Difference between revisions of "USF Understanding"

 
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'''UNDERSTANDING SYSTEM FUNCTION'''
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'''We are working in community to create production systems to heal nature and produce abundance.'''
  
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''The Story''
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[[USF Invitation|Invitation]]
  
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'''Chapter One - A Pattern of Bridges'''
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[[USF Outline|Story Outline]]
  
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"I am frightened teacher.  There are so many bad things happening in the world."
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[[USF Discussions|Discussions]]
  
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"Do not be afraid my student.  Life is short and fear only interferes with what we must do in life."
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How Humans Came to Live in Peace and Plenty – Version 3.0
  
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"But teacher, I do not know what I must do in life."
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There came a time in our community when we grew tired of arguing over who was right and who was wrong.  Despite all the arguing there were still hungry people and the environment kept declining.  What we needed was more places for people and creatures to fit.
  
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And the teacher said, "You will know what to do when you understand where you fit."
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Then we came to realize that the market could not solve all our problems.  The market is wonderful for what it does – a spur to innovation – producing better and better goods and services – more and more efficiently.  But the market did not provide a place for everyone to fit. When there was more of us than the market needed we were laid off – the market did not value clean air and clean water and the diversity of ecosystems.  Anything that is abundant has no value to the market.
  
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"What do you mean by, where I fit?"
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Then we came to realize.  If people are abundant in the eyes of the market does that mean we have nothing to contribute?  And if clean air and water and plants and animals, fish and fungi are abundant does that mean that they have nothing to contribute?  What else would we like to be abundant?  What if food, clothing, shelter, education and health care were abundant?  Would they then have no value?
  
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"Remember this my student.  All living things have a gift.  We are all richer when each of us can express our gift.  We are all poorer when any of us cannot express our gift.  Go forth into the world and be aware of the gift of everyone and every creature you meet.  They will each want to trade gifts with you.  Be open to trade because every trade you make creates bridge - and there is more in the world with each new bridge - there is less in the world with each bridge that is lost."
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Then we came to realize.  If we cannot rely on the market for those things we want in abundance, we can create new ways of doing things for those that do not fit in the market.  We can design a way to recognize the value in people and creatures that the market does not value.  We can find a way for those people and creatures to contribute their gifts to the flow of value and receive value in return.
  
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"I do not understand teacher.  What is a bridge?"
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And we called out to government to help us find the way – and government said, “We are not elected to interfere with business.” And we called out to the captains of industry to help us find a way – and industry said, “Our only mission is to make a profit.”  And we called out to the foundations and the universities that they support to help us find a way – and academia said, “We do science and education – we do not design the world”.
  
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"Yes, it is hard to see.  Right now you see only that which you desire.  You seek to obtain the object of your desire before someone else gets it. Yet, you do not see how that object came to be - what gifts were traded to make that which you desire? 
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And we came to realize that we would have to find the way ourselves.
  
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'''Chapter Two - The Money Cycle'''
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And so, our community came together – people from government – people from industry – people of charity and seekers of knowledge – we came together to discover what we could do to make our community a better place to live.  And we found that we could produce an abundance of food, clothing, shelter, education and health care by creating integrated systems of production.  Integrated systems of production use assets to support as many different processes as possible.  The different processes are arranged so that the production of one process becomes the feed stock of the next process – creating internal production and consumption cycles.
  
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"Teacher, I hear what you say about the gift each of us brings - but there is not enough money for every one to have what they need."
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Those who did not fit in the market and those who wanted to work at a slower pace, and those who had retired from the market, began to contribute their skills in exchange for shares in the community investment enterprise.  And the enterprise produced abundance by finding a place for many different people and many different creatures.  And we became whole, our economy and our lives in balance, and we live together in peace and plenty.
  
