The two spheres in which we live are governed by very different laws. One of the basic laws of the ecosphere can be summed up as "Everything is connected to everything else." This expresses the fact that the ecosphere is an elaborate network, in which each component part is linked to many others. Thus, in an aquatic ecosystem a fish is not only a fish, the p of other fish. It is also the producer of organic waste that nourishes microorganisms and ultimately aquatic plants; the consumer of oxygen produced photosynthetically by the plants; the habitat of parasites; the fish hawk's prey. The fish is not only, existentially, a fish, but also an element of this network, which defines its functions. Indeed, in the evolutionary sense, good part of the network-the microorgan and plants, for example preceded the fish, which could establish itself only because it fitted properly into the preexisting system.
我們所居住的兩個世界分別受控于不同的規律。生態圈最基本的規律可概括為“萬物皆相互聯系”。這說明生態圈是一個精密的網絡，其間的每個成員都與其他成員相聯系。因此，在海洋生態系統中，魚不僅是魚，也不僅是其他魚的生育者；它還充當有機廢料的生產者，而這些有機廢料滋養著微生物甚至水生植物；它又是由植物光合作用生成的氧氣的消耗者；它也是寄生蟲的棲息地和魚鷹的對象。魚并不僅僅是孤立的魚，它也是網絡上的一個要素并限制網絡的功能。的確，從進化論的角度上看，網絡中的很多成員，比如微生物和植物，都先于魚而存在。但正因為魚能適應這一業已存在的系統，它才得以立足。
In the technosphere, the component parts—the thousands of different man-made objects—have a very different relation to their surroundings. A car, for example, imposes itself on the neighborhood rather than being defined by it; the same car is sold for use on the densely packed Los Angeles freeways or in a quiet country village. It is produced solely as a salable object—a commodity—with-little regard for how well it fits into either sphere: the system of transportation or the environment. It is true, of course, that all cars must have width that is accommoda by the traffic lanes, and must have proper brakes, lights, and horn, and so on. But as every resident of Los Angeles or New York knows, in recent years their crowded streets and highways have been afflicted with longer and longer limousines, designed to please the buyer and profit the producer, but hardly suitable to their habitat.
在技術圈中，成員們即眾多形形色色的人造物體之間相對于它們的環境來說關系也不一樣。例如，汽車立于社區卻不受其限制；同型的汽車可以奔馳在熙熙攘攘的洛杉磯高速公路上，也可以行駛在安靜的鄉村小路上。汽車被生產出來就是為了出售，就是一種商品，無須考慮它是否適合于兩種狀態下的任何一種：交通系統或環境。當然，所有汽車都需要一定寬度的交通通道，并要有合適的閘、燈、喇叭等。但正如洛杉磯或紐約的每個居民所知道的那樣，近年來，擁擠的街道和高速公路全都充塞著長龍般的小轎車。而這些小轎車的設計只求迎合買者并使生產商獲利卻很少考慮與居住環境相宜。
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