One House

The Vision

Many decades ago, a Brazilian philosopher named Paulo Freire underlined the importance of individual expression. He said that the word, the ability to verbalize our thoughts, is our path to personal freedom. He also suggested that Dialogue is the basis for a social contract, regardless of whether it is democratic or socialist in nature. His sentiments echoed the likes of Wittgenstein who believed over a century ago that "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."
I need you. I need your voice. Even if others may have told you that your voice doesn't matter; it does.
If we want real change, we all need to agree on what that's going to look like. We all need to understand one another. All of us.
We now have the tech to build the first direct democracy ever: No politicians = No lobbyists = No corruption = No deception.
Let's finally put our tech to good use. This MediaWiki platform is the medium that I suggest we use for however long we need it. I will manage it for us pro bono until any one of us comes up with a better idea. Everything in here is transparent and open for debate - full disclosure.
So, let's get to it; let's REDESIGN OUR REALITY!

If you have any questions while I set up the skeleton for this dialogue, feel free to reach me at epangea.info@gmail.com or +13438822015

Simple Guideline: Keep your contributions civil, constructive and collaborative. There's zero room and zero tolerance for indecency andor abuse. Zero.
Free resources are available on Opencourseware.org, Coursera.org and Edx.org if you need to learn the art of constructive communication and collaboration. Once you're ready, your thoughts will always be welcome on here, no matter who you are or where you currently stand. My life is not worth more than yours. Nor yours, worth more than mine. The leaf on the tree making oxygen for us, is perhaps worth more than both our lives put together. Let's make our choices worth more than that leaf, shall we?

The Mission

STEP1: Design a BLUEPRINT for an alternate reality based on everyone's vote; a reinvented and redefined vote: Your voice; your thoughts; your opinions. Not some random person's name who will speak on our behalf. No thank you. We can speak for ourselves now.

STEP2: Put together transition plans for each part of this blueprint to move us safely and seamlessly from the status quo to our universally-aware and ideal way of living.

STEP3: Execute. Enjoy Life.

Any troglodyte can complicate things. There is beauty in simplicity. Let's simplify our existence and make it enjoyable for everyone already.
As all projects begin with initializing and careful planning, so should this project. This means that all stakeholders need to be considered, those directly involved, and those indirectly affected. Since this project involves everyone who has the capacity to communicate their thoughts and share their needs and opinions, as well as those who cannot, then it involves you. Every last one of you; and me; and all speechless life forms around us.
If you're pessimistic about humanity, Abraham Maslow who is reputed for the Hierarchy of Needs, is far less often credited for his other findings. He and many well-respected psychologists like him assured us that humans are born neutral or kind, not evil. We all have the potential for evil within us; I know I do. Think of someone inflicting extreme harm on a loved one and you'll feel what evil I am referring to. Societies cultivate such evil the same way a rotten apple ruins the lot. We can do much better if we only talked about it. About how.
People also tend to say we can't all be the captain of the ship. Well I politely suggest the following contrast. A good leader isn't one that tells others what to do, but rather one that listens to, and understands what everyone needs in a given situation. A leader knows that only collaboration and clear communication will get us where we need to go. Perhaps most importantly, a leader knows when to step out of the way and let others lead the way. All of us can learn to be leaders if given the tools and opportunities to develop the necessary traits. This isn't heresy, this is fact. Lookup Child Development and you'll see for yourself that I'm not making this up.

The Hard Truth: An Open Invitation to Reinvent Our Reality

Our votes are failing us. Easily put, are there any governmental structures anywhere in the world that are regarded as highly satisfactory to the majority of their citizens? Are there any public servants who are actually serving the majority of their public in a highly satisfactory manner? Do we typically see action that we ask for, or do we only read or hear elected representatives and experts utter what we want, only to later face disappointing or deceiving outcomes from their policies and administration? These elected individuals are supposed to be our employees; working to make all of our lives better. Is there a mass population anywhere that sees efficient or effective labour generated by their state authorities, people who we entrusted and paid to do such work for us?
I, a 45 year old who was born in Lebanon and raised in Canada since 1987, and who has lived in West Africa and East Asia for over a decade, have certainly felt less than impressed by all government bodies that I have been exposed to so far. So the logical question that follows (no, that is not begging the question - lookup logical fallacies) is, what good does the concept of nations still serve us, the people? Isn't it high time we give up on the archaic notion of electing someone to speak on our behalf? What good is the Internet if we can't put it to our service and use it for what our forefathers and predecessors could not possibly dream of - mass communication, collaboration and coordination! We finally have the tools to speak for ourselves - so the only question is, what are we waiting for???
We can't POSSIBLY do worse than our governments seeing as how they STILL cause wars and destruction when our collective understanding reaches far beyond the intelligence and compassion necessary to avoid such illogical and universally unproductive self-harm. Let's take this opportunity to reinvent our reality. Redesign it exactly how we envision it to be - together, peacefully. There are no limits to our creativity - let's just get all our heads together and design the most relevant, modern, intelligent global reality we can possibly design for ourselves. It starts right here. With you voicing your thoughts on the matters that matter to us all the most.
It's time we drop all the existing veils and matrices that we were shaped into absorbing, believing, accepting and, currently living, without ever considering a united, humane and collective approach to radical change.

