{"id":9,"date":"2012-02-15T05:36:10","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T19:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/?p=9"},"modified":"2023-12-09T16:11:54","modified_gmt":"2023-12-09T06:11:54","slug":"a-though-experiment-in-the-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/a-though-experiment-in-the-impossible\/","title":{"rendered":"A though experiment in the impossible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Originally posted 15 February 2012<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p>Background<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nIn my work analysing and designing business solutions for\nclients I sometimes find that one useful line of questionining that gets people out of\ntheir &#8220;we could never do that&#8221; mode of thinking is to ask what the\nideal solution would look like if you had no restrictions on money, time or\npolitical power.\n\nUsually this results in very different ideas that reveal\nwhat people are really looking for. It&#8217;s then up to me to work with delivery\nteams to see how close we can get to the ideal. Often we can find ways to get\ncloser to the ideal than anyone thought possible \u2013 because we imagined without\nlimit.\n\nIn the same vein, I wonder what we could do to fix our world\n&#8211; its politics, poverty, violence and environmental destruction &#8211; if we had no\nlimits. If we were a collective God Emperor of Earth.\n\n<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Problems<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p> Before we can start defining the solution, however, we need to define the problem(s). What are the critical problems that have caused harm to the world over previous decades and\/or are likely to cause harm into the foreseeable future?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Excessive centralisation of power and wealth<\/li><li>Damaging the planet we depend on<\/li><li>Too many people living in extreme poverty<\/li><li>Too many people are subject to gross injustices and other people\u2019s wars.<\/li><li>We keep ourselves on the verge of elimination and extinction through excessive and uncontrolled capabilities for war and destruction.<\/li><li>The human race, and every other race around it, is dependent for its survival on this ever-more-threatened planet as a single-point of failure for its survival.<\/li><li>Lack of a clear line for unethical behaviour the breaking for which anyone, no matter how powerful, must be brought swiftly and unambiguously to account (i.e.: Our allies can do no wrong, but we identify every misdeed of our opponents) <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"> <\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>So: <br>\nLet us imagine that a small group of  benevolent people found themselves with god-like powers and, through a  series of unexplained events, in control of the whole of the planet Earth. To make this exploration in  fantasy more useful, let us also imagine that we have no existing identity on Earth  (with god-like powers we could be anyone or anything we wanted), so would not  need to protect or benefit anyone else, and that we would stay in this role for  only twenty years. After that we would leave this planetary system to explore  the universe. This would mean that we need fear no one after my crown has been relinquished, and that we would have to institute changes which would remain well after we&#8217;ve gone. We would need to build solid institutions and must ensure that we do not create an extreme backlash for major changes we implement. <br>\nGive this (impossible) scenario, what should be done? <br>\nFirst of all, we should aim to achieve an ethical, stable prosperous environment that would last long after we\u2019ve gone. To forcibly change things too much will create a pressure-cooker environment in which everything explodes as soon as we leave. Changes therefore need to be made with subtlety, and in a way that has support \u2013 or at least will after they\u2019ve been in place for a while.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\nIncentives<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>\n\nI\u2019d try to start softly \u2013 offering incentives to humanity to\nstop its self-destruction. I\u2019d first demonstrate my power. That would be\nrelatively simple \u2013 take a small crew to Mars in a journey that takes less than\na minute, and let them transport back. This would prove that\u2019d I\u2019ve broken the\nspeed of light so clearly have capabilities worthy of note. But before I give\nanything to humanity, my conditions:\n<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Implement\nan immediate halt to the clearing of any land for which no written record\nexists of it being cleared within the last five hundred years<\/strong>.<br>\nThis must be an international ban, with large \u201cundeveloped\u201d parts of poor\ncountries purchased by wealthy countries, with the money put into trust funds\ndedicated to education and health in the receiving country. Extensive checks\nwould be required to minimise the risk of significant quantities of the money\nbeing lost to corruption.&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Require\nthat all military sales be made public, and that they are monitored to verify\nthe purposes to which the weapons are put<\/strong>.<\/li><li><strong>Set up a\ncompetition for solving some of the most pressing issues facing the world<\/strong>\n(and for which clear measures of success are available). For instance: An\ninexpensive (suitable for third world use) design to clean polluted water so\nthat it\u2019s safe for drinking, a testable plan to deepen popular understanding of\nthe political process; a testable inexpensive and politically viable plan to\ndramatically improve rates of literacy and numeracy among the poor in third\nworld countries. A prize for one million dollars for each should be enough\nprior to testing, and ten million dollars (or Euros) for social plans that can\nprove their efficacy through rigorous multiple-disciplinary testing.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fix some immediate problems<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Eliminate\nall weapons able to wipe out all human life, including nuclear fission weapons<\/strong>\n(by making harmless all weapons-grade plutonium and similar materials)\nbiological weapons (destroy stockpiles and samples) and anything else that may\nhave a high likelihood of ending the human race and the life-on-Earth\nexperiment. Of course, removing the \u201cnuclear deterrent\u201d would create a few\ngeopolitical problems. Those would need to be addressed by some of my other\ninitiatives.<\/li><li><strong>Ban,\nthrough an enforceable international treaty, the manufacture, sale or use of\nany weapons which are capable of continuing to kill or maim more than two years\nafter being deployed<\/strong>. This would not mean that, for instance, land mines\nwould be banned, but they\u2019d have to decay to a non-operational state within two\nyears of deployment.<\/li><li><strong>Remove\nthe power of veto from all parties on the United Nations Security Council and\nother top-level United Nations bodies<\/strong>.<\/li><li><strong>Require\nthat all top-level United Nations bodies contain active representatives of at\nleast half of the population of the planet<\/strong>.<\/li><li><strong>Arrest\nand detain for trial everyone with an arrest warrant from the International\nCriminal Court<\/strong>.<br>\nFor a god, there is nowhere for even the most powerful to hide. We could easily\njust pick up the people on the list and teleport them to a prison cell.<br>\nThis would, of course, have to be combined with god-like powers protecting\nprosecutors and judges in the ICC, but that shouldn\u2019t be too difficult when\nwe\u2019re the only ones with god-like powers.<\/li><li><strong>Remove\n80% of the carbon molecules from Earth\u2019s upper atmosphere<\/strong> (having god-like\npowers can be very useful). This is a short-term fix to a long-term problem,\nbut the environmentally exposed people of the planet (i.e.: the poor) are\nalready very definitely feeling short-term impacts from climate change.<br>\nStandard risk management indicates that when faced with a major risk, even when\nthe evidence isn\u2019t yet conclusive, it would be negligent to not act to mitigate\nthat risk. Our planet and health are too important to argue over the details until\nit\u2019s too late. Best to act.<br>\nFurthermore, on the topic of causes of this problem: If you heat up a gas it\nbecomes more active. The atmosphere is one big gas system \u2013 so we get more\nextreme weather of all sorts. This is what we have.<\/li><li><strong>Immediately\nopen all bank account information around the world to appropriate government\nand approved investigative agencies, with appropriate judicial safeguards<\/strong>. To\neliminate secret hoarding of literally trillions of dollars in wealth and\ntaxable income.<\/li><li><strong>Prohibit\ntax havens through an enforceable international treaty preventing \u201cexcessively\nlow\u201d tax levels on high-value transactions<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Solve some of the medium-term and longer-term problems<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Ensure\nthat 95% of children in the world receive at least the basics of education<\/strong>.\nThis would include a requirement for the teaching of literacy, numeracy, the\nbasics of the scientific process, and evidence-based independent reasoning\nskills. We would also need to require that non-evidence based teaching and\nteaching methods take up no more than 30% of student\u2019s face-to-face school\ntime, and religious or doctrinal teaching no more than half of that 30%.