Let me begin by acknowledging those who came before me. The runner-up for a 1 billion euro grant from the European Union nearly a decade ago was FuturICT with their vision for modeling complex social systems to avoid (or manage) future economic collapses. So I am not the first person to propose that a massive effort is needed to (a) integrate the social sciences; and (b) do so with motivation to apply what is learned to address extremely difficult problems in the world. With that said, let me now offer my billion dollar proposal that follows in FuturICT’s footsteps. At the time they were competing for substantial funding, I was working with the International Centre for Earth Simulation to build its billion dollar (over a decade) vision for a high-performance computing facility that models the entire Earth in its full complexity. It is from these projects that I draw inspiration for this essay.
Also, a fact that should cause you to sit up straight. The annual budget for CERN (the high-energy particle accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland) was roughly 1.2 billion dollars in 2017. So what I am calling for here is what the European Union spends every single year on the search for fundamental particles for all of humanity to instead address the global ecological crisis and safeguard the future of our species.
Think about this for a moment before you continue reading this essay. It really should cause you to pause and reflect about our current priorities as human beings.
What I propose now is a framework for guiding humanity through the sustainability bottleneck as we navigate the planetary-scale systemic collapse outlined in the previous two essays in this series. If you want to hear me talk through this proposal in a recorded talk, I invite you to watch the 90 minute video on YouTube for a version that I presented to the cognitive science department at the University of California, Merced earlier this year. This essay will go into more detail about the vision I’ve been cultivating for a global network of culture design labs that—as argued in previous essays—I no longer believe is possible to build in the world.
Why I Am No Longer Attempting to Build A Rigorous Science of Social ChangeJoe Brewer
Let me start by saying that literally every social problem humanity now confronts will benefit from taking a rigorous, evidence-based approach to developing interventions that work. If I believe this—you might wonder—why would I title an article this way?
The answer is simply that I have been trying to manifest into the world a science of large-scale social change for 18 years. During that time I have repeatedly found that almost no one gives preference to being effective over the feeling of “being right.” This has been true as I’ve interacted with academic researchers, the staff of numerous nonprofit organizations, program officers and boards of directors at foundations, government personnel providing public services, and among social-impact businesses of various kinds.
So I am shifting gears and no longer attempting to build this grand visionary work. I simply don’t see it as feasible anymore and am going to introspect deeply about what I might do that is of service in times as serious as these when in my heart I now accept that my life’s work cannot succeed. In the spirit of the foundational challenge named in the opening of this essay, I invite you to prove me wrong. Critique and analyze my assumptions. Gather your own data to confront and challenge the argument laid out here. See if you can find a way to birth such an ambitious vision where I have failed to do so.
I would much rather be wrong and see effective solutions emerge than to be right and feel the hollow gratification of saying “I told you so” as the world goes into full-scale systemic collapse in the next few decades.
Onward, fellow humans.
This is an overview report on a 2013 study we conducted of social media content about global warming. It shows that underlying psychological drivers can be discerned from large data sets to reveal implicit structures of a major social discourse.
Ecocene Design Economies: Three Ecologies of Systems TransitionsEcoLabs
Despite accumulative social and technological innovation, the design industry continues to face significant obstacles when addressing issues of sustainability. Climate change and other systemic ecological problems demands shifts on an order of magnitude well beyond the trajectory of business-as-usual. I will argue that these complex problems require addressing the epistemological error in knowledge systems reproducing unsustainable designed worlds. Ecological literacy is a basis for nature-inspired design. Ecologically engaged knowledge must inform design strategies across the psychological, the social and the environmental domains. With the expansive three ecologies perspective, interventions at the intersection of design and economics can enable systems transitions. This theoretical work informs a framing of the current epoch in ways that create a foundation for the creation of regenerative, distributed and redirected design economies.
Why I Am No Longer Attempting to Build A Rigorous Science of Social ChangeJoe Brewer
Let me start by saying that literally every social problem humanity now confronts will benefit from taking a rigorous, evidence-based approach to developing interventions that work. If I believe this—you might wonder—why would I title an article this way?
The answer is simply that I have been trying to manifest into the world a science of large-scale social change for 18 years. During that time I have repeatedly found that almost no one gives preference to being effective over the feeling of “being right.” This has been true as I’ve interacted with academic researchers, the staff of numerous nonprofit organizations, program officers and boards of directors at foundations, government personnel providing public services, and among social-impact businesses of various kinds.
So I am shifting gears and no longer attempting to build this grand visionary work. I simply don’t see it as feasible anymore and am going to introspect deeply about what I might do that is of service in times as serious as these when in my heart I now accept that my life’s work cannot succeed. In the spirit of the foundational challenge named in the opening of this essay, I invite you to prove me wrong. Critique and analyze my assumptions. Gather your own data to confront and challenge the argument laid out here. See if you can find a way to birth such an ambitious vision where I have failed to do so.
I would much rather be wrong and see effective solutions emerge than to be right and feel the hollow gratification of saying “I told you so” as the world goes into full-scale systemic collapse in the next few decades.
Onward, fellow humans.
This is an overview report on a 2013 study we conducted of social media content about global warming. It shows that underlying psychological drivers can be discerned from large data sets to reveal implicit structures of a major social discourse.
Ecocene Design Economies: Three Ecologies of Systems TransitionsEcoLabs
Despite accumulative social and technological innovation, the design industry continues to face significant obstacles when addressing issues of sustainability. Climate change and other systemic ecological problems demands shifts on an order of magnitude well beyond the trajectory of business-as-usual. I will argue that these complex problems require addressing the epistemological error in knowledge systems reproducing unsustainable designed worlds. Ecological literacy is a basis for nature-inspired design. Ecologically engaged knowledge must inform design strategies across the psychological, the social and the environmental domains. With the expansive three ecologies perspective, interventions at the intersection of design and economics can enable systems transitions. This theoretical work informs a framing of the current epoch in ways that create a foundation for the creation of regenerative, distributed and redirected design economies.
Naming the Epoch: Anthropocene, Capitalocene, EcoceneEcoLabs
The Anthropocene is the proposed name for the geological epoch where humanity is dramatically affecting geological processes. The name draws attention to severe environmental problems – but it also does other things. Jason Moore asks: “Does the Anthropocene argument obscure more than it illuminates?” (2014, 4). Donna Haraway argues that the Anthropocene must be “as short/thin as possible” (2015, 160). Moore, Haraway, Solon and Latour claim the concept uncritically imports Western rationality, imperialism and anthropocentrism – and thereby narrows options for the development of sustainable alternatives.
It is important to be specific about exactly what ‘anthropos’ are doing to destabilise climate systems and other planetary boundaries. There is a particular model of development driving dramatic Earth System change. There are other options. In response to this problem, the Capitalocene is a concept that asserts: “the logic of capital drives disruption of Earth System. Not humans in general” (Salon, 2014).
Bruno Latour says the Capitalocene is “a swift way to ascribe this responsibility to whom and to where it belongs” (2014, 139). It is more specific. Consequently it opens space for other opinions. Yet while the Capitalocene is critical, is not creative. Beyond the assumptions of Anthropocene and the critical perspective of the Capitalocene, new ways of understanding social and ecological relations are emergent.
Design theorist Rachel Armstrong states “there is no advantage to us to bring the Anthropocene into the future… The mythos of the Anthropocene does not help us… we must re-imagine our world and enable the Ecocene” (2015). New ecologically informed ways of thinking and living must be generated. The Ecocene has yet to be designed. Its emergence depends on a new understanding of ecological-human relations and new types of development that emerge from this perspective. The transformative Ecocene describes a curative catalyst for cultural change necessary to survive the Anthropocene.
A presentation at Climate Change: Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics University of Brighton, Thursday 28-Friday 29 April 2016.
Design embeds ideas in communication, artifacts and spaces in subtle and psychologically powerful ways. Feminist, class, race and indigenous scholars and activists describe how oppressions (how patriarchy, racism, colonialism, etc.) exist within institutions and also within cultural practices. The theory of symbolic violence sheds light on how design can function to naturalise oppressions and then obfuscate power relations around this process. Through symbolic violence, design can function as an enabler for the exploitation of certain groups of people and the environment they (and ultimately ‘we’) depend on to live. Design functions as symbolic violence when it is involved with the creation and reproduction of ideas, practices, processes and tools that result in structural and other types of violence (including ecocide).
Presentation and conversation at the Design Research Society 2016's Design + Research + Society: Future Focused Thinking conference. The University of Brighton. UK and then again at the Decolonising Design group’s Intersectional Perspectives on Design, Politics and Power at Malmo University in November 2016.
by
Dr. Joanna Boehnert, Research Fellow in Design, CREAM, University of Westminster + EcoLabs
Dr. Bianca Elzenbaumer, Research Fellow in Design, Leeds College of Art + Brave New Alps
Dimeji Onafuwa, PhD candidate, Carnegie Mellon University
Michael P Totten GreenATP: APPortunities to catalyze local to global positive...Michael P Totten
Humanity’s unceasing ingenuity is generating vast economic gain for billions of people with goods unavailable to even kings and queens throughout most of history. Unfortunately, this economic growth has triggered unprecedented se- curity challenges of global and historical magnitude: more absolute poor than any time in human history, the sixth largest extinction spasm of life on earth, climate destabilization with mega-catastrophic consequences, and multi-trillion dollar wars over access to energy. These multiple, inextricably interwoven chal- lenges have low probability of being solved if decision makers maintain the strong propensity to think and act as if life is linear, has no carrying capacity limits, uncertainty is controllable, the future free of surprises, planning is predictable and compartmentalized into silos, and Gaussian distributions are taken as the norm while fat-tail futures are ignored. Although the future holds irreducible uncertainties, it is not fated. The emergence of Internet availability to one-third of humanity and access by most of humanity within a decade has spawned the Web analogue of a ‘Cambrian explosion’ of speciation in knowledge applica- tions. Among the most prodigious have been collaboration innovation networks (COINs) reflecting a diversity of ‘genome’ types, facilitating a myriad of collective intelligence crowd-swarming phenomena (Malone T, Laubacher R, Dellarocas C. The Collective Intelligence Genome. MIT Sloan Management Review, Spring; 2010, Vol. 51). COINs are essential tools for accelerating and scaling transformational solutions (positive tipping points) to the wicked problems confronting humanity. Web COINs enable acceleration of multiple-benefit innovations and solutions to these problems that permeate the nested clusters of linked nonlinear complex adaptive systems comprising the global biosphere and socioeconomy.
