Ming the Mechanic:
Top problems and solutions

The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 Top problems and solutions2002-04-13 22:31
11 comments
by Flemming Funch

My friend Paul Hoffman asked a couple of big questions in an e-mail, to survey people who's opinion he'd like to hear. The first question is "What are the top five problems facing our planet, our species?". Since it took me a little longer than the 5-8 minutes he suggested to come up with some quick answers, I'd better share them here too, and hear what others will come up with. It really is meant as a quick survey, not as any precise analysis.

What are the top five problems facing our planet, our species?

1. Widespread inability to see things clearly, based on low emotional intelligence

Too many people, including many who are in positions of power, don't have the mental and emotional capability to perceive what is going on around them, and to work with others towards a common ground that works for everybody. I.e. they respond based on what they believe and feel, not based on what is actually there. Specifically we're talking about the lack of the ability to hold several different views/perceptions/feelings in your mind at the same time.

2. Information overload combined with a scarcity of available Knowledge

We (the westernized people who hold most of the cards in the world) are being bombarded with too many pieces of information in too short a time. Thus we've become comfortable with accepting things as true without ever verifying them, and we've lost touch with most avenues towards knowledge. A large percentage of the population have accepted a picture of the world as being random and disjointed and confused and meaningless, thus rendering themselves largely powerless.

3. A global economic system owned and controlled by people who don't have everybody's best interests in mind

Most people believe that what we have is a free market system where people who do things that are of value are rewarded by with the equivalent value in dollars, and that the money system is quite neutral. When in fact the global money system is in itself an enterprise on private hands, which by its very nature is a ponzi scheme that enriches its owners, but is impossible to resolve to the satisfaction of all its customers.

4. The enforcement of a globalized consumer mono-culture on all societies

Evolution is based on the existence of diversity, so that many approaches can be tested out, and the good ones will survive. By trying to move the whole world into a McWorld consumer culture, the vital DNA of humanity's many cultures is poured down the drain

5. A widespread lack of understanding of the economy of nature

Nature is a collaborative system where everything is recycled and nothing is wasted in the long run. Everything is re-used. Human civilization is currently using an economic model based on infinite exploitation, with no mechanisms for replenishing the resources that are plundered.

What are the top five most hopeful, likely/possible solutions that you see? What are you looking for happening to improve our situation on the planet? What's happening, good news spreading, that you are looking to see more of?

1. The invention of visualization systems that show relationships and consequences so clearly, quickly and easily that any regular person is likely to see the bigger truth, despite personal biases

I.e. making big decisions is no longer just a matter of consulting one's confused emotions and one's religious beliefs. Playing around with a model on a computer screen might quickly tell us the difference in consequences between putting more people in jail or not, electing George Bush or not, supporting Israel against Palestine or not. Even if such visualization could only be done after the fact, or only about the present situation, it could still have a big impact. I'm thinking about something like Buckminster Fuller's Geoscope, where you can apply large numbers of statistics to a visualization of the earth in real time.

2. Evolution is likely to provide us with an unexpected quantum jump which changes everything.

Such as that all children who are being born suddenly have crystal clear telepathy and an exact and unmistakable knowledge of who speaks the truth and who doesn't.

3. A new grassroots economic system

Somebody might design a new bottom-up, self-organizing economic system that works so well that it rapidly replaces the existing system. The new system would allow value to flow in an entirely different way, where hoarding money becomes meaningless, and where good work is naturally supported.

4. An unexpected global event might suddenly force a dramatic shift in thinking

E.g. an approaching asteroid, or the public appearance of extra-terrestrials. A sufficiently large event might prompt most people to make a sudden shift, beyond their normal biases against each other, and creating widespread collaboration for the common good.

5. Technological quantum jumps

The practical availability of certain technologies would change everything. Nano-technology, teleportation, quantum computing. Most importantly, some of these things would change economics irreversibly, so there is no longer any workable way of keeping the majority of the earth's population from getting what they need and want, and there is no longer any meaningful reason for exploiting nature.



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11 comments

14 Apr 2002 @ 00:52 by shawa : Very interesting...
Point 2. of solutions : INDIGO CHILDREN, it´s already happening! Changing education(at least in some places) to promote new capabilities could bring a global change about more rapidly. (We created a school, - The Little Forest - here at the Earth Sanctuary, for ex. - just to mention personal implication with the subject). So : SUPPORT YOUR CHILDREN! (Inner Child included!)
Point 4. Unexpected global events... like melting of the polar ice, climate changes and high tides? It´s happening.
World War III spreading? It´s happening.
What are we waiting for? We are in the middle of it! I´m grateful for the Internet, because I get to know all sorts of interesting people :-) - but the bottom line brass-tacks is user-friendly networks, a bunch of very good friends, and the potatoes at the bottom of my garden! Even if the Internet goes (with electricity and telephone), we´ll be "co-netted" with the Web of Life!  



