|
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Glossary
|
|
|
3D-Optimum
the
Systemic Goal
|
The pinnacle goal of the GNP processes is to
eventually reduce human activity to until it can be sustained within the
Gaian renewing flows of nature. When
this occurs, 3 Dimensions of human interest will be at either
their optimum state or the optimum rate of change.
3D-Optimum refers to optimums of human: population; activity and
happiness. While evaluation of each
of these dimensions is subjective, scientific and statistical guidance will
arbitrate.
3D-Optimum is the goal of the overall system of
human civilization.
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80/20 guideline
Pareto
Principle
|
When
stating that, under these
circumstances, people will do that.
Generally, the 80/20 rules suggests that only 80% will do that, and the remaining 20% will
not do that. However, the dividing
line is fuzzy with sometimes a wide range of overlapping views. It might be 99% to 1% on some
characteristics. It applies to both
physical and mental characteristics. Quite often these variations are
expressed as a bell curve, with the “80” representing those within the bulk
of bell, with the 20 being those at the skirt. See:
http://www.linfo.org/human_variability.html.
Social
psychologist Milgrams illustrates this point when
he wrote: “We are puppets controlled
by the strings of society. Yet what is also true is that not all puppets
jump when their strings are pulled.”
This
is one of the genetic variations within species that enables evolutionary
change.
As
the Pareto Principle, it covers a
very wide spectrum of issues.
http://www.businessballs.com/pareto-principle-80-20-rule.htm
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Abstract
Realities
AbReality
Reification
|
Abstract Realities. Human created systems of beliefs and of
agreed ways of doing things: constitutions, economics, religions,
corporations, etc. Gregory Bateson
described in illuminating detail, the meaning of this in his ‘79 book, Mind and Nature. Details at
http://gaiapc.ca/PJ/2a-TheTriad.pdf
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APC
BPC
|
After Paradigm Change:
In the new era the dynamic society. The time of PC was in 20?? (yet to be determined).
These expressions are used in the backcast section of the chapters
on envisioning.
BPC
= Before Paradigm Change – As spoken from
backcast – times before paradigm change, before 20??.
, or now.
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Bottoming-out
|
This
term is sometimes used in addiction recovery programs. It means the point of despair at which an
addict finally abandons denial and avoidance. S/He then recognises
that major personal change is now a do-or-die issue. Our context refers an individual’s
finally acceptance that industrial civilization’s addiction to growth in
human activity will bring about collapse.
Growing
numbers of individuals and groups have already reached this point, but has
yet have no common viable goal to support.
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Cassandra
Syndrome
|
Cassandra
was a Greek Goddess: The Cassandra metaphor (sometimes called “the
Cassandra 'syndrome”). Cassandra was
blessed with vision to know what the future holds: And she was also cursed
because no one would believe her.
The expression is sometimes used today when scientists give dire
warnings but they are not believed (or will not be accepted, or are avoided
or denied for a wide variety of reasons).
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Carrying Capacity
CC
|
The
maximum number that can be sustained indefinitely within a specific
bioregional system – or in the natural systems of planet Earth. When population is in excess of CC, this
is Overshoot – below.
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Club
Of Rome
…and
Limits To Growth
|
Club Of Rome’s seminal ’72 book, Limits To Growth, illustrated
possible pathways into the future.
We have followed their business-as-usual projection that accurately
civilization’s well-being would be on down-slope that leads into collapse
early in 21st century.
The
Smithsonian Magazine made a study of the graphic projections in, Limits To Growth, and extended the
projections from 1970 into today.
The old projections were remarkably accurate as shown at: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Looking-Back-on-the-Limits-of-Growth.html
Also
see: http://www.clubofrome.org/
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Compartment-alized mind
|
A
term used by psychologists to describe our common ability to time share
conflicting realities. Sometimes we
think and function in one mode, sometimes the other.
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Complexity
Overload
|
When
discussing a specific issue that may be interactive with several other
related issues (specialty subjects) one will focus on those most familiar,
and ignore the rest, even though they may be more important.
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Conscious
Evolution
|
Expression
used by Robert Ornstein indicating the requisite next stage of evolution if
we are to survive. Related to
paradigm change, or epiphany on a grand scale.
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Dynamic
System
Feedback
Stability
.....Goal
|
System: a group or combination of
interrelated, interdependent, or interacting elements forming a collective
entity; (see synergy)
In
all cases energy flow is central to things happening.
A
regulatory system controls the flow using feedback (plus or minus) in order
to sustain the system output at optimum level.
