worked for a center for Social Research. We looked into health issues, patterns of interaction, space usage, etc. A lot of the topics that are coming up with the new world of work. My career went in a different direction, and those things went on a shelf.
Then something clicked and I started having conversations about these old ideas with people worldwide. They were having similar thoughts at the same time. Yes, circumstances forced people to adapt to the situation, but it quickly snowballed from how to do Zoom calls from home, to community structures, sustainable agriculture, remote medicine and education, and a host of related topics.
In addition to the U.S. connections, I have had variations of the same conversation with people in Sweden, Spain, England, Canada, South Africa, and some places that are hard to find on a map. They might have a different focus (commercial real estate, workplace technology, organizational development, sustainable practices, etc.), but they all have a common theme around community connections and structures. I thought there was a select few that were getting it. But I think it’s bigger. There’s just a smaller number that has the vocabulary to describe it.
Local Connections
Here’s what got me to write this in the first place. Like many people during the pandemic, we downsized and moved to a smaller community. It’s a very diverse town of about 2500 where people tend to do their own thing. The local joke is that the town is run by 30 volunteers and nothing is written down.
I have neighbors I still haven’t met since our schedules don’t match and I’m at home most of the time. Yesterday, some of the locals organized a meet and greet in town. I’m on one of the town committees so it seemed like a good idea, and it’s always fun to meet new folks. What I thought would be a brief speed networking with snacks quickly took on a different direction.
The organizers wanted to talk about community and what that meant to everyone. It became very clear to me, more so once I opened my mouth and started tossing some terms around like third space, co-working, community land trust, clean energy, etc., that they were in tune with the concepts I had been talking to people around the world about for the past couple years. They just didn’t have the language to put it in context. To quote the movie Stargate – “Once you know the vowels” the language starts to make sense.
If we accept the Morphogenetic Field theory holds water, this may be what’s going on here. It’s not the next version of the iPhone replacing the Walkman. People are tuning into a concept of what work and life are going to look like next. They may not have the words to describe it yet, but they have a sense of wanting or needing to do something different. If you know where to look, there are pieces of the model all over the globe. It’s just a matter of putting them together. If you are aware of some of the trends or connections, share them. You may be surprised where it leads next.
