“..Nothing short of utopia can now save us from ourselves, but we are actually in sight of this utopia..”
Peter Russel
We are now living in a vanishing world, where a new one is coming into being. Both to solve the challenges of this old world coming to an end, and to face the challenges of the new world, we need new schemes of organization and cooperation. Most importantly we have to grow and develop as individuals and part of this social super-organism we call earth.
Currently, the world is facing a change of era, rather than an era of change. This reality derives from many factors and inputs, such as theories of Don Beck and Christopher Cowan’s spirals dynamics theory where humans have developed into species. Technologies acting as process catalysers, have also been pivotal. Indeed, they led us to the society of information from the industrial revolution, and from the former, to a new society focusing on knowledge and individual capabilities and social contributions.
Thus, to address the threats brought by globalization, such as global warming, terrorism, extreme poverty, over consumption, etc. , we need a mind-shift to overcome our tendency to relate with each other based on our “similarities”, to finally embrace a syntagm. Working and relating to each other only based on our similarities (the rationale behind the Brexit in the UK and Donald Trump political campaign in the US), provides us with a false sense of security which demonizes diversity. Reaching a syntagm, would nudge us towards working with our differences, enabling us to develop more inclusive and constructive solutions to reach the common good.
In this sense, we need to reshape the current geo-political and social structures which divide us into countries, cities, political parties and social groups, etc., as well as the social control norms and mechanisms that have collectivized the individual. These indeed, are proven to neither fulfill our needs, nor our current evolution state, not to mention they are also hurting the planet. Therefore, individuals need to de-collectivize, get rid of all those structures which have now turned into behavioral control systems , and identify as a Global or Planetary Citizen.This will allow each citizen to provide individual input into the global collective intelligence.
In fact, collective intelligence has no boundaries and would be the ideal collectivizing tool. It would enable people to value worldwide differences and similarities while grouping altogether. Collective intelligence has no barriers with respect to language, religion, class, citizenship, and it seems to be the next step in our evolution as species. By working as a collective intelligence, we could shift from a society based on individuals and personalized leaders working individually, to organized groups part of a global ecosystem, or a system of systems, with much higher decisional powers and reach. It is well known in systems theory, that the system itself exhibits qualities that are to be found nowhere in its components if considered separately.
But, how could we articulate and leverage this collective intelligence? The answer to this question is as complex as the system it tries to address. This includes the findings of several fields of study, ranging from new technologies such as Blockchain, to Eco literacy, neuroscience and conscious evolution. These are just a few fields we will look into, aimed at offering you a glimpse of our further articles.
Marina and Lucia Lander
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