A
viable system has a goal.
System-runaway: uncontrolled positive or
negative feedback will drive a system to limits.
Chapter
2b-Dynamic
Systems
is devoted to systems and dynamics.
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Ecological
Footprint
|
Our
ecological footprint is a science/data based
assessment of the human impact on a geological area. Globally, humans began exceeding Earth’s
renewing bounty in the 1970s. (This
may be optimistic)
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Economic Growth
...includes both...
Population &
Resources
|
Growth
in both human population and resource throughput translate into economic
growth. Today’s paradigm, where
growth must increase every year, is today’s principle paradigm flaw. To expose the dilemma of exponential
growth at all levels of governance has been the 30 year quest of Dr. Al
Bartlett - http://www.albartlett.org
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Energy
Flow energy?
|
Energy
is a very large subject, but only a couple points are raised here. ~Energy flow makes pretty much all
things happen on our planet including the living systems of Gaia and
civilizations.
~The
term “renewable energy” is a misnomer, because the first Law of
thermodynamics states that energy or matter can neither be created nor
destroyed. However, it is widely
used based on:
~A
renewable energy resource is
from nature’s energy flows, therefore replenish-able. Sun, wind, geothermal, tidal are considered
to be renewable.
This
manual uses, flow-energy, to
categorize all of these sources.
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Fatalist Denial
similar to
Group Denial
|
“Let
us assume that a couple has a problem of escalating debts. They both agree
that their prodigal lifestyle is not negotiable. Consequently, there is no
practical solution to their problem. As long as they acknowledge the
problem, they incur the social and psychological cost of avowal on top of
the cost of the problem itself. Not only do they have to service their debt,
but they also must acknowledge the uncomfortable fact that they are living
beyond their means. At some point, they silently agree to stop talking
about their escalating debts. They then feel much better. Their debts keep
rising, but instead of lamenting their predicament they have now swept it
under the carpet. Initially, this seems to work very well indeed. But over
time there is more and more fallout from their skyrocketing debts, and at
some point the entire situation is doomed to break down.
“The
Figure expresses this pattern of “fatalist denial” in formal terms. There
is an escalating problem bound to break down when the total cost resulting
from the situation at any given moment hits the tolerance limit. Because
acknowledging the problem comes with painful social and psychological cost,
the total cost resulting from the situation at any given moment is lower
when people are in denial than when they acknowledge the problem [cost
denial (t) < cost avowal. It is therefore attractive for people to enter
denial at an early stage of the escalation. Without denial, the tolerance
limit would be reached at t2 . With denial, the
tolerance limit is reached only at t3 . Thus,
denial reduces cost and buys time.”
Copy from, Peak energy and
climate change: the double bind of post-normal science. Written by Jörg
Friedrichs, published in, the journal Futures.
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Gaia
|
The
sun-energized interacting system of animal, vegetable and mineral. Gaia was the name of Goddess of the Earth
in Greek mythology, coined for Earth’s application by James Lovelock.
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Gaiacide
|
Gaiacide is the inevitable outcome
of the human predicament if we do not bottom-out, collectively, and
consciously evolve toward development of new and practical goals for
humanity. Of course we will not kill
Gaia, but may extinguish humanity and an ever growing number of fellow
specie.
The
term ecocide is now used by lawyer Polly Higgins who has a campaign to make
ecocide a punishable criminal offence.
http://eradicatingecocide.com/
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Gaian System
|
Any
dynamic system that humans had nothing to do with. Systems of Gaia,
include weather and biological system ranging from cells to internal organs
and animals. Gaian Systems are
distinct from human created systems (cars, computers, quality-assurance,
etc.) but similar principles of dynamics interactions apply to all.
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Golden Rule
|
Recent
meaning: Those with the gold get to
rule
Original
meaning: Treat others as you want to be treated
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Governance
|
Wiki: “Governance is the act of governing.
It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or
verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of
management or leadership processes. These processes and systems are
typically administered by a government.
“In the case of a business or of a
non-profit organisation, governance relates to
consistent management, cohesive policies, guidance, processes and
decision-rights for a given area of responsibility. For example, managing
at a corporate level might involve evolving policies on privacy, on
internal investment, and on the use of data.”
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Homeostasis VS
equilibrium
|
Homeostasis has to be understood for
what it is. It is not at all the same thing as "equilibrium" as
it is defined in thermodynamics. For example, a human being is a complex
system. When you are alive but at rest, you are in homeostasis. If you are
in equilibrium you are dead. Homeostasis is a dynamical equilibrium of
forces.