14 Apr 2002 @ 01:57 by scottj : You have certainly touched on the key
You have certainly touched on the key issues here, Ming. Thus is something that immediately sprang into my mind as I read your piece.

Another key issue is the process whereby people are maintained at low levels of emotional intelligence. This is quite simply the 24/7 bombardment of the senses by the Corporate Mass Media which retards people’s development and in so doing makes them compliant to a socio-economic system which works in direct opposition to their interests.

Isolation, submerging the truth in a deluge of mesmerising spin, eroding self confidence, stimiluating paranioa and so on are the tricks of the trade and the hope is that at some point a negative feedback loop will kick in to change that.

Even though these appear to be dark times I see real evidence of this. The WWW is a mass media available to vast numbers of people, there is growing realisation that Non-violent strategies do provide solutions to conflict, and there may even be the basis for a non-money grass roots economy to flourish, again based on the internet.

If there is a “problem” I would say that it arises because of the tremendous effort required to take an alternative network to a critical mass where it would suddenly become an undeniable alternative. At the same time there are interests out there working hard to close down the opportunity.

We are all fumbling in the dark for solutions and there is no reference manual for this, however the technology is on our side. Information can now be disseminated globaly, instantly and for free; The near zero cost of production of software invites a sharing, non money based exchange system. All interbank exchanges take place electronically hinting at the possibllity of a non money exchange economy. The vital ingredient, the enzyme of a new economics, is trust (and courage?) and we are back to emotional intelligence again.

How is it possible to provide a network based on trust that could grow rapidly to critical mass? This takes me to the issue of how to deal with “The Bully”, or Shadow Side if you prefer. This is where courage enters the picture and there will be real risk to anyone committing their energy to this work; Nothing ventured, nothing gained is the key and right down there on the ocean floor of our consciousness, when one is truly alone The Bully is waiting; “Are you really willing to put your career, house, even your family on the line for this? Come on, I can offer a compromise here. It isn’t necessary for you to go that far. A comfortable, safe life is a hell of price to pay just for a principle.” But look at the Bully’s smile there is nothing benevolant in that ............... as they say death is only a state of transition.

Yes the whole issue boils down to information. A great amorphous atmosphere of information forming clouds of meaning which vanish almost as soon as they form leaving a black sky with the words THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE written upon it. However, amidst the drought and the cries of starving people there are rumbles of thunder and the scent of rain is in the air.  



14 Apr 2002 @ 07:55 by bushman : Insignificant dust specks?
My father lives this belife that we are just too insignificant. He sees the universe and sees the planet as a dust speck and sees humans as even smaller and less of a dust speck. I tell him, Yes that maybe true but once you got enough dust specks in one place you could grow something in it.
Now if I was from some other dust speck and saw this.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/255000/images/_259139_earth_debris150.jpg
I,d say this dust speck was infested by something and solve it with bug spray as my father would. The problems our planet faces are more like growing pains and childhood illnesses. Maybe conciosness has the ability to become imune once it realizes that it's sick. I like the way ming put it above, evolution of the mind to see truth, or that we are sick. Plants do it, everything does it but us. I'd say we are becomming imune, slowly, but like the space junk even a minisquell paint chip could spell disaster, and become not so insignificant.  



14 Apr 2002 @ 09:12 by bushman : From an obscure member.
#5 GE (general electric)
#4 Toxic waste
#3 NBC weapons
#2 NWO
#1 GREED  



15 Apr 2002 @ 01:57 by jstarrs : Here's mine....there's only one but
the rest stem from it, IMHO.
1. Self-cherishing.
All problems stem from this, protecting and defending one's own interests before those of others due to clinging to an illusory self.  



17 Apr 2002 @ 05:32 by bri_outten : Thought provoking stuff
I think that this is the kind of survey which nourishes new ideas and a greater collective conciousness.
I am with you Ming as far as your problems and cures are concerned, as with jstarrs.
It is largely to do with selfishness and lack of foresight, a case of compacency and the dangers of a comfortable and closetted existence.
Cures, more understanding of the problems facing the majority of people on our planet, sharing of ifo and promotion of projects in the third world.
We need to remember that over half the world have no tele-communications and/ or have never used them!
Also courage and feeling combined with the sentiments of spiritual learning proposed by spiritual leaders such as ´treat your neighbour as you´d wish to be treated yourself´.
I´m still working on the rest!
Cheers
Brian  



30 Apr 2002 @ 13:05 by mmmark : Great Stuff
This is all good stuff Ming and the comments add some very important things to work on. Perhaps I misunderstood what you want to accomplish on this subject, but was it your intention to poll Members on these points? Your first Five sound good to me, but I can summarize our top goal in one item: Nurture and responsible society of people - then all other problems will cease.  


