Alöna invited me to this new group Soulfie. I watched the recorded Hangout. 8 people seem to conceptualise an AI feedback algorithm that will help users callibrate their current state of being to their highest state. The users should own their data. Those are  securely saved on a distributed platform.
The trust in the developed product will depend on the reputation of the brand. The value of the neurofeedback will grow with the use and spread of it. All data will be aggregated to build a collectively validated trusted source.
Listening to this I think the ‘business case’ is rather straight forward. As long as the propriety core processes stay sound people will trust their data to be processed by that service. Every abuse would collapse the trust based structure immediately. So I see a small group of stewards/guardians dedicated to protect this system against abuse and corruption. Forks wil be abundant, which is fine.

Today once more the news reached us that bankers wilfully exploited complex constructions to steal form the collective. I feel anger about this which motivated me to understand at least those two points:

1. The driving principles behind it.
2. How this is possible today.

The principles are simple. Selfish behaviour is a given natural trait. If I do not have my intake I die. Eat or die. Take or perish. It is the first principle.
This primal survival program is moderated by an almost equally powerful pattern: The need need to fit into our tribe. Within the boundaries of the in-group certain habits rule. Because ‘we all’ behave in that certain way, it appears normal and ok. They are not consciously designed, nor explicitly stated. But if you break or openly disobey these unwritten rules, you will be certainly cast out.

Here also the first sins appear: If it goes by unnoticed, nobody objects unfair advantage. We are not totally honest by nature. The first selfish principle trumps over the social one. Research and game experiments have proven this beyond doubt. Honesty is situational.

The dynamics between those very fundamental natural human traits define the very root of the bankers behaviour and are not limited to those people. We all have it.

The banking world is by nature a exploitation scheme, that is not new. And only quantitively different from other transactional institutions. So summarising,  other than the scale, there is nothing new or different in what banks do. It is basically business as usual. It ‘only’ grew out of proportion because no effective natural or cultural counterforce seems to exist.

So the anger I feel is simply the emotional realisation that some guys are robbing the tribe and hence threatening my safety and comfort.

The point is that their self serving natural trait does not get any push back from society.
So how is that possible? I now reason from the standpoint that a healthy society is defined by the total health of all parts of that society. All people are in their optimal state. Their needs and contributions are balanced and effectively translated to their responsibilities and assets. In a simple model it would be possible to know who owns what and what responsibilities to the larger community come from that.

Yet that is not the case in todays society. Secretive ownership enable many to escape their fair duty towards society at the cost of those who can or will not cheat that way. Even this is a simplifications. Good willing people are part of this practise too. Most of us experience little choice about the use of their savings in the bank for example.
Risks and obligations are spread and hedged in such a way that at the end of the day it becomes impossible to discern who is accountable for what.
It is this vague and ambiguous domain that attracts the parasites, free riders en more deliberate profiteers that relentlessly exploit any possible weakness in the system.

The immune system of society needs updating.

My first attraction to the GCC had little to do with this promise of possible funding that created the momentum for it’s birth. Tammy’s ambitions were more inspiring, but I mainly participated following my need for better conversations. It was and still is my conviction that better conversations are a crucial part of a healthier society. So I need to understand what defines a good conversation. A complex quest it turned out to be. And the journey led me into many unforeseen experiences.

 

First it was all about surviving until the next day, then it was all about winning and to hell with the consequences, then it was all about succes at any cost!

And then you realize, OK…

Fine! So… And..?

Well…

… to really make it in the long run, I need a whole thriving planet around me.
The whole system should function well, if  humanity really wants to sustain existence.
That realisation changes the whole story. Externalising costs does not work anymore and all consequences need considering. A whole new ball game!

This Monday morning I invited Tammy to do the word SENSE using the Alphabet Code. Just to get a deeper sense of it.

I recorded it, so you can witness the decoding. Here it is:

Our economy is organised around maximising profit. Never enough. Winner takes all. As a result of that value system a handful ‘winners own’ half the planet. That is utter nonsense to my common sense. And as is shown, counterproductive to a thriving humanity. I know from experience value is naturally differently attributed. My smallest economy is my home. There it turns out other rules apply. They emerged as mechanisms to minimise the efforts necessary to fulfil my needs.

