Report on behalf of Platform-7

Some Metadesigners Network findings interpreted for John McKiernan by JW in April 2014

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Introduction

• John McKiernan invited Metadesigners to help him refine the conceptual framework for establishing Platform-7.
• Although his concept attracts great interest and goodwill from leading experts some see it as enigmatic.
• And many see enigma as a negative element, especially if it frightens off possible new partners or supporters.
• On the other hand, we know that many new paradigms seem impossible, or resist description, before they become established.
• In this case, London-based entrepreneur John has already created many unique and successful ventures (e.g. remembrance events).
• His last project (Moonbow Jakes) is still hard to describe, so this may also be true of the Platform-7 initiative.

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Recommendations

1.

• This means collaborating with radical innovators to find business models for the new paradigm.
  • E.g. The New Economics Foundation / Blindspotting / APT / Circular economy
• N.b. The lack of clear objectives in this recommendation is strategic.
  • It was inspired by Transition Towns, who decided not to wait for a clear strategy before announcing their determination to attain their objectives, somehow.
• N.b. The neologism entredonneur may be helpful in identifying distinctions between Platform-7's altruistic form of 'entrepreneurship' and other modes of business entrepreneurship.

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2.

• A local Attainable Utopias framework could augment top-down, prescribed-choice, ballot-box democracy.
  • (UK) political discourse uses adversarial logic to offer 'facts' and 'choices'.
  • This reflects the enduring Western preoccupation with 'truth' and 'rights'.
  • It is a legacy of the ancient Greeks and successive admirers.
  • Evidence-based science exemplifies this dominant genre of 'truth'.
  • Here, 'evidence' is seen as 'data' that reflects reality.
  • However, it also reflects the mindset of the scientist who 'designed' the particular observational act.
  • Science is only a translation of Nature's (unthinkable) handwriting into comparable/readable scripts/laws.
  • This is a reason why shared envisioning (aspiration-based motivation) is underestimated.
  • Factual, 'truth-centred' reasoning is only useful if we can imagine wise ways to act upon it.
  • Truth-centred thinking is not a vital pre-requisite to outcome-centred modes of reasoning.
  • Logically speaking, even designing miracles is a feasibility.

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3

• In a chemical reaction, a catalyst is the opposite of an 'inhibitor'.
• A catalyst is the 'host' for reaction and transformation in other agents (chemicals).
• It does so without using much energy and without seriously affecting the process that it facilitates.
• It may host many catalytic reactions in parallel.
• It is not consumed by the process.

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4.

• This may require an acclimatisation period as it is an unfamiliar way to see the world.
• You will need to focus on relations (how things combine well) rather than auditing discrete resources or assets

• Industrial economies invest powerful emotions in quantity (e.g. money, oil etc.)
• They perpetuate the myth that abundance is synonymous with quantity.
  • But no single asset, material or entity has any value on its own.
  • Abundance can only be created by combining different things appropriately.
• Current industrial/economic mindset founded on several moot assumptions:
  • e.g. that mechanical economies of scale can be applied, more or less, in any context (e.g. biological/creative/wellbeing)
    • But scaling up to increase profits is often counterproductive or costly to adjacent organizations/organisms.
    • See concept of Long tail business.

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5.

• Bicycles are already packed full of excellent engineering synergies
• Sprouts and broccoli already have useful nutritional synergies when combined in the same meal.

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6.

• One advantage of hierarchically managed systems is that they can convey top-down instructions very quickly and efficiently.
• This enables the organisation to adapt to new instructions quickly.
• This can be problematic, if the information passed down is wrong, misjudged, unfamiliar, vague or confusing.
• Systemically speaking, top-down
• Maturana & Varela)

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7.

Material

Chemical

Biological

Ecological

Political

Racial

Cultural

Technological

Economic

Conceptual

Religious

etc.

Material

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Chemical

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Biological

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Ecological

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Political

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Racial

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Cultural

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Technological

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Economic

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Conceptual

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Religious

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Etc.

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• ecological/racial/professional/technological/nutritional/cognitive/spiritual etc.
• e.g. cited in our Rio document)

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8.

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9.

File not found.

Fig. 2 - triangle & tetrahedron represent ‘team players’ (in green) and their relations (red)

• Where 3 team players (green letters: A, B, C) can combine to produce 3 synergies (the 3 lines, 1, 2, 3), 4 players can combine to produce 6 synergies (i.e. twice this number). This is explained by a mathematical law of topology (c.f. Euler, 1751) that can be regarded as a law of universal abundance (Fuller, 1969) and harnessed in scholarship (Wood, 2000) and manifold forms of entrepreneurship (Wood, in Chapman, 2007; Wood, 2010).
• See more on the logic of the tetrahedron

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10.

• Language this using terms that are meaningful and inspiring to you (Platform-7)

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Recommendation 3

• 3. Second, make effective (separate?) translations to each partner/client/supporter.

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Recommendation 3

• 4. Choose 4 key concepts that are as distinctly different from each other as possible.
• 5. Ensure each quartet has 6 useful complementarities when combining the 4 in pairs.

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Recommendation 3

• 6. This may be achieved by keeping versions of the 4 that are grammatical equivalents

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Recommendation 3

• 7. Or it may be achieved by ensuring that the 4 entities operate as a whole proposition in which some act as verbs, others as nouns, etc.

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Recommendation 3

• 8. By making different versions (as above) it should be possible to create a template that invites a mission statement and clear agenda of action.

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The Current Paradigm

• for an integrative (rather than temporal) nature of ecological systems.
• 1. Replace resource-focused approaches with a more relational strategy.
• 2. Cultivate visions of synergy.

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See document 1
See context document