How Embracing Complexity Could Foster Enduring Peace
We’ve created an increasingly complex, in many ways wonderous, world–now what do we do to stop us from destroying ourselves?
“In this new world, global cooperation is on the defense, and the architecture we built to sustain globalization is eroding. But a new era of globalization is nevertheless knocking on the worlds door, with digital trade, online IP rights, cyber attacks, and the problems posed by climate change becoming ever more relevant.
Humanity is not short of big ideas, nor does it lack powerful tools. What it does lack is an architecture for these to scale up for the greater good. We have no blueprint for such an architecture, but the technology that challenges the old is likely to be at its core. Cities and states won’t disappear, but digital tools will assume many of their mandates... New powers, problems, and technological possibilities are pushing hard against structures that were built for other purposes and other times. We need a new architecture—but where to start?”
— Sebastian Buckup, in Shapiro, Finding A Place To Stand — Developing Self-Reflective Institutions, Leaders and Citizens
“We are a gerontocracy. Gerontocracy is a good system at times when changes are slow and the…