A Borderless World: What Exactly IS a Nation?

What exactly is a nation? A unity formed amongst a people that share a particular set of languages, arts and traditions? When we dig a little deeper, do we not find that such cultural traits differ from one region, or even one community, to the next? Do these pockets not find themselves disassociating themselves from each other as different, unique or “better” than their neighbour? It seems as though community pockets have more than enough reasons to divide themselves from each other already, that one must wonder once again – what is a nation and what does it represent? Perhaps the flag is simply a representation of the central tax bank treasury which provides the shared services for collective needs, such as managing infrastructure or defending the nation? So then, is a nation or state indifferent from its governing bodies that represent and work for the people, to provide such needs? I propose we dig deeper and see what we uncover.

The ChatGPT Solution

On June 23rd, 2023, I asked ChatGPT:
How would you structure a single global, self-sustaining, socially aware, and just human society

Generating answers for you…
Received message. I'm sorry but I couldn't find a single global, self-sustaining, socially aware, and just human society structure. However, there are some concepts that might help you. For example, the building blocks of social sustainability are inclusive, just, and resilient societies where citizens have voice and governments listen and respond. Such societies support growth and poverty reduction today and into the future. Social sustainability works alongside economic and environmental sustainability. The Social Sustainability and Inclusion Global Practice (GP), formerly known as the Social Development GP, has a new strategic direction that focuses on creating more inclusive societies, enhancing the empowerment of citizens, and fostering more resilient and peaceful communities. An Ecocity is a human settlement modeled on the self-sustaining resilient structure and function of natural ecosystems. An ecocity seeks to provide healthy abundance to its inhabitants without consuming more renewable resources than it replaces. I hope this helps.
Learn more: 1. worldbank.org 2. ecocitystandards.org 3. britannica.com 4. un.org

THE BLUEPRINT (links/pages to be added)

1. Infrastructure including Public Works and Shared Services
2. Resources including regional Energy and Food sources, Needs as well as their Dispersion
3. Value Exchange Systems including Markets, Economies and Incentives
4. Property Ownership including Equity, Equality and Meritocracy
5. Culture including Arts, Traditions, Diversity and Identity
6. Personal Development including Learning Experiences, Healthy Lifestyles and Personal Growth
7. Human Development including Research and Humane Human Advancement as a whole
8. Policy
9. Taxation

The Overarching Questions

What is a nation? What is a man-made concept? How can we manage collective interests more efficiently and effectively?
Why do we vote? How do we vote? How could we vote more efficiently and effectively?
What is learning? How is that different from education? How can we learn more efficiently and effectively?
What is a value exchange system? Is bartering more meaningful than current currencies? How can we deal and transact more efficiently and effectively?
What is energy? How does energy affect life and evolution on earth?
What is an economy? Can politics and the economy work in separation from one another? How can the economy nurture growth, evolution and prosperity?
What is a healthy lifestyle? How can the economy nurture growth, evolution and prosperity?
What is the role of technology? How can humanity leverage technology?
What’s the alternative to this seemingly mad, and arguably ignorant, “Let’s all hold hands and sing kumbaya” proposal?
What have we done with our earth? How can we live on it more efficiently and more effectively?
(These are elaborated on further below, under Should We Talk About It?)

The Boring

• Technical OneHouse Project Management, Setup and Configuration
• Financial Project Costs and Approaches to Its Sustainability and Survival
• Purpose, Mission and Vision The (long-winded and unnecessary, detailed) thinking behind the mission
• Author Just another human being like you

Should We Talk About It?

If there is any interest, we can schedule a weekly online virtual meeting to discuss these ideas that can bring us even closer together, collaborate better, grow faster and help move everyone forward. The voices of individuals from around the world can bring us new perspectives in every exchange, especially if some of you prefer speaking over writing. All timetable and platform suggestions are welcome.

At the moment, I suggest Wednesday 1300UTC (currently translates to 9am Eastern Daylight Savings Time; 9pm Indochina Time). We can use Google Meet, Ms Zoom, or a cool Vietnamese startup whose owner I met recently and who leverages distributed networking for his app Quickom

The recommended questions currently compiled for these discussions are below (these are of course open to modification, as everything else on this platform!). The idea here is to leverage "in-person" vocal meetings to help us further the written conversations and notes, so we may continue to track our advances and improve our blueprint designs for the alternate reality that we envision and build together.

