Mansoor Vakili
Self-Organising Systems
Mansoor Vakili’s work looks at the earth as a self-organising, living, system. He shows how understanding this can help us live more fulfilling and sustainable lives. Vakili explains that the key to this understanding is non-linear thinking, something that doesn’t happen often enough in our current linear worldview. Working with Vakili, our creative team explained his work and its implications for the way we live.
The Brief
Mansoor's fascination with the workings of the universe has driven him to thoroughly investigate quantum mechanics, systems theory, network theory, and various mystical traditions. Through this exploration, he has discovered a profound simplicity that holds the promise of integrating science, spirituality, and philosophy. He approached We Are Cognitive and our team of visual thinkers to share and explain his work to a wide audience.
The Animation
Overall, this vibrant animation demonstrates how whiteboard animation can make complex theories digestible and reveal their underlying connections.
The animation argues that the Earth operates as a self-organizing, cognitive living system and calls for a shift from linear to nonlinear thinking to align with the universe's inherent patterns. The film puts forward Mansoor’s view that nonlinear thinking not only enhances creativity and efficiency but also can help humanity navigate existential challenges
The animation employs a central analogy, comparing the human body to the universe, to illustrate Earth as a cognitive, self-organising system, making complex concepts more relatable.
Concentric circles serve as an adaptable recurring motif, symbolizing tree rings, solar bodies, and atoms, which highlights the interconnected patterns found in nature across various scales.
While the animation is generally detailed and dynamic, it simplifies to clean frames with white lines when emphasizing key points, such as the introduction to nonlinear networks.
The animation concludes with a powerful imagined message from the universe, personifying it to make abstract ideas engaging and memorable.
The Client
Mansoor Vakili is a systems philosopher and the author of papers such as Systems Philosophy. Vakili’s work looks at the planet as a self-organising living system, which we are part of. He shows how non-linear thinking can help us understand this and use this awareness to live more holistically and over-come existential challenges.
The Context
Find more of Mansoor Vakili’s work here.
