We're facing an 'all-hands-on-deck' kind of problem — we are in a classic overshoot and collapse dynamic with our population size and earth's current carrying capacity. The thoughts presented in this "virtual, living poster" present a vision of capturing the human experience of need satisfaction, in order to create change in the systems governing that experience.

This notion page will also serve as the "poster" for the IC2S2 2020 presentation "Networks for Understanding Human Need."

To read the original abstract, go here:

Commenting is enabled on this page - I welcome your thoughts and contributions.

Goals (in hierarchical order):

1. Prevent Humanity from Going Extinct
2. Slow the growth of resource consumption (and environmental destruction)
3. Develop 'need literacy' at individual and group level scales

Assuming we are aligned with goals 1 and 2, I'll jump right into goal 3.

Motivation for Goal 3

First, let's think about the evolutionary pool of social systems: families, clubs, businesses, religious orgs, governments, etc. The stability of these systems can be partly attributed to their role in providing for satisfaction of human need of the constituents. There's a tight coupling between constituent need satisfaction provided by the system, and the constituents' desire to maintain/grow the system. Here's one way of visualizing the feedback loop:

While there are certainly other factors at play here, it's relatively safe to assume that no organization can survive if the members of the organization have no reason to continue to value membership. Employment is maintained to satisfy human needs.

This relationship is more than a trade-off of time for money. Money can only satisfy some of our human needs. Employment contributes to many others, such as those involving social relations, status, and perceived power.