Seeking Synergic Solutions

As readers of recent columns on this site know, I think the most critical problem facing humanity today is the fossil fuel crisis. For those seeking a comprehesive discussion and explanation of this problem, I recommend Jay Hanson’s web site.

In Barry Carter’s book Infinite Wealth, he recognizes and discusses the danger of our entering another Dark Age. He explains that if humanity doesn’t embrace the synergic alternative then there will be no worthwhile future for our children and their children. I find myself in full agreement.

Most of those aware of the fossil fuel energy crisis (today Jay Hanson’s mailing list has grown to over 6000 subscribers) are focusing on trying to find ways to produce more energy. So far this has proved very difficult. Jay Hanson and many first rate Energy scientists see no solutions. Hanson fears a “die off” in which billions of humans could die with only a small nucleus of 10-40 million surviving as new hunter-gatherers.

Many of his followers are peeling off and preparing to head for the hills, and return to a pre-Industrial Age lifestyle. This reminds me of the “survivalist thinking” that was common during the gas crisis of the 1970s. But our problems in the 1970s were political and blew over. Our problems today are physical and won’t blow over.

Richard C. Duncan, Ph.D. of the Institute on Energy and Man, has revised his predictions of the coming fossil fuel energy crisis to an even more urgent status. He says that the rolling blackouts that have started in California this past month (February 2001) are only the beginning. His latest calculations show:

“This ‘electrical epidemic’ spreads nationwide, then worldwide, and by ca. 2007 most of the blackouts are permanent. The ‘modern way of life’ is history by ca. 2025.”

If Dr. Duncan is right, then we have only a handful of years to change the world. We are indeed facing crisis.

As I have mentioned elsewhere, the Chinese word for crisis is written by joining two ideograms together. These two ideograms presented separately stand for danger and opportunity.

“Crisis-chinese word”

DANGER—Danger of injury if we humans fail to understand. Danger of extinction if we humans act in ignorance.

 OPPORTUNITY—Opportunity for growth if we humans understand. Opportunity for survival if we humans act in knowledge.

If we examine our crisis in terms of life, things will become more clear. Crisis is not unique to humankind. Crisis is the general condition of all life forms. It is the driving force of evolution. Risk and opportunity. Survival of the fittest. The life form that survives and evolves is the one that can grasp the opportunity and avoid the danger. This is the very process of life. It is the engine of evolution.

Today’s crisis is simply our turn. We humans are at a point of major transformation. In fact Barbara Hubbard says in her book Conscious Evolution that only crisis will make humanity change. Therefore we need danger to get the collective attention of our species, i.e. It took a Hitler to get the attention of humanity so that Winston Churchill would conclude that the free world’s response to Germany in WWII “was our finest hour”.

The fossil fuel energy crisis also represents both a danger and an opportunity. Unchecked, this crisis will produce a Dark Age that humanity may not recover from. However, if those of us with synergic knowledge grasp this opportunity, we can demonstrate synergic power to our fellow humans, and help save our world.

It is from this perspective that I began working on an idea for a project that could attract strong attention to synergic options.

Currenty, those few humans aware of the fossil fuel crisis assume it is a crisis caused by underproduction of petroleum. However, synergic analysis reveals that our real problem is not underproduction, it is overconsumption.

If we humans reorganized synergically, we could reduce our energy consumption to 10% of current levels. And this can be done much more quickly than most might imagine.

It only requires us to change our minds and then reorganize.

Some preliminary ideas as to how we might reorganize ourselves is stated in my paper Synergic Consumption. These proposals are just a beginning. But the fossil energy fuel crisis is not a problem that will fall to one individual no matter how talented or brilliant he or she might be.

We need a community of minds to work on this one.

I would like to organize a synergic thinktank to solve this problem. I would use a system of co-Laboration modeled after the “Open Source Software Community”. This is well described by Eric Stevens Raymond in his paper The Cathedral and the Bazaar.

I have committed myself to take a lead in organizing this, but I need your help. I honestly believe that we can develop a viable solution to the fossil fuel energy crisis, and that if we post our solution on the internet, humanity will beat a path to our door.

I invite you to join with me on this. I think we could combine and use our synergic power to solve a big problem.

We need a project that will bring us together, and something that will attract the attention of our fellow humans. Then we can begin bringing all of humanity together. It is a complete waste of time to expect big government, big business, or big religion to help us. They are the problem. They are invested in a model of society that depends on separation and scarcity. We need individuals of integrity to join with us to build a new model of society that depends on co-Operation and abundance.