How has it come to this? Climate Change and The Future of Planet EarthKaren McChrystal
By now, most people are aware that climate change presents a dire threat to human civilization. But they don’t understand just how dire. International organizations and mainstream media continue to say that we have about ten years, maybe more, to start doing something about it. In my view, it’s already past the midnight hour to start doing something.
This paper includes top-level summary statements regarding the primary factors driving likely near-future societal chaos. Also
included are a number of citations from experts and scientists in the fields of climate change, economics, and sustainability. For the most part, citations are not paraphrased, as the subject is complex and doesn’t lend itself to simplification.
My studies of these topics, on and off for two decades, have led me to the view that civilization as we have known it cannot long continue. The purpose of this paper is not to add to the growing list of alarming climate-related disasters and those that loom, but rather to help people better understand how we got here, and why the civilization we have known cannot go on for very much longer. Then we can hopefully apply what we’ve learned, as wisdom, to better prepare for the oncoming climate chaos.
And we can plant the seeds of a successor civilization, starting
with sustainable, resilient communities which can be enfolded into the future successor civilization.
Invaders, Security, Climate Change: Can we get movement on wicked problems?Dawn Bazely
I gave this talk today, 26 January 2016 at the Understanding Sovereignty & Security in the Arctic Workshop, organized by Whitney Lackenbauer & Will Greaves
Cours Public 1: La quatrième voie : les politiques de la terre face à l’Anthr...EcoleUrbaineLyon
Malgré le péril existentiel sans précédent auquel nous expose la poursuite du modèle de développement dominant, l’examen critique du paradigme sécuritaire inhérent aux scénarios dits « globaux » montre pourtant une incapacité structurelle à imaginer une recomposition symbiotique des interactions entre les humains et les autres vivants. Ni l’appropriation ordolibérale du globe, ni le gouvernement technoscientifique de la planète, ni le projet cosmopolitique d’édification du monde ne suffiront pour répondre aux défis de l’Anthropocène. Nous proposons d’explorer concrètement la possibilité d’une « quatrième voie », celle des politiques de la Terre.
Cours Public 3: LA QUATRIÈME VOIE : LES POLITIQUES DE LA TERRE FACE À L'ANTHR...EcoleUrbaineLyon
Nous prenons conscience de l’avènement d’un nouvel âge de la Terre. La croissance continue dont dépend la pérennité politique du système socio-économique mondial bouleverse, par un jeu complexe et non linéaire de rétroactions, les conditions physiques, chimiques et biologiques des écosystèmes qui régulent la biosphère depuis des millénaires, au point de compromettre son habitabilité pour les générations futures, en affectant irréversiblement l’évolution des espèces et la dynamique géologique de la planète.
Ce vertigineux changement d’échelle, qui explicite les liens de co-viabilité entre les organisations sociales et leurs contextes écologiques, produit des effets de convergence inouïs qui effacent la séparation établie par la modernité entre l’histoire humaine et l’ordre de la nature. Malgré le péril existentiel sans précédent auquel nous expose la poursuite du modèle de développement dominant, l’examen critique du paradigme sécuritaire inhérent aux scénarios dits "globaux" (Global Scenario Group, SRES, MEA…) montre pourtant une incapacité structurelle à imaginer une recomposition symbiotique des interactions entre les humains et les autres vivants. Or nous savons désormais que la biosphère est à la fois la condition et le produit de toutes les formes de vie qui la constituent. C’est pourquoi ni l’appropriation ordolibérale du globe, ni le gouvernement technoscientifique de la planète, ni le projet cosmopolitique d’édification du monde ne suffiront pour répondre aux défis de l’Anthropocène. Nous proposons, dans ce cours, d’explorer concrètement la possibilité d’une « quatrième voie », celle des politiques de la Terre.
Creating A School of Applied Cultural EvolutionJoe Brewer
This slide deck presents an early draft of ideas for creating a school that is dedicated to helping communities learn how to guide their collective evolution toward health and resilience.
Graduate Program in Applied Cultural EvolutionJoe Brewer
This document is a grant application submitted to the John Templeton Foundation proposing the creation of masters and doctoral programs in applied cultural evolution. We have not heard back about whether we will receive funding from them but felt it is worthwhile to share more of our vision with others who might like to collaborate in making this vision a reality.
This is a project outline for the creation of a School for Applied Cultural Evolution that works with the growing network of territorial hubs for bioregional regeneration being launched right now in Costa Rica. It’s purpose is to cultivate and continually improve learning ecosystems spanning across communities that organize their efforts around geographically defined locations where people strive to increase the functional capacities for their landscapes while simultaneously increasing the wellbeing of people living in harmony with them.
Permaculture Patterning, a design framework for systemic transformationLilian Ricaud
How do we change the system(s) we live in ? By essence a system is an inherently complex web of relationships. Systems thinking researcher Donella Meadows has given us a map of leverage points to act on a system but there is no practical plan as to where to start effectively to trigger systemic change.
Interestingly around the late seventies, two systems thinkers/practitioners developed practical design frameworks for systems transformation.
The first framework, Permaculture, is an integrated approach to designing agro-ecological systems developed by ecological scientist Bill Mollison. Permaculture focussed initially on developing a resilient “permanent-agriculture” but it was expanded to stand also for "permanent culture," as it was seen that social aspects were integral to a truly sustainable system. Although it is still not widely recognized by either the scientific community or the general public, Permaculture has developed a very powerful set of analytical and design tools for whole systems transformation.
The second framework, Pattern Languages, was developed by architect Christopher Alexander to build human settlements and “living” architectural systems. If Alexander’s Pattern Language focusses on built structures, it also encompasses a social dimension. Although Alexander’s work hasn’t taken off in the architectural field it deeply inspired software programming and a growing number of disciplines.
Both frameworks share a common approach to systems design called patterning.
While design builds structures by assembling elements, patterning can be seen as a branch of design that builds systems by weaving relationships.
In this paper we look at the commonalities and differences between the two approaches, discuss how they could be used by systems thinking practitioners and propose Permaculture Patterning as a new framework for systems design and transformation.
Opportunities and limits to the “Vote with your wallet” theories of sustaining a consumer-led green movement. The use of anthropological inquiry to understand gaps between what consumers say they want and how they behave.
Final Warning of Gaia from the father of Gaia Hypothesis is unfolding in the form of sudden peaks in heat and fall leading huge forest fire and to flash floods. We are edging to disaster from the four forces of nature. It is time we become conscious and intelligent and understand the Truth of Nature at least now.
Naming the Epoch: Anthropocene, Capitalocene, EcoceneEcoLabs
The Anthropocene is the proposed name for the geological epoch where humanity is dramatically affecting geological processes. The name draws attention to severe environmental problems – but it also does other things. Jason Moore asks: “Does the Anthropocene argument obscure more than it illuminates?” (2014, 4). Donna Haraway argues that the Anthropocene must be “as short/thin as possible” (2015, 160). Moore, Haraway, Solon and Latour claim the concept uncritically imports Western rationality, imperialism and anthropocentrism – and thereby narrows options for the development of sustainable alternatives.
It is important to be specific about exactly what ‘anthropos’ are doing to destabilise climate systems and other planetary boundaries. There is a particular model of development driving dramatic Earth System change. There are other options. In response to this problem, the Capitalocene is a concept that asserts: “the logic of capital drives disruption of Earth System. Not humans in general” (Salon, 2014).
Bruno Latour says the Capitalocene is “a swift way to ascribe this responsibility to whom and to where it belongs” (2014, 139). It is more specific. Consequently it opens space for other opinions. Yet while the Capitalocene is critical, is not creative. Beyond the assumptions of Anthropocene and the critical perspective of the Capitalocene, new ways of understanding social and ecological relations are emergent.
Design theorist Rachel Armstrong states “there is no advantage to us to bring the Anthropocene into the future… The mythos of the Anthropocene does not help us… we must re-imagine our world and enable the Ecocene” (2015). New ecologically informed ways of thinking and living must be generated. The Ecocene has yet to be designed. Its emergence depends on a new understanding of ecological-human relations and new types of development that emerge from this perspective. The transformative Ecocene describes a curative catalyst for cultural change necessary to survive the Anthropocene.
A presentation at Climate Change: Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics University of Brighton, Thursday 28-Friday 29 April 2016.
Design embeds ideas in communication, artifacts and spaces in subtle and psychologically powerful ways. Feminist, class, race and indigenous scholars and activists describe how oppressions (how patriarchy, racism, colonialism, etc.) exist within institutions and also within cultural practices. The theory of symbolic violence sheds light on how design can function to naturalise oppressions and then obfuscate power relations around this process. Through symbolic violence, design can function as an enabler for the exploitation of certain groups of people and the environment they (and ultimately ‘we’) depend on to live. Design functions as symbolic violence when it is involved with the creation and reproduction of ideas, practices, processes and tools that result in structural and other types of violence (including ecocide).
