I half agree. Jared Diamond would say that merely the fact that this conversation is taking place on a listserve puts us in a different state than in prior, historical catastrophes, with *potentially* different actions and outcomes. See "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed."
I've been trying to start a non-profit called the Center for Social Enterprise Technology, to enlist scientists in crafting solutions to urgent problems. (Tried to get SFI involved with no success.) Is there anything the FRIAM community can do to help avoid a catastrophic outcome? David dba | David Breecker Associates, Inc. www.BreeckerAssociates.com Abiquiu: 505-685-4891 Santa Fe: 505-690-2335 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Carlos Gershenson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 1:31 PM Subject: Re: [FRIAM] ** this Wednesday** Lecture May 31 12:30p - CarlosGershenson: A General Methodology for DesigningSelf-Organizing Systems >> Trusting investors in a free market guided by maximum profit to >> make all >> the important design decisions for mankind's permanent occupation >> of the >> earth isn't working right. There's really no softer way to say it >> that's truthful. I'm still waiting for truthful observations and >> useful >> knowledge to become relevant in politics. Perhaps the old Missouri >> mule solution is more appropriate, since the real world seems to be >> getting too complicated and putting people to sleep. >> > > I agree completely. > I really don't think that many countries (especially those depending > strongly on spoiling the planet for their economy) will do the > necessary changes to stop global warming until it is "too late". By > too late I mean when victims will start falling (well, you could > count Katrina already here...). What I mean, we already see lots of > effects of global warming, but there's little change in the way we > spoil the planet. But finally, when our cities are all flooded, the > people left will adapt... It would be great, as you say, if we could > come up with mechanisms to change the decisions before it's too late, > but we humans tend to learn by spoiling. We need to burn our hand to > learn to keep it away from the fire. I mean, how many wars and > millions of lifes it took to have the UN. And not that it prevents > all wars... So maybe after doomsday (tomorrow? it's 06.06.06... the > day of the beast...), we'll do something about it... > > Best regards, > > Carlos Gershenson... > Centrum Leo Apostel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel > Krijgskundestraat 33. B-1160 Brussels, Belgium > http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~cgershen/ > > “Tendencies tend to change...” > > > > ============================================================ > 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 > ============================================================ 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