What better way to attract those individuals of integrity than by solving a problem that threatens everyone on the planet and for which no one else has an answer.

That is why I have proposed as the seminal problem to be solved: The Fossil Fuel Crisis

Yes, I know it is a big problem. I also know that some of the brightest minds on the planet think it is unsolvable. That is why it is perfect for us. Fortunately, the reason they believe it is unsolvable is they are trapped and looking at it from the old paradigm of the Industrial Age.

I have started designing new website which I call Synergic Solutions.

Synergic means win-win-win-win. I win, you win, others win and Earth wins.

Solution is the compliment to problem and it is plural because there won’t be any one solution to the large problems we seek to solve. There will be many small solutions that will then synergically interact to create a whole that is larger than the sum of the parts.

The new Synergic Solutions website will act as the co-Ordination center for a growing group of Co-Laborators who will be invited to join us in proposing, defining, describing, candidates for the synergic solutions list to address various aspects of the problems selected by the group to be solved.

All group decisions will be made using Synergic Consensus.

The new Synergic Solutions website will be used as a tool to co-Ordinate an “Open Co-Laboration Project“. It will be modeled after the “Open Source Software Projects“ used to create Linux.

Our developing solutions can be viewed by the public, but they cannot post to the site unless they demonstrate they can make helpful valuable contributions. You may apply to join the development group by passing an entrance exam. Our entrance exam simply requires you to propose a way to make a developing solution work better, or identify a problem with a developing solution, or repair an already identified problem in a developing solution. In other words if you can do the work, we want your input and help. Applicants can post their suggestions which will be reviewed by a “co-Ordinator” who will then post those that are appropriate, and screen out those that do not help the project. Once you post a suggestion that helps the project, and your suggestion is incorporated into the developing model, you gain the status of a co-Laborator and can post at will.

The quality and power of our developing solutions will grow as the best suggestions are incorporated into our model solutions. Any “bugs” in these developing solutions will be fixed or removed. When a solution reaches final stage. No more improvements can be found. No more bugs to find and repair, then it is ready to be used.

At that point it will be moved from the DEVELOPMENT list to the ACTION list.

Solutions on the ACTION list will be made completely available to the public and the public will be encouraged to begin using those solutions immediately. The solutions will be released as TrustWare and protected by TrustMark. This will open up a revenue stream for us which will benefit the development teams, our users, humanity and the Earth. Win-win-win-win.

I am presently finalizing the design for the website for Synergic Solutions. It will be a Manila Site and co-Laborators and co-Ordinators will be able to access it using their web browsers or by using the new tool Radio Userland. Initial proposed solutions for the The Fossil Fuel Crisis will include the prototypes I presented in my paper called Synergic Consumption .

In addition to these, I am working on finishing my descriptions of several other types of solutions that I think have great merit. The new website and this group of proposed solutions should be finalized within the next ten days. Stay Tuned.

Bound through synergy,

Timothy

This Story as a Separate Page: Seeking Synergic Solutions.

Energy Crisis Deepens! The public and the government are waking up to the news that we are facing a major crisis of energy supply. As those with this knowledge begin looking for solutions, the knee jerk response is seek more energy. This is the wrong direction in which to seek a solution. We may be able to find more energy, but the only viable solution is to develop a life style that requires much less energy. How much less? We will need to reduce our energy use to less than 10% of current levels. This can be done if we choose to reorganize our society. How we might begin this process of reorganization is addressed in my paper Synergic Consumption. I am convinced that we can transcend this crisis and survive, but it will require nothing less than transforming our society. Making money as our highest societal value will have to go away.

Timothy

“The world will be saved by individuals of integrity freely joining.” Buckminster Fuller wrote these words in April of 1983, just a few months before his death in what was to be his last book Grunch* of Giants, there he explained that the rules of our current society were all about making money. Making money is the highest value in our society. We rank all companies and individuals by how much money they make. The values of a society determine the structure and behavior of that society. He coined the word *Grunch to stand for Gross Universal Cash Heist. Fuller explains:

“What is blocking humanity from finding a solution is the Grunch of Giants–the nation-states, the organized religions, the military, the giant corporations–all institutions and organizations that have a vested interest in separation and scarcity.”

He implored his fellow humans to act as individuals. That finding a solution world rely on “individuals of integrity freely joining” together. In a synergic society, the highest value is helping others. It would rank organizations and individuals by how many other humans their actions helped. Buckminster Fuller was one of the founding pioneers of synergic science. What brings him to mind is the publication of a new book of his writings. If you haven’t read him this is a good place to start. The book is called Buckminster Fuller: Anthology For The New Millennium.

