Our global technological society --- the technosphere --- is driving both wholesale environmental collapse and human degeneracy. Avoiding catastrophe will take a transformation as profound as the one that gave birth to it: the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, and the rise of materialistic philosophy. The human factors that underlie our devotion to technology provide an indication of the nature of the changes that will have to be made. The things we seek, beyond basic sustenance and shelter, the technosphere amply delivers: comfort, convenience, consumption, control, entertainment, knowledge, wealth, and power. Fundamentally, the technosphere caters to the perceived needs of mind and body. This focus on mind and body is reflected in the two great schools of Western philosophy — idealism and materialism — which together constitute the basis of the modern outlook on reality.

What is entirely missing from the picture is vigorous action. While central to life in nature, it is being supplanted by technology in a relentless process that is almost universally regarded as progress, even as it renders people less free, less healthy, and less capable, mentally and physically. Indeed, since action disrupts the focus on mind and body, it is generally resisted. But in this last observation lies the key to a solution. It is precisely because vigorous action transcends mind and body that the need for technospherical services can be reduced, and consequently that human fitness can be revived and nature restored. What is required, then, is a philosophy that promotes human action and reveres nature. In Zen Buddhism we find just such a philosophy. As it subsumes both idealism and materialism, Zen offers continuity with conventional wisdom rather than an abrupt break, and the potential to resolve the conflicts that arise from their mutual contradictions.

Our purpose at Shin Edo is to highlight the possibility of a life of action, of working with nature, and of a questioning attitude toward prevailing orthodoxy. It is only through the concrete efforts of people that the technosphere can be brought into a state of equilibrium with the biosphere and a role of subservient benevolence with respect to humans. For historical inspiration, we can look to Japan during the Edo period (1603 - 1868). It is remarkable from our modern perspective in that it combined societal sophistication and harmonious coexistence with the environment. It also inspired the name of our website, "shin" meaning "new" in Japanese.

The objective is captured visually by our logo. The green band represents nature. The red disk symbolizes the technosphere as it should be, properly encapsulated and controlled. And the white ring is a stylized Enso Circle, a Zen symbol of wholehearted, precise action.