A possible dream. Your better world with new social formations. (& Film series collab)
Synopsis.
Given an ever-changing world with countless of problems and many opportunities, the only certain part is human potential, which is a universal force for problem-solving and advancements. Human potential can thrive in a good environment with helpful or conducive processes. For example, a socio-economic system where humans can coordinate and flourish in order to tackle any type of problem or breakthrough. Socioeconomic systems with greater inclusion and smarter democracy for greater public good. Therefore, developing cooperative social formations that are conducive to people’s prosperity can be of great value. What can be of even greater value is connecting those cooperative entities across the world to form a global union. This will be a force with collective economic and cultural power in a good position to push through continuous improvements.
More details.
Human potential is the underlying force behind all advancements. Human potential that can flourish when basic needs are met. Human potential that can flourish when community and society has a safe environment. A safe environment where people can explore, express and execute ideas and visions of a better, more understanding world.
Any individual’s ideas or preferences for a certain problem, solution or opportunity is only one of the thousands. So taking an impartial, general view… not bound to any individual entity, leads us towards transcending individual entities and instead taking a look at the systemic level that produces certain dynamics and results by guiding entities to a certain mode of operation.
“How do you solve problems that extend beyond your own lifespan? That question may be the essence of civilization. The only answer I can find… is… to initiate a process, to create an environment in which the solutions will occur independently of yourself. But… that requires a difficult sacrifice… letting go of your desire to bear witness… to exist at the center of the cosmos. To participate in the project of civilization is to accept death”. -Creators of Alexandra Drennan’s Time Capsule in The Talos Principle.
The insight of the infinity beyond our own lives, encourages us to think from another perspective. Imagine that you wouldn’t exist in this world but instead only could provide systems and processes which people would operate within. And optimally, through that mode of operation people would generate certain dynamics, results and developments conducive to their welfare across space and time.
What can a more optimal system be?
Optimal dynamics for all and the whole might be ensured by a system with processes that coordinate entities, resources and potential, across the challenges and opportunities in a prioritized manner according to the collective intelligence, for collective prosperity.
A collective intelligence formed by intelligent and democratic processes. Processes that would bring people together to deliberate, explore, discover, and among many other things, develop common values and incentive structures (monetary for example) in order to mobilize entities, resources and potential, in patterns that would be most optimal for collective prosperity.
Such a system would probably include citizens in decision-making and ownership of socio-economic matters in order to negate negative externalities of private interests and instead institute governance with a more holistic view, hence, generating greater public good. Such a system would probably also give more power to scientific knowledge by giving entities with field-expertise the weighted voting power so that society listens and acts upon scientific knowledge that enlightens us about how we and our world works. There are many ways to form the governance structure that could benefit us all. The following page explores it further: Governio (will link soon)
Cultivation of people is important part for a thriving society. An environment and processes which help people to be active citizens in larger socio-economic matters and which help people to develop their philosophical foundations. This can be done from an early age with a respective education system and other dedicated platforms throughout people’s lives that encourage lifelong learning & cultivation. Such platforms can also provide holistic help and guidance in life. An ecosystem that supports, enables and empowers people and their formations to a thriving enterprise.
Such underlying systems and processes are the ones that can create an optimal mode of operation that would allow humanity to tackle any challenge or advancement dynamically throughout space and time. So a universal or general solution to any or all problems can then be a system that facilitates the cooperation between people/entities in meeting their needs, solving problems and advancing forwards.
What stage are we at?
Looking across the current world from a utilitarian view and you’ll see major parts of our world where people do not have an environment or structures that encourage those potentially helpful processes that were brought up. For example, only relatively few places, practice citizen participation in decision-making & budgeting. Only relatively few places practice worker and citizen ownership of their economy which would help them to form a society where they can thrive. Only relatively few places are truly listening to science and utilizing technology for the benefit of all. A true and intelligent socioeconomic democracy is a rare occasion.
Especially countries where the majority of people live in bad conditions for their opportunity to flourish. Often with corrupt socioeconomic systems. And for people who live under corrupt governments and economies, it is hard to face a challenge of going against the “status quo”. With all systemic pressures and without greater economic stability, people might lack critical power… critical economic or cultural power to really push through improvements.
What can be done?
At the same time, people don’t have to wait for help or jobs from above… to fight the old systems without the critical mass and critical resources. People can start to form new self-sustaining societies… to pool together resources and intelligence in order to meet the needs, solve problems and set things up for further developments.
“Entities passionate about social impact in more privileged countries can be of help in improving disadvantaged regions through co-creation processes, where people from both “worlds” work together to brainstorm potential improvements. In such a scenario, you’ve got the experiential wisdom of the people living there, but also the people who do not take the same things for granted and who have different assumptions and can bring different knowledge, skills and perspective to things.” -Suzanne Smulders
It’s important to take an approach of “teaching people how to fish instead of giving them fish” because we’d want to aim for something that continuously self-generates lasting results. Therefore, one of possible and long-lasting solutions is to develop a new social operating system, the tools that would help people to help themselves by connecting with others in the same situation and start taking collective action in order to meet their own needs and those of the community.
Imagine a new world.
Now imagine communities in disadvantaged regions or, anywhere else for that matter, utilizing a new system with a more intelligent and democratic governance. Imagine a system where the economy’s goal is to further the welfare of all stakeholders which is systemized by economic democracy, which means shared ownership and democratic and intelligent decision-making among workers and community. Imagine new monetary systems incentivizing entities in a prioritized manner according to what’s needed for our prosperity as decided by our collective intelligence. Imagine potential basic income providing people with basic needs to create a bottom-up economy and give everyone the right to flourish. Imagine new education system maximizing human potential. A new progressive culture and so on.
