Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Calling All Creative People to Rise Up

Something is missing from the discussion in the 2016* race for the Presidency. What is it? An untapped wealth of resources -- creative and intelligent people everywhere who are ready to help. 

But, no one is calling on them. 


by Lee Chazen, GliderCell 

you are disillusioned because the reality of what you are seeing each day does not match the great potential for what you envision and you realize that many of the problems we see are the result of outmoded philosophies, systems and structures -
And if you understand that such structures in need of massive reform include education, the banking system, government, insurance, health-care, the political system, etc. 
And if you believe that such systems are systemically flawed in that they are top down in nature, hierarchical, rigid and lack the ability by their very nature to empower and enable people to reach their full potential as human beings -- 
And if you believe that underemployment is just as great a problem in this country and in the world as un-employment - in that there are so many talented, creative and intelligent human beings that are not being enabled to help in solving some of the dramatic problems in the world today… and that such people are not rising up to positions where they can be of service, whether because of economic inequality, lack of support or because they are being drowned out by a sea of louder and wealthier voices --
And if you believe that even our great leaders or political voices or candidates out there, well-intentioned as they may be, are not employing advances in data science, technology, medicine, the human brain and the potential in things like crowdsourcing, collective intelligence and Distributed Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) to name but a few -- 
And If you believe that classrooms, textbooks and standardized tests are exclusionary and seemingly built around a model of rewarding the few and that such systems tend NOT to offer recognition for imagination, critical thinking and problem solving abilities and that they tend mostly to cater to a small subset of a wider intelligence spectrum -- 
And if you believe that such constructs tend to favor good or fast test takers and that we are often asked to learn, do business or participate in society in ways that do not necessarily match the types of people or learners that we really are -- and that games and projects in the classroom, while acceptable now, are still not widespread -- 
And if you believe in the power of “multi-potentialsim” (the notion that we can have more than just one pursuit or potential in life) and that many of our innate talents and abilities are being under-utilized on a daily basis -- 
And if you believe that incremental change is not good enough — and that, in order to make real changes, there is not a solution in one candidate or one person, but rather, solutions lie in fixing the very nature of our institutions -- 
And if you are someone with a set of good solutions and are effectively being shut out of producing said solutions because of a lack of support or funding or because you are tied down in a job that takes away your time and energy to get to work on such solutions -- 
And if you find it frustrating that those with money and the ability to make such changes or innovations, do not have or share your abilities, or vision or talent or imagination, and that the two “sides” (you and them) even lack the vocabulary or understanding to communicate on the same level --  
And if you believe that there are those with great math, science, technological, musical, artistic or imaginative skills who are not being “tapped” to be part of the greater good -
And if you believe that such people, if given the chance to start a company, share their ideas, or start a new political party could more effectively fix problems in education, energy, transportation, infrastructure, government, the economy, etc., in a way that doesn’t have to be dogmatic or ideological or filled with hatred and fear  -- 
And if you believe that our leaders and decision makers, in so many different ways are actually no more intelligent or creative than many of us who have not had the same opportunities or who may not have an equal level of drive or ambition or fearlessness -



perhaps it is time, in the middle of our tumultuous political season to either start a massive new political movement  -- or it is time to create our own visionary programs.

Note: Special thanks to Ed Mulder for his help on this.

Sources: 

Thriving On The Edge Of Chaos: An Argument For A Complex Adaptive Theory Of Education
DAOs and the Power of Self-Organization
The Global Challenge Project

An example of non-ideological problem solving

Tags: Education, Edu, EdTech, Tech, DAO, Bitcoin, Thinking, Innovation, Creativity, Collective Intelligence, Self-Organization, Politics, Third Party, Democracy, Independents, Election 2016, economy, income inequality, Media, Standardized Testing, Game-Based Learning, Bitnation, BTC, ETH, Holacracy

*2020 Could be different.



Friday, May 06, 2016

DAOs and the Power of Self-Organization

We’re aware now. The power and the opportunity to be visionary and creative is right before us. We can do our own thinking and have people join us. The most hopeful changes I see have less to do with the tangible technology (great as it is) that is in front of us, and more to do with the underlying structures and philosophies. I can only describe these the same way a mathematician describes a formula as elegant, or the way a musician hears a drum corps, all in a line, bells up, full volume, coming in step towards the screaming crowd. It is triumphant, simple and empowering. I am talking here about bottom-up, emergent behavior. Self-organizing systems. Rather than “executing notes on a page” or top-down spoon feeding of content to students or playing video games that everyone else is playing, we might use video game hours onine to fix real societal problems or, as students, start working on real problems to solve and building businesses or portfolios online. 
Distributed Autonomous Organizations now give us the potential to create self-organizing systems which could provide opportunities to creative people and visionaries to be part of larger, like-minded groups. The words that Robin Williams spoke in the movie Dead Poets Society reappear in my head… “that you are here--that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.”
Note: I excerpted this from a piece which I wrote for the artist Sebastian Schmieg

For more on DAOs, I highly recommend this article

Music Performance as Metaphor for the Online World



Age 7. First French Horn lesson. I knew that letters of the alphabet represented notes, so when Mr. Sadlier asked me what note I wanted to play first, I said “L” since that was the first letter in my name. He politely told me that was not a note, and of course, I asked “why not?” Kids have great imaginations. Later, I would learn that music was a metaphor for the connected world. You make your sound. You know immediately if it’s any good. It either blends or does not. When the band plays, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Yet, like the Silicon Valley employee who had ideas of his own, I couldn’t help feeling like a technician who was only allowed to execute. No interpretation. So, I conducted my own experiment while playing in a musical. I would intentionally delay hitting certain notes. To my amazement, this created a train wreck as the conductor altered his baton and everyone who was following him changed what they were doing. I stopped and smiled. It was just an experiment.
Note: This was excerpted from a project I worked on for the artist Sebastian Schmieg.