Presentation and conversation at the Design Research Society 2016's Design + Research + Society: Future Focused Thinking conference. The University of Brighton. UK and then again at the Decolonising Design group’s Intersectional Perspectives on Design, Politics and Power at Malmo University in November 2016.
by
Dr. Joanna Boehnert, Research Fellow in Design, CREAM, University of Westminster + EcoLabs
Dr. Bianca Elzenbaumer, Research Fellow in Design, Leeds College of Art + Brave New Alps
Dimeji Onafuwa, PhD candidate, Carnegie Mellon University
Michael P Totten GreenATP: APPortunities to catalyze local to global positive...Michael P Totten
Humanity’s unceasing ingenuity is generating vast economic gain for billions of people with goods unavailable to even kings and queens throughout most of history. Unfortunately, this economic growth has triggered unprecedented se- curity challenges of global and historical magnitude: more absolute poor than any time in human history, the sixth largest extinction spasm of life on earth, climate destabilization with mega-catastrophic consequences, and multi-trillion dollar wars over access to energy. These multiple, inextricably interwoven chal- lenges have low probability of being solved if decision makers maintain the strong propensity to think and act as if life is linear, has no carrying capacity limits, uncertainty is controllable, the future free of surprises, planning is predictable and compartmentalized into silos, and Gaussian distributions are taken as the norm while fat-tail futures are ignored. Although the future holds irreducible uncertainties, it is not fated. The emergence of Internet availability to one-third of humanity and access by most of humanity within a decade has spawned the Web analogue of a ‘Cambrian explosion’ of speciation in knowledge applica- tions. Among the most prodigious have been collaboration innovation networks (COINs) reflecting a diversity of ‘genome’ types, facilitating a myriad of collective intelligence crowd-swarming phenomena (Malone T, Laubacher R, Dellarocas C. The Collective Intelligence Genome. MIT Sloan Management Review, Spring; 2010, Vol. 51). COINs are essential tools for accelerating and scaling transformational solutions (positive tipping points) to the wicked problems confronting humanity. Web COINs enable acceleration of multiple-benefit innovations and solutions to these problems that permeate the nested clusters of linked nonlinear complex adaptive systems comprising the global biosphere and socioeconomy.
How has it come to this? Climate Change and The Future of Planet EarthKaren McChrystal
By now, most people are aware that climate change presents a dire threat to human civilization. But they don’t understand just how dire. International organizations and mainstream media continue to say that we have about ten years, maybe more, to start doing something about it. In my view, it’s already past the midnight hour to start doing something.
This paper includes top-level summary statements regarding the primary factors driving likely near-future societal chaos. Also
included are a number of citations from experts and scientists in the fields of climate change, economics, and sustainability. For the most part, citations are not paraphrased, as the subject is complex and doesn’t lend itself to simplification.
My studies of these topics, on and off for two decades, have led me to the view that civilization as we have known it cannot long continue. The purpose of this paper is not to add to the growing list of alarming climate-related disasters and those that loom, but rather to help people better understand how we got here, and why the civilization we have known cannot go on for very much longer. Then we can hopefully apply what we’ve learned, as wisdom, to better prepare for the oncoming climate chaos.
And we can plant the seeds of a successor civilization, starting
with sustainable, resilient communities which can be enfolded into the future successor civilization.
Invaders, Security, Climate Change: Can we get movement on wicked problems?Dawn Bazely
I gave this talk today, 26 January 2016 at the Understanding Sovereignty & Security in the Arctic Workshop, organized by Whitney Lackenbauer & Will Greaves
Cours Public 1: La quatrième voie : les politiques de la terre face à l’Anthr...EcoleUrbaineLyon
Malgré le péril existentiel sans précédent auquel nous expose la poursuite du modèle de développement dominant, l’examen critique du paradigme sécuritaire inhérent aux scénarios dits « globaux » montre pourtant une incapacité structurelle à imaginer une recomposition symbiotique des interactions entre les humains et les autres vivants. Ni l’appropriation ordolibérale du globe, ni le gouvernement technoscientifique de la planète, ni le projet cosmopolitique d’édification du monde ne suffiront pour répondre aux défis de l’Anthropocène. Nous proposons d’explorer concrètement la possibilité d’une « quatrième voie », celle des politiques de la Terre.
Cours Public 3: LA QUATRIÈME VOIE : LES POLITIQUES DE LA TERRE FACE À L'ANTHR...EcoleUrbaineLyon
Nous prenons conscience de l’avènement d’un nouvel âge de la Terre. La croissance continue dont dépend la pérennité politique du système socio-économique mondial bouleverse, par un jeu complexe et non linéaire de rétroactions, les conditions physiques, chimiques et biologiques des écosystèmes qui régulent la biosphère depuis des millénaires, au point de compromettre son habitabilité pour les générations futures, en affectant irréversiblement l’évolution des espèces et la dynamique géologique de la planète.
Ce vertigineux changement d’échelle, qui explicite les liens de co-viabilité entre les organisations sociales et leurs contextes écologiques, produit des effets de convergence inouïs qui effacent la séparation établie par la modernité entre l’histoire humaine et l’ordre de la nature. Malgré le péril existentiel sans précédent auquel nous expose la poursuite du modèle de développement dominant, l’examen critique du paradigme sécuritaire inhérent aux scénarios dits "globaux" (Global Scenario Group, SRES, MEA…) montre pourtant une incapacité structurelle à imaginer une recomposition symbiotique des interactions entre les humains et les autres vivants. Or nous savons désormais que la biosphère est à la fois la condition et le produit de toutes les formes de vie qui la constituent. C’est pourquoi ni l’appropriation ordolibérale du globe, ni le gouvernement technoscientifique de la planète, ni le projet cosmopolitique d’édification du monde ne suffiront pour répondre aux défis de l’Anthropocène. Nous proposons, dans ce cours, d’explorer concrètement la possibilité d’une « quatrième voie », celle des politiques de la Terre.
Creating A School of Applied Cultural EvolutionJoe Brewer
This slide deck presents an early draft of ideas for creating a school that is dedicated to helping communities learn how to guide their collective evolution toward health and resilience.
Graduate Program in Applied Cultural EvolutionJoe Brewer
This document is a grant application submitted to the John Templeton Foundation proposing the creation of masters and doctoral programs in applied cultural evolution. We have not heard back about whether we will receive funding from them but felt it is worthwhile to share more of our vision with others who might like to collaborate in making this vision a reality.
This is a project outline for the creation of a School for Applied Cultural Evolution that works with the growing network of territorial hubs for bioregional regeneration being launched right now in Costa Rica. It’s purpose is to cultivate and continually improve learning ecosystems spanning across communities that organize their efforts around geographically defined locations where people strive to increase the functional capacities for their landscapes while simultaneously increasing the wellbeing of people living in harmony with them.
Permaculture Patterning, a design framework for systemic transformationLilian Ricaud
How do we change the system(s) we live in ? By essence a system is an inherently complex web of relationships. Systems thinking researcher Donella Meadows has given us a map of leverage points to act on a system but there is no practical plan as to where to start effectively to trigger systemic change.
Interestingly around the late seventies, two systems thinkers/practitioners developed practical design frameworks for systems transformation.
The first framework, Permaculture, is an integrated approach to designing agro-ecological systems developed by ecological scientist Bill Mollison. Permaculture focussed initially on developing a resilient “permanent-agriculture” but it was expanded to stand also for "permanent culture," as it was seen that social aspects were integral to a truly sustainable system. Although it is still not widely recognized by either the scientific community or the general public, Permaculture has developed a very powerful set of analytical and design tools for whole systems transformation.
The second framework, Pattern Languages, was developed by architect Christopher Alexander to build human settlements and “living” architectural systems. If Alexander’s Pattern Language focusses on built structures, it also encompasses a social dimension. Although Alexander’s work hasn’t taken off in the architectural field it deeply inspired software programming and a growing number of disciplines.
Both frameworks share a common approach to systems design called patterning.
While design builds structures by assembling elements, patterning can be seen as a branch of design that builds systems by weaving relationships.
In this paper we look at the commonalities and differences between the two approaches, discuss how they could be used by systems thinking practitioners and propose Permaculture Patterning as a new framework for systems design and transformation.
Opportunities and limits to the “Vote with your wallet” theories of sustaining a consumer-led green movement. The use of anthropological inquiry to understand gaps between what consumers say they want and how they behave.
Final Warning of Gaia from the father of Gaia Hypothesis is unfolding in the form of sudden peaks in heat and fall leading huge forest fire and to flash floods. We are edging to disaster from the four forces of nature. It is time we become conscious and intelligent and understand the Truth of Nature at least now.
No one vision is sufficient in and of itself – visions can guide but only by collaborative action in a creative generative process can visions grow and become part of an ongoing positive sociocultural reality.
Without taking into account the many worldviews that currently co-exist and crafting ways of including them in a positive and healthy form we will continue to alienate vast sections of all communities of humankind.
Confucius Essay | Confucius | Confucianism. HOW TO WRITE AN ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY ON CONFUCIANISM. ⇉Confucianism Research Paper Essay Example | GraduateWay. Confucianism.docx. An introduction to confucianism introduction to re confucianism. Confucius philosophy of society essay. Confucianism: Morality and Confucius Essay Example | StudyHippo.com. Analects of Confucius Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays .... Identify the main beliefs of Confucianism and it's effects on Chinese .... ⇉Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism in China Essay Example | GraduateWay. Buddhism and Confucianism Essay | PDF | Confucianism | Nirvana. (PDF) (2012) Confucianism ( in Religions of the World: A Cultural .... Confucianism Ideology and Its Usefulness - 1763 Words | Essay Example. Confucianism and Taoism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays .... REL 133 WEEK 4 Confucianism Paper Write a 350- to 700-word essay on .... Confucianism And Education In Asia Essay Example | Topics and Well .... Confucianism and taoism essay. Friday Essay: an introduction to Confucius, his ideas and their lasting .... (PDF) The Impact of Confucianism in South Korea and Japan. The Metaphor Of Heaven In The Analects Of Confucius | Học Viện Dòng Tên. Daoism, Confucianism, and Shinto Essay Example | Topics and Well .... Confucianism Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays .... CONFUCIUS - Winning Essays. “Confuscianism Overview” as a PDF.
