| In
addition to acoustic noise there are many other forms
of noise that constitute inappropriate signals. Visual
noise is one of them and this is seen mostly in the
inappropriate “development” and exploitation of the
human built environment. People who create art and
ads (both tv and print media) are very skilled in
visual presentation. They know that this
is important. Compare the visual effect of an automobile
add with the the human-made landscape in which it
will spend 98% of its useful life and you experience
a paradox of such immense proportions that it is
almost impossible to fathom. Particularly when you
consider that our inability to integrate infrastructure
with “natural” landscape and our misuse of the automobile
is one of the principle means by which we create
ugly landscapes. This is not what the ads show of
course. Up where I live 135 mile north of san Francisco
(on highway 1) is one of the most beautiful and
open landscapes in the US. This was largely destroyed
a hundred and twenty-five tears ago and has regenerated
itself. It is a wonderful place to drive a car and
almost inaccessible without the automobile. In the
spring and fall I can rarely drive the winding mountainous
road without encountering crews shooting car ads.
Of course they are also shot in cities and very skillfully
using the the cityscape as a beautifully presented
abstraction. I have never seen one shot clearly showing
miles and miles of franchise architecture each piece
plopped down on a lot and shouting for identity and
attention. These days, you occasionally see an ad
starting on a road which has become a clogged, polluted
parking lot. magically the driver it transported
into a luxury performance cars gliding down a wondrous
winding open, free, road. One wonders how this was
accomplished as the two scenes are typically miles
apart. Am I to believe that the cars has this ability
to free me from congestion and ugliness. And, as
we sell more cars and develop our land as we do,
does the value that is being used by the car (and
associated with it) get destroyed by the car (as
we employ it) itself? |
| By
the way, I like performace automobiles and the esthetic,
kinisthetic-mind-body experience of drivng them.
On demand individual transportation is a great invention.
So is mass transportation. A new generation of technology
and the sane design (and use) of both - in balance
- may produce a sustainable solution. We are not
heading that way
today, however. |
| It
is critical to remember that we (human society) destroy
far more that we value by our successes than our
failures. Clear and direct and obvious failures produce
immediate and powerful negative feedback loops.
Humans respond to these. Success most often generate
positive feedback loops - the message is “do more
of this.” These generate many systemic and unintended
consequences. This has always been true and, with
up and downs, we have managed to adjust and survive.
We are approaching a scale, scope and rapidity of
change that we may not be able to “see” in time and
adjust to without great loss of life and ecological,
economic and social variety. Are we paying attention?
If this “just happens” is this a true expression
of our real values? The US security community has
written four scenarios set in 2020 [future link].
One of these is describes a world where the global
economy doubles in the next 25 years and India and
China become economic power houses [future link].
Certainly good news. And, with our present technological
form-factor,
a unmitigated ecological and political-economic
disaster [future link].
Our ability to grow our global economy at this rate
is a factor of technology. In the increment, it is
good. On the level of system, be it a person, a community
or our globe, we do not have a clue and we have few
means of steering this without resorting to repressive
measures we already know will fail. |
| This
is a crises by an definition and it comes at a time
when we have polluted our world, our political and
social commons and our own body-minds. At what is
clearly the greatest challenge in known human history,
we are the least equipped to deal with it. |
| We
have a great deal going for us. Tremendous knowledge
(the vast majority of which remains unused). The
ability to act on a global scale (primarily employed
to either make war or exploit resources). A 10,000
year history of human civilization (largely ignored
by contemporary shortsightedness, arrogance and ignorance).
The vast majority of humans, when you get to know
them, are responsible, humane, creative and far more
moral and thoughtful than our collective actions
would indicate (and, we remain in tribes living in
intellectual ghettos of isolation and predigest). There are tested solutions to almost all of the “problems”
we face (and these are still largely ignored). |
| We
have created a global “communications” industry and
the basis of a network economy (and, we have descended
into the hell of messaging, propaganda, spin and destruction
of the “house of intellect” [future link].