30 Apr 2002 @ 16:04 by ming : Poll
Well, I wanted to invite others to think about it as well. So, thank you for that.  


2 Aug 2004 @ 11:06 by Quantum Mechanic at Large @24.98.1.76 : Response to top problems and solutions
Yes its nice to see there are discusions like this !! I dwell on these topics often...The article is excelent ,,, I think the problems and solutions mentioned are entirly correct ... except they are limited to looking inside this planet and its function(except the sudden event solution/effect..#4 is a winner) ,, to arrive at a bigger answer ,, I look to the stars...
There are more people alive on the planet today then have died in the entire history of the planet... We have exceeded the symbiotic balance that have exsisted for eons between plant and animal... populution is a reality. Everything living here is programed to survive and reproduce...so people are not going to stop having babies, nor any living cell here from reproduction ,,,not with religion, it promotes the opposite ,,, not with domoneering goverments or multinational corperations are we going to stop having babies and it will soon be impossible do it here on this current scale, with the path we are on. We need space for this survival and reproduction.Understands thing is sometimes as simple as rats in a cage. Taking a look at the Buckminster Geoshpere paradigm and pluging in the endless smear of world problems, our effect on the planet, human need, and the needs of all life here..... , we either burn out or get off. Off the planet that is. Continuation of the human race at this piont depends on are ability to leave this world and settle a new world or if not, massive population drop.(wont be nice). That would solve a variety of this worlds problems at one time. So we need a metanoia to achieve this,,(#4 again except lets do it with or without the event), starts with the thinking and awareness.

going to piont #1 Quoting this paper by Flemming Funch

"1. Widespread inability to see things clearly, based on low emotional intelligence."

most true and people will have to first aquire awareness of the whole picture and then project from it ,to understand the nature of insurmountable odds, forces as wholes and the active direction of all the force/effects at play here now. Get the data, spread the word. This could be enough, that is if the word gets out and is strong, to fuel and fire a metanoia of understanding which then could lead to action in a more unified direction out of here, and may curb some of those more instantly decisive forces out there. Everyone has to go there in mind,some in body as well. Employ the logic, understand the changes needed and act on them in what ever way they can. Leaving the planet in mass numbers(at least 50% I fugure) is the ONLY answer to our survival as a whole race and whole planet in the near future. The planet stands a better chance for survival than we do. We stand a better chance for survival at this piont if half of us leave.
Indeed this solution may seen unrealistic standing and looking from here ...but the alternatives are worse ...the end. We can go down fighting for a way out of here or we can go down fighting each other, Survival has always been a fight,, and we will start fighting when things get tough enough,, on a mass scale, someone will use a nuclear weapon sooner or later becase they exist. For just now just shut off your v8, tear your roof off, and grow a garden.

Some big problems from both ends of the spectrum...
Dont forget....

Most people think the cold war is over..ha.. Dont forget that we are four and one half minutes away from TOTAL nuclear anilation at ANY point in time. There is more nuclear matirial present and in production than ever before. Yes the threat of this is very present and the arms race is still alive and well . More nuclear submarines deployed by more nations than ever before. The History of weapons is if they exist eventualy they get used, also when ever a new weapon has emerged, eventualy all parties aquire it.
Dont think the world is not heating up.. oxygen is getting consumed at record rates,, the btu's from 3/4 of a trillion gallons of petrolium burned in under 100 years,Just go ck the heat from your tail pipe, then imagine all tail pipes, smoke stacks, and the new ones being built everyday...on top of that every human emitts the heat of a hundred watt light bulb...
These are just a few of the things that can take out this planet,,, it,s a much larger list and we cant see every thing on it..
Quantum Mechanic at Large  



2 Aug 2004 @ 13:00 by ming : Getting off
Moving half or more of us off the planet would certainly help with the state of the planet. For that matter, if there were a sufficiently small number of us, it wouldn't even matter much in the bigger picture if we kept our bad habits and drove around in our V8s, throwing plastic cups out the window. If, say, there were only a few million of us. But 3 billion is still too much, if we're behaving like we are.

Best that we find a more harmonious way of behaving, of course. Harmonious with each other, and with ourselves, but mainly with the planet.

