Evolution of Information-Energy Systems
Description
Cadell Last:
"There have been three human metasystems built around the control of three mostly distinct primary energy sources. These metasystems include hunting, agricultural, and industrial organizations(Last, 2015) (Figure 1). The control of these energy sources was always organized through the utilization of a new information medium to connect previously disparate subsystems: language, writing, printing press. All of these human metasystem transitions can be characterized by subsystems of lower control becoming integrated under new control regimes: bands/tribes, chiefdoms/kingdoms, nation-states/international. The modern nation-state sits atop an ancient human metasystem control hierarchy of ever-more diversely integrated subsystems (Figure 1). However, its status as the highest control is by no means destined to continue indefinitely; but rather it is contingent on the breakdown, stability, or new synergy of IC feedback (Figure 3).These IC feedbacks in a sense “dictate” whether our current system hierarchy will collapse under the weight of poor socioeconomic decision making, or whether our current system’s hierarchies will become integrated and re-organized within yet another higher-level control system. In this context the primary challenges for humanity this century includes the prudent utilization of our emerging global nervous system (i.e. GB) and the stabilization of an equitably distributed and sustainable global metabolism (i.e. global body)."
Discussion
Cadell Last:
"In chiefdoms/kingdoms decision making became increasingly centralized because writing was a medium built on scarce resources and a high-degree of cultural mediation(i.e. it is time-consuming to learn how to read/write). Therefore, small groups of wealthy literate individuals with access to writing materials and time to learn the art of reading/writing could use the knowledge gained from these activities as a tool to coerce the poor illiterate majority. This relationship started to change with the development of the printing press. The poor illiterate majority increasingly became the poor literate majority and eventually forced the organization of more decentralized controls (e.g. the critical modern revolutions: English Revolution, French Revolution, American Revolution, etc.). Therefore, in most nation-states, decision-making became less centralized because writing became massively reproducible, making it easier for individuals to learn about the nature of government (e.g. Kant, 1784), and generally harder (in comparison to pre-modern agricultural sociopolitical structures) for individuals to take advantage of society as a whole (with obvious and notable exceptions).Today we exist in a world where high-speed internet may become universally accessible well before we reach mid-century, potentially allowing for a world in which all humans have relatively equal access to information. Such an environment would enable the emergence of more egalitarian and distributed organization. We have already seen that a better-educated and increasingly inter-connected world is less tolerant of the abuses of concentrated power (Glenn et al., 2014). Perhaps Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring provide the best examples of internet-enabled bottom-up coordination specifically directed against concentrated power structures. Furthermore, we exist in a world where renewable energy allows entire communities to go “off-grid” and become self-sustaining (Rifkin, 2014). Consequently, controls within the next information-energy system could be based fiercely on egalitarian principles of direct democracy, somewhat similar to the villages of our foraging ancestors(Boehm, 1997). Historically, such an “ideal” organization has been called a direct democracy, and if achieved, its nature would in a sense invert the current structure of government (i.e. human collectives would be in charge as opposed to political representatives)."
Contours of control in the twenty-first century
Cadell Last:
"The theoretical and empirical foundations for a new form of distributed controls arealready emerging. In recent years there has been a flourishing of thought-provoking analyses suggesting that nation-states should start a transition to some form of distributed “e-democracy” (e.g. Dahlberg and Siapera, 2007; Chadwick, 2009; Noveck,2009; Fountain et al., 2011; Last, 2014a). Fundamentally, the goal of e-democracy is an attempt to open government by improving public access to data, encouraging public participation in the decision-making process, fostering evidence-based decision making, and decreasing hierarchies (see: Fountain et al., 2011).Based on the IEMM I have proposed my own tentative framework for thinking about global controls in the twenty-first century. In my framework, we should bethinking about ways to organize a global commons through digital, distributed, and democratic mechanisms: First, digital decision making allows us to best maximize the utility of new information acquired by the collective intelligence of our system in a distributed fashion. Distributed refers to a “spreading out” of decision making throughout the entire human system, and collective intelligence refers to the efficient organization of all aggregated knowledge, understanding, and experience. Essentially, this combination of distributed decision-making and enhancing collective intelligence will allow humans to efficiently draw upon the collective knowledge of all people, which in aggregate can be used to make better general commons decisions than decisions made by small groups of specialists. In other words we need to find a way to draw upon the “wisdom of the crowds” in order to continually maximize long-term problem solving and opportunity exploration for everyone.
Second, we can maximize distributed collective intelligence by constructing an information medium via the internet specifically for large-scale argumentation (or free and fair idea competition). Such a digital medium would allow us to harness the self-organizing power of stigmergy. Stigmergy is a mechanism of indirect coordination that can occur within a shared medium capable of recording and stimulating action potential between networked agents (Heylighen, 2015b). Various social web sites, including Wikipedia and Reddit are stigmergic in nature. This seemingly simple stigmergic property has also been observed in a number of complex systems, including biological superorganisms, like ants and termites. In theory, a stigmergic information medium designed for the organization of the commons would allow us to have a discussion/argumentation space to re-think the foundations and direction of globalization. Finally, a distributed and digital government must enable a direct democracy(or participatory democracy), where people can vote on the ideas/policies themselves, as opposed to voting on politicians (i.e. representatives of the people) that function as (in many historical and contemporary contexts) unreliable and easily corruptible middlemen. This “voting on ideas” process can be designed in a simple way with basic cybernetic principles of “input, ”“processing, ”“output,” and “feedback” (Table I). Of course, such a process would also have to incorporate sophisticated mechanisms of reputation and trust to ensure that the medium itself cannot be corrupted, and mechanisms of socioeconomic motivation to ensure that the medium remains functional. Here when it comes to reputation, trust, and motivation in a digital participatory medium, we can learn from examples of many other internet-based social mediums that have utilized these mechanisms for various functional purposes. To conclude, I have attempted to propose a model for thinking about our control situation. The emergence of the internet has created the foundations for an increasingly global world. However, small networks of socioeconomically privileged people (and non-people, i.e. corporations) are largely shaping the contours of this global world, creating a Potemkin Village instead of a true Global Village in the process. Therefore, we must consider ways to approach a new form of globalization that is shaped by the whole of humanity. This will require a metasystem transition toward a higher level of systems complexity by bringing down the established control hierarchy. In its place, we have the chance to establish controls that maximize distributed intelligence and direct democracy within a digital medium that functions from “local-to-global. ”Of course, this will require massive control innovation and a cultural revolution committed to radical distribution of concentrated power."