Cultivating a Future ~ St Mary's University College, United Kingdom
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For more information, Please see websites below:
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Organic Edible Schoolyards & Gardening with Children
http://scribd.com/doc/239851214
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Double Food Production from your School Garden with Organic Tech
http://scribd.com/doc/239851079
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Free School Gardening Art Posters
http://scribd.com/doc/239851159`
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Companion Planting Increases Food Production from School Gardens
http://scribd.com/doc/239851159
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Healthy Foods Dramatically Improves Student Academic Success
http://scribd.com/doc/239851348
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City Chickens for your Organic School Garden
http://scribd.com/doc/239850440
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Simple Square Foot Gardening for Schools - Teacher Guide
http://scribd.com/doc/239851110
Cybernetic/P2P/Gift Economy, Libertarian (Anarchist) Communism, 2nd Tier Thinking (Spiral Dynamics)
It appears from our writings and from our history the first that occurred was debt. There are couples of types of debt and I want to go into this because it has significance for how powerful a concept it is for us.
The first thing is, there was a debt in many religions and many languages. Debt is the same word as sin.
And so, there was a primordial debt, a debt to the universe, a debt to God, a debt to existence.
And in many cultures and many religions, it was expected that you bring sacrifices, whether that was an animal sacrifice, you put time, you prayed, you did something else to try to return your debt to the universe. But ultimately it was understood that the only way you could return the debt to the universe for the resources you were using that made up your body and your existence was through dying.
What's also interesting is because debt as culture evolved and we had civilizations and organization we find that debt and this primordial debt is associated with rulers and governments and they use this same representation saying they were close to God, they were close to and represent society, the community, in order to have contributions of taxes, fees, and so forth.
So, we actually see that debt came first. People loaned things to each other and they didn't worry about getting payback right away, they just wrote it down.
And they said Oh I know you're good for it, next week, next month or whatever. Then we had barter, barter came in because sometimes what you owed was too great. Or because indeed you did want to trade some goods and services. Money came later.
―Lawrence Bishop
We’re going from a closed system to an open system in terms of General Systems Theory. In a closed system, entropy increases; but in an open system, entropy doesn’t necessarily increase. In a closed system, the Malthusian laws apply: you have to struggle for survival – there’s not enough to go around and the predatory types will always get most of the food, shelter and luxuries. In an open system, all of that changes…
An open system is of much more advantage to everybody than a closed system. In a closed system, the best you can do is equalize the misery… On the other hand, an open system creates the possibility of abundance for all…
I want to see everybody rich and in an open system that’s possible…
There would be more diversity. I think there would be cultures created unlike anything we’ve ever had in the primitive conditions of the closed system, the Malthusian crunch on this planet.
―Robert Anton Wilson
The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play. That's why we have to destroy the present politico-economic system.
―Arthur C. Clarke
The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living.
―Bucky Fuller
Capitalism and socialism are survival economics.
―UPwingers
Similar to Billion Dollar Proposal for Applied Cultural Evolution (20)
This is an introduction to the cooperative ownership model for bioregional regeneration in Barichara, Colombia. It explains how we are structuring a relationship between external donors and local stakeholders to engage in territorial-scale reforestation and water security.
Design Institute for Regenerating the EarthJoe Brewer
This is our mission — regenerate ALL degraded lands on Earth to restore planetary health. Coordinated through bioregional learning centers that organize efforts locally while collaborating with each other across regions.
Guiding the Emergence of Humanity's FutureJoe Brewer
This document is a synthesis of inquiry that incorporates ideas and inspiration from many people. It grew out of conversations with Federico Bellone, Eduard Müller, Juan Sostheim, Melina Angel, Pramod Parajuli, Luis Camargo, Daniel Wahl, Stuart Cowan, and several others. What I learned from this diverse dialogue—accompanied by extensive reading—is that pedagogy is the most important thing to get right for any educational initiative that seeks to cultivate bioregional regeneration.
Pedagogy refers to the many ways of learning and how people evolve in their thoughts, feelings, actions, and social arrangements. It is a multifaceted concept that draws attention to capacities for cooperation, ability to trust others, perspective-taking, and a lot more that must be carefully addressed (and elegantly integrated) in the design of education programs. Pedagogy is often framed as a way to teach a particular concept or subject. I prefer to turn this around and employ it as a design perspective for how to assist the learning process, even if no teacher happens to be involved.
Shared here are some of the key pedagogical insights and thematic elements that have arisen so far in this inquiry. This learning journey is far from complete and will continue well after these words are written to the page. It is my earnest belief that Bioregional Regenerative Training Centers must emerge all over the world as integrative programs that help spread the practices and mindsets for regeneration of human communities and the ecosystems on which they depend for their survival.
This is a summary document for a training program we are creating at Rancho Margot in northern Costa Rica -- as part of a global effort to birth "bioregional learning centers" for the spread of regenerative practices.
Culture Design Research Center - A Strategic PlanJoe Brewer
The key to birthing this is human scale. This document outlines a plan and business model for creating the Culture Design Research Center using a simple format and vetted model. The model is “old school” meaning a teacher creates a school of thought by attracting excellent students. It is the students who bring prominence and prestige to the school through their accomplishments.
Seeing Wetiko: Tracking the Spread of Memes on Social MediaJoe Brewer
Our team at /TheRules set out to birth a meme—the concept of “wetiko” from the Algonquin tradition—in a unique campaign earlier this year. We did this by recruiting artists and writers from around the world to create expressions that capture it. As this report shows, we found the meme has qualities that create resistance to spreading. In the process of watching how various people reacted to it, we learned a great deal about the larger cultural patterns that our work seeks to influence.
Our hope was to cultivate a diversity of expressions for this concept, which roughly translates as cultural cannibalism because it describes how pathologies of culture do psychological and environmental harm. In this regard we can call the campaign a success—an online gallery of photographs, songs, 3D interactive constructs, masks, and more can be found on the campaign website.
Yet when we monitored social media activity and other indicators of popularity, it was equally clear that this is an idea with properties that make it feel alien, mushy, too spiritual or exotic to resonate with many audiences. We ran parallel tracks for content that explicitly named Wetiko and content that expressed its conceptual features (like the core logic of cannibalism) without using the term.
What we learned was that the word itself hinders its spreading. At the same time, the deep cultural critique it offers is highly resonant with people around the world who feel anxiety about the ecological crisis, or have been marginalized and excluded by the dominant economic paradigm.
Read on to learn with us. Together we can apply this knowledge in future social change efforts that connect the dots across social movements and issues around the world.
Cultural Evolution Society 2016 Election ResultsJoe Brewer
We are excited to announce the results are in for our inaugural election—with clear winners for each of the 13 positions on the Executive Committee. This report provides an overview of the outcomes with commentary on the global nature of participation for our membership.
The election was held online for a six week period starting on Monday, July 11th and ending August 22nd. We choose this extended period for voting as many of our members engage in summer field research projects and we wanted to be inclusive for those who might be delayed in responding to email notifications inviting them to vote.
After receiving 379 completed ballots, the results are in.
Cultural Evolution Society 2016 Voter's ManualJoe Brewer
The inaugural election will be held online starting on Monday, July 11th and ending six weeks later on August 22nd. During this time, CES members will have the opportunity to fill out a ballot to select their preferred candidates for the 13 positions on the Executive Committee.
You can use this manual to do the following:
1. Learn about the selection process for nominating and recruiting candidates for this election.
2. Read personal statements from each of the candidates to make informed decisions about which candidate you prefer for each officer position.
The first section, titled Full Disclosure of Election Procedures, explains the steps we took to ensure a fair election while striving to meet an ambitious set of diversity criteria. It is written in the spirit of radical transparency and inclusion to get this society started with the openness and integrity that will be essential to our long-term success as a multidisciplinary scientific (and practitioner) community.
This is followed by another section, called Get to Know Your Candidates, that provides brief bios and personal statements from the 23 candidates running for office in this election. Use these materials to become familiar with the excellent lineup of people who have expressed the passion and commitment to run for one of the officer positions: president, secretary, treasurer, member-at-large, or student representative.
This manual was prepared by the CES Elections Committee to assist with inaugural elections. We hope you find it helpful as you vote for the first Executive Council of the Cultural Evolution Society.
What Are the Grand challenges for Cultural Evolution?Joe Brewer
An ad hoc steering committee initiated steps to form the Cultural Evolution Society (CES) in the summer of 2015. As part of the inaugural proceedings, a survey of CES members was conducted to identify a suite of "grand challenge" problems of broad scientific and social interest that can drive cutting-edge research and practice within the field of cultural evolutionary studies for future decades.
Over the course of several weeks, a total of 236 CES members from around the world completed an online questionnaire in which they could nominate up to ten such challenges, providing a brief description and rationale for each. Additionally, CES members were also asked to indicate their level of understanding and mode of training in core domains (cultural studies and evolutionary theory), how they see their current work fitting into the wider world of cultural evolutionary studies, and how they see themselves contributing to the grand challenges facing the society.
The responses to the initial grand challenges survey are summarized below.
As you read these words there is a group of people shaping how global humanity will think about the economy for the next few decades. No, there’s not a conspiracy theory unfolding here. What I am referring to is the United Nations process for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)—where a course is being set for the next fifteen years of intergovernmental coordination for our economic system. This process has been quietly unfolding in the background for several years and will come to completion this fall in New York City.
I am a language researcher who cares about the future of humanity. And I share concern about the risks associated with globalization that currently threaten our collective future—climate disruption, soil depletion, widespread inequality and poverty, regional conflict, rigged financial systems, and more—the very same risks that concern many of the people involved in the SDG process. My primary responsibility at TheRules.org is to study cultural patterns of understanding and unpack their significance. This includes the use of frame analysis where I closely scrutinize the words used to think and talk about important issues.