<br>\nThis would not only give societies the tools to reduce a great deal of \nthe\nunnecessary poverty in the world, it would also reduce the world\u2019s \npopulation\nexpansion (as the more educated a girl is the less children she will \nhave \u2013 some evidence on this points to around one less child for every \nthree years of\neducation girls receive \u2013 possibly because of increased awareness of \noptions,\nincreased choice and increased use of contraceptives, and increased \npower in\ncommunications with men).<\/li><li><strong>Create an\ninternational military service that is required by law to intervene when gross\nhuman rights abuses are taking place<\/strong>. The international military service would\nreport to, and be accountable to, the United Nations. The UN could tell it not\nto act in any individual case, but its default position would be to act. That\nway, if the UN can\u2019t agree on something, they can continue to argue while the\nintervention is occurring. This is far closer to the way the police services\noperate within most countries \u2013 they have rules by which they must act and\nintervene. If someone authorised to provide guidance outside normal rules\n(i.e.: the courts) tells them to do differently, then that can happen, but\nuntil that happens the police are required to act to protect the public. An\ninternational military service would have the same objectives as a local police\nforce, but would generally operate on a different level of intervention.<br>\nAdditional measures may be required to ensure this doesn\u2019t just become another\nmethod for powerful vested interests to control those with less power. Those\nmeasures could best be copied from the constitutional and legal frameworks of\nmost peaceful democracies (those that are peaceful both internally and\nexternally).<br>\nA problem occurs when very powerful and popular governments are the ones\ncommitting gross violations of human rights. Imagine the backlash from\narresting the leaders of the USA or Russia to stop the key roles they\u2019ve played\nin the rise of vicious dictatorships over the last century. China is rapidly\nmoving into this position as well.<br>\nSometimes the least-bad option to let tyrants off without penalty \u2013 because the\nalternative would be worse.<br>\nWe\u2019ll have to use god-like powers to figure out an acceptable solution to this\none.<\/li><li><strong>Give a\nbasic level of legal rights to every creature capable of feeling pain<\/strong>. They\nare to be kept free of pain caused by deliberate acts or neglect. The\nrestrictions should apply to any who are capable of being active participants\nin a sapient society.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A few things to encourage international changes in behaviour<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Encourage\nreducing the number of human acts that countries prohibit<\/strong>.<br>\nWe should prohibit only that with which a single instance would cause major\nproblems.<br>\nMurder is an example of this. Recreational drug use is not.<br>\nWe should allow, but restrict and closely manage that which is undesirable but\nwhich causes major problems only when used on a mass basis or when uncontrolled.<br>\nTherefore pollution, smoking (of almost anything), suicide, prostitution,\npossession of lethal weapons, should be allowed but controlled. Even capitalism\ncould fit under this concept \u2013 if allowed to run rampant, capitalism can cause\nmore harm than any amount of recreational drug use.<br>\n\u2026 But require all countries to enforce a minimal set of human rights for\neveryone under all circumstances (when even the so-called \u201cgood guys\u201d engage in\ntorture, such a need becomes universal).<\/li><li><strong>Encourage (but don\u2019t force) countries to\nimplement genuinely progressive tax systems<\/strong> \u2013 in which rich people pay proportionally more tax than poor people.<br>\nRich people have benefited much more from the countries they live in than poor\npeople. They certainly didn\u2019t get to their wealth purely on their own \u2013 while living\non a deserted island. People who\u2019ve benefited from their society and have the\nmeans to contribute more (i.e.: they have more money) owe it to that society to\nhelp its maintenance and help it be improved further.<\/li><li><strong>Encourage\nprogressive taxing of companies<\/strong>.<br>\nIn the same way it makes sense for people on high incomes to pay a higher\nproportion of taxes, it makes sense for high-income companies to pay a higher\nproportion of tax. Companies that make an enormous profit (as a percentage or\nas a gross figure) should pay a higher rate of company tax than companies that\nmake only a small profit. There are too many instances of companies making an\nabsolute killing (pun intended) and escaping returning any of that money to the\nsociety that let them make it (and which, in many cases, suffered as a result\nof their profit drive).<\/li><li><strong>Tax all\nlarge international funds transfers<\/strong>.<br>\nEven just 1% to 2% would be enough per transfer.