See
http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/5528
"Peak
Civilization": The Fall of the Roman Empire
Posted by Ugo Bardi on July 22, 2009 The
Oil Drum: Europe
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Human
Predicament
|
This
is the expression used in the Club Of Rome’s ’72, Limits To Growth. It
refers to humanity’s current pathways and obsolete beliefs that drive
civilization toward Gaiacide.
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Human Activity
|
This expression is used throughout
this manual. It encompasses the idea
of human population numbers and also our collective activities impact on
the Gaian system.
Credible scientists now considered by
that today’s Human Activity is significantly beyond Carrying Capacity.
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IEA
International
Energy
Agency
|
This graph produced in 2012
accompanied by text indicating supply no longer met the economy’s needs in
2008. This is often called
peak-oil
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Interdisiplinaroty
|
Coined
by enlightened economist, Herman Daly, it refers to an individual in a
specialty field who will consider the data or issues related to their
specific speciality to have much more importance
than data and issues in other specialty areas. His examples were about the specialties
within, “economics”, but it also applies across disciplines. An example is that most economists have
little understanding about energy supply issues or ecological issues,
therefore they discount their importance.
Or a biologist will consider his specialty to be of more important
than that of an archaeologist.
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Jevons Paradox
Observation
of an 1865 economist
|
The Jevons Paradox: any increase in energy
supply from any source or by any method, such as improved efficiency, will
cause the economy to grow; and this will further increase the economy's
energy demand.
With our current paradigm, this is sometimes
considered to be a “wicked problem” – a multi
disciplinary issue wherein corrective action would need to be taken
in several regulatory jurisdictions, perhaps even a constitutional
amendment would be needed. The
holistic dynamic nature of Governance by Natural Processes (GNP) eliminates
wicked problems such as Jeovns
Paradox.
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Mutual
Coercion
|
Mutual Coercion by Mutual Agreement. This was Garrett Hardin’s suggested
formula for dealing with the, tragedy
of the commons, as described in his well-known essay by that name. It is a way of reaching consensus on a
thorny issue as an effective form of very local democracy. It may apply to as few as an agreed
protocol for two people sharing a common bathroom. [Kenith
Boulding]
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Optimum
See
3D-Optimum
|
Optimum
expresses the best possible condition under the circumstances. When the optimum is not possible under
today’s circumstances, optimum becomes a goal to guide dynamic processes in
order to achieve that optimum in
the future.
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Optimum
Population (OP)
|
The
human population of a region that provides maximum human well-being of
present populations, and of future generations. OP will be somewhat below Regional
maximum CC (Carrying Capacity)
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Optimum
Human Wealth
(OHW)
|
See
Wealth below. In the GNP context,
OHW today is balanced with scientific and economic measurements that result
in regulatory control to guidance and adjust human activity levels
toward 3D-O.
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Optimum
Rate of change
|
Since
it may take several decades to reach OHW, the optimum amount of regulatory
pressure will be delicate balance.
All parameters will be continuously measured and adjustments
made. The monetary system will be
the primary regulatory control device.
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Overshoot
(See Carrying
Capacity)
|
This
is when a species population has grown beyond Carrying Capacity (CC). When caused by a rich niche food (energy)
supply, a very large condition of overgrowth can devastates the environment
during die-off. While in overgrowth,
the system’s original CC may be drastically reduced to the point that the
species may become extinct.
http://davidmdelaney.com/overshoot-in-a-nutshell.html
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Paradigm
Paradigm
Paralysis
|
Webster
Online dictionary defines this usage as "a philosophical and
theoretical framework of a scientific school or discipline within which
theories, laws, and generalizations and the experiments performed in
support of them are formulated; broadly: a philosophical or theoretical
framework of any kind.
Paradigm
Paralysis represents the difficulty in changing a long held world view of how things should be: Even though
strong evidence indicates it would be wise to change.
This
is related to Tyranny of the Tools.
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Peak-Oil
(see IEA above)
|
This
graphic is from the ’92 book Beyond The Limits to Growth, by the same team
that prepared the ’72 report to the Club Of Rome, Limits To Growth.
 http://www.clubofrome.org/flash/peak_oil.html
|
The
Oil Age Poster provides a great deal of information about
the
status of fossil
fuels, past, present and future. Free copy for schools at
www.oilposter.org/
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PerCapita
Dynamics
|
This
descriptive term describes a dynamic influence where total measured
regional wealth (Wealth Factors) will be expressed on a per capita
basis. I.e., the fewer people there
are in a region, the greater the wealth of each person, and vise versa. The
term Dynamics denotes that: Since Human-Activity can be influenced by wealth, feedback from WF will influence human
procreation choices and resource throughput decisions.
