To Navigate the Metacrisis you need to Redesign your Mind.

Systemic design, particularly regenerative design, offers a promising approach to addressing the challenges we face.

Ernesto van Peborgh
8 min readSep 28, 2024

In preparation for an upcoming podcast this weekend, where I’ve been asked to dive into the concept of the Metacrisis, I’ve been reflecting deeply on this defining challenge of our time. The Metacrisis is not just a theoretical concept; it’s something I’ve been writing, thinking, and working on for quite some time now. (I share some links Below)

As I gear up to discuss it publicly, I wanted to share some of these thoughts as a way of organizing my ideas and engaging with you.

When the podcast airs, I’ll share the link, but for now, consider this an exercise in understanding the crisis behind the crises.

To start, I want to be clear: I’m not a futurist. My focus is on systemic and regenerative design, because regenerative design is inherently systemic. Engaging with systemic design requires a deep understanding of systems theory, living systems theory, complexity, and exponentiality.

These fields equip us with the capacity for sense-making — to grasp feedback loops, interdependencies, and what Nora Bateson calls Aphanipoiesis the invisible web of interrelationships that connects everything.

When you begin to see these connections, you start to understand the Metacrisis. It’s not just a collection of isolated crises — the polycrisis — but a system of interconnected crises, feeding off one another.

That’s why it’s meta: the polycrisis isn’t just a grouping of individual crises; it’s an interdependent systemic aggregate that generates the Metacrisis, revealing larger systemic dynamics at play.

In my approach to the Metacrisis, I’ve integrated the concept of the Intracrisis as a key origin point. The Intracrisis refers to the inner, personal crisis of perception, consciousness, and separation — the disconnection between ourselves and the larger systems we inhabit. This internal crisis is just as critical as the external Metacrisis — the broader systemic crises we face. Both require a metamorphic shift, as Gilles Hutchins calls it — a transformation that renews both our inner worlds and the outer systems we live in.

And this shift can’t be achieved with old ways of thinking. We need a systemic view, and just as importantly, a systemic language. This is where Marshall McLuhan and Robert Logan’s concept of the “sixth language” comes into play.

Each new language in human history has encompassed the one before it — writing encompassed speech, science encompassed math, computers encompassed all of these, and the internet encompassed them all. Now, we are entering an era where a seventh language, driven by AI, is emerging — holistic and complex, integrating everything that came before.With this new language, we gain a fresh perspective — a shift in vision.

A Framework for Navigating Transformation and Future Possibilities

Understanding the Metacrisis also requires recognizing the innovative disruptions taking place.

Bill Sharpe’s three horizons model helps explain this.
The Three Horizons framework is not just a tool for planning; it’s a way of training the mind to understand and navigate the waves of transformation. Each horizon represents a different phase of change — Horizon One holds the status quo, Horizon Two captures emerging innovations and disruptions, and Horizon Three envisions the future we aspire to create. By using this framework, we develop the capacity to see beyond immediate challenges, recognize patterns of change, and align our actions with long-term possibilities, ultimately guiding us through the complexities of an evolving world.

Horizon two is where the Metacrisis resides. Horizon two is also the space of emergent innovations, where potential solutions to the crises take shape. It’s here that we can turn crises into opportunities, or as UBS White Paper puts it, we face a bloom or bust scenario.

For example, horizon two isn’t just about technology; it’s also about policies and finance. Take the UNEP Global Biodiversity Framework — a systemic solution that leverages innovation across multiple sectors.

As we find the levers and feedback loops of horizon two, we’re not merely addressing isolated problems — we’re navigating the entire system. This allows us to unlock the multipolar traps of horizon one.

Multipolar traps are situations where individual actors, each driven by their own rational self-interest, engage in behaviors that ultimately harm the collective. These traps can take various forms, such as the tragedy of the commons, arms races, or the first-mover advantage in technology. They are central to the Metacrisis, as they exacerbate the very systemic challenges we are trying to solve. By understanding and addressing these traps, we can begin to create solutions that benefit the whole, rather than perpetuating cycles of harm.

