From: jimruttshow8596
Forrest Landry, founder and CEO of Magic Flight, conducts research into the impact of products and systems design on culture and ecology, among other interests, under the auspices of the Ronin Institute [00:00:51]. His work extends to exploring the relationship between the organic and the inorganic, particularly as it relates to concept and computation, and researching models for effective personal and social governance [00:01:00].
Magic Flight: A Design Philosophy
Magic Flight, a woodworking company, emphasizes the use of renewable materials and aims to provide “first-person” experiences not defined by computational interfaces [00:01:33]. The company focuses on finding simple, clear solutions to complex problems, going beyond traditional design methods to achieve a complete system solution [00:01:47]. This includes integrating the experiences of both employees and customers, believing that design solutions can satisfy all desired outcomes without necessary trade-offs [00:02:17].
Navigating Complicated vs. Complex Systems in Design
Landry highlights the crucial distinction between complicated and complex systems [00:34:36]:
- Complicated systems are those that can be managed with computation and simulation [00:34:40].
- Complex systems are more akin to natural systems, involving numerous interacting factors where the complete state of the system is unknown at any given moment [00:34:47].
A key insight, also noted by Dave Snowden, is that every complicated system is invariably embedded within at least one complex system [00:38:32]. For instance:
- A business, often designed as a complicated system, operates within the complex marketplace [00:38:43].
- A farm, largely complicated, is embedded in a complex ecosystem [00:38:52].
Understanding the couplings between these two types of systems is vital, recognizing that the complex system is foundational and ultimately stronger [00:39:04].
Designing for Sustainability and Adaptability
When applying this framework to challenges like industrial farming, the goal is to achieve both sustainability and adaptability [00:41:53]. Simply aiming for sustainability (keeping a complicated system going indefinitely) is insufficient because the underlying complex system will inevitably change [00:42:00]. Therefore, systems must also be adaptive, meaning they can evolve and interact effectively with their changing contexts [00:42:26]. This requires a level of consciousness that transcends pure feedback-based evolutionary processes [00:43:44].
The Challenge of Technology and Societal Systems
The advent of technology, particularly since the Industrial Revolution and the harnessing of fossil fuels around 250 years ago, drastically increased human capability to impact the planet [00:45:25]. This power, coupled with the scientific method and information systems, now dwarfs the resilience of human space, leading to existential risks such as ecosystem destruction [00:45:34].
“If we have the power of gods, we effectively need to have the kind of ethical coherency that a God would have” [00:33:57].
This necessitates:
- Sense-making: Accurately perceiving the world and sharing information transparently, without personal benefit or filtering [00:52:04]. The current information ecology, driven by market forces, often incentivizes disinformation [00:51:26].
- Choice-making: Guiding decisions based on clear values and principles, not just short-term optimization or market forces [00:04:10].
- Implementation: Ensuring that chosen actions are manifested without corruption or co-option by self-serving interests [01:12:00].
There is a critical need to upgrade sense-making and choice-making capacities, especially at the institutional level, where there is tremendous implementation capacity but often poor sense-making [01:13:52]. Designing systems, such as the internet, as centralized platforms can lead to capture by market forces and shareholder benefit, neglecting community well-being [00:58:59]. A shift towards protocols rather than platforms, promoting distributed systems, may be necessary given the vast amount of information requiring processing for good choices [01:04:50].
This challenge in technology design and societal systems requires a focus on the quality of choices and outcomes, not just efficiency. This means setting absolute thresholds for success, rather than relative ones, particularly when dealing with issues like existential risk and civilization collapse [01:07:31].
Conclusion
The complexity of modern challenges demands a new approach to design, integrating systems thinking with a deep understanding of ethics and metaