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The Three Systems of Man

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Mohamed Kassas  and
Nicholas Polunin
Mohamed Kassas
Affiliation:
Emeritus Professor of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of Cairo, Giza 12613, Egypt
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Extract

Viewing Planet Earth from the standpoint of modern life as a whole, we recognize three main systems, namely The Biosphere, the sociosphere, and the technosphere, although some authorities prefer to consider the two lastmentioned as forming together a so-called ‘noosphere’ or sphere of human influence. Thus we have The Biosphere, constituting the sphere containing life so far up and down as any form of it exists naturally, the technosphere, constituting the Man-made system of structures set within the space of The Biosphere, and the sociosphere, which is commonly defined as the sphere of Man's influence, and is the Man-engendered system of non-structures (institutions, organizations, movements, etc.) that Man has developed in managing his Biospheral relationships and those with the other two systems.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , Spring 1989 , pp. 7 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1989

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