Frame analysis is the study of mental models for human understanding. The concepts we have in our minds are structured in ways that can be systematically explored to reveal implicit assumptions, logical inferences, value judgments, and moral sentiments. An example relevant to the SDG process is the diversity of mental representations for poverty.
Poverty can be conceptualized as a disease that spreads like an epidemic, a prison to be liberated from, the condition of being incomplete or broken, a magical number measured in some predefined way, and more. We might talk about poverty eradication (treat it like a disease) or as a war (battle with and defeat it). Each meaning brings its own basic assumptions, constraining what poverty is understood to be about and how to deal with it.
Importantly, these meanings can be incorrect, inadequate, and problematic yet still be widely used. Poverty can be treated as merely a part of the natural world, for instance, which conceals the history of poverty creation throughout the last few hundred years where it came into being as a core feature of economic development.
When I looked at the language used to talk about the SDGs I was struck by how much hidden meaning can be found there. The analysis that follows is based on written text for the proposed sustainable development goals. It reveals a great deal about the faulty assumptions that remain uncritically accepted in the process. These assumptions jeopardize the entire effort by leaving out many of the structural factors that create poverty and directly contribute to ecological devastation.
No credible use of the word sustainable would perform in this way. In the following pages I make the case that the SDG process is fundamentally compromised and carries within it the seeds of its own
Exploring the Tools for Meme PropagationJoe Brewer
In this research report, I explore how we currently monitor cultural trends in our campaign efforts. I also want to begin mapping out the tools and capabilities that will be needed to fully operate as a “meme spreading” organization in the days ahead. We recently launched the One Party Planet pamphlet and have gathered a suite of social analytics that reveal much—both as indicators of spreading and as a demonstration of how much deeper and more nuanced our understandings will need to become as we adopt more sophisticated tools for cultural research moving forward.
The approach I take is to compare the spreading of One Party Planet with several memes that went viral as the United States experienced major racial conflict in the last two weeks. By doing so, we can begin to articulate what kinds of monitoring and analytic tools will be needed to fully implement our mission of taking radical ideas into the mainstream.
Why the Framing of Globalization MattersJoe Brewer
This report looks at the different ways globalization has been framed and offers suggestions for how to address systemic risks in our rapidly changing world through better storytelling.
Winning frames of the scottish independence movementJoe Brewer
Here's an analysis I did of the narratives and internet memes that seem to be driving Scotland toward independence. How might we all learn from this about the science of social change?
This report explores the framing of solidarity, and specifically the misleading ways that terms like "Middle Class" and "Global South" conceal more than they reveal about the structure of power in social movements around the world.
Seattle Innovators - A Case Study in Culture DesignJoe Brewer
This case study presents the design process for achieving large-scale collaboration around the vision of making Seattle the first carbon-neutral city in the world.
In this report we analyze the public discourse on poverty, inequality, charity, and aid to show how to get beyond the broken narratives that have hindered foundations and NGO's for the last three decades.
Recommendations are given for running campaigns based on our key findings...
Wondering how to tackle the big global challenges? Here are some ideas about how to bring the best knowledge we have about human nature and planetary change into an integrative framework.
These slides are modified versions of a talk I gave at the New School of Design when interviewing for a faculty position there. Now I think they may be inspiring for others out there in the world.
Enjoy!
Professional air quality monitoring systems provide immediate, on-site data for analysis, compliance, and decision-making.
Monitor common gases, weather parameters, particulates.
Multi-source connectivity as the driver of solar wind variability in the heli...Sérgio Sacani
The ambient solar wind that flls the heliosphere originates from multiple
sources in the solar corona and is highly structured. It is often described
as high-speed, relatively homogeneous, plasma streams from coronal
holes and slow-speed, highly variable, streams whose source regions are
under debate. A key goal of ESA/NASA’s Solar Orbiter mission is to identify
solar wind sources and understand what drives the complexity seen in the
heliosphere. By combining magnetic feld modelling and spectroscopic
techniques with high-resolution observations and measurements, we show
that the solar wind variability detected in situ by Solar Orbiter in March
2022 is driven by spatio-temporal changes in the magnetic connectivity to
multiple sources in the solar atmosphere. The magnetic feld footpoints
connected to the spacecraft moved from the boundaries of a coronal hole
to one active region (12961) and then across to another region (12957). This
is refected in the in situ measurements, which show the transition from fast
to highly Alfvénic then to slow solar wind that is disrupted by the arrival of
a coronal mass ejection. Our results describe solar wind variability at 0.5 au
but are applicable to near-Earth observatories.
Comparing Evolved Extractive Text Summary Scores of Bidirectional Encoder Rep...University of Maribor
Slides from:
11th International Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering (IcETRAN), Niš, 3-6 June 2024
Track: Artificial Intelligence
https://www.etran.rs/2024/en/home-english/
Richard's aventures in two entangled wonderlandsRichard Gill
Since the loophole-free Bell experiments of 2020 and the Nobel prizes in physics of 2022, critics of Bell's work have retreated to the fortress of super-determinism. Now, super-determinism is a derogatory word - it just means "determinism". Palmer, Hance and Hossenfelder argue that quantum mechanics and determinism are not incompatible, using a sophisticated mathematical construction based on a subtle thinning of allowed states and measurements in quantum mechanics, such that what is left appears to make Bell's argument fail, without altering the empirical predictions of quantum mechanics. I think however that it is a smoke screen, and the slogan "lost in math" comes to my mind. I will discuss some other recent disproofs of Bell's theorem using the language of causality based on causal graphs. Causal thinking is also central to law and justice. I will mention surprising connections to my work on serial killer nurse cases, in particular the Dutch case of Lucia de Berk and the current UK case of Lucy Letby.
A brief information about the SCOP protein database used in bioinformatics.
The Structural Classification of Proteins (SCOP) database is a comprehensive and authoritative resource for the structural and evolutionary relationships of proteins. It provides a detailed and curated classification of protein structures, grouping them into families, superfamilies, and folds based on their structural and sequence similarities.
Slide 1: Title Slide
Extrachromosomal Inheritance
Slide 2: Introduction to Extrachromosomal Inheritance
Definition: Extrachromosomal inheritance refers to the transmission of genetic material that is not found within the nucleus.
Key Components: Involves genes located in mitochondria, chloroplasts, and plasmids.
Slide 3: Mitochondrial Inheritance
Mitochondria: Organelles responsible for energy production.
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA): Circular DNA molecule found in mitochondria.
Inheritance Pattern: Maternally inherited, meaning it is passed from mothers to all their offspring.
Diseases: Examples include Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) and mitochondrial myopathy.
Slide 4: Chloroplast Inheritance
Chloroplasts: Organelles responsible for photosynthesis in plants.
Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA): Circular DNA molecule found in chloroplasts.
Inheritance Pattern: Often maternally inherited in most plants, but can vary in some species.
Examples: Variegation in plants, where leaf color patterns are determined by chloroplast DNA.
Slide 5: Plasmid Inheritance
Plasmids: Small, circular DNA molecules found in bacteria and some eukaryotes.
Features: Can carry antibiotic resistance genes and can be transferred between cells through processes like conjugation.
Significance: Important in biotechnology for gene cloning and genetic engineering.
Slide 6: Mechanisms of Extrachromosomal Inheritance
Non-Mendelian Patterns: Do not follow Mendel’s laws of inheritance.
Cytoplasmic Segregation: During cell division, organelles like mitochondria and chloroplasts are randomly distributed to daughter cells.
Heteroplasmy: Presence of more than one type of organellar genome within a cell, leading to variation in expression.
Slide 7: Examples of Extrachromosomal Inheritance
Four O’clock Plant (Mirabilis jalapa): Shows variegated leaves due to different cpDNA in leaf cells.
Petite Mutants in Yeast: Result from mutations in mitochondrial DNA affecting respiration.
Slide 8: Importance of Extrachromosomal Inheritance
Evolution: Provides insight into the evolution of eukaryotic cells.
Medicine: Understanding mitochondrial inheritance helps in diagnosing and treating mitochondrial diseases.
Agriculture: Chloroplast inheritance can be used in plant breeding and genetic modification.
Slide 9: Recent Research and Advances
Gene Editing: Techniques like CRISPR-Cas9 are being used to edit mitochondrial and chloroplast DNA.
Therapies: Development of mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) for preventing mitochondrial diseases.
Slide 10: Conclusion
Summary: Extrachromosomal inheritance involves the transmission of genetic material outside the nucleus and plays a crucial role in genetics, medicine, and biotechnology.
Future Directions: Continued research and technological advancements hold promise for new treatments and applications.
Slide 11: Questions and Discussion
Invite Audience: Open the floor for any questions or further discussion on the topic.
Deep Behavioral Phenotyping in Systems Neuroscience for Functional Atlasing a...Ana Luísa Pinho
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) provides means to characterize brain activations in response to behavior. However, cognitive neuroscience has been limited to group-level effects referring to the performance of specific tasks. To obtain the functional profile of elementary cognitive mechanisms, the combination of brain responses to many tasks is required. Yet, to date, both structural atlases and parcellation-based activations do not fully account for cognitive function and still present several limitations. Further, they do not adapt overall to individual characteristics. In this talk, I will give an account of deep-behavioral phenotyping strategies, namely data-driven methods in large task-fMRI datasets, to optimize functional brain-data collection and improve inference of effects-of-interest related to mental processes. Key to this approach is the employment of fast multi-functional paradigms rich on features that can be well parametrized and, consequently, facilitate the creation of psycho-physiological constructs to be modelled with imaging data. Particular emphasis will be given to music stimuli when studying high-order cognitive mechanisms, due to their ecological nature and quality to enable complex behavior compounded by discrete entities. I will also discuss how deep-behavioral phenotyping and individualized models applied to neuroimaging data can better account for the subject-specific organization of domain-general cognitive systems in the human brain. Finally, the accumulation of functional brain signatures brings the possibility to clarify relationships among tasks and create a univocal link between brain systems and mental functions through: (1) the development of ontologies proposing an organization of cognitive processes; and (2) brain-network taxonomies describing functional specialization. To this end, tools to improve commensurability in cognitive science are necessary, such as public repositories, ontology-based platforms and automated meta-analysis tools. I will thus discuss some brain-atlasing resources currently under development, and their applicability in cognitive as well as clinical neuroscience.