We lack the ability to deal with systemic issues [future link].
We lack the ability to
dialog across (now) difficult barriers. We lack the
will to
refrain from distorting the data to support the social
consensuse [future link] (whatever
it is at any given time and place). We fail to hold
the past, present and future as a continuum (and
think/act in the framework of centuries). We do not
design our future, we default to whoever can yield
the greater power (economic, military, political)
at any circumstance and moment. Our faith is that
the economic “hidden hand” or some god (or
“strong leader”) will somehow see us through. These
are false religions. |
| Our
greatest failure (and the one that may prove to be
fatal) is this social noise that permeates our societies
(on multiple levels from local to global) that destroys
dialog, collaboration and group genius at the moment
we need them most. This is the greatest hidden pollution
of all and our disappearing sky and species, our
bloated cities, runaway economies, school dropout
rates, declining health statistics, accelerating
use of drugs (legal and not) are but merely symptoms.
Our technologies only amplify our values. They
are our Monkey’s Paw [link] and
we have made many a faustian wish - and bargain. |
| Bucky
said that pollution is “a resource out of
place.” In this perception there is hope. The issue is
not “good” or “bad” ideas, technologies or individual
beliefs or values. It is not about forcing change
on anybody. Markets are not always right. They are one
of the most efficient means for complex, distributed
aggregates of people to come to a decision. They are the most
democratic expression of all our social systems.
The problem is that there does not exist any
really free markets. The problem is that we have
not sorted
out
the different kinds of markets (and their
are many) and we tend to treat them all the same.
The kind of market
by
which you
buy and automobile is different than the marketplace
of ideas. Each of these (and numerous other kinds
of
markets) have to be structured (and protected) in
different ways - each according to its nature. Each works by a different set of rules. Markets
are naturally regulated (not controlled or regulated
in the legal sense) by feedback. disrupt these feedback
loops, or fail to design them properly in a human
created market, and you risk serious distortion -
an ecology running amuck until it destroys itself
or finds a new balance. These are practical cybernetic
design Challenges. Large markets are complex and
not predictable. They cannot be controlled either.
They can be distorted and even destroyed. Market
and ecologies are really the same thing. They just
operate in different realms and we humans tend to
define them and treat them differently. We do often
carelessly mess with both and suffer the consequences
even when we do not see or understand the connections
or admit to them. |
| Most
market “failures” are the result of misguided human
action either by messing with the mechanism of the
market (or designing it poorly in the first place)
or by paying the game poorly within it - or, some
combination of both. Too often when we do not like
what a market does we shoot the messenger and tamper
with the feedback by intervening. Back to that heart
burn again. Give a pill that takes away the symptoms
and awareness. Most markets provide plenty of warning
before they go unstable. This is why Weak Signal
Research is so important. Bodies do the same
thing. All well designed complex systems do. This
is often easy to see in retrospect. The real art
of living, in a complex interconnected world, is
to read the signals
and adjust in advance of a system level melt down.
This is why noise is so deadly. It masks the true
signals. Early detection allows for small low impact
and relatively painless adjustments. Waiting until
the ice caps go to accept and act on global warming
will call for more heroic measures in the end. As
the old ad for changing your oil used to say “pay
me now or pay me later” with the implication that
“later” was going to be much more expensive. Most
people think - or act like they think - that they
will avoid “later.” I think we will be the first
generation who will leave the mess to us. There is
a certain poetry in this. The early not so weak anymore
signals are all over the
place.
