See this web site for ways to see the issue. I don't like the title "wicked problems" but the issue of complexity is dealt with.
http://www.cognexus.org/id42.htm arthur -----Original Message----- From: Keith Hudson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 3:09 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Futurework] The big suicide note 140. The big suicide note Any social mammal species under stress -- whether in natural conditions or in laboratory experiments -- doesn't suffer in silence but will exhibit clear signs of distress. Among these are violence between males, fertility less than replacement rate and high incidence of homosexuality. These symptoms are a sign of "natural" suicide -- of an internal culling taking place. The human race, particularly developed society in western countries, are showing all these signs of distress. In these days of political correctness, biologists, anthropologists, ethologists. evolutionary psychologists and others who are well acquainted with mammalian behaviour are frightened to talk in public but would agree with you privately about all this. In times past, whenever doomsayers spoke of the end of mankind they interpreted the scriptures or saw signs in the heavens. Today, for the first time, we see the evidence around us. We can talk of the possible demise of mankind with more exactitude because we have plenty of scientific parallels in species which, genetically, are not a great deal different from ourselves, particularly in behaviours such as sex or procreation which lie very deeply in our genome. We can measure the trends and if we extrapolate we can say with certainty that if they were to continue our species will die. We have other signs, too, for which we have no parallels in mammalian observation but which are disturbing just the same. We have a growing underclass which is totally dependent on the state and which lives in housing estates from hell without any of the normal facilities which might be expected in any civilised society. We have a growing drug problem. We have a growing paedophilia problem. We have a growing pornography problem. We have a dumbing down of our educational system so that only maybe 20-30% of our children have an educational experiences which stretches them, brings out their latent abilities and gives them the excitement of learning. We have a society which lives off science but despises it at the same time.We have a so-called 'democratic' system of governance in which only a (declining) proportion of the electorate take part, which has become little more than showbiz which elects political leaders who are intellectual pygmies -- such as Bush in America and the soon-to-be-dethroned Ian Duncan-Smith of the Tory Party in England. The current sign -- a peripheral one and which appears only occasionally -- is that of arson. When I first commented on the disturbed young men of Sydney, Australia, who were going out to the suburbs a year or two ago in the dry season and setting fire to the forests surrounding the housing estates, I was vituperatively attacked in a discussion list on the internet because he assumed I was criticising Australians generally. I wouldn't do that because my own son is an Australian and his house has been twice in danger of being burned to the ground at different times. But since then we have had further proof that this happens. From France, Spain, England and possibly one or two more so far. Whenever there is an opportunity to start a forest fire during a dry season -- and the closer it is to human habitation -- the more likely it is that arsonists will attack. The latest one in southern California, and apparently spreading to Mexico, is just the latest instalment. All these symptoms are part of a big suicide note which western civilisation is now writing. Something is going badly wrong and we need to discuss what it might be. It cannot be a democratic discussion in the sense that we normally define the term because most people for most of the time are simply not interested in complex problems, nor are they trained to do so. Nor should we be put up for much longer -- though I suspect we will -- governmental systems which are stuffed full of lawyers and business people but which do not include those who are accustomed to think objectively. Our own House of Commons with over 600 MPs contains no more than a dozen who have been scientifically trained. If we don't find the answer fairly soon then maybe China will. China is becoming developed at a fast rate but perhaps it might evade the problems which are now overwhelming us. I really don't know, but I reckon they have a sporting chance because every single member of their governing committee -- the politburo -- is a scientist (and also, on average, with 30 years of direct administrative experience). China is not a democracy and probably never will be in our sense. It is a mandarinate system and has been for 2,500 years. I will be pushing up the daisies well before I will know whether the Chinese can produce a developed technological society which is also human and non-suicidal. Considering the ineptitude of western governments, China is where I'd put my money at the present time. Keith Hudson Keith Hudson, Bath, England, <www.evolutionary-economics.org>, <www.handlo.com>, <www.property-portraits.co.uk> _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