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Relocalization
|
Relocalization is about the possibility of building
resilient community and stronger local economies now, where you are. It's
also about finding a part in this change that really works for you.
Relocalization
builds local strength in the face of economic downturns, challenges from
peak oil and climate change, profound ecological stress, loss of citizen
control, resource depletion in an interconnected world - little things like
that! You know the ones!
http://www.radicalrelocalization.com/
http://www.energybulletin.net/50750
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3541
http://www.transitionnetwork.org
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Personal Transition (PT)
|
This expression applies to individuals who have
absorbed enough information about ecology, and or economics, and/or many of
the other converging issues that clearly indicate the growth paradigm
cannot continue. They have gone through
a form of bottoming out, and are
now receptive to initiating or following a new heading. To have an epiphany is similar. Dirctinary: “… a
sudden intuitive leap of understanding, especially through an ordinary but
striking occurrence”.
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Tombstone
debt
|
(See
Ch. 4d page 8) This debt is a loan against well-being today as an
investment to a sustainable future.
It provides essential money per capita to keep essential industry
functional during change toward 3D-Optimum, when the debt would be paid back.
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Post
Normal:
Science;
Economics
|
(ref
in gaia/misc/) + Joerg
The
idea of Post Normal Science was suggested by T. 5.
Kuhn, The Structure of
Scientific Revolutions,1962 with various
articles written since. The idea
suggested is that normal science is based on known facts where certainty of
outcomes is high and the associated risks are not high. Post normal extends what is known into
areas that are quite uncertain and associated risks that are quite high.
Uncertainty of outcome and high risk are
definitely associated with design speculation of changed social systems and
governance with economics that could correct or supplant those systems we
consider normal today: but which, unfortunately, are driven by a fatal
growth addiction.
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Quality
Assurance
QA
|
QA
systems are a systems-based corporate tool to ensure product or process
continuously meets the design intent.
See Dynamic Systems section for greater detail.
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Region
&
Regions
|
In
the envisioned sustainable society, the world will be divided into hundreds
of regions that operate relatively autonomously but are part of a
cooperative dynamic interactive system.
APC, when referring to a region’s government, Regions will be
capitalized when it represents the local top-government of the people.
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Renewable
|
Renewable
energy - see Energy above.
|
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SCSyndrome
(The
Elephant in the living room)
|
Sacred
Cow Syndrome: An inhibition, or
taboo against thinking about or discussing certain issues that may lead to
an individual’s increase in anxiety or uncertainty. Some areas may be, the inevitable results
of human population beyond CC, or that infinite economic growth not possible: or connecting the dots from
now into the future when speculation on the results of issues like
peak-oil, or global warming, or atmospheric tipping points, or of an
increasing national-debt to GDP ratio.
I don’t want to think about
it! Used by Don Chisholm in the
‘95, A 21st Century
Steward’s Handbook.
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Scientists
Warnings
World
Scientists’,
Warning
to
Humanity
MIT
Planet
Under
Pressure Group
|
Scientists warnings to humanity:
Professor Frank Fenner, emeritus
professor of microbiology at the Australian National University, has
predicted that the human race will be extinct within the next 100
years. He has claimed that the human
race will be unable to survive a population explosion and 'unbridled
consumption.’
Sir Martin Rees: Our Final Hour is a 2003 book
by the British Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees. The full title of the book
is Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and
Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future In
This Century - On Earth and Beyond. It was published in the United
Kingdom under the less dramatic title Our Final Century: Will the Human Race Survive the
Twenty-first Century?.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Final_Hour
... and...
In 1992, the, Union of Concerned Scientists’,
Warning to Humanity, which called for "fundamental change" to
address a range of security and environmental issues. The document was
signed by 1700 scientists, including a majority of de Nobel prize winners
in sciences
http://wikien4.appspot.com/wiki/Union_of_Concerned_Scientists#Publications
“Human
beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities
inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on
critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at
serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and
animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable
to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent
if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about.”
