A Parasitic Presence - A Symbiotic Future

I attached the comment below to a Club of Rome post. It is an opinion I have struggled to succinctly express over the years spent deriving the equations of urban design and classifying the building design categories of shelter that make this derivation feasible.

Opinions are vulnerable without a foundation of knowledge based on measurement and evaluation. It is why I began deriving for the equations of urban design. They represent a leadership vocabulary that can be used to measure, predict, evaluate, and build the foundation of knowledge we need for a leadership language that can guide us to live within geographic limits designed to protect our source of life.

TO THE CLUB OF ROME

“You addressed the fundamental problem years ago when you addressed population growth, but the warning has been difficult to translate. "We" must learn to shelter the activities of growing populations within geographic limits designed to protect both their quality and source of life, the Natural Domain. This argument does not emphasize population growth. It is an impossibly controversial topic. Population growth needs shelter to survive. Sheter consumes land that is our source of life. Sprawl threatens this source of life. Excessive shelter intensity threatens our quality of life. The shelter capacity of land can be measured, predicted, evaluated, and consistently led with the equations of urban design, or Tegimenics. I don't believe population growth can be successfully led, but shelter capacity leadership may provide the incentive, measurement, and visualization needed to encourage a transition from a parasitic presence to a symbiotic future.”

Walter M. Hosack, November 2026

Image credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage–ESA/Hubble Collaboration, Alessandra Aloisi (STScI, ESA)