Systems and Human Power

Systems of human cooperation are the primary method used to magnify human power. We are now in an era of human history where technology seems to be the primary amplifier of human power, but the growth of technology is really an outgrowth of human systems. The human systems that have collected knowledge in written form and made it widely available are the backbone of the technical accomplishments of our species. The economic and political systems that have made extended use of those growing technical capabilities are the means of accelerating the use of those technologies throughout our population. With the awareness that human made acceleration of climate change to a significantly hotter climate it seems obvious that significant change in the systems that have brought us to this point in our history must be part of the solution, as they have been responsible in full for the problem.

This way of looking at the relationship between self and the natural world provides a role relative to the larger living world (executive CNS functions), a primary purpose (to use our forcefulness in support of all life), a constraint (individual and species existing in a finite space, the Central Nervous System of the living planet) and three primary functional capacities (consciousness, expanding the scope of consciousness via efferent neurons , and purposeful use of force via afferent neurons .