“FullerBook” A great source of information on his life and work is the Buckminster Fuller Institute.

Another Voice for Community Bernie Slepkov is an interesting human. He describes himself as a self-made Societal Transformationalist. He is committed to co-Operative solutions and involved in many positive activities. In his own words:

“A transition from past mistakes to creating sustainable communities is rapidly changing all our models of life and work. At the heart of societal transformation is our common ground to insuring a higher quality of life and work for ourselves and those around us.

“Renewed spirits of collaboration are emerging from the soul of innovating networks, learning communities, environments and living organizations – new models of socioeconomic development based on such principles as complexity and systems thinking.

“By HARNESSING CHAOS AND STEWARDING CHANGE together, we can learn to create something better for ourselves and our children.

“Today’s necessities are the modern mothers of social invention – feeding entrepreneurial phoenixes hungry to fill societal needs. Assisting these driven social entrepreneurs are new breeds of social investors, venture philanthropists and granting foundations knowing that the gaps between the “haves” and “have-nots” must be closed before stable, sustainable economies can be created.

“DreamTEAMS Internationalô was envisioned by myself, Bernie Slepkov of Niagara Ontario, as a team-based means of stimulating such socioeconomic developments in local, global and even virtural communities.”

In his capacity as a columnist for the Canadian online entrepreneurial magazine SEEN, he has written an interesting article entitled Vocation:Your Life’s Autopilot. In the article he interviews an individual he calls a champion for change Mr. Flemming Funch of the New Civilization Network. As preparation this and future columns Bernie interviewed me over the internet. My reaction to Bernie’s essay on vocation can be read at this link. He went on to ask me what I saw as the Catalysts for Change now working within our society. My answer and his followup questions can be read here. Thanks Bernie for your interest and support.

Why adopt Radio Userland early? I have been using Radio Userland for a few days now. I continue to find it exciting and powerful. I am not trying to use it for anything in particular. I am just running it and exploring what it does. What I am finding is that this is a powerful ground breaking program that does something totally new. When you first download and start it up, what it does and why you would want to use it may not be apparent to you. Those individuals who adopt it early will find themselves to be pioneers, but like all pioneers they have the opportunity to be ahead of the crowd. Like any new ground breaking program, time will be required to learn and understand this new metaphor. It does many things differently than other programs, but as you begin to use and understand it, you will discover that Radio’s way is often easier. If you approach Radio the way you did your first Word Processor, your first Graphics program, your first Spread Sheet Program, you will be greatly rewarded. This is not a new version of something you are familiar with. This is something totally new. Radio Userland is also designed to work especially well with Manila websites. Future Positive is a Manila website. The only program I use to edit and design this website is a web browser. Radio Userland is many things one of which is a Web Browser. I can use Radio Userland to edit and write my manila site. You can also start your own Manila site for free. I highly recommend that you do. Manila sites do not require Radio Userland, but they are greatly benefited from its power. In an earlier piece, I called Radio Userland a powerful new tool for community. Used with Manila you have two powerful new tools for community. The future will require that humans work together. It will require Co-Operation, Co-Action and Co-Laboration. There are no separate solutions. Dave Winer and his associates at Userland are building tools for Community. Take a look and then download them today!

Preparing for the Future The future is going to be different. It will require building community. Your survival will depend on the network of friends and colleagues you build by helping others. As Barry Carter explains:

“Starting today you must have a completely new outlook on life. You must be responsible. You can no longer depend on employers, unions, or governments to look out for your economic well-being, to provide you with a job, retirement, social security, health care, or a safety net.

“From this day forward you and your global network of partners are responsible for creating work and wealth for yourselves. If you have no network you have no security. All of the rules have changed. The guarantees and promises made to you by Industrial Age society are null and void and will be breached.”

Dave Winer and his community of associates are in process of completing a powerful new tool of community. It is called Radio Userland. I recommend that you download this program and try it. It is currently available for trial without cost or obligation. I have only used it a few days, but am delighted and amazed.
Check it out!

Understanding the coming Future With the publication of Infinite Wealth, Barry Carter has established himself as a voice on the leading edge of the synergic paradigm. The synergic paradigm is a place where you and I can be much more by working together than we could ever be by working separately. It is a place where we both can win. It is a place where we can create a win-win world in contrast to our present win/lose and often lose/lose world. To solve the problems facing us (humanity) at the beginning of the 21st Century will require nothing less than our learning to work together. We must learn to Co-Operate. As Barry Carter explains in his conclusion to Infinite Wealth:

“Our social institutions are dying. The pain we feel is the pain of death and birth simultaneously, the death of one civilization and the birth of a new one. We have entered a period in which the conservative person who does not take risks and needs stability has become the risk taker, the radical, and the gambler. It is a period in which the one who refuses to change will surely be the one who will lose the most in the coming years. There is no going back to the way things used to be. Back to the basics is a failed policy. The future has already begun, and the trend is clear.

