Sublime

While economic systems have important differences from biological ones, they share some deep commonalities—notably, both use energy to create islands of order, stability, and local equilibrium (or homeostasis) in larger seas of disorder, but those islands of local stability are by necessity evolving as their environment evolves, meaning that the

Perhaps the greatest “phase transition” in our thinking that such an approach could engender is the maturation in our willingness to live with relatively high levels of uncertainty in the domains of complex phenomena—and thus give up on ideas like complete “cures,” the elimination of “risk,” the design of perfect “stability,” and achieving total

to propose tools, social practices and collective data custody arrangements that allowed them to “collectively bargain” with their data for cooperation with government and private actors supported by the PDIS-supported program of “data coalitions” to address civic problems.

The ‘Tragedy’ lies, in Hardin’s view, in the inevitability with which common pool resources become degraded. And he offers only two possible solutions out of the dilemma. One is to place common pool resources under state ownership and management (nationalisation). The other is to assign individual property rights to them (privatisation).

I outlined three enormous challenges for the Digital Age: rising inequality, massive environmental degradation, and the risks arising from major geopolitical change. These daunting challenges could overload our political institutions and provoke a devastating conflict. Such has been the pattern of the past. Surely the prime task of our age is to

The deep knowledge about a place is most likely held by farmers and engaged locals. But it is not likely to be in a form demanded by policymakers to substantiate calls for spending. It’s not just about quantifying, it’s about qualitative data of the kind that amounts to a form of collective intelligence.”

So what is the potential that out-of-equilibrium systems such as our bathtub whirlpool minimize?