The Next Phase

From Governance Crises to Distributed Systems

When you do the math and realize that a 3 percent average increase in in the U.S. GDP is considered to be a serious recession, then these “small” numbers may have some special meaning when you realize that we are talking about technologies that have the power to change every rule-of-the-game that Humanity has lived with for the entirety of its known history.

The global system that was created to address global problems — in particular, the United Nations and its subsidiary bodies — is not equipped to handle large global problems in an effective and equitable manner. The actions that have been taken and decided upon so far to address the largest risks have been inadequate. The risks and challenges remain, and in many cases have even increased, despite having been known for decades. There are two main reasons for this:

This situation of degradation a design problem, not primarily a moral one — or, an issue of population alone. What can be pointed to as a failure of moral courage, and can be identified as the measure of our risk, is our response and Grit — or lack of it — to our pending situation. We are simply running away from ourselves. It is in this circumstance that our growing population and economy is becoming ever more destructive.

When we agree with Szombatfalvy that our economy/ecology is not sustainable, we are not pitting one against the other. With proper design, the economy does not have to be sacrificed for ecology nor vice-versa.

In late 2005, the World Economic Forum decided that the theme of the 2006 Annual Meeting would be THE DESIGN IMPERATIVE and “the future by design not default” was chosen as the slogan for the Davos WorkPlace. This decision evolved out of careful dialog with experts from all over the world. But despite of over 10 years of constant working this way,the issues on the boards remain alarmingly the same.

That work from the beginning was — and still is — based on the assumption that knowledge work, network organizational architectures and design processes form the basis of a viable and sustainable global economy/ecology; that design is the premier value-add.

Yet, as we see, despite a lot of sharing and awareness building, the trends towards degradation, loss of ecosystems and unsustainable emissions and waste, indicate that somehow a second cycle of accomplishment is necessary, to really change the whole inertia pulling us apart.

Our view is that the necessary augmentation of human capacities, will follow the biggest advancement in the last 65 years, which has been inclusion and diversity. What Ms Sadik Khan discovered of the people in New York when she dramatically transformed public space, was that people responded incredibly, everyone changed in a million ways, and over night business boomed, accidents decreased, use of bicycles took off. The whole culture of the city transformed.

When this capability for collective action is harnessed, when it is fully realized and applied, in a much higher level of collaboration and co-creation among people, especially our capacity for building the commons and peace will grow tremendously. An entirely new level of prosperity can replace the conditions of scarcity that govern the thinking and feeling of most. And it is entirely entirely possible today with not so expensive solutions.

The technologies necessary exist. What is lacking is a space for encounters and a protocol for public speaking and sharing knowledge in action. Regenerated natural and cultural worlds require examination of ‘why’s’, and call for a disposition to deeper learning and deep wealth concepts. But the way to move forward is together, and this requires doing large scale prototypes.

THE BEGINNING EVENT IS NOVEMBER 27–29, 2017 Stay tuned!

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