Observation of Io’s Resurfacing via Plume Deposition Using Ground-based Adapt...Sérgio Sacani
Since volcanic activity was first discovered on Io from Voyager images in 1979, changes
on Io’s surface have been monitored from both spacecraft and ground-based telescopes.
Here, we present the highest spatial resolution images of Io ever obtained from a groundbased telescope. These images, acquired by the SHARK-VIS instrument on the Large
Binocular Telescope, show evidence of a major resurfacing event on Io’s trailing hemisphere. When compared to the most recent spacecraft images, the SHARK-VIS images
show that a plume deposit from a powerful eruption at Pillan Patera has covered part
of the long-lived Pele plume deposit. Although this type of resurfacing event may be common on Io, few have been detected due to the rarity of spacecraft visits and the previously low spatial resolution available from Earth-based telescopes. The SHARK-VIS instrument ushers in a new era of high resolution imaging of Io’s surface using adaptive
optics at visible wavelengths.
Cancer cell metabolism: special Reference to Lactate PathwayAADYARAJPANDEY1
Normal Cell Metabolism:
Cellular respiration describes the series of steps that cells use to break down sugar and other chemicals to get the energy we need to function.
Energy is stored in the bonds of glucose and when glucose is broken down, much of that energy is released.
Cell utilize energy in the form of ATP.
The first step of respiration is called glycolysis. In a series of steps, glycolysis breaks glucose into two smaller molecules - a chemical called pyruvate. A small amount of ATP is formed during this process.
Most healthy cells continue the breakdown in a second process, called the Kreb's cycle. The Kreb's cycle allows cells to “burn” the pyruvates made in glycolysis to get more ATP.
The last step in the breakdown of glucose is called oxidative phosphorylation (Ox-Phos).
It takes place in specialized cell structures called mitochondria. This process produces a large amount of ATP. Importantly, cells need oxygen to complete oxidative phosphorylation.
If a cell completes only glycolysis, only 2 molecules of ATP are made per glucose. However, if the cell completes the entire respiration process (glycolysis - Kreb's - oxidative phosphorylation), about 36 molecules of ATP are created, giving it much more energy to use.
IN CANCER CELL:
Unlike healthy cells that "burn" the entire molecule of sugar to capture a large amount of energy as ATP, cancer cells are wasteful.
Cancer cells only partially break down sugar molecules. They overuse the first step of respiration, glycolysis. They frequently do not complete the second step, oxidative phosphorylation.
This results in only 2 molecules of ATP per each glucose molecule instead of the 36 or so ATPs healthy cells gain. As a result, cancer cells need to use a lot more sugar molecules to get enough energy to survive.
Unlike healthy cells that "burn" the entire molecule of sugar to capture a large amount of energy as ATP, cancer cells are wasteful.
Cancer cells only partially break down sugar molecules. They overuse the first step of respiration, glycolysis. They frequently do not complete the second step, oxidative phosphorylation.
This results in only 2 molecules of ATP per each glucose molecule instead of the 36 or so ATPs healthy cells gain. As a result, cancer cells need to use a lot more sugar molecules to get enough energy to survive.
introduction to WARBERG PHENOMENA:
WARBURG EFFECT Usually, cancer cells are highly glycolytic (glucose addiction) and take up more glucose than do normal cells from outside.
Otto Heinrich Warburg (; 8 October 1883 – 1 August 1970) In 1931 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology for his "discovery of the nature and mode of action of the respiratory enzyme.
WARNBURG EFFECT : cancer cells under aerobic (well-oxygenated) conditions to metabolize glucose to lactate (aerobic glycolysis) is known as the Warburg effect. Warburg made the observation that tumor slices consume glucose and secrete lactate at a higher rate than normal tissues.
Cancer cell metabolism: special Reference to Lactate Pathway
Billion Dollar Proposal for Applied Cultural Evolution
1. The Billion Dollar Proposal
for
Applied Cultural Evolution
Joe Brewer
Director of the Center for Applied Cultural Evolution
June 8, 2018
———
Let me begin by acknowledging those who came before me. The runner-up for a 1 billion euro
grant from the European Union nearly a decade ago was FuturICT with their vision for modeling
complex social systems to avoid (or manage) future economic collapses. So I am not the first
person to propose that a massive effort is needed to (a) integrate the social sciences; and (b)
do so with motivation to apply what is learned to address extremely difficult problems in the
world. With that said, let me now offer my billion dollar proposal that follows in FuturICT’s
footsteps. At the time they were competing for substantial funding, I was working with the
International Centre for Earth Simulation to build its billion dollar (over a decade) vision for a
high-performance computing facility that models the entire Earth in its full complexity. It is from
these projects that I draw inspiration for this essay.
Also, a fact that should cause you to sit up straight. The annual budget for CERN (the high-
energy particle accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland) was roughly 1.2 billion dollars in 2017. So1
what I am calling for here is what the European Union spends every single year on the search
for fundamental particles for all of humanity to instead address the global ecological crisis and
safeguard the future of our species.
Think about this for a moment before you continue reading this essay. It really should cause
you to pause and reflect about our current priorities as human beings.
What I propose now is a framework for guiding humanity through the sustainability
bottleneck as we navigate the planetary-scale systemic collapse outlined in the previous
two essays in this series. If you want to hear me talk through this proposal in a recorded talk,
I invite you to watch the 90 minute video on YouTube for a version that I presented to the2
cognitive science department at the University of California, Merced earlier this year. This essay
will go into more detail about the vision I’ve been cultivating for a global network of culture
design labs that—as argued in previous essays—I no longer believe is possible to build in the
world.
Note the paradox of that last sentence. I am not writing this because I believe it will come to
be. I am writing it to make clear for others that this is what I was trying to build for the last 18
years. I have good reason to believe it won’t come to pass. But I feel it best honors all of the
The 2017 budget for CERN was 1,230.1 million Swiss francs which are basically equivalent to1
the U.S. dollar.
https://youtu.be/lWHuDDY7gd82
2. wonderful people who have supported me over the years to write down what I have been
attempting to do this whole time. This is my way of saying “thank you” to all of you. This also
gives me the chance to share with you the “grand vision” so you can cut and tweak from it any
usable parts for smaller scale social change endeavors that are still fully within the realm of
possibility.
Why do I believe cultural evolution is the key to managing the global crisis? Listen to this
podcast to hear the words from my own mouth. The summary statement is this: the global3
ecological crisis is an unintended consequence of “runaway cultural evolution” and this
fact has been missed or overlooked by nearly everyone who grapples with challenging issues
like mass poverty and global warming (with a few exceptions, people like William Rees and
David Orr come to mind).
In brief:
Humanity has gone through three developmental stages throughout its multi-
million year history. We had a period where several hominid lines emerged who
used tools to alter the selection environments for evolutionary change. This goes
back at least to the Oldowan Tools that were used for a million years by our
ancestors. We then emerged as a distinctly modern species—homo sapiens—
with sophisticated cultural capabilities who lived in hunter-gatherer societies for
somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000 years. This was followed by the “age
of empires” that grew out of the birth of agriculture. In this third stage, there were
complex societies that developed increasingly sophisticated management
systems, urban environments, and technologies. This third stage came to an end
in the last 100 years when we became a planetary species. Now the imperial
model of conquest and territorial expansion is a recipe for extinction so we must
learn how to wisely manage cultural evolution if we want to avoid this outcome.
At the heart of this historical process was what researchers call gene-culture coevolution and
the formation of social niches. Described simply, changes in things like tool use and social
behaviors altered the evolutionary trajectory for our ancestors as they gained increasing
capacities to alter their environments to serve their own needs. The complex interplay of
environmental changes, biological (or genetic) changes, and cultural (tool-based, social
learning, cooperative abilities, etc.) all together have given human beings the unprecedented
ability to adapt to diverse environments while simultaneously altering these same environments
so that they become more conducive for our survival.
Seen in this way the current planetary-scale ecological crisis is nothing more than an extension
of what our ancestors have been doing with controlled use of fire, cooperative hunting,
accumulation of knowledge about foraging techniques and food processing, and so forth.
What has changed is the scale at which these processes now play out in the world. We have
ratcheted up our cultural capacities to alter landscapes to the point that we are now crossing
planetary boundaries of self-regulation for the Earth Systems that make our complex societies
possible.
Without going into more detail right now, I will simply say that we need to learn how to guide
the collective evolution of communities and ecosystems if we want to survive and thrive in the
future. This is a big statement with serious implications, so I invite you to think about ways to
challenge me here. This essay series is not written to be easily digested (it isn’t for “the
https://anchor.fm/evolvingfutures/episodes/Why-We-Need-Applied-Cultural-Evolution-e1fi383
3. masses” as it were) but I also attempt to make these arguments concise (while based on a lot
more information than will be written down) for ease of reading by everyone who has an
interest in these proceedings.
Really? A Billion Dollars?
A great frustration for me has been the smallness of responses to the epically huge challenge
of our current predicament. The standard wisdom for social entrepreneurship is to create a
“minimum viable product” and bring it to market, then do the hard work of scaling it as it
evolves in changing contexts. This approach works great if your goal is to succeed in status
quo activities. But when the status quo itself is what threatens humanity with extinction, this
simply will not do.
