Research community monthly forum no 1: Introduction to the Research Community

Notes for a short talk I gave to introduce the Life Itself research community at the first monthly forum. It covers the what and why of the research community via the metaphor of an expedition to climb distant mountains. And then provides a brief sketches for what a research program for a wiser world and an awakening society (in my view!).

Visual Overview

Part I: we want to climb this mountain

Climbing the mountain: a metaphor for what we are up to and why.

Imagine we wanted to climb this big mountain …

• We need to work out how to do that …
• And even where exactly we want to get to on that mountain (or even which mountain within the range)
• We could just set off and start exploring the paths
• And … wouldn't it be good to do some research beforehand or as we explore
• Maybe others have already explored or done some surveys – we could learn from them
• Maybe there is work on related tools, techniques and general principles … for example
  • we are going to need climbing ropes … so learning about rope-making and the best knot techniques will be valuable
  • the mountain has glaciers so learning about glaciers will be useful
  • the weather changes a lot in the mountains, learning about weather patterns at this time of year is going to be important

What is our mountain? A radically wiser world

• We want to climb the "mountain" of an awakening society, a radically wiser, weller world
• How do to do that?
• Where exactly do we want to go?
• We could just proceed by trial and error, learning as we go …
• And … it could be useful to learn from those who tried before
• And … to learn general tools, techniques and principles
• This can help narrow the set of paths to explore and provide ways of climbing those paths more easily and in wiser, weller ways.

Here's one specific example that already shape our view on what paths we think are important:

• Primacy of being thesis: the kind of paradigmatic transition we aspire comes primarily from a transformations in being, rather than a transformation in technology or institutions. Put another way, it is primarily an ontological shift rather than a technological or structural shift.
• Hence focus on, inner development and cultural evolution and how they relate to wisdom, wellbeing and the emergent collective

Part II: Sketches of a research program for a wiser world and an awakening society

Foundations

• Ontology and ontogeny: aka Psychology and Developmental Psychology (and expansion of that to include neglected transcendent/transpersonal dimensions plus the interaction with the collective and culture)
• Culturology: aka anthropology (+ sociology and economics and evolutionary biology and …). What are collectives and their "being" and how do they and can they evolve over time.
• Politics: theory and practice of collective action theory, community weaving and movement building
• Ecology/Systems: essentials of systems theory and complex dynamics. Beyond linearity, humility in the face of complexity (NB: IMO this is least important foundation for our purposes. It isn't the crux of the issues)

The first two are the most important – for now at least. If we wanted to fit more with conventional naming, we put them together (crudely) under the heading of "Psychology". We would need to broaden that term both in depth – to include the transpersonal, and in breadth – to include the collective as well as the personal.

cf my running suggestion/joke that Oxford's legendary Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) course should become "Politics, Psychology and Ecology".

Research questions

Examples of some potential research questions:

• Anyone who has lived in close-knit communities has seen them disintegrate, often spectacularly.
• What inner development or collective practices contribute to the success or failure of collectives like intentional communities?
• How do ontology and culturology interact? How does individual being come from group and the group from the individual (though this latter is important when it comes to collective action problems and so may be lesser interest near-term)
• Can idea of large scale cultural evolution including "wrong-but-helpful" frameworks like color stages help inform where we are and where we may be going as societies (and inform politics etc)
• What would a radically wiser, weller society look like? aka what are the mountain top(s) we are aspiring to reach?
• How would we get there(s) from here(s)? What are the different paths up the mountain?