Definition of Permaculture

Hello all,

I just did a search on the site and couldn`t find a similar thread; should there be one feel free to delete this one.

How is Permaculture to be defined? Until now I have only heard and read definitions that mostly referred to the agricultural aspects. As this site shows obviously and all of you know, it can be much more.
I would like to hear what you think.
The shortest and most wholesale idea I could come up with:

Establishment of systems that need no other input than human labour and intelligence while meeting human demands.

Take care,
Afghani

Try this thread?

https://permies.com/t/32069/permaculture/Finally-Permaculture-Explained-Simply

When I have people ask me what Permaculture is I tell them it's "sustainable design science". It's a nice quick yet broad answer and it doesn't make Permaculture sound crazy. I know Permaculture is so much more than that but I am hoping they will ask more questions, then I can go deeper with examples.

I like to say it's "applied ecology." If there's more time, I explain that conventional agriculture (or horticulture) is applied biology -- you learn about the needs of one or two specific crops and optimize your farm for those, and forget everything else. But ecology is the study of relationships among things... if you apply that study to anything you do, you get permaculture.

Of course in practice, permaculture often turns out to be a bunch of old wives' tales and nice sounding ideas that people pass along without doing any scientific testing whatsoever. But that's the case in pretty much any discipline.

Everyone has their own definition. Here's mine... "Permaculture is the act of being an ethical steward of our environment, by purposefully designing efficient ecosystems, while being compassionate to our neighbors."