Models

The Anthropocene Project. An Encyclopedia

While there are role models for social behavior, architectural models offer an overview where it might otherwise be difficult. Fashion models provide an image of the beautiful consumer. Scholars present models to represent things, excluding secondary contradictions, while clearly defining norms and limits. A model is a limited picture of reality. Models in general: Kraftwerk already sang the praises of the good-looking ones. Usually, at issue are ideal notions and the rejection of the complicated. But what if things get more complicated, the “secondary contradictions” are in fact essential, the context is complex and perhaps unknown, unspeakable, as the scarcely explored realms of the Anthropocene now seem to be? Are the models sufficient? And above all, what future do they model? Does the Anthropocene offer other models beside the end of the world as we know it? Geologically speaking, the thesis of the Anthropocene still needs to be proven, for the soil layers are too young, there is too little fossil material as markers. Currently artists, philosophers, environmentalists, journalists, and others are sketching the first models to make the future of the whole conceivable. We await them with interest.