"Everything needs to be restarted.
Everything has actually restarted, but without us knowing it …" ...
- Edgard Morin
1) Is this Utopia?
Living in a harmonious world where the wellbeing, education and dignity of all are prioritized, while protecting our planet, is what we should aim to preserve for us and for future generations.
For the majority of us, the reality presented above seems utopian:
Everybody has heard that the nature of man, is such, that he is a predator of men: there will always be those who dominate and those who are dominated.
Is it really in our human nature to tear down or exploit someone else to maintain one’s social status? As well, is it our sole purpose in life to increase a company’s market share?
Simply put, we have been programmed and educated to be the cogs of the industrial system.
2) What we need to change in society:
Reinvent education and entrepreneurship
It will no longer be about teaching our children but guiding them in praxis towards loving wisdom. We should help them develop their individual awareness, so they take responsibility for their environment, social heritage, and culture.
To achieve these educational goals, it will be necessary to support them in attaining knowledge, character development, and cultivating their communication skills, so they can, with us, create, produce, and share collaboratively.
In the technology world, we will need to create open applications and platforms, and reclaim the personal data used by large companies like Facebook or Google. Big Data is controlled to the point of public concealment, and is used predominantly, for commercial and surveillance purposes by the private sector. Let’s return to our sense of community to ensure that our collective knowledge: scientific and technological remains accessible to all. We can use the blockchain governance model and human strength to prevent Big Data from ruling the world.
Reinvent production and consumption
We need to steer away from dated economic models lobbied by governments and large corporations, as they do not always take into account the common good. They lobby for growth instead of sustainable progress.
We can achieve sustainable progress by producing and recycling products locally and by sharing our knowledge and experiences to the benefit of our planet.
More so, we can trade goods, services, and skills locally and worldwide. And we can implement, as locally much as possible, exchange and sharing systems which are free locally and online for users.
We need to become efficient once again and reduce our perceived needs, created by the marketers of the old world, by adopting a resource-based economy. This can be achieved by:
- Using biomimetics and executing the principles of the Blue Economy of Gunter Pauli;
- Sharing our skills and knowledge;
- Managing projects locally.
3) Developing a project within a hybrid economy:
We are developing a project that will bring together the various online communities. We will turn this project into a reality by using collaborative and low-cost work-sharing models.
As much as possible, we will also employ natural and human resources to produce energy and the consumer goods needed locally.
This project will be financed using a hybrid economy model: where gift giving and traditional financing forms will co-exist.
Additionally, these are the elements that will need to be financed in the beginning phases of the project:
A base income for community members;
The set up of commons-based reciprocity licenses to compensate the Commoners (architects, hackers, makers, research labs, etc.) who work to build the communities;
The technological tools needed for research, development, and training.
Moreover, the project will be financed by:
Building partnerships: Offering small and medium enterprises (SMEs) reduced service rates by developing marketing and technical partnerships locally.
Raising capital: Turning to collaborative financing models instead of seeking out traditional sources of financing like banks or venture capitalists. In turn, leveraging a financial solution that also serves the interests of humankind and of the planet.
4) The transformation is already underway:
It’s time to wake up.
We are living in times where the financial regulation systems and countries are collapsing, bringing about global uncertainty and chaos.
This reality does not necessitate for us to revolt, but rather, for us to get prepared for the changes to come.
How to get ready for the changes:
Develop your own community based on pre-defined criteria, such as common interests, to develop your talents and projects together. Your actions within the community will not only benefit it, but will have positive ramifications outside your base of connections.
Within your community you will need to:
Work to sustain the common good locally and globally.
Reclaim our natural resources, as well as, our global knowledge and technology, which belong to all individuals.
Work voluntarily.
Propose projects and creations freely to the community.
Put-in place engaging and democratic gamification systems locally to select the projects that will be carried out by the community.
Share your documented experiences with the global community.
Have the choice to cultivate yourselves on your own terms.
Help govern the community and obtain hybrid financing systems instead of relying on traditional capital sources like banks and private equity firms.