Politicians run the world, and we can take a snapshot as to how well this works out for the global good by watching the current international negotiations on climate change.
Climate change is gradually being addressed, but the process is extremely difficult, painfully slow, and incomplete.
And climate change is just one of the problems we face in our global future. What would it be like if we ran the world without politicians? Or kept them firmly within their spheres of influence, rather than allowing them to create roadblocks for global progress due to their particular mindsets. Two words: Donald Trump. He is not a visionary, he is a conservative who would keep the arms industry busy, and the teetering global economic system on its current trajectory. Hillary Clinton is of necessity, a pragmatist. Let us not bother to move on to the list of savage dictators in the world, and the religious extremists.
We need something new, a global plan that is unfettered by nationalist boundaries and posturing. Take a moment to think about how the world could be improved if competing national interests were taken out of the picture. How would we deal with the big problems? Take climate change, terrorism, the refugee crisis, economic inequality : are these problems insurmountable? Clearly, we cannot solve all problems of the human condition. But in a finite, interconnected world with a list of problems, it is clearly possible to start analysing the data to find solutions that are fair and principled, according to the global principles that we already have.
The amount of data we would need to achieve this analysis is huge. And the quality of data we would need to make quality conclusions is just not there. Look at the field of medicine, which is a great leader in the field of gathering quality data, and then analysing it and creating conclusions which are then applied in a global system of scientific medicine. Many lives are saved or improved, and of course many more lives would be saved if the knowledge system was to be applied completely around the globe. It has taken years and huge educational resources to achieve this consensus and quality.
But do we really need this quality of data to make a start? Or can our existing artificial intelligence capability start to sort through everything we have, find underlying patterns and themes, and start to build an integrated global plan? The answer, it appears, is yes. As long as the process is transparent, the conclusions don’t have to be perfect. We need integrated solutions now, not when we have developed our computing and data collection systems in all fields to the highest quality. We need input from the industry to see how this could be achieved.
We need an alternative to politicians, a global plan for global citizens to consider, and to act upon. Politicians are supposed to serve their people.
Their best service now would be to resource the development of a complex knowledge and solutions generating artificial intelligence, with the brief to find global solutions for our most pressing problems. These include climate change, preventing wars, natural disaster management, management of famines, water shortages, mass refugee movements, ending the escalation of arms production, and bringing fairness and equality into our global political life. I call such an electronic creation a “State of Mind.” That is, it sets up a global political system that can exist and guide, but not coerce. It can be chosen by global citizens, and actioned by electronic vote to start a peaceful process of transition. It would be paid for over and over if global conflicts could be resolved without guns and bombs.
What would politicians have to lose? The short answer is power. To create a better world, politicians need to stop spying on and trying to control their own citizens, and instead to give up a little power to an electronic regime that offers rational oversight and a plan. This may not be perfect, but it deals with the reality of global life, rather than historic lines on the map of unsuccessful human governance of our world.
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