So when I say that we need a billion dollars to put in place the capacities for navigating
planetary collapse, I am actually selling myself short. Think of this as my minimum viable
product. I don’t think what we create with a billion dollars will be sufficient for all of humanity or
the entire planet. What I DO think is that an amount comparable to this might be enough to
prototype the creation of a “solutions platform” and deploy it to diverse regions around the
world. Then the platform can work its magic of cultural evolution (likely with more funding as it
expands and matures) to do what I believe is necessary and sufficient.
For comparison, U.S. taxpayers have invested more than $2 billion over the last 40 years in
prevention science research. This has been done mainly through the National Institutes of
Health as randomized control trials for a wide array of now-vetted social interventions. Most of
these interventions have not been implemented at societal scales for political reasons (mainly
that beneficiaries of the status quo are only as wealthy and powerful as they are because they
keep the majority impoverished and powerless). The REACH Institute at Arizona State
University has observed that 98% of proven family interventions have not been implemented,
as one example among many that could be named.
If $2 billion has been invested by U.S. taxpayers (only 5% of the world population) for
knowledge that is largely unused at present, think about how small $1 billion is for global
humanity to do the rest of the work implementing what is already known but not-yet-
implemented. This is what I am proposing to do now.
The Proposal :: A Global Network of Culture Design Labs
If you have read my blog articles in the last three or four years, you will know that I am
advocating for building a network of culture design labs—where every location on Earth that
social change is being managed or attempted can potentially become a field site for applied
cultural evolution research. This essay is nothing more than a clear articulation of what I see as4
vital for such an agenda to materialize in the world.
First is the timeline. Global change processes (explored in the previous essays) require that we
build institutional capacities for managing planetary-scale collapse during a continuing period
of intensifying harms. Cultural entrenchment of our current institutions will guarantee that more
fossil fuels are burned, more topsoils depleted, more plastics dumped into the World Ocean,
and so forth—at least for the next few decades. So what we need to build is the transitional
infrastructure that can replace these institutions as they falter and fail due to financial and
ecological shocks that are now inevitably part of our collective future.
A collection of these articles can be found on my Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/4
joe_brewer
4. I have used large infrastructure projects like the construction of power plants and light rail
transportation systems to acknowledge that most of them are built on timeframes of a few
decades. Some are built in two years and run for thirty. Others are built over 20 years and run
for 50 to 100 years. This gave me the heuristic that we need to go through the following
sequence:
✦ Now to 2020 :: Build a prototype for community-scale cultural research facilities that
help change practitioners guide their cities or towns toward greater health and
resilience. Test it in parallel at three to five locations.
✦ From 2020 to 2030 :: Expand and continually improve this prototype as a research
support platform for monitoring and guiding changes at community scale to roughly
100 cities and towns around the world—with diverse cultural and ecological settings
represented in the global network to make the learnings as broadly applicable as
possible.
✦ From 2030 to 2050 :: Use this global network of field sites as it continues to expand
and mature to guide the evolution of local, regional, and national institutions toward a
configuration of regeneration and principles of living systems. The outcome being that
all major institutions on Earth are geared toward healing of bioregions and communities
after several more decades of ecological and social decline.
There are a lot of assumptions in this timeline. Many of them contradict the detailed list of
challenges written out in the last two essays. For example, all of this must occur as the wealth
hoarders continue to co-opt and corrupt governing institutions and while extreme weather
events like hurricanes, floods, and wildfires wreak havoc on communities around the world. I
don’t think this timeline is particularly achievable—but that won’t stop me from saying that I
see it as essential to be met all the same. If we have to move metaphorical mountains (like
getting rid of tax havens, which no one sees as possible right now) to do this, then so be it.
As I said earlier, this is not a time for small thinking. So do with this obstacle what you will. I am
no longer impressed by small efforts that ignore giant elephants in the room. Either we behave
like scientists and take empirical evidence seriously or we place our heads firmly in the sand
and ignore the real world. I personally choose to be brave and look defiantly into the ugliness
of reality as it exists at present.
If we are to build a global network of culture design labs, we will need to create standard tools
for “on-boarding” new communities. This is part of the prototyping that needs to be built in
phase one of deployment. What kinds of data must be gathered to establish baselines for
future comparisons? How should equity and politics be handled from one cultural setting to
another, especially when we acknowledge that they may be quite different from each other?
What kinds of learning institutions and research programs must be created or brought into
collaboration for this massive mobilization of applied social science to be viable?
These questions (and more) have sketch answers but need a lot more work. Those of you who
know me are aware that I only continue to do this writing because I have generous fans who
support my family with roughly $800 a month in recurring donations. I am not in a position to
guide the systematic review of research methodologies without more substantial funds at my
disposal. So I cannot answer questions that I am sure you have about how all of this might
work. You will just have to forgive me for being a working-class change maker on this point.
Just as the world doesn’t fit the idealizations needed for this proposal to materialize, I too am a
flawed human being just like everyone else.
5. Continuing on, there will need to be data analysts and anthropologists, econometricians and
group facilitators, gatherings of people and teach-ins, and a whole lot more. So if we are to
build a capacity for community-scale interventions that alter the course of cultural evolution,
we will really have our work cut out for us.
One vital piece of the puzzle will be to create a curriculum on applied cultural evolution. A
survey of the founding membership for the Cultural Evolution Society (that I was charged to
create in the last three years) showed that most academic researchers in this field were partially
self-taught in evolutionary studies because their formal education was inadequate to serve
their needs. If university students with an interest in evolution have to teach themselves, think
of the implications for change practitioners writ large! Thus we will need this proposal to
include a major educational component. Core focus on training workshops and textbooks,
tutorials and web videos, case studies, and so forth will be vital for the billion dollars to be well
spent overall.
What Do I Mean By Field Sites?
Every scientific domain that studies the natural world has some combination of theory-building,
data-gathering, modeling and simulation, and experimentation. When Charles Darwin offered
his theory of natural selection, it was based on decades of his own observations as a naturalist
in the field (combined with specimens gathered from many other naturalists of his day). He
needed someone to go into the field and gather relevant data. The same can be said for
anthropologists engaged in ethnographic studies; archeologists who dig up cultural artifacts
from fallen civilizations, and so forth.
A field site is a location-based research endeavor set up to gather diverse streams of data to
track changes in that place with the passage of time. A macro-economic version of this would
be the Census Bureau that gathers new sets of demographic data (including location) every
decade to track societal changes across long time periods. There is currently a project
underway at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig to build a
network of field sites for anthropological research that explicitly seeks to establish multiple
baselines for comparisons across diverse cultural settings. Other endeavors like the Seshat
World History Databank are building massive data repositories for conducting quantitative and
qualitative studies of all human societies throughout history for which archeological and
anthropological data exists. The proposal I outline here would not start from scratch—but
rather can be thought of as a massive blood infusion into existing efforts to rapidly grow and
develop them for the benefit of humanity.
One particularly important component of this site-based approach is the ubiquity of user data
from smart phones and other streaming data sources spanning our communications
infrastructure. We have at our disposal a veritable deluge of information that needs to be
structured, accessed, and analyzed (with the full complexities of ethics for privacy and
ownership worked out) that cannot be done in piecemeal fashion. Letting private companies
like Facebook and Google set the developmental trajectories for humanity’s future will not be
sufficient for our survival as a species.
Combine such private data sources with existing (and expanded) research networks managed
in the service to the public good and you begin to see the potential here. Add that we have
tremendous government-sponsored sensor networks and data repositories (akin to those for
the Earth Observing System mentioned in the previous essay) and you see how powerfully a
place-based approach can be employed to strive for community health and resilience across
local to regional—and ultimately global—scales.
6. What Happens At Each Field Site?
The figure below was created as a slide in my presentation to the University of California. It
provides a summary for the major activities that would be needed for a community to learn
how to see its own systemic patterns of social change and become increasingly skilled at
managing them.
The principal elements for each field site are:
✦ Research and Evaluation :: At the heart of the field site concept is an active role for
researchers who gather data, conduct surveys, set up monitoring systems, and provide
analysis about social and ecological change.
✦ Action Research Framework :: This is fed into a process of “taking action” to learn
how the systems are changing, identify barriers and opportunities, and reveal
mechanisms of cause and effect. The research is embedded in daily practices of
policymakers and managers throughout the community.
✦ Participatory Design :: Learning is treated as an ecosystem, meaning that community
members inform what kinds of research questions are formulated and participate in the
design of data gathering, monitoring, and analysis. In the other direction, research
supports are used to co-create with community efforts.
✦ Community Practices and Monitoring Systems :: Just as environmental monitoring is
used to support ecological management, the community practitioners who facilitate and
guide change will need to draw from sensor networks to gather, analyze, and make
comprehensible the emerging patters of change from research supports.
7. ✦ Shared Vision and Purpose :: All of this is done to increase the health and wellbeing
of communities. It will depend upon the cultivation of shared vision and purpose about
the identity and values of people living in each community.
✦ Resilience at Network Level :: While some communities will falter and go away in the
midst of global changes, others will achieve local resilience by successfully adapting to
their landscapes. The network of field sites—as an ecosystem itself—will be resilient if it
has enough locations and connections between communities.
If each field site is built with these elements in place, it will increasingly function as a learning
ecosystem where the community itself behaves like an organism. All of the sense making
capabilities for intelligently perceiving, assessing, and responding to changes in the
environment would be in place. And importantly, there would be a network of these locations
across which we can learn which solutions can spread from place to place and what the local
constraints are that happen to be specific to the geography and culture of individual
communities.
Why Am I The One Proposing This?
