The Utopian World Championship

Seth Nowak: Bold New Worldwide Meta-Cooperation Systems and Patterns

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Summary

Summary

Seth Nowak
Wisconsin, USA

Definition of Utopia

There are five components needed for Utopia.

1. Global Scope, or Substantial Scope
Our planet is comprised of interdependent systems and patterns of events. A utopian village, metropolis, or even a utopian nation would not be sufficiently utopian surrounded by environmental problems, wars and suffering everywhere else.

2. No Impending Doom, or Less-Impending Doom
Even if land wars ceased, the hungry were fed, and the homeless were housed it would still not be utopia because we are living with multiple threats to the sustainability of life on earth.

3. Sustainable Patterns of Improvement and Mitigation
There is much good in the world, and much evil. For utopia to have truly been made manifest there will need to be something more than "more good and less bad, more pleasure and less pain". That element is the presence of major trends in the right directions that have some permanence.

4. Contradiction and Paradox
Utopia will not be tidy, symmetrical, or achieved by unanimous vote of all sentient beings. More frequent experience of pleasure may be viewed as sinful in the views of many people. An increase in wealth may mean more inequality.

5. Fun
Utopia will be extremely enjoyable.

Processes of Causing Utopia

It is axiomatic that individuals can succeed and achieve goals far, far beyond their expectations and circumstances. This is "exponentially true" when considering the potential of groups of people, and all the more so of "Groups of Groups" of people. The development of enhanced group skills such as problem solving, dispute resolution, and planning is an important part of causing utopia. Trained, coordinated groups-of-groups can literally create meaning, culture, language, and economic markets. All of this is in the context of a world that has been developing technologies and opportunities inconceivably faster than our most advanced understandings and concepts of it.

There are many chances to make utopia a reality. These chances mean nothing without initiative and understanding of implementation, resources allocated toward these very large shifts, and many campaigns and efforts on the parts of many people. We need to write business plan to get to utopia.

Out of the overwhelming complexity, simple ideas for action emerge on which we can rely with the utmost confidence.

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In getting our lists together we could refer to many existing lists of "goods" and "bads", drawing from mission statements of non-governmental organizations, United Nations resolutions and declarations, statements of political rights and freedoms, and many other obvious or not-so-obvious existing sources.
That step is the easiest part. These goals and objectives for a better world are the staring off point for evaluation of the systems that exist now for solving problems and realizing opportunities. The element of bringing-into-being of utopia this points toward is the need for better systems and patterns. For robust, ongoing waves of change worldwide, our focus should be on self-replicating, self-reinforcing, categorically distinct, proliferating systems of change.

This is helpful because it gives us a way to observe and measure if, when, and to what extent utopia is becoming real.
In Sweden there is a movement for ecologically sustainable municipalities. Perhaps that is an example of a "good" thing. If powerful actors on the world stage such as corporations or governments allocate resources to speed up the pace of implementation of this example, perhaps instead of hundreds of cities becoming green, many tens of thousands might. If that trend were to have other benefits, such as improved public health in those communities, that could be a second level. If these outcomes could be measured and planned for, perhaps reduced health care financial costs might be allocated toward centralized funds that might, in turn, be used to speed the pace of environmentally friendly shifts in targeted villages, towns, and cities elsewhere. As systems are put in place, and organizational mechanisms become developed and refined, exponential change can happen.

Contradiction and Paradox

Utopia will not be tidy, symmetrical, or achieved by unanimous vote of all sentient beings. A "perfect utopia" or an "ideal utopia" is not viable at all because those options are static, uninspiring, and tend to be temporary when attempts are made to create them. They may take away the meaning of our ability to choose and to exercise free will.

There may well not be full agreement that utopia has been achieved even when it has. Many people may not even know it is utopia when it happens. Some may argue that our global situation is getting worse! More frequent experience of pleasure may be viewed as sinful in the views of many people. An increase in wealth may mean more inequality. Or, if our utopian founders succeeded in creating much greater equality of wealth, it might also mean less freedom for some: utopia could feature higher rates of taxation.

Inasmuch as this more realistic unfolding of utopian patterns will achieve a higher and increasing level of freedoms around the world, it will be a multicultural, pluralistic utopia. This means that well intentioned, utopian societies will hold mutually exclusive opinions, views, and values. Therefore as progress is made to utopia, and thresholds are crossed, it will often be seen as ironic or as embodying grand contradictions.

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