I have been saying this for 30 years - ever since
my first ReBuilding the Future course in
Kansas City. The signal is just beginning to get
through
the noise. In that time, about half the people in
the world who are alive today were born. Most know
only the world of their experience with little reference
to a past or a different future. Most seem to define
success in getting to where the US was in the 1950s
- the good life. Many in the US are holding on to
this also. Have you read the forecasts for the number
of cars that will be sold in China over the next
15 years. The competition for and the increased cost
of oil (not to mentions the indirect costs) is going
to be interesting. I wonder what a 10 cent per gallon
surcharge over the last 30 years would have yielded
if properly invested in the appropriate research
and technology. You know, the research and technology
we say we cannot afford now given the military priorities
in the mid east. Of course, we were told the oil
supply was not problem and it would have been too
great
a burden on the US economy to let gas be anywhere
the cost it has been in Europe for a generation.
One wonders how old Europe made it into the 20th
Century. One wonders what the impacts will be when
the coming market “adjustment” actually starts to
reflect the true costs of fuel. Of course we actually
have many, many viable alternatives to our present
rate of consumption if these do not get lost in the
noise. There is, presently, speculation if people
will pay a $1,000 more for a hybrid engine capable
of getting 60 miles a gallon. About the same extra
cost as a HEMI, I think. It is an interesting
question don’t you think? And, I am sure that it
is common knowledge that there is a way to alter
a Prius Hybrid to get over a hundred miles
per gallon in typical city driving [link].
No? Has the noise filtered
out this NEWS? When was it when “news” stopped
meaning information about the new? |
| I
talked to a cab driver the other day, who was seriously
worried that gas costs would put him
out of business, after 30 years of driving, and he
did not even know what a hybrid car was. I guess
it is not too surprising that it has taken over five
years for this news to filter through our sophisticated,
global communications system. Nor, I guess, is it
reasonable to expect someone who drives cars for
a living to know the state-of-the-art of cars.
And, surely someone will argue that a new Prius is
too expensive for a cab driver. That is a point.
A new
fully loaded
Prius costs about half what a Medallion necessary
to drive a cab in New York costs. That’s the trouble
with us futurists and idealists, we can never get
our priorities straight. We just don’t understand
that interest groups and power brokers can infinitely
screw with the feedback loops of complex systems
and get
away
with it. I do understand that they often can get
away with a great deal of money and build themselves
relative
immunity (until the game is up). Not that anyone
would. My cab driver makes me wonder what other significant
pieces
of information
are not getting through the system to those who need
to know
about what they are doing and why they are being
asked or told to do it. What you do not know is always
far more interesting and
important
than
what
you do not know. Feedback is not possible without
clear accurate unbiased signals.
Learning
is not possible without feedback. Adapting and growing
is not possible without learning and feedback. Too
few and too weak a signal is not heard. “Information
is the difference that makes a difference.” Two
many and too strong a signal degrades retention and
blocks
other messages. Humans are programmable and capable
of self programming. What is your social world saying
to you? To what extent are you letting it program your view of the world, your future and your relationship with Humanity? |
| The
old saying in investigative reporting is “follow
the money.” Follow the noise and the
money may be a better idea in our times. I think
you will find they are remarkably aligned. The social
theory
of
a free
market
economy
is that
honest, intelligent, hard working people will put
their GOODS (comes from the concept “good,”
I believe) on the market and that the resulting competition
(among the products, not people, by the way) will
reward the best to the benefit of all. It
is a good theory.
I like
it.
We
should
try
it. |
| Jefferson
said that democracy will not last without an educated
populace. When was the last time you compared US
stats against the other advanced (and not so advanced)
nations? What about the signal-to-noise ratio at
the levels of government, the press, our social and
business organizations and our own minds? The average
American reads less than two books a year. The quality and standards of our school system goes without comment [future link]. This means
the vast majority of a typical family’s information
is provided from profit media in a consolidating industry. The book publishing
and distribution industry is also consolidating. I do not look for it, but in the
last few years I have seen more reports and accusations
of political and economic pressures being put on
reporters than I recall hearing of in a lifetime
(which includes WWII). Let an issue surface and it
is pounded to death in
the media within a week. Total saturation with remarkably
little information being offered up until it actually
become dull. Spin on spin by expert after expert
until you are left
with
only
your initial beliefs, biases and fears as to who - or
what - to believe. These are empty intellectual calories. While
absorbing this “information” notice the advertising
messages. Notice what you are being told is wrong
with you, attacking you or that you lack.
