soap opera blues

How might we help re-direct the current news focus on organism-centric "soap" (e.g. "who said what about who") rather than on process goals that we all share? Sooner or later I'm hoping that folks (i.e. the market) will develop an interest in making our institutions better than any one of us, in spite of our paleolithic attraction to narratives about bad-guys and fear.

fewer unwished kids

Pro-choice is not the same as pro-abortion. In fact anti-abortion laws are relatively pro-abortion, because such laws force folks who get pregnant with unwanted children to reproduce while pro-choice lets that trait be reduced by natural selection. Might encouraging and/or helping folks to avoid getting pregnant with unwished kids therefore work better, at least in the long run?

multi-layer challenges

  Consider the importance of the 6 different "broken-symmetry" layers of organization in earth's multi-celled life, namely layers that look in (←|) and out (|→) from the boundaries of metazoan-skin (←₁|₂→), gene-pool (←₃|₄→) and idea-pool (←₅|₆→). These suggest that we might look at fitness (←₁), pair bonds (₂→), family (←₃), community (₄→), culture (←₅) & profession (₆→) as separate but key elements of a healthy human world. 

  If so the real challenges that we collectively face, of balanced approaches considering all 6 levels, are much more ambitious than the challenge associated with any one of the issues normally covered in the news. Hence to examine the balance of any given argument, we might want to look at its impact on all of these layers.

  For instance, does a law which prevents a raped 10 year old from getting an abortion serve all 6 layers well, or does it serve a mainly cultural mandate (←₅) but help replicate the gene-pool (←₃) of rapists (₂→) while boosting the population of uncared for children (₄→), at the same time promoting governmental infringement of an innocent 10 year old's personal space (←₁)? If this law is not well balanced, then it may help lead toward the decline (rather than the bloom) of layered complexity, especially if our planet is having trouble providing all 6-layers of opportunity to the folks already here (₆→). 

  What other "news issues" might be put into an integrative context like this?

joy-sparking as tool

In the spirit of the phrase used by Marie Kondo, what sparks joy for you? Also, what are some ways that folks might redirect what sparks joy for them to include helping spark the joy of others?

finding what works

If you are serious about any particular problem, ranging from how to fix a dripping faucet or a broken electrical circuit to making gerrymanders constructive, minimizing abortions, or reducing gun deaths, consider adopting a scout (versus soldier) mindset and embark on the cycle: Observe → selectModel → predictOptions → Implement → Observe....

This "V↔S" cycle (vary then select then vary etc.) is not only how (for example) science works (although it often also gets bogged down in doctrine), but also how life on earth has always worked. In other words it's part of perhaps our oldest constitution, namely that on the basis of which life itself continues to adapt and survive.

In this context how may we get media to focus on problems that folks could agree to collaborate on solving, using model strategies and data-based observations that can track progress and thereby lead to making things better? For instance folks on both local and global scales might agree to work toward: (i) fewer gun deaths, (ii) fewer abortions, (iii) fewer COVID infections, (iv) constructive redistricting, (v) community-oriented policing, (vi) minimizing unconstructive use of tax dollars, (v) a healthier middle class, etc.

Kool-aid danger

 It's one thing to drink the kool-aid. You may not be able to help that. It's another thing to start spreading it for profit.

Aside: The "kool-aid" available on social media, which captures hearts and minds in unbalanced narratives of all sorts, is all about the idea that other people are the problem, when in fact the kool-aid itself is one of various natural processes whose "taming" will point the path to better outcomes downstream.

The hype machine

The book by this title from Sinan Aral suggests that social media might adapt their LIKE BUTTON to a set of six buttons to indicate the responder's impression that the post is liked by:

"I as an individual",

"My friends & I",

"My family & I",

"My community & I",

"My culture & I", and/or

"My profession & I".

This may seem like a benign (even superfluous) augmentation, but it's designed to shift awareness away from organism centricity to the wider range of social subsystem correlations that we'd like to nurture. Moreover, it will provide data on the shifts in focus that a given post elicits in that post's audience.

Thus for example posts that elicit a focus on politics when the topic is some natural process (like a pandemic) that we need to bring technical knowledge to bear on will automatically show up as a professional topic with few professional likes. Likewise when experts (say in astronomy) make assertions about elements of culture with which they have limited experience.