“Starting today you must have a completely new outlook on life. You must be responsible. You can no longer depend on employers, unions, or governments to look out for your economic well-being, to provide you with a job, retirement, social security, health care, or a safety net.

“From this day forward you and your global network of partners are responsible for creating work and wealth for yourselves. If you have no network you have no security. All of the rules have changed. The guarantees and promises made to you by Industrial Age society are null and void and will be breached.

“The government and controlled economies have no choice. The power bestowed on them in the Industrial Age is slipping away––to you the individual supplier and customer. You the individual supplier and customer have no choice about accepting this responsibility. Mass victimization is no longer an option.

“Because most companies and employees are not seriously preparing, the number of companies that fail to make the transition could be extremely high. And there likely will be no unemployment benefits, no welfare, and no Social Security safety nets to catch those who fall. Your network is your security. As we stand poised on the edge of the greatest advancement and growth boom in history, we may stumble. Many may lose life, fortune, and standard of living and suffer tremendous hardship.

“We the individuals are the only ones who can make the change. Our corporate and political leaders do not have the power, vision, or intelligence to address the root causes. We the people must wake up from the Industrial Age sleep into which our factory-style schools, jobs, and governing system have lulled us. We must come out of our defined compartments and take responsibility. Our leaders cannot do what has to be done to correct our problems; this responsibility does not lie in their bureaus of specialty. It is not in their job descriptions.

“History has shown that real change usually comes only through crisis. The evidence shows that the crisis has begun. Tens of thousands are dead from the transition. We can possibly lessen or prevent the crisis if we align ourselves with the change. Today we have the technology, knowledge, power, ability, intelligence, and willingness to move faster toward win-win wealth creation.

“We must use intelligence to recognize what is occurring and move with the natural flow of things and with all deliberate speed. Either way, we have to make the transition. Meandering along simply means that we will pay a higher price in life, death, suffering, standard of living, and debt for our children. Meandering also risks complete collapse and possibly a dark millennium.

“The universe does not guarantee our standard of living or our survival. Perhaps our ancestors had to meander during periods of social transition because there was little or no precedent and little knowledge to use the precedents there were. We are fortunate because we can learn from their mistakes. As the late Carl Sagan said, “we see further because we stand on their shoulders” (1980).

“Becoming aligned with the coming change will allow us to avoid pain and to prosper. Let’s get on with it. Let’s stop the bleeding and start the fun, passion, and living! This will be the most fun and exciting time of our lives!” Barry Carter has discovered one of the biggest secrets of science: “When you read and understand the work of a world’s leading expert, you can become the world’s second leading expert.” Carter spent 12 years of his life studying the world’s leading experts in the synergic paradigm. In Infinite Wealth, he shares what he has learned and interprets his new understanding from his unique perspective developed from working as a cog in the wheel of our present Industrial Civilization. With this interpretation he has expanded the paradigm. As a synergic scientist working in the field for 27 years, I was surprised and delighted to learn more. Infinite Wealth has much to offer both novice and expert. This is an important book that explains the shape of the coming future. I recommend that every thinking human read it! Barry’s book is also available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Why are children killing children? This week another young American teenager took a gun and killed his classmates. This is becoming so common that I expect soon it won’t even warrant news reporting. In World War II, young American soldiers found it very difficult to kill. Less than 25% of combat troops ever fired their guns at an enemy soldier. This was a big problem for the military who had to teach young Americans how to kill. They figured it out and by the time we reached Viet Nam young American soldiers could do a better job. If humans have a natural aversion to killing, how are young American teenage boys being taught to it so easily today? Colonel David Grossman , an expert on teaching soldiers to kill, says we can thank our modern movies, television, and especially computer kill games for doing the job for us. Question of the day? Should we continue teaching our children to kill? Do the makers of the killing lessons contained within our modern movies, television programs and computer games have any responsibility for the deaths in the playgrounds? How about the manufacturers of the guns used in the murders? If we the people continue to allow big tobacco to sell cigarettes, then why should we mind a little playground death as long as somebody is making a profit. One soldier has a contrary opinion. Colonel David Grossman says, “We must stop teaching our children to kill.” You can read about his views and experience here.