Some thoughts about the Wild Idea Preserve.
Topics
The whole idea is ideas. - Some initial ideas about how
we're going to play.
Something in the middle. - A brief thought space with
some initial targets.
The whole idea is ideas.
Jonathan Riehl
The Wild Idea Preserve's objective is to provide and encourage an atmosphere
where ideas can thrive in their natural habitat. The meta-idea is the creation
of a non-trivial, self aware, system of thought. The non-trivial part involves
the creation of something that has a life of its own, something that is
capable of surviving beyond its current membership and able to spawn derivative
but unique systems of thought. It will be self aware in that its membership
will be aware of the organization as a living, evolving system. One way
of putting it is that the preserve will strive to be an idea engine, doing
work by moving information from high concentrations (the human mind) to
an idea sink (the human environment.)
One method of providing the substrate for such effort is is via the
development of a distributed project knowledge base. However, what is more
important than the actual implementation of such a knowledge base is capturing
the "memes" behind the projects. Since the definition of meme is still
contested, we will simply attempt to capture ideas and topics of interest.
The ideas contribute to the preserve via a dynamic process. Every
individual has a unique way of self expression, and therefore there is
no one process for sharing ideas. However, process is driven by a
set of principles. With this in mind, the Wild Idea Preserve should
act with the following principles in mind:
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Evolution - The system will be able to evolve itself and its principles
to changes in its social environment.
-
Adaptation - The system will be able to adapt to new stimulus and other
thought systems in its existing environment.
-
Novelty - The system will seek to be creative and contribute novel ideas
and products to society at large.
-
Generalization (see also complexity) - Part of the system will seek to
generalize observations and products to allow the management of complex
systems, and the application of products across disciplines.
-
Generative Tension - The system will seek to capitalize upon the creative
tension caused by conflicting forces. These forces may include:
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Simplicity vs. Complexity
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Simplicity - The system will present a simple top level interface to its
membership.
-
Complexity - The system will seek to capture and employ highly complex
systems through the development of tools for managing complexity.
-
Individuality vs. Collectivism
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Individuality - The system will seek to empower the individual via access
to the Preserve's knowledge base, and via the "voting" action of participation
in various projects.
-
Collectivism - The system will seek to unite like minded members for the
purpose of collective effort.
-
Expertise vs. Generalism
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Expertise - The system will seek to foster domain expertise where found
in the organization.
-
Generalism - Ideally, products, processes, and the skill set of the Wild
Idea Preserve shall span multiple academic disciplines, and hopefully most
of human endeavor.
-
Quality vs. Quantity
-
Productivity (Quantity) - Everything that is fostered and generated by
active membership for the preserve is considered a "product." (A product
is created by a producer applying a process to an input.) One focus will
be the attempt to optimize the set of processes used to create products,
and therefore increase productivity.
-
Quality - The system will try to provide the highest quality in its products
by investing the time and resources required to fully realize products.
Something in the middle.
So, here is a little diagram that maps where we'd like to head in our understanding
of life, the universe, and iced tea's popularity in the Southern states
of the U.S. More write up to come.
Last modified 1/21/2000, jriehl.