It should be striking that a person who (a) lacks the formal academic credentials; and (b) isn’t
affiliated with most of the principle research centers in this field; is the one who is writing this
proposal. The story here is very revealing for why the vision and action plan laid out here is so
vitally important—yet is unlikely to ever see the light of day.
There are four categories of people who might come to the conclusion that a rigorous, fully
systemic science of social change needs to be enacted across a global network of field sites.
They are (1) the researchers who study cultural evolution; (2) governments who seek to improve
the health and wellbeing of their people; (3) more specifically, the funding agencies with large
resources for shaping and guiding applied research and education; and (4) foundations and
philanthropic investors who want to be as effective as possible with their social impact
investments.
The research community is entrenched in the well-known patterns of academia. While
individual researchers may have a passion for being of service in this time of urgency and
crisis, the incentive structures of universities and research funding agencies keep them
focused on activities like attending conferences, writing and publishing peer-review papers,
seeking tenure, and increasingly competitive grant-writing to secure funds that continue their
work. This is not an environment conducive to visionary leadership and the build-up of
cooperation across hundreds of universities around the world.
Governments similarly have competing political parties, agencies, and organizational
departments that operate within constrained budgets and have long histories of policy and
legal frameworks dictating how their budgets can be spent. For example, a municipal
transportation department does not have jurisdiction over considerations related to housing
and education (the same being said for each of these divisions). What we see is the
fragmentary responses of separate entities at all scales of decision-making that preclude the
emergence of geographically distributed networks for collaboration and social learning.
The funding agencies themselves—consider U.S. examples like the National Science
Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, and Department of
Education—have their own jurisdictions that are intellectual (topic area), geographic (only
function at scale of the nation or sub-unit therein), and political (as influenced by appointed
leaders and budgets handed to them by policymakers and executives). Here we see the
fragmentation of effort akin to looking at the Earth from space and noting the absence of
8. political boundaries. Human systems have broken apart that which must be made seamless if
these institutions are to mirror the workings of nature.
Foundations and philanthropic individuals are limited by the politics of their governing boards
and ideologies. Thus we do not see the Gates Foundation straying far from the Neoliberal,
market-based practices that enabled Bill Gates to amass so much personal wealth, as one
example that should not be surprising to anyone. Many of the smaller foundations are run by
families of a wealthy individual with founding documents that indicate how the money can be
spent (providing educational opportunities for low-income families in the state of Oregon, for
example). Thus we do not see foundations that have been set up with ample resources to help
humanity guide its way through the planetary ecological crisis.
What this brief and incomplete map of the landscape suggests is that no institutions exist with
the purview and resources necessary to enact the what, where, why, and how of large-scale
social change management as humanity “grows up” to be a planetary species. In the absence
of such an institutional framework, we see things like the largely incapable United Nations that
was built around the powerful economic institutions of the post-WWII era. While laudable in
their own right, they are grossly inadequate for the 21st Century challenges we must now rally
around and deal with as a global population.
And so it has been left to people like me—and I am by no means the only one—who find
themselves without institutional affiliations yet build their lives around a call to serve in these
unprecedented and dangerous times. This is yet another example of the cultural scaffolding (or
lack thereof) that has been a major them of this essay series. Those of us doing this work are
broadly unsupported and must create our own paths forward, at considerable personal costs.
Yet here is an opportunity for someone to step up and take this proposal seriously. I am not a
member of the formal class of professionals. Perhaps the funding needed will come from a
nontraditional or unexpected place? Only time will tell.
How Should One Billion Dollars Be Spent?
The timeline sketched above identifies two critical developmental periods—the prototyping
stage that takes place in 2-3 years; followed by a decade of network-building as more
communities are brought online by around the year 2030. I see the billion dollars being spent
on these crucial activities.
Think of it this way. If a group of researchers, foundations, and change practitioners were to
partner with 3-5 communities over a period of three years, it would be possible to build a
working prototype for data gathering, considerations of equity and participation, and systems-
mapping of ongoing activities that will require greater integration of function. By the end of this
prototyping period a lot will be learned that can begin to be applied in other communities.
As each location is a field site for cultural evolution research, there will grow out of this
prototyping stage a set of baseline measurements for cross-location and cross-cultural
studies. This prototyping stage will involve the formation of a team of researchers that selects
and engages with the “first mover” communities that want to become healthier and more
resilient.
I see the prototyping stage as something that can be done with $10-20 million (where heavy
investments are made in education and establishing core design protocols for institutional
research in parallel with the community-scale prototype). The remainder of the funds will come
through the upscaling of the network. Consider what happens as more universities get involved
(setting up their own research laboratories for the study and collaborations around their own
9. communities). Each new lab will require funding for equipment, data analysis, training, and
staff.
As the network grows, so too does the budget. It ratchets up from the seed funds in the
prototyping stage to a level of $100 million or more per year across regions around the world.
For comparison, this is roughly the amount that the Seattle Childrens Hospital receives to
coordinate health-related research across a small network of children’s hospitals in the United
States. There will be centralized research hubs for things like open access databases, scientific
visualization, modeling and simulation, and so forth. Meetings of various kinds will be needed
to coordinate research and share learnings among practitioners.
In other words, this is “big science” like the Human Genome Project or CERN. Its focus is on
the adaptive management of cities and landscapes as they interact with bioregions and
planetary-scale dynamics. The activities from this network will grow into and feed off of other
research activities (like those for Earth Systems Science, urban sustainability, and so forth).
I will not give a more detailed budget outline here because I believe it would best be created in
real conversations among funders, researchers, and community practitioners. It would be
presumptuous of me as a rogue essay writer to claim that I have this level of expertise for
something requiring a great deal of transparency, accountability, and collaboration to have any
hope of succeeding. Seed funding is needed to convene a group of people with the
compositional expertise to build out this kind of budget and timeline.
In Closing, Why Is This Proposal Likely To Fail?
The two biggest reasons I see this proposal as unviable are not about the availability of funds
(though this is clearly a practical concern). Nor are they about the very important concerns
about logistics or the state of the science (both of which warrant careful unpacking and likely
will reveal major holes in this approach). I want to make clear that I have not written this essay
to convince a funder to give me money.
The intention here is merely to offer a glimpse into what I have learned about the possibilities
for how we navigate the ecological crisis and that a great deal more can be done than has
been attempted so far. With this in mind, it feels incumbent upon me to be honest and say that
I don’t think this agenda will ever materialize for dealing with the planetary crisis we are now in.
The first big reason why it will likely fail is that most people don’t want an evidence-based
approach to social change. There are good evolutionary arguments for why human psychology
inclines us to be protective of our tribes, to engage in social norm enforcement that punishes
norm violators, and that the kinds of rational or analytic insights drawn from the scientific
method are not conducive to everyday decision-making. My experiences over the last 18 years
have shown that very few people are inclined to do what is effective at system levels. Ideology
and obscurity of knowledge about how the world really works are deeply entrenched and very
unlikely to be resolved.
It is quite natural for human children to behave like scientists with their curiosity about how the
world works. Yet it is also quite natural for them to soak up the cultural learnings that have
proven beneficial to adult role-models and teachers whom they imitate without needing to learn
the mechanisms of cause and effect that make such knowledge valuable. Never before has a
human cultural system managed to enact scientific approaches among its members writ large.
So while there may be a managerial class of expert practitioners who seek to be rigorous and
evidence-based, it is unlikely to come to pass that cities in diverse cultures around the world
will strive to become so in these turbulent times that increasingly drive people back into their
tribal modes of defense.
10. The second big reason why this effort will likely fail has to do with the distinctly fragmentary
and oppositional nature of the social sciences themselves. It is will known that different
intellectual tribes exist within fields like anthropology and sociology—many of them are
strongly anti-scientific and prone to engage in petty struggles over power, budgets, and
prestige within their academic fields.
I have observed firsthand how unmotivated many of these scholars are to seek consilience and
work together to achieve larger goals. Many among them are like the progressive activists who
abhor power of all kinds so they refuse to participate in collaborations that might have the
power to be impactful on the very same issues that drove them to their activism. It is this
pernicious dynamic of self-defeat that plagues the social sciences today.
I have read eloquent and convincing accounts (and made a few written attempts myself) to
convey that a grand synthesis of biology, the social sciences, and humanities is something to
strive for and that can be achieved in this century. My secret hope is that a global effort to
safeguard humanity finally wakes up these petty in-fighters from their juvenile spitting contests
and gets them to finally behave like adults.—or more likely, a different community emerges that
simply ignores and bypasses them. We are on the edge of a cascading Mass Extinction Event
after all. This is not a time for throwing tomatoes at the intellectual gods of one’s opposing
intellectual camp.
It is with observations like these that I believe this proposal will never see the light of day. Yet I
write it in earnest now because it is a gift seed that has grown within me throughout my life. It
must be born for me to continue living—just as a woman’s body must push a baby through the
final expulsion to ensure survival for mother and child. As painful as it is for me to write out my
life’s vision as a failed proposal, here it is in all its messiness just the same.
My intention in writing this essay is to show how powerful and useful an evidence-based
approach can be for guiding social change in its many forms. While I have become convinced
that there will not be a planetary mobilization effort—for the reasons listed here and others that
I may share in future essays—I still believe this perspective to be of potential value for everyone
who is working to increase health and resilience in their communities regardless of what
happens at the planetary scale.
You may find insights that help you improve your local food system, make modest progress
with local schools, envision new programs at your local university, and so forth. None of these
things require a billion dollars to achieve. The proposal presented here is for a grand vision that
is unlikely to materialize. Perhaps what is best to do in spite of this is to enact a million humble
visions without coordination and sophisticated scientific knowledge (where institutional
capacities for such things are lacking).
How will you become a practitioner of applied cultural evolution? What kinds of culture design
laboratories will you build? Are you ready to do this work in a time of planetary crisis regardless
of what is no longer possible? I leave this proposal in your capable hands.
Onward, fellow humans.