The abject horror of “ring around the collar”
was always my favorite. You do not fit in if you have
ring around the collar. How any opportunities
have you lost because of this? One shutters to
think of it. Have you ever put the ads and the
news together?
have you ever recorded (and thought about) the
messages you receive in
a day as you move through your “life?”
Do you really believe they do not affect you?
Have you ever removed yourself, totally, from
them for a couple of weeks and monitored your
responses? Ask yourself: who gains, who loses
(or pays). Follow
the noise
- and the
money. Who wants you confused, overwhelmed, saturated with conflicting information, afraid, bored, angry, feeling helpless and repulsed? |
| If
Bucky is correct in saying pollution (be it physical or mental) is a resource
is out of place; if free markets really work as we
believe they will (when we actually get one); if
cybernetics
(how systems communicate, learn and decide) is even
half right; then we do not have to fight over each
other’s experience and beliefs. We need to communicate
our experience, models and designs with each of us fully engaged in a true dialog. We need to
take the noise out of the communication channels.
We need to choose our collective and individual lives in a free market of goods, social covenants and ideas. We must stop
polluting, in any way, for localized, short term
(apparent) gain. We have to create neutral collaborative
spaces to design solutions (that account for all
that is known) and avoid spin-spaces where information
is deliberately distorted
in order
to “win.” We have to consider multiple generations
of impacts as best we can. We have to establish design
criteria much more comprehensively than we do today.
Perhaps, most of all, we must realize that the world
we have today is the product of human design and
we need to stop acting like sometimes guests, sometime
exploiters and sometimes victims, and start taking
responsibility for what we do. Sounds like the Enlightenment to me with a couple hundred years of additional experience - we can call it Enlightenment 2. The consequences of failing to do this may make the dark Ages look good. |
| And,
for the record. The unanswered question for me with
hybrid and electric automobiles is how will we deal with battery
disposal? 30 million cars running around the US
having to replace their battery packs every few years
is
going
to present an interesting engineering challenge.
Every solution becomes, when sucessful, a new problem.
We cannot avoid that. We can anticipate. The critical question is will we? |
| There is another kind of noise which clutters social dialog which is conspicuous by its silence. This is the taboo - the subjects which cannot be discussed. In the USA, these subjects have expanded enormously in recent years. The Internet is countering this trend to some degree although this environment is getting increasingly polarized. If the Internet commons becomes as polluted as our conventional channels of information and dialog I believe we will be in for a very hard time. It becomes an important question if this medium can self-disciple itself without repressing content and maintain a civil discourse at a time when we need it most. |
| We created MG Taylor because we were concerned with the apparent societal inability to effectively resolve systemic issues. The questions we asked were: is these consequences the ones people really wanted? Are there viable solutions to these issues and conditions? We found out that there were solutions and that the vast majority of people wanted to be part of the solutions not the problems. We asked ourselves is it people who are flawed or is it the architecture of our organizations and social dialog which is not working? We asked if people were invited into a different environment would they think and act differently? These questions launched a generation long action research and rapid prototyping process which has demonstrated that humans can integrate the parts and whole, can work for individual and common good and are wanting to do so. The solution was simple: put people in a well designed environment which exemplifies an idealized future state and ask them to then design their future. The results were entirely opposite from what the skeptic forecasted and conventional engine - of environment, process and tool set - produced. No matter what you put into a sausage machine what you get out will be sausage (of a sort). If you want another result you have to design, engineer and operate another machine. |