Now imagine a system facilitating all of this, possibly through a technological platform or an analogue framework. A sort of social operating system, a platform or framework that would provide people with guidelines and processes to organize and coordinate for good cooperation in running an optimal society for its stakeholders and the world. Imagine such decentralized societies… virtual, local or mixed ones… such decentralized communities with guidelines for governing a social formation with certain sense-making & decision-making processes that bring most optimal results. Imagine this new framework guiding towards an economic, financial & monetary system that would spur coordination for great advancements. A system including optimal processes for external partnerships, global cooperative market participation and funding mechanisms. A framework with education system guidelines to maximize human potential. A system that continuously explores and develops all required structures for running a thriving community or society with the commons.
Blockchain space is one of the leaders in decentralized governance and organization. Decentralized Autonomous Organization (or Community/Society) is the term worth researching. There are some existing partial developments of frameworks for governance powered by blockchain such as Bitnation, Aragon, The Commons Stack, etc. A new holistic framework and platform can be created and used across the world (offline and on), for more holistic communities and societies that meet all human needs for a thriving existence.
Such technologies can also empower people to pool together funds and distribute them in a prioritized manner in accordance with what the collective intelligence considers to be best for the community and the world. The concept of Quadratic Funding can be used where people can be provided dedicated Social Wallet, it can be thought of as tax but where you have more power over its allocation. People’s allocation preferences after the deliberation process is matched with the public fund in order to compensate and stabilize the votes so that people with lots of money don’t get more power than people with less money. Cooperative and decentralized communities can eventually adapt stable cryptocurrencies. This way money can be leveraged as the technology for coordination of entities and resources across challenges and opportunities. It can be used to incentivize optimal mobilization. This model can be applied from local to global levels.
Inevitability of system change.
Given the great challenges looming over humanity such as climate change, automation, socio-economic injustice, poverty, etc. and given that the current systems have a hard time dealing with all of this, the new systems will naturally emerge. Current system’s increasing incapability of fulfilling the basic premises of meeting people’s needs and promoting the welfare of all… is resulting in new ways of doing things. Those new ways are created and will, increasingly so, be created. The old will eventually transition into new systems, new societies. This is a story of the world’s developments towards new cooperative formations around the globe that will shape a new global order, a union, a new economic and cultural power for the betterment of all and the whole.
Examples of cooperative social formations and the potential to form a global union.
There are several good examples of cooperative companies, organizations, societies, communities and economies. For example, Rojava with their Democratic Confederalism; Preston from UK and Cleaveland from US and their models; There is Mondragon cooperative and Catalan Integral Cooperative in Spain where they also practice local social impact oriented currency; Emilia Romagna region in Italy practicing cooperative economy; Kibbutz communes in Israel, etc. With modern technology, such communities or societies can also be created virtually and borderlessly.
Now, imagine such societies developing across the world and forming a global union. A new economic and cultural power across the world that can, through collective power and critical mass, really push for positive developments for the whole world. This might be a possible and achievable dream. A dream worth exploring and developing.
These are ideas of the general vision, but details of the execution might be more of a collective endeavor of everyone willing to pursue the vision. On the local level people also need to make it their own and use the advantage of their diversity to make this vision fit with their locality.
Who’s the author?
I… Axo Sal… have personally dedicated a lot of time on researching, imagining, generating ideas and doing it all with a goal of arriving at the most impactful solutions. Above is a very brief description of one of the potential paths towards a more optimal world. A path of developing cooperative communities across the world and connecting those into one union which will eventually form new economic and cultural power across the world that will be in a better position to push through further improvements.
Utilitarianaissance Society.
Such ideas can be generated and developed if people have a strong mission of pursuing the greatest impact for all & the whole across space and time. To pursue such a utilitarian mission people need helpful processes for their development. Supportive or enabling mode of living with processes that cover human needs and aid the mission. Processes that facilitate exploration, expression and execution of impactful ideas. If such a mission and processes would be adopted by many, it in turn, would generate a lot of impact. We — and the results we get — are products of the processes that we follow and the environment that we are in. Therefore, to create a collective entity with processes that facilitate human flourishment, collective intelligence and its continuous pursuit of arriving at best solutions independently of myself or any other mortal individual is something worth developing. One of my thoughts is to also develop Utilitarianaissance Society which is a virtual society, a possible example and helper for other such cooperative societies across the world and its global union.
Expression of the vision and strategy to make it a reality.
Any breakthrough is first conceived in imagination. For the world to act upon a vision, people need to first and foremost arrive at the insights necessary for its realization. One of the most powerful tools of expression at the moment are films and storytelling. Therefore, to create film series that aim to tell the story of cooperative social formations with greater inclusion and smarter democracy can be the first step.
Expressing the story through personalities from those social formations. Exploring the potential of forming a union à la EU for such cooperative formations for greater economic and socio-cultural power that can become a new force to push for a world that we all dream about… a world with greater prosperity, peace and global cooperation in all great challenges and opportunities that we face.
I wish to develop such film series. The following snippet will explore the technicalities. The story can be told with the help of the audio and video of interviewees that can be complemented with animation that would tell the story in a more visual and engaging way and at the same time making more complex concepts easier to comprehend. The series can be led by a narrator voice. It can have fragments called “a thought experiment” where through a short story viewers are encouraged to entertain a perspective that can lead to great revelations about how our world works and how it all could work. The show will strive to embrace the Socratic method which is all about getting people to come to realizations on their own by asking questions that make people think for themselves. Such insights are much more potent than trying to explain things which people often dismiss and which often brings in the “curse of knowledge” which is a term for when communication fails because the other part does not possess the same web of knowledge.
Let’s explore cooperation opportunities!
If you’re a person who would want to contribute to this vision or if you know any other entities that could help in the realization of it, you’re welcome to reach out or share it further.
