Abstract
Humanity faces serious social and environmental problems, including climate change and biodiversity loss. Increasingly, scientists, global policy experts, and the general public conclude that incremental approaches to reduce risk are insufficient and transformative change is needed across all sectors of society. However, the meaning of transformation is still unsettled in the literature, as is the proper role of science in fostering it. This paper is the first in a three-part series that adds to the discussion by proposing a novel science-driven research-and-development program aimed at societal transformation. More than a proposal, it offers a perspective and conceptual framework from which societal transformation might be approached. As part of this, it advances a formal mechanics with which to model and understand self-organizing societies of individuals. While acknowledging the necessity of reform to existing societal systems (e.g., governance, economic, and financial systems), the focus of the series is on transformation understood as systems change or systems migration—the de novo development of and migration to new societal systems. The series provides definitions, aims, reasoning, worldview, and a theory of change, and discusses fitness metrics and design principles for new systems. This first paper proposes a worldview, built using ideas from evolutionary biology, complex systems science, cognitive sciences, and information theory, which is intended to serve as the foundation for the R&D program. Subsequent papers in the series build on the worldview to address fitness metrics, system design, and other topics.
Highlights
In 1992, over 1500 scientists, including 99 Nobel laureates, signed a document titled “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity”
Out of all conceivable designs for societal systems, which ones might be among the best at demonstrably serving the common good? Second, by which viable strategies might new designs be tested, implemented, and monitored so as to be capable of positively impacting societies and environments on a near-global scale within a reasonable period of time?. The hypotheses underlying these questions are that new societal systems can be designed in a science-driven process to be fit for purpose; that defensible definitions of fitness can be constructed; that fitness can be theoretically and empirically assessed and compared across designs; that new system designs can be practically and viably implemented; and that new systems designed to be highly fit will be more effective than native ones at serving the common good
The biotic and abiotic world we see today can be understood as an immense collection of interacting, partially overlapping and hierarchical, partially self-similar dynamic systems that evolved and continue to evolve in a way that is consistent with known physical laws
Summary
In 1992, over 1500 scientists, including 99 Nobel laureates, signed a document titled “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity” (full text in supplement of [1]). The series provides definitions, aims, reasoning, worldview, and a theory of change As well, it discusses organizing principles, fitness metrics, and design principles for new societal systems. The hypotheses underlying these questions are that new societal systems can be designed in a science-driven (evidence-based) process to be fit for purpose; that defensible definitions of fitness can be constructed; that fitness can be theoretically and empirically assessed and compared across designs; that new system designs can be practically and viably implemented; and that new systems designed to be highly fit will be more effective than native ones at serving the common good This first paper in the series describes a worldview intended to serve as the foundation for the R&D program. What kinds of designs would help us reach those targets within a reasonable length of time?
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