| We are not educated to think of our society as a system. We tend to ignorance and arrogance when we fail to realize that structure wins. We blame ideas, people, circumstances and other cultures while ignoring the simple fact that we built our human culture-infrastructure and the results (output) we see around us are the direct consequences of the ideas and actions (input) we take within the system we have built. You can change governments and bomb as many “other” peoples you want - it will not make a fundamental difference. We are now the designer-makers of the circumstances of our own evolution and it is time we step up to the challenge of understanding what this means and whatherby constitutes our new responsibilities as a species. |
|
| Noise pollution comes in many forms and ranges across a wide set of circumstances. Its greatest consequence is that it shuts down the social commons. Keeping the social commons open and viable is the responsibility of everyone. When it is left to experts, elected officials or special interest groups the commons becomes, by default, biased and polluted. |
| If you look at our modern society, commons management is what we are less good at. Traditional institutions of commons keeping are breaking down. The default assumption is if we all take care of our part, the whole will take care of itself. Added to this false assumption - which has no basis in experience - are the actions of those who deliberately exploit the commons for commercial, political or ideological gain. Almost every major problem we face today be it our financial markets, climate change, ocean fisheries, massive global “defense” budgets, widespread displacement of peoples, energy and water shortages, debasement of the House of Intellect [future link] - and the list goes on and on- are systemic and the direct result of the mismanagement and exploitation of the virtul and physical commons of Gaia and the Human Enterprise. This default habit can be seen in the collapsing infrastructures of many of our major cities, the emergence of a drugged society neither interested in nor educated to participate in the world which is emerging as a consequence of our prior actions, to something as simple as noisy polluted garbage strewn streets, to a city such as modern Cairo where a person “can’t hear yourself scream.” Meanwhile, sparkling new cities are growing out of arid regions, populated by elites, financed by revenues of a diminishing misused resource, surrounded by the shanty towns inhabited by those doing the building and providing the services required for their use and maintenance. These examples and the many more which define their class, sum up to a crises of attention, intention and a total lack of comprehensive design. The attitude which condones these conditions has a hidden dark ugly side. The age of exploitation has to end. Another generation of this escapism will produce results remarkably like the horrid future fantasy movies from Hollywood depicting societies in civil chaos and ruin. We have already imagined and photographed our future - the question is will we reject this vision or bring it into being? |
| It has been demonstarted, when given the right circumstances and environment, that people want to, can and will successfully solve complex systemic problems in a way which serves both individual, community and global interests - the question is will we reject this vision or bring it into being? |
pollution
starts in the mind...
it overwhelms the esthetic sense...
ravages the social commons...
and ends up
as a wreaked and dying planet
|
collaborative design
starts in many minds...
creates GroupGenius and builds
individual and commonwealth...
thus co evolving
a dynamic healthy Earth |
in this next generation
we will choose
one or the other...
beauty, justice and harmony
or...
blight and death
|
|
INTERESTING LINKS
click on logo to view |
 |
CAIRO JOURNAL
A City Where You Can’t Hear Yourself Scream
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Published: April 14, 2008 |
|
|
MIND
Who Are We? Coming of Age on Antidepressants
By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN, M.D.
Published: April 15, 2008 |
|
 |
COMFORTABLY NUMB:
How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation
Interview with author Charles Barber
By ONNESHA ROYCHOUDHURI
Published: April 17, 2008 |
|
|
POLITICS
Chinese Student in U.S. Is Caught in Confrontation
By SHAILA DEWAN
Published: April 17, 2008 |
|
|
| Goto:
The Nature of Experience |
|
|
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| GoTo: A Future by Design Not Default |
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|
Matt
Taylor
Elsewhere
January 3, 2003
SolutionBox
voice of this document:
INSIGHT • POLICY • PROGRAM
|
click on graphic for explanation of SolutionBox |
posted:
January 3, 2003
revised:
April 17, 2008
• 20030103.238791.mt • 20040401.111109.mt
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• 20050403.002345.mt • 20080415.777201.mt •
• 20080417.812109.mt •
(note:
this document is about 90% finished)
Matt
Taylor 615 720 7390
me@matttaylor.com
Copyright© Matt
Taylor 2003, 2005, 2008 |
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