But, Owen, we're already doing all this! Literally, everything you mention is already in process. The trick is that our perspectives don't allow us to see the whole process. We're in the middle of all these changes and each of us, including our organizations, for-profit or not, are all just tiny cogs in the machine. We tiny cogs get all arrogant and think we can see the Truth; but we can't. And we shouldn't be able to. We're too small, our metabolisms are too high, and our lifespans are too short.
Thus spake Owen Densmore circa 02/14/2010 12:47 PM: > OK, smart folks, then what *is* the sensible way to go? I have my > platform ready: > > Stop the wars, convert them into game-theoretic diplomacy such as > pointing out how important Afghanistan is to Europe, India and China, > and how important Iraq is to its wealthy arab neighbors and Europe. > Stop the Palestine/Israel wars by not supporting either side. Cut off > all aid and arms to either. > > Terrorism: ignore it. If we do well at removing ourselves from the wars > and interventions into other country's problems, we're likely to reduce > threats. Remove the current overly strict airline security. But do be > serious about responding to true attacks like Afghanistan, just remove > the threat, and leave. Create the message: Don't mess with us and we'll > get out of your life. > > With the money thus saved, hack away at the deficit while providing a > minimal step toward health care: > 1) Require universal health care insurance. > 2) Remove preconditions. > 3) Subsidize those who cannot afford the base rate. > 4) limit malpractice litigation. > (Deficit reduction seems to have been important in past innovation > resurgence, and is just sane. I doubt much of our debt is helping the > poor, homeless and unemployed .. it likely is just paying fat cats.) > > In terms of military, bring back the draft and broaden military duty to > include civic programs .. a peace corps approach. Seriously take care > of the vets, they are ignored as soon as they return. Make sure the > medical plans are available, along with an improved GI bill for education. > > While we're at it, stop the other war, that on drugs. Legalize drugs, > under state control, and tax the hell out of them. Empty the prisons of > convicted drug users. Use the tax to pay for the initial health plan. > > Fiber to the home, immediately. Provide distance-learning public > education made up of freely available courseware such as MITs and > Britain's Open University. (Steve and I are amazed how good UNM's VOD > system, for example, as we take CS500 from Cris Moore.) > > On the energy front: nuclear. Based on really modern thorium reactor > technology, or similar. Don't give up on "green" but deploy in small > distributed plants, not huge mountain eating wind farms. UK is already > doing this for new industrial plants: they have to be 20% self sustaining. > > Finally, build the most amazing public transportation system ever > dreamed of, similar to Kennedy's moon shot. > > Basically build a world we can be proud of. And stop whining. -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