Can we envision a different approach to value exchange and property ownership (and shared/common resources/services, nationless community delimitations, legislation, work, transportation/commutes), perhaps comparable to indigineous lifestyle, but can incorporate people's modern lifestyles? What else would we need to change in the way we do things (and/or the way we think) so we can achieve this (these) new approach(es)/solution(s) that we envision?

Do we still need nations?
What is a nation? What purpose does it serve humanity? If necessary, is there any other way earth can be delimited or attributed? Can we envision a world of diverse communities where people get to live next to neighbours with whom they share much more in common than they do now? What challenges do such changes pose? How can we transition from what we have today to a borderless world that we may envision?
Refs:
Collective Illusions, Todd Rose
Why Nations Fail (and The Narrow Corridor), Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson
The Great Degeneration, Niall Ferguson

What is my identity?
Does my flag have anything to do with me as an individual? How do group affiliations and identities affect us as a society? Does labeling anyone or any group align with universal beliefs in human rights? Do i need a religion or a god to fear in order to live a moral, or ethical or compassionate and considerate life? What values can i nurture to live such a life? Take the IB learner profile for instance, are these universal and sufficient values?
Refs:
Moral Tribes, Joshua Greene

Do we still need governments?
What if your vote was your own voice and not someone's name to speak on your behalf? What do diplomats do primarily? What is the purpose of having trade agreements? Why do we still need the military? How would we repurpose military weapons and personnel without leaving room for an existing power to take advantage and make a play against others?
Refs:
The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
Basic Economics, Thomas Sowell
You Will Own Nothing, Carol Roth
The Great Reset (and its sequel, The Great Narrative), Klaus Schwab & Thierry Malleret

Should property be owned by individuals?
Should there be a limit on individual ownership? What would be a good cap and based on what rationale? How can such ownership be regulated without any room for foul play, interference or injustices? Refs:
Fifth Sun, Camilla Townsend

Is there still a need to fear andor distrust our neighbours?
What is that fear andor distrust rooted in? Can more understanding help resolve our differences? Where does language come in? Is language a true representation of a culture or a divisive hang up and distraction? Should we have a lingua franca? How can we cultivate relationships with anyone? Can communication, respect and trust help nurture better relationships?
Refs:
Talking to Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell
Willful Blindness, Margaret Heffernan

Who pays taxes and why?
Can taxes be reinvented to cover global and local human needs, without creating pocketed entitlement and division?
What are shared services and public works? Can needs be divided and served based on geographical regions and climate-soil status?

Should everyone be entitled to offspring?
How does creating babies affect evolution, society and shared services? What would policy and control look like, if these were to be applied?

Is currency necessary?
What would a single global currency look like? Are commodities like gold the best ways to back currency? What if human time was used to give value? What would a free market look like then? Should government ever regulate a market?

What is the legal system for?
If lawyers study one aspect of law their entire lives, how is it logical that all laws, of which we the masses, are primarily unaware, apply to us all as citizens? Is there a simpler approach to legislation? What should consequences look like?

What should drug regulation look like?
How is it that places like Portugal drastically dropped their crime rates by legalizing everything? Why do other nations not follow suit? How is it that sugar, nicotine and alcohol remain legal while other substances are not? Why was opium only rendered illegal in the 90s? What would happen if everything became legal overnight, would black markets still exist?

Sound of freedom underlines the demand for child sexual exploitation.
How do we mitigate such demand to ensure a supply market is never even contemplated by anyone anywhere?

How crucial is access to learning?
How does it affect society as a whole? Common sense? Identity? Basic needs to self actualization? How can we envision a different approach to learning? To assessment and validation of learned skillsets and acquired knowledge?

Are copyrights a hindrance to human evolution?
When the FBI ceased z-lib.org, did that help prosperity? Should capitalism or personal gain trump access to information? Is there a different way we can approach compensating authors than the ways we currently approach the matter, allowing for universal access while providing fair reward to those who invested their time and efforts into their work?

What are the labour market and employment good for?
Can we envision a different approach to filling our days other than going to work every day? What if we were all able to create every day? How would individuals be incentivized to do anything if they didn't have to work for a living?

What are the current fashion, sports and entertainment industries about?
Do they bring value to humanity? Does form come before function? Is competition as important as some consider it to be? How does collaboration compare? If collaborating is more difficult, shouldn't we focus on improving our ability to do that as opposed to compete? Does the art world fall in this monetized and capitalized version of fashion, sports and entertainment? Should everything be monetized?