World
Scientists' Warning to Humanity (1992) [g]
http://www.ucsusa.org/about/1992-world-scientists.html
MIT scientists
predict economic collapse about 2030
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Looking-Back-on-the-Limits-of-Growth.html
Welcome To The Anthropocene http://vimeo.com/39048998
A 3-minute journey through the last 250 years of our history, from
the start of the Industrial Revolution to the Rio+20 Summit. The film charts the growth of humanity into a global force on an
equivalent scale to major geological processes.
The film was commissioned by the Planet Under
Pressure conference, London 26-29 March, a major international conference
focusing on solutions. http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/
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Simplexity
|
To
explain complex ideas in simple terms.
See Wiki
|
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Silo
Effect
|
The
silo effect is the result of
specialization. It limits our scope
and resourcefulness. Accourding to a recent study, this started with the
beginning of the agricultural era.
a
phrase that is currently popular in the business and organizational
communities to describe a lack of communication and common goals between
departments in an organization. It is the opposite of systems thinking in
an organization. The silo effect gets its name from the farm silo.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/13/humans-getting-dumber-stanford-study_n_2121823.html
-Universities
can be considered as silos of learning.
-NGOs
generally attempt to bring change on one or two silo issues.
-But
the human predicament is a multi subject issue.
What
is needed is a multi disciplinary approach.
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Spirituality
|
An
inherent human characteristic, a part of our biological nature. It may makes us
feel in commune with nature. Some religions
associate spirituality with their deity.
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Spread-think
|
When
dealing with a specific issue, ideas among the public will be spread out,
and a vote, or even consensus over time, may not choose the most accurate
or reasonable solution.
Deliberations about Structured
Dialogic Design, Systems Thinking,
- by
Heiner Benking and Alexander
Christakis
|
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|
Sustainability
|
“...
of, relating to,
or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is
not depleted or permanently damaged”.
Websters
|
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Synergy
|
When a group of separate
components are formed into a functioning system, the usefulness of the total
enterprise is greater than the sum of the individual parts. This value gain,
or total usefulness is call synergy.
As an adjective it becomes synergetic.
See dynamics above.
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System Types
|
...
see dynamic
Hard
Systems
are systems human create like engines, temperature
controlled heading systems, cars, television, etc.
Soft
Systems
are human made systems to achieve a result over time, such as governments,
quality assurance systems, etc.
Gaian
systems
are natural systems such as plants, animals, or mother nature.
Energy
flow is essential to all systems, and they have many other common
attributes. See Dynamics in
Background Reading section
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Tombstone
Debt
|
After
Paradigm Change (APC) the tombstone debt is the amount of money (Gaia$) in
circulation needed to supports the Human Activity (HA) that is in excess of
a sustainable level. This debt is
distributed among all of the Regions of the world, in proportion to that
Region’s measured excess HA. It will
be paid off when sustainability levels of HA are reached. i.e., 3D-Optimum
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Triad
|
The
group of three primary subject areas, Gaia, Human Nature and AbRealities (Abstract Realities - human created
institutes).
|
|
|
Tyranny
of the tools
|
When
humans become enslaved by AbRealites. See 2a: Triad Human Nature.
|
|
|
UR-GDT
|
UR-Governance
Design Team. Members
of a cyber effort to document the foundational framework for a sustainable
civilization.
|
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Wealth
|
In
GDP context wealth equates to human happiness. Human happiness consists of health and
general well-being. This cannot be
achieved without a robust and naturally renewing Gaian system.
This
view of wealth is vastly different from today’s common usage that refers to
accumulation of fiat money.
|
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|
Wealth
Factors
(WF)
|
Wealth
factors are items measured in each Region to assess its overall
wealth. Details in 4e: Envisioning E Dynamic
Flows.
|
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|
Wicked Problems
|
The
label Wicked Problems is given to cross-disciplinary issues because of the
apparent impossibility of solving them within the current socio-political
and economic paradigm.
[wicki] "Wicked
problem"
is a phrase originally used in social planning to describe a problem that
is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory,
and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. Moreover,
because of complex interdependencies, the effort to solve one aspect of a
wicked problem may reveal or create other problems.”
>>
Wicked Problems
Structuring
Social Messes with Morphological Analysis
“If you work in an organisation that deals with long-term social,
commercial or organisational policy planning,
then you've got wicked problems. You may not call them by this name, but
you know what they are. They are those complex,
ever changing societal and organisational
planning problems that you haven't been able to treat with much success, because
they won't keep still. They're messy, devious, and reactive, i.e. they
fight back when you try to deal them.”
http://www.swemorph.com/wp.html
>>
Wicked problems used in discussing
fragility of civilization http://aidontheedge.info/
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