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"So you think that what people need is money?"
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[[3DN_Organizing_to_Heal_Nature_and_Produce_Abundance|Organizing to Heal Nature and Produce Abundance]]
  
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"No teacher, but it takes money to get what people need."
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examples:
  
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"Why does it take money, my student?  Why can't we just make what we need?"
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[[3DN_Community_Investment_Enterprises|Community Investment Enterprise]]
  
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"I do not understand teacher."
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[[3DN_in_a_US_city|A CIE in a US City]]
  
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"Remember this my student; the goal of life is life itself.  If we think the goal is money, then life will suffer. 
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[[3DN_Economics_of_Integrated_Production|Economics of Integrated Production]]
  
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_____________________________
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[http://www.zeri.org/case_studies_pigs.htm George Chan's Integrated Farm Management Systems]
  
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This is an invitation to help me tell the story of how humans came to live in peace and plenty.  It starts with one community figuring out how to obtain all that they needed to thrive while healing their local environment.  What does it mean to "thrive" as a community?  Can we merge human and natural systems so that we live in healthy ecosystems rather than preserve them elsewhere?  Can we recreate the garden of eden?
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[[3DN_Grass_Powered_Greenhouse|Grass Powered Greenhouse]]
  
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There are parameters to the story. It is about discovering what is missing in the "typical" community - what do we need so that people here can live a decent life? How do we make more places for more people to fit in?  We can only supply what is missing by employing members of the community to realize unused human and biological potential that already exist in the community.
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[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-frWkYg2-Ew The Upward Spiral]
  
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In the story everyone gets to make their own choices. The future is the cumulative result of all the choices each of us make - but we each choose based on what is best for us and our families. We cannot force what we think are better choices for the community - we can only create options that work better for the members of the community - otherwise they will not choose them.
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[http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-6370279933612522952&hl=en Bill Mollison]
  
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In the story there is no one else to blame. Our community is the result of our choices and only we can choose to make it different.
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[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohI6vnWZmk Greening the Desert]
  
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And the story goes on with another community around the world hearing about what that first community did - and they improved how it was done. How to we make this a story with more and more people helping to write it?
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[http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/214 Michael Pollan]
  
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And then more communities heard about it and tried their own methods - until everyone in the world had the opportunity to contribute value to the system and lived in a healthy diverse environment.
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[[USF Version 1.0|Version 1.0]]
  
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That is the story of How Humans Came to Live in Peace and Plenty.
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[[USF Version 2.0|Version 2.0]]
  
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_____________________________
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''OUTLINE''
 
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::We can understand the system, and our community, as a pattern of flows.  Flowing through the system is energy, materials, nutrients, information, knowledge, wisdom, entertainment, emotional support, belonging and contributing.  These are the things that we humans value and therefore, I am using value as the generic term for those flows.  The goal of the story is a way that every member of the community - and every species in our ecosystem - are contributing value to the flows.
 
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::Civilization is a structure composed of bridges that we use to direct the flow of value.  We could say connections, bonds, relationships, agreements or contracts for different ways that value flows between humans.  We use bridges in the sense of structure where an exchange of value between two humans creates a bridge, the volume of the exchange determines the width of the bridge and the duration of the exchange determines the strength of the bridge.  Civilization is the sum total of all the bridges each of us chooses to maintain.  Poverty results from the inability to maintain adequate bridges - not producing the value necessary to maintain the required bridges - and the system's inability to obtain the value that those people could have contributed is a waste of human potential. 
 
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::Creative destruction - expanding choices - diminishing choices - increasing opportunities - decreasing opportunities - upward spirals - downward spirals.  Market limitations - systems to complement the market.
 
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::We also maintain bridges with the ecosystem - Environmental degradation - permaculture - waste of biological potential
 
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::People will live in poverty until such time as we have systems of production in which everyone can contribute value and thereby maintain adequate bridges into the value flows.  The environment will be at risk until such time as humans obtain what they need and desire through systems of production that cooperate with natures processes - enhancing diversity rather than diminishing it.
 
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::We are awash in information.  When we are able to assimilate information into our understanding of how the world works, we call that knowledge.  Some of us are more knowledgeable than others.  When our knowledge is accurate, and we are able to predict how a particular choice will play out in the world, we call that wisdom.  Some of us are wiser than others but I do not think any of us can be satisfied with where we are but, it is also said:  "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."  What can of world do we want? 
 