Six billion people could potentially live on one island somewhere. Say, England. Or let's say Australia. A little more room there. If we were organized well enough, and used our resources properly, we could all live comfortably there. Maybe in 100 levels above and below ground, but no fundamental problem in that. We could all have large appartments and gardens. Again, if we solved some basic problems of how to allow resources to flow in replenishable cycles. As opposed to the one-way flow we mostly practice today.

Of course we'd need to figure out many of the same kinds of things if we go somewhere else. If we move into space stations, we'd of course seriously have to figure out how to recycle everything, and maintain ecosystems that can feed us.

We might of course run into some bountiful big planets we can spend years using up. But altogether better if we figure out the economics of life first, so we don't have to destroy them.  



4 Aug 2004 @ 11:04 by Quantum Mechanic at Large @24.98.1.76 : staying here, stacking up
Gosh there is a lot to learn at this site

Staying here,stacking up
is the other half of getting off
Both are are on the short order menu, and you can't get it at McWorld
Well, I agree with you Ming. We are already stacking up. If we could all focus on that now.If we could all focus on anything colectively, it would be quite a thing, probably be constructive,and it would move us all to a better place. The metanoia thing.
I try to practice what I think is a more harmonius way of behaving, in recent years any way, as the things I see going around me seem to be going the opposite way ,every thing around here seems like its kind of BUSH, and the basic programing is the almighty hamberger, like treading water in a current sometimes .
Yah 3 billion is still to many , acting like this ,, I agree. Trashing other planets is not a good idea either. One way solutions to things are always unacceptable to some of all of the people ...so far. So, of coarse, getting off could not possibly be the only answer. A problem though is time. In five more years we have 7 billion people, five more 11 bil? I don't really know the current projections. its not a good answer, leaving , but better than killing each other, possibly the planet.Getting off, or staying here, well both is logical to me at this moment as a constructive thing to focus on as a planet. If we could all collectivly focus , It would possibly teach us to work together, and put down some of the ideology ,ecconomics and weapons we curently have pitted agaist each other for a while .At least shut off the v-8. Working toghether is harmonising and if we achive the goal of getting off then the populution presure dynamic would be reduced , if we do not reach this goal we may have then learned how to live together trying to get off, in a more symbiotic way here, and thus reduce the populution presure dynamic." We are the gods"- wrote Wagner. Perhaps a few promised lands would be a good stimulus for working together on getting off, or staying here and stacking up ,ultimately both are probably needed. Yes of coarse, getting colective control of things here would solve the same problems. they all need to be solved to survive. Solving the same problems could lead to colective control . As mmmark wrote the result of a "Responsible Society", or perhaps that is the result of solution . Colective control of our selfs, being that stable, self sustaining existance that is harmonising with the planet , our fellow man and our selves, would bring. peace...utopia. utopia would be a real thing at that time. The problem with control is its effect.... constriction on freedom. Freedom is percieved differently by folks, depending on were you go now and probabally forever . the real thing as individuals,countries, planets is knowing where your freedom stops, in a relative way to the planet your on the planets around you, the person next to you and the person on the other side of the planet your on , and any other LIFE around you and all over the planet your on. perhaps even the universe your in. I agree with Ming on that we need to put the planet first on that list. However stacking up after 5 million years of nomadisism may be percieved as not too free... then again living lives stacked up in ships on the way to more wide space may be equaly as inhibiting..
Yes I am into the mass co- housing green house habitat idea ,multiple levels, like to see your brainwave pattern on that one. I would not mind having a missle silo to try that in.... there is one available in the west for 4.5 mil with 54 aces of surface green space around it...
Yes- solving the non-renewable kaos causing resourse problem would be an excellent movement toward a harmonius planet.
Circles, exist every where I can see, circles by nature are replenishing .Look in microscope you see a circle. a recent hubble picture 13.5 billion light years away, ago ,you see a circle. Look in the surf and you see a circle turn to life. How fast they replenish is our problem.Control over the process of sustaining replenishment at a rate which is supportive of us and is symbiotic to this biosphere or the one you take with you.....What we need here are some new tools, tools not only in the machine form but also tools of both mind and matter. Say some new circuclar tools. how about colective telepathic pschosynthiesis or using psi based kinetic energy to hold hydrogen fusion in a stable evrioment then harnessing its energy....
Machine , Mind and Matter the three M,s....well perhaps in another response... Combinations of these will answer many problems in the future, and create many as well. We will master the circle or the circle will master us....
Please excuse my inability to use words well ...they drive me nuts and they are so much less effective than brain language, and I have written very little in the last 20 years. I have not participated in any group like this since the eighties, on a cpm network,,After reading about conciseness on the top page I wonder if should even try to play here.. geeez I completely missed the short survey instruction.sorry.A beautiful site though
Quantum Mechanic at Large  



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