<br>\nMoney can currently move without restriction between countries, but people\ncan\u2019t. Money moving between countries without restriction has caused major\nproblems for many countries (the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990\u2019s is\njust one example). We don\u2019t need to stop it, but we should discourage reckless\nmovements of large amounts of money.<\/li><li><strong>Implement a tax on all military purchases<\/strong> \u2013 around 15% at point of sale (deductable\n(and traceable) if it\u2019s then resold as a new item), and payable by all people,\norganisations and governments.<br>\nThe money raised from this could be used to fund humanitarian initiatives,\neducation programmes, emergency food aid where needed, and the international\nmilitary service. It would also facilitate the tracking of military\nexpenditure.<\/li><li><strong>Require that military manufacturer\u2019s take a\ndegree of responsibility for gross violations of human rights perpetrated\nprimarily using their weapons<\/strong>.\nStart with open statements that \u201cYes, we are making profit from violations of\nhuman rights\u201d, then progress from there.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\nSome Technologies that will be needed<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p> Two of the biggest physical problems the world is likely to face over the next hundred or so years are access to clean drinking water and environmental destruction \u2013 and the many problems those two issues cause. <br> To address these we\u2019ll provide two technologies. In both cases we wouldn\u2019t provide the technology itself. We\u2019d instead release papers describing how to build these things, and make sure the papers were available to as wide a base of people as possible.  The aim with this would be to enable diverse groups, rich and poor, to use the technology, and prevent monopolisation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Design a\ncheap, simple and effective water filter system that can turn sewerage and sea\nwater into clean fresh drinking water<\/strong>.<br>\nThe design would be one that could be scaled down to a hand-held unit or scaled\nup to an industrial unit for a city.<\/li><li><strong>Design a\nsafe, inexpensive and non-polluting power source<\/strong>. Something which, if it\noverloaded or was in powering an aircraft that crashes would not result in\nexcessive deaths beyond the immediate area. Small-scale cold fusion, or some\nother distantly aspirational technology should do it. If a small fusion engine\nexplodes it won\u2019t destroy all life in the vicinity for a thousand years to come\n\u2013 it will only hurt those around when the accident happens. Not perfect, but an\nimportant improvement over nuclear fission.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\nOf course, any technology fix will only be temporary \u2013 new\ntechnology problems would arise shortly after. But the two technologies above\nhave an immediate and screaming need.<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Measures to ensure stability after control has gone<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Require all\nnations to commit to reduction of environmental destruction and carbon\nemissions<\/strong>.<br>\nA binding international agreement would be set up to implement and manage this,\nincluding open monitoring, a structure which actively discourages evasion and\nencourages all parties to prevent others from opting out.<br>\nOne of the advantages of having god-like powers and staying around for a decade\nor two is that you can ensure these things become part of international norms\nand accepted practice. At present inertia and vested interests are preventing\nthe implementation of a binding environmental agreement. My plan is to create\nthe reverse situation \u2013 where vested interests and inertia would prevent the\ndismantling of a binding agreement which improves Earth\u2019s environmental position.<\/li><li>&nbsp;<strong>Halt the\ndestruction of all areas of high biodiversity<\/strong>.<br>\nIf those areas need to be purchased to achieve this then so be it. That\u2019s what\nbeing a god is all about.<br>\nAreas of high biodiversity (e.g.: Rainforests and coral reefs) form a large\npart of the lungs of our planet, their destruction includes the destruction of\nmany living creatures capable of feeling pain, their destruction is usually\nonly for short-term benefit, and it usually only benefits a few people. Keeping\na large rainforest in place could benefit millions of people over thousands of\nyears \u2013 not just because it operates as a filter of air, water and moisture,\nbut because we can learn from it and because its destruction is irreversible.<\/li><li><strong>Create\nhuman colonies on other planets<\/strong>.<br>\nFind (and\/or make) a set of habitable\nworlds a few light years from Earth. Planets close enough to communicate with\nwithin a decade or two, but far enough away that nutcases on Earth couldn\u2019t readily\nsend some sort of annihilation weapons.