Mental models

How aware are we of the mental models that shape our point of view. I've started to realise recently that we are all carrying a huge bag of assumptions that relate to models of reality, and we'll act on these without questioning. There are certain models that once witnessed, are so compelling we take them as religious truths. Selfish capitalism is one of these. It is reinforced everyday and we find it harder and harder to see past it.

By allowing people to create and de-construct models they will be able to challenge these assumptions, and generate new possibilities. They'll be able to carry new models around with them, and act in new ways. Its important for as many people to construct their own understanding as possible, and opposed to receiving knowledge passively.

Simulation is the new literacy that will give people the skills to challenge received mental models, rather than merely act on them. Written understanding is no longer sufficient.

Green economics and consumerism

The trouble with being green, at root, is that capitalism has become synonymous with consumerism. There is no incentive for people to be green, because everytime an individual makes an effort to reduce their personal effect on the environment, they just make it cheaper for the people who don't make an effort. In other words the eco-warriors are just making the lives of the oilers easier.

It would be interesting to model this.

So a business idea. Create tariffs for eco-warriors that are the reverse of what we see today e.g. electricity should be offered at a cheaper than the market average price if an individuals keeps under a specific amount, but more expensive if they exceed this limit.

This would allow eco-warriors to oust the oilers from the market. Eco-warriors would become fitter members of the market eco-system.

This same principle could apply to all commodities if we had credit cards that scored purchases against a sustainable index of products. Flights, gas, everything.

Basically, to ensure equality in the fight against environmental degradation, nobody should be allowed to benefit from another's sacrifice. Eco-warriors should not be the suckers.

definition: oilers = greedy selfish ignorant b'stards

Dignified collective action

Why, so often does change only happen after people have gone through ridiculous levels of personal sacrifice. We've all heard stories of people jumping under a racehorse, hunger striking, marching outside parliament etc. but my point is, why do we the proles admire this so much. Surely we should be asking why we seem to have to make such catastrophic or plain undignified efforts to bring about change.

It seems obvious that we're not organised enough, we're prone to admire emotional gestures above reason, and prone to make change only when emotional pleas have been made.

Maybe a wave of reason will sweep through and we will make better thought out plans, more justified changes, and these acts will seem like grunts in our Neanderthal past.

I look forward to a day when we don't admire marching, we think of it as a kind of oppression by the political elite. Why should we have to march to get our opinion across, I can do that through an open online survey for instance. I'd get more from the results too, and I'd be more prepared to listen to the movement.

Are we all bound to our primitive tribal instincts, not really wanting to live in an enlightened society.

Change of emphasis for news corps

When you look at the news papers and the broadcasters struggling and bumbling their little heads around user generated content, you're lead to wonder what is the point of these multi-billion organisations. Well imagine a news story stripped of all the opinion, what have we left? The answer: data.

Seems to me a logical and rationalised progression. News corps should be representing their customers in asserting FOI on organisations their size, then being ingenious with the way they represent this information. That would be a days work.

With the data, we the populace would provide the opinion, and learn from the data. We'd be generating the hypotheses, and the news corps would learn from this, and then gather more data, and provide us with the tools to re-present the data. And so the knowledge supply chain continues onwards. The organisation enabling the individual. Money for a service, rather than the disservice we currently receive.