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What operating system do we need for a new civilization?

on Fri, 11/26/2010 - 16:19

This interesting topic of conversation started by George Por was originally posted on the World-Citizans for the Global Commons website.

Assuming that the recognition of the fundamental unity of all life, is a workable basis for our Emerging Planetary Reality, "what is the operating system for awakening this root awareness in human beings, and how is this to be taken to scale,†asked Carolyn Lee of the Anthroposphere Institute, in an email.

Ever since I heard that question it keeps intriguing and working on me. The only thing I know is that I don't have the answer and together, we need to develop it for the sake of passing the test of this transition time. Why not start with looking into the metaphor of "operating system". The original meaning of the term, according to Wikipedia, is:

"an interface between hardware and user which is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer that acts as a host for computing applications run on the machine."

  In my understanding of the metaphor, the hardware is the Earth, the user is humankind, and the applications are all the social systems (economy, governance, technology, education, etc.) that interact with the hardware and each other, through the operating system.

Thus, the operating system includes all the values, principles, beliefs, and mental models that govern our institutions. The problem is that our global OS is a centenarian, who is hopelessly out of step with the current challenges of overwhelming complexity. It needs a caring hospice while the new OS is birthing itself.

What drives the development of the new OS is the new applications: the commons movement, ethical economy, open source everything, the mushrooming prototypes of new ways of organizing work and learning, commerce and play.

It cannot yet be seen how the baby "operating system" of the new civilization will look like. We are writing its DNA in every wise, future-responsive decision, individual and collective.

We are living in a planet-wide laboratory. What will give rise to the operating system of the new civilization will be the principles that can be extracted from the successful practices of the new social movements.

If you participate in or observe the practices of any of the following social innovations what principles can you distill from what they do well: Transitions Towns, Communities of Practice, Commons movement, Open Source everything, Creative Commons, Citizen Panels, citizen journalism, etc.?

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janosabel's picture

I have just come across this post and as one with some egineering background am inrigued.

The operating system is the economy with is ability to process the resources of the earth into autputs useful for human beings.

We, as ordinary citizens, take the activity of the economy too much for granted so that the knowledge of its operation becomes the preserve of professionals. These professionals make up stories (models) about the econmy to justify the behaviour of powerful interests.

One of the behaviours relevant to commoning that is thus justified is the enclosure (privatization) of parts of the "operating system"---the commons. One of such stories made up by economists is known as "The Tragedy of the Commons" that made the rounds of the the profession to justify the story that privatizing common resources actually protects them from being abused and destroyed by self-seeking and self-interest driven commoners.

To stop becoming unduely theoretical we could start with the "Lockean formulation": man has the right to take from nature what he needs "at least where there is enough, and as good, left in common for others".( Section 27, SECOND TREATISE OF GOVERNMENT)

Theories of commoning become important when there is not "enough and as good, left in common for others.

Economic understanding goes wrong with a category mistake at the very foundation of economic thought about the inputs (factors)---land, labour, capital---necessary for production. They are treated as the same because all three can be assigned monetary value (commodified) in the market place. Yet they are very distinc in nature on several accounts. Land is not a produced factor and is fixed in supply, labour is an inalienable aspect of the human individual, and capital is a derived factor produced by the interaction of land and labour as the primary factors.

janosabel's picture

Imagine that human beings with all their doings disappear. Consequence, nothing.

Imagine that all natural resources somehow disappear. Consequence, no human society.

The point is that everything depends on the "free gifts of nature" including all economic "goodies". Since modern society no longer allows human individuals the freedom to "negotiate with nature" for survival, instead of a fellow human being (by working for a wage), society owes every human individual compensation for the loss of that basic freedom.

The modern policy delivering that compensation is a Basic Income (also known by many other names and in different languages. see http://onthecommons.org/search/node/basic%20income) delivered  unconditionally as of right.

This is the economic argument for BI. The moral argument is that the "right to life"---the first Lockean human right---is meaningless without the unconditional right to the means of life. The means in modern society is an income adequate for financing as simple but healthful life style.

Basic Income, as of right, is thus the ground condition for a society that claims to be made up of free citizens (or subjects).

Commoning, therefore, has to include this underlying arrangement as its foundation.

Sadly, however, it seems from current literature on commoning that the subject of Basic Income with its primary importance is missing from collective awareness.

janosabel's picture

The Occupy movement is the herald of a revolution; but it is a revolution of consciousness. We will no longer allow the 1% and its supporters to ignore us. We know the truth, and that is our strongest weapon.

Occupy is moving into spaces where oppressive ideologies live.

Gar Alperovitz is one of the many spokes persons of this new awareness.

An article by Gar Alperovitz is attached about truths that can make us free.