Community Research Initiative

rufuspollock
rufuspollock

Sep 2016 to present.

Why do research?

  • To set out “What is to be done / What is doable?”
    • What is our vision of the future that we want to see — and how
      do they fit together
    • What actions do we want take
    • Why Art / Earth / Tech
  • Create policies and recommendations e.g. in governance, in politics,
    in technology
  • Answer specific questions we have - without it coming under a bigger
    theme
  • Have a shared understanding within Art / Earth / Tech
  • To do collaborative research and get experience of doing them
    without the normal incentive structures
  • Answer practical questions e.g. what practical challenges are there to doing what we would like or what business model could we have?
    • This would likely come under other activities e.g. the working
      group looking at material sustainability would research
      business models

Criteria

  • Relate to why we do this
  • Interesting to those who are going to contribute …
  • Not too hard
    • Will not take years to get anywhere
      • we may do big multi-year research at some point however
        probably would do that in its own working group
      • Will not require very deep specialist knowledge (e.g.
        quantum physics)
  • Accessible - others can join in, others outside of Art / Earth /
    Tech could be interested
  • Replicable - others can follow our findings and “repeat” them in
    appropriate manner

Guidelines for Primers

  • What are we trying to achieve with the primer items? Ans: Have a shared understanding within AET group and community
    • No need for originality - we can copy and paste from wikipedia!
    • They can be opinionated
    • Establish common ground
  • Audience
    • Who is going to read it? AET community and the research group.
    • What prior knowledge is expected
      • Of the broader AET research effort: non especially
      • May be useful to understand these are part of AET
        research effort but not essential
      • Of the specific topic: can vary. Usually assume very little.
        On technical topics is fine to state pre-requisites e.g.
        please go and read this and this
  • Length: 1-5 pages.
    • 1 page is great! 1 page exec summary if more than 2 pages.
    • + further reading / references
  • Style: friendly, succinct, informative, not too academic.

Primers

  • Memes Primer (2016)
  • Mindfulness Primer (2016)
  • Non-attachment to Views Primer (2016)
assets/notes/research_topics_overview_2016

1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 for voting on cost and value () = cost {} = value

Longlist

  • Wise society / Wise government - AET’s Own Policy Program
    • Basic Income (2) {3.3}
    • **Education. Where has a great educational system? What do we know about good education? (3.6) {7.6}
    • Wise metrics. Build a dashboard showing performance of countries or areas on our wise metrics (e.g. wisest city in the US, wisest country in the world). Pick metrics, collect data, build a dashboard. (6) {8.6}**
      • Reason from Stefan: in long run not that important, but in short run very important.
    • Scaling a social system such as a corporation, organization or a community. What is optimal size. Often think scaling is about making one thing bigger. But maybe about point where you split. (5.3) {3.6}
      • Connection: org structures
    • Open information - openness as the economic policy question and solution of the information age. How much do we spend on IT a year in gov and generally. How much on content? How could we fund this differently? And what would be the numbers. (2.3) {7.6}
  • What’s not working and how do we address it- specific examples (more granular than wise society and connected with it)
    • Evidence on addictive / distracting tech (and best ways to address) e.g. TV, facebook etc (3.3) {8} (Liam)
    • Population. How many people can the earth support? How many should we aim for as a global population? (5) {3.3}
      • Reading list: Joel Cohen, Vaclav Smil
    • What is actually happening re climate change. What is situation with CO2 and what warming has happened. Examples of impact already / very likely to happen. (4.3) {4}
      • What actions should we take on climate change. What is a plausible renewable energy policy for the world
    • Food production. Intensive vs organic etc. What are alternative ways of producing foods vs intensive agriculture - how efficient are they. What are the benefits? (4.5) {4.3}
    • The Culture of Individualistic Capitalism. Impact on people of consumerism, competition, individualism, inequality. (5) {8.6}
      • Daniel Bell: cultural contradictions of capitalism
  • Context / the Primer - material people who joined Art / Earth / Tech would read, explanation of why this is related to AET’s work
    • Non-attachment to views and how and why people change their minds
    • Discrimination and Universalism: racism, sexism and their opposites (Sylvie). What is so? Where does it arise
      • Link to group dynamics
    • Creation and Creative process. Meaning, purpose and alignment.
    • Wellness …. (individually and socially. vs growth etc)
    • Wisdom - reuse liam’s reflections from gathering (?)
    • Memes. What is a meme? Why are they important for our work (1.3) {8} (Stefan)
    • Mind-fulness, Meditation and relevant philosophies e.g. Daoism, Buddhism (1.6) {11.3} (Rufus + (Liam))
    • Basic group and political dynamics. Collective action problems. Prisoner Dilemma. Principal agent problem. Robustness against defectors. Folk theorem. Sorting. (1.6) {5.3}
      • Reading list: John Holland: Hidden Order, Robert Axelrod: Evolution of Cooperation. Schelling?
    • Co-X especially co-living models. What are cooperatives etc. Good examples of the above. (1.3) {7}
      • Cooperation outwardly - not just inwardly
    • Organizational structures and governance esp “novel” ones - non-hierarchical or decentralized orgs etc … Get case studies. (3.3) {6}
      • Laloux - Reinventing Organizations, Semler,
      • Connection: culture, co-x etc, scaling
    • Culture - what is it, what are good examples of great and very poor cultures (community, corporate or otherwise), how do you create and instil culture? (4.3) {9.6}
      • Cooperation and non-hierarchy
      • No asshole rule - costs
    • History of utopias and radicalism. - Histories of attempts to change society. (5) {8}
      • Connections: Co-X, isms, Collective action problems
    • Basic isms: Capitalism, Socialism, Anarchism, … (2.6) {2.3}

Reading Group - to discuss

Infrastructure