<br>\nHalf of these colonies must be completely unknown to Earth, and too far away to\nstumble across for thousands of years. These could ensure the survival of Earth species humanity through any war or tragedy<br>The\n aim would be not just to ensure the survival of the human species, but \nto ensure the survival of millions of other species that currently call \nEarth their only home.<\/li><li><strong>Require\nall nations to report on their measures to reduce \u201cnational misery\u201d<\/strong>.<br>\nThe idea of reducing misery as a more effective way of improving the lives of a\npeople than increasing happiness has been floated recently, and some quite\nrobust arguments have been put to support it \u2013 mainly because misery, and its\ncauses, has more of an impact than the lack of happiness. Reducing misery\nrequires reduced poverty, improved universal health care, improved literacy,\nreduced violence and reduced environmental destruction. Happiness (to put it\nsimplistically) just measures whether we think we\u2019re better off than the people\naround us.<\/li><li><strong>Encourage (but not mandate) all nations to\nswitch to a nominally compulsory parliamentary voting system<\/strong>, with a president as head of state with\nonly nominal powers, elected with a system which includes published preference\ndeals and run-off elections for the presidential position.<br>\nCompulsory voting reduces problems of certain groups of people (e.g.: the poor\nand minority ethnic groups) not voting so increasingly having their interests\ndestroyed. Nominally compulsory voting implies very small penalties for failing\nto vote. Parliamentary systems distribute decision-making power to a wider\ngroup than the single individual of a presidential system, and are also\ngenerally more inclusive than the winner-takes-all style of most presidential\nsystems.<\/li><li><strong>Require that all countries set up the right\nto appeal to all legal findings<\/strong> unless doing so creates major and unacceptable risks to the nation, and\nevery nation must publish the details of circumstances in which appeal is not\npossible.<\/li><li><strong>Encourage political systems that encourage,\nrather than prevent, new entrants<\/strong>.<br>\nA system in which a single president is active in day-to-day politics and\ngovernment becomes a winner-takes-all system. Better, then, to use a\nparliamentary democracy in which the ability to act is proportional to the\nlevel of popular support.<br>\nWe need to find ways to reduce the effect of money on political systems. We\nhave returned to the bad old days of power overriding the interests of the\nwider society.<\/li><li><strong>Mandate protection of those who take risks\nto expose corruption and abuse <\/strong>\u2026 to the point of encouraging and actively protecting them.<\/li><li><strong>Mandate teaching &#8220;evidence-based\nreasoning skills&#8221; for all children<\/strong> (after basic literacy and numeracy has been achieved).<\/li><li>Modify necesasry national constitutions to;<br>\n&#8211; <strong>Enshrine basic human rights<\/strong> in\nevery constitution<br>\n&#8211; <strong>Facilitate third and fourth parties to\nenter the political mainstream<\/strong><br>\n&#8211; <strong>Concentrate the legal ability to\nresort to violence<\/strong> only to organisations closely monitored and controlled\nby independent parties ultimately controlled (through multiple layers of\nexecutive government) by the wider public.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\n\nThese are just some\nthoughts speculating about something that will not happen, but it\u2019s worth\nthinking about nevertheless.\n\nI often find that it&#8217;s\ngood to identify the things that we could be aiming for if we had the will &#8211;\nbecause many of the things here could be done if there were sufficient\npolitical will. It&#8217;s a pity it&#8217;ll never happen. However, a list like this helps\nme to move from \u201csomething is very wrong\u201d to having a much better idea of what\nwe&#8217;re missing.\n\n<br>\n\nI&#8217;d be interested\nin other people&#8217;s thoughts on what we should do &#8211; What realistic and unrealistic\nchanges should we make to the world that will result in lasting improvements\nfor decades to come?\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chris Malcher<br><a href=\"http:\/\/chrismalcher.com\/\">chrismalcher.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Originally posted 15 February 2012 Background In my work analysing and designing business solutions for clients I sometimes find that one useful line of questionining that gets people out of their &#8220;we could never do that&#8221; mode of thinking is to ask what the ideal solution would look like if you had no restrictions on &#8230; <a title=\"A though experiment in the impossible\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/a-though-experiment-in-the-impossible\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about A though experiment in the impossible\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}