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::Growing from birth to death
 
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::If we are going to create a future conducive to human life, we must first understand how the system functions.  Next we must understand that we create the future with every choice we make.  Finally, we must set about creating those choices that will lead to an inclusive and abundant future.
 
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::Nothing exists that does not depends on the existence of something else for its own existence.  One thing is always dependent on another thing and all things depend on everything else.  All things are systems and ultimately there is only one whole system.  So we cannot change one thing without affecting everything else.  We cannot solve problems one at a time because they are systemic.
 
  
 
Back to [[ ]]
 
Back to [[ ]]
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You frame it an invittion to help craft a story... the invitation itself is more storylike than the outline that follows
 
You frame it an invittion to help craft a story... the invitation itself is more storylike than the outline that follows
 
11:39 PM
 
11:39 PM
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Can we in fact make the outline more story like and less tratise and series of defintiions?  This is a challenge
 
Can we in fact make the outline more story like and less tratise and series of defintiions?  This is a challenge
 
11:39 PM
 
11:39 PM
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I do like the invitation a lot
 
I do like the invitation a lot
  
 
[[User:Tropology|Tropology]]
 
[[User:Tropology|Tropology]]

Latest revision as of 15:26, 14 January 2009

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Company Name

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This page is about a company.

We are working in community to create production systems to heal nature and produce abundance.

Invitation

Story Outline

Discussions

How Humans Came to Live in Peace and Plenty – Version 3.0

There came a time in our community when we grew tired of arguing over who was right and who was wrong. Despite all the arguing there were still hungry people and the environment kept declining. What we needed was more places for people and creatures to fit.

Then we came to realize that the market could not solve all our problems. The market is wonderful for what it does – a spur to innovation – producing better and better goods and services – more and more efficiently. But the market did not provide a place for everyone to fit. When there was more of us than the market needed we were laid off – the market did not value clean air and clean water and the diversity of ecosystems. Anything that is abundant has no value to the market.

Then we came to realize. If people are abundant in the eyes of the market does that mean we have nothing to contribute? And if clean air and water and plants and animals, fish and fungi are abundant does that mean that they have nothing to contribute? What else would we like to be abundant? What if food, clothing, shelter, education and health care were abundant? Would they then have no value?

Then we came to realize. If we cannot rely on the market for those things we want in abundance, we can create new ways of doing things for those that do not fit in the market. We can design a way to recognize the value in people and creatures that the market does not value. We can find a way for those people and creatures to contribute their gifts to the flow of value and receive value in return.

And we called out to government to help us find the way – and government said, “We are not elected to interfere with business.” And we called out to the captains of industry to help us find a way – and industry said, “Our only mission is to make a profit.” And we called out to the foundations and the universities that they support to help us find a way – and academia said, “We do science and education – we do not design the world”.

And we came to realize that we would have to find the way ourselves.

And so, our community came together – people from government – people from industry – people of charity and seekers of knowledge – we came together to discover what we could do to make our community a better place to live. And we found that we could produce an abundance of food, clothing, shelter, education and health care by creating integrated systems of production. Integrated systems of production use assets to support as many different processes as possible. The different processes are arranged so that the production of one process becomes the feed stock of the next process – creating internal production and consumption cycles.

Those who did not fit in the market and those who wanted to work at a slower pace, and those who had retired from the market, began to contribute their skills in exchange for shares in the community investment enterprise. And the enterprise produced abundance by finding a place for many different people and many different creatures. And we became whole, our economy and our lives in balance, and we live together in peace and plenty.

Organizing to Heal Nature and Produce Abundance

examples:

Community Investment Enterprise

A CIE in a US City

Economics of Integrated Production

George Chan's Integrated Farm Management Systems

Grass Powered Greenhouse

The Upward Spiral

Bill Mollison

Greening the Desert

Michael Pollan

Version 1.0

Version 2.0

_____________________________

Back to [[ ]]

Back to Introduction

Back to Table of Contents

Comments

You frame it an invittion to help craft a story... the invitation itself is more storylike than the outline that follows 11:39 PM

Can we in fact make the outline more story like and less tratise and series of defintiions? This is a challenge 11:39 PM

I do like the invitation a lot

Tropology



Rating: 0 - 0 votes

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