Regenerative Agriculture: A Pathway to Understanding Systemic Reciprocity and Life’s Patterns

Regenerative Agriculture offers an inspiring entry into understanding the deeper systemic interdependence that governs all living systems. It reveals the intricate patterns of life, demonstrating how the health of soil, plants, animals, and humans are interconnected in a web of reciprocity. Regenerative agriculture is not just about growing more food, but about creating ecosystems where crops thrive alongside the land, maximizing value and regenerating the system itself. What makes regenerative agriculture so transformative is that it moves beyond extraction. Traditional agriculture depletes the land by taking without replenishing, whereas regenerative agriculture is based on reciprocity — giving back to the land more than we take. Healthy soil stores more carbon, holds more water, and produces more nutrient-dense food. It regenerates itself, and in doing so, it regenerates the ecosystems and communities that depend on it. Farmers no longer treat their land as an object to control but as a partner in a shared process, seeing themselves as part of something larger.

Regenerative agriculture is more than just a solution for farming; it’s a tool for developing systemic thinking. It’s not simply about maximizing yields but about creating ecosystems that thrive within a regenerative framework, offering a template for how we can rebuild our relationship with the Earth.

Designing the Mind to Navigate Complexity and Future Challenges

Regenerative Design goes beyond creating objects, buildings, or landscapes — it’s about reshaping the way we think and perceive the world.

It invites us to design our minds to better navigate the complexities of life and the emerging challenges we face. By fostering a deeper understanding of systems, interconnections, and patterns, regenerative design equips us with the mental tools needed to engage with the world in a more holistic and resilient way. It’s not just about structures; it’s about cultivating a mindset that can regenerate solutions and adapt to an ever-evolving future.

The Metacrisis is man-made, and that’s actually good news. If we created it, we can also fix it.

Systemic design, particularly regenerative design, offers a promising approach to addressing the challenges we face.

Regenerative design focuses on renewing relationships within systems, not just sustaining broken ones.

How to Change Your Mind: A Manual

The act of changing your mind is not a grand, mystical undertaking. It begins with a simple choice — a button in your consciousness, waiting to be pressed, to shift you from one paradigm to another. In that moment, curiosity is awakened. You find yourself seeing the world through a different lens, no longer constrained by the limits of the current language or the worn-out narratives of our age.

But how do you make this leap into a new dimension of thought and perception?

First, you must build understanding capacity and sense-making capacity — the ability to connect the dots, see feedback loops, and understand relationships that aren’t immediately visible. This is not an overnight transformation; it requires deliberate engagement and a proactive approach. Understanding is half the solution.

There are resources everywhere for those willing to seek. John Fullerton’s course at the Capital Institute and Bill Reed’s Regenerative Practitioners Program from Regenesis Group are invaluable gateways into this new way of seeing. Daniel Christian Wahl’s work will expand your understanding of sustainability, ecology, and the art of healing systems.

They can guide you in developing a deeper understanding of systems thinking and living systems theory, helping you see the underlying patterns and principles that life uses to create regenerative processes.

And as your capacity grows, seek out thinkers on the far edge of the future, such as Daniel Schmachtenberger, Indy Johar, and Nate Hagens, whose work delves into the Metacrisis and its intricacies.

Continue to expand your perspective by exploring the works of Jonathan Rowson and Giles Hutchins, whose books offer insights into systems, ethics, and societal transformation. Take the courses of Laura Storm, whose teachings focus on regenerative leadership and resilience, and you will begin to see the world not as a collection of isolated problems, but as an interconnected whole. In doing so, you will cultivate the capacity for sense-making, opening the door to a metamorphic shift of mind.

The work of Joanna Macy offers a beautiful reminder of what is possible. Her Shambhala Warrior teachings remind us that our predicament is both man-made and mind-made — what has been constructed by the mind can also be redesigned by the mind. But this redesign will not come from the same consciousness that created our current crises; it will emerge from a fundamental shift in consciousness itself.

We have the power to redesign Horizon One by cultivating these capacities, by practicing the art of sense-making, and by stepping into the world with new eyes and a different approach. This is not about fixing the old but about transforming how we understand, relate to, and co-create the new. The Metacrisis does not have to be our downfall. It can be a portal — a gateway to something far greater, a world that lies just beyond the horizon, waiting for us to see it, embrace it, and bring it into being.

Thanks for your support!

Before You Leave!
If you relate to this story, I would greatly appreciate you clicking the 👏button.
For further reading, I’m sharing some previous articles and insights related to my research on this topic if you’d like to explore it more deeply.

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Ernesto van Peborgh

Entrepreneur, writer, filmmaker, Harvard MBA. Builder of systemic interactive networks for knowledge management.