The frame is simple and straight forward. Every choice comes at a cost. Maximising profit today will have it’s price later. No externalising possible, nothing to extract from elsewhere. During my lifetime it turned out that the same truth ought to apply to the global economy. To me it makes sense that the natural economical laws that rule my household should ultimately rule the world. 

The current economy is based on an open model. Humanity exploits the world to it’s maximum. With the successful extraction of millennia old natural resources and externalisation of all costs we now threaten our own survival. We are littering and destroying our very own habitat. 

We need to invent a proper circular economy. And in order to do that, we need to redesign the old model. It is based on competition. That needs some fundamental rethinking. Collaboration is at least an essential counterweight. My current guess we need at least a healthy balance between those two extremes of this dichotomy. And different measures. Inside well organised companies it is all about minimising costs while maintaining at least the minimal viable output. That logic seems identical to the one that applies in my very own household.
So it would be interesting to think about how this can be scaled to the world economy.

The main message of Philip Shepherds book “Radical Wholeness” is gradually sinking in. With  innumerable effects and consequences. This one I want to note here: My body feels how my mind jumps around in response to the many impulses I become aware of.
I can now consciously perceive reflexes that have ruled my life so far. Like the dissociation when confronted with all sorts of bullshit and other things that are just ‘off’, just not in sync with the wholeness of the situation. I have labeled this sensitivity as my crap detector, but it seems to be more than this rational analytical faculty. Now I can also feel that this mental perspective is a result of a fear based reaction. It is like instinctively instantly jumping away as far as possible from this threatening unsafe experience. From the perceived wrongness. Leaving the body behind and observing from the ceiling. OMG. Breathe Harry…

At the end of the day, my day anyway, it is all about people. How do we connect, communicate and collaborate? If that went well I had a great day.
Yesterday I had GCC Zoom sessions trying to realise just that. And it covered the full spectrum between my desperate sense of isolation and this warm flood of belonging.
The exploration of how to be, do and decide together requires all my capacities, my reasoning, feeling, sense making and acting.

The GCC attracts many smart and sensitive people, aware of the great survival challenge cause by the rigged extraction system we live in. That is an immense pool of intelligence, ideas, creativity and experience. Sam Hahn defined one of the downsides as the smart people problem. I labeled the pattern Swarm Stupidity.

 

 

The second session this Friday was an interesting exploration into these dynamics. Watch this video to get a feel for the complexity and the strength of the intention to sort it out and make sense of it leading to the proper decisions and actions.

The definition of a good decision seems to depend on the maturity of the decision makers. This demands adult behaviour.

The first session was more focused on the function and structure of the collective website, https://globalchallengescollaboration.org/
The proposal Joshua offered and created was a central WordPress website and a personal WordPress Blog for every participant. (You currently reading this on mine.)
So like a mothership in cyberspace with many interlinking other virtual vessels.

I like and support this idea. This way the content created stays under my control and does not vanish on the timeline of facebook or another commercial social platform.
I still am on the beginning of the learning curve, but I am motivated to master this.

So following what I learned from William Charlton I share my current concept of the GCC website structure in the form of a proposal.

As Heidi suggested I would like to keep the front landing page short, sweet and simple. Clarity on the (current) purpose of the GCC  and the function of the site are key. And then of course the people with what they bring and desire. As I said, at the end of the day, my day anyway, it is all about people. How do we connect, communicate and collaborate?

So just three entry points. Anyone interested can quickly find more following these links into the site. I would design all other features like active discussions (forums), the archive of discussions (videos) and all other around this main structure.

One exception could be this last suggestion at the end of this Friday session on decision making. A simple link to the donation option is obvious, simple and probably very rewarding:

Your feedback is very welcome in the comment section below. Thank you for your kind attention.

Last year I spent many hours on line. In generative conversations that builded trust and intimacy across cyberspace. Across the pixelbridge as I coined it. I never dared to imagine the unprecedented power of genuine human connections becoming so present and available. Thanks to this new combination of digital technology and more mature social behaviors. Global peer to peer communication and collaboration has become available to anyone with a clear mind and internet access.

Clearing the mind has been my main struggle. So many thoughts, beliefs, convictions and worldviews are thrown at me that I spent most of my time sorting it out.