Innovation clusters for developing new social rules
This morning a friend in NZ sent me the link to a short video using graphical statistics to show how extreme the inequalities in wealth distribution have become on a global scale.
Very extreme.
The video is produced by an NPO that wants to change the rules that currently support inequality.
I think one of the basic problems humanity faces is how to be innovative in our social systems and rules. In terms of resources, inequality, and environmental change, we up against a wall and we need to scale up the process of peaceful innovation in our social systems in order to avoid catastrophic collapse on a global scale. We need rules that can lead us into and through a beneficial, non-catastrophic collapse.
Unlimited growth on our limited planet is not going to happen.
That's a law of physics that we cannot do anything about.
Perhaps the natural level for this to work at is at the level of city, since more then 50% of the world population is now living in cities. Perhaps by building new rules for interactions between rural and city centers, and between such diverse centers, many innovations can be imagined, tested and tried. Country level and international rules seem to move too slowly, or are too conservative.
All levels are needed, but where can innovation clusters develop most easily for creating and testing new social rules?