Why the World Can Be so Much Better - Part Two

I ended Part One of this article a few days ago with the following question:

So, for me, the fundamental question is how to make beneficial social and organizational emergence and synergy happen more often than the supervening forces that push us backward.

As noted in Part One, Supervenience sucks. And when the threats, black swans, and swans of many different colors fly over your house and make your world suck, you need an effective, often life-saving response.

Historically, the bad things that happened to human beings were largely a result of unexpected natural hazards- volcanoes, earthquakes, large predators, one in thousand-year storms or droughts, ice ages, and unfriendly tribes who wanted your land. The thing is, today, we are our own worst enemy. We’ve created the six horsemen of the apocalypse, from covid-19 to economic crises, resource crises, the climate crisis, and the biodiversity crisis- not to mention the human extinction crisis that will be coming to a place near you soon if we do not address those first five crises effectively.

Basically, we have to get ahead of these crises and threats to our survival if we are to make it through this perilous time. How?

Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst, Pre-Adapt

I know this is something of a cliche, but it has stood the test of time for one simple reason- it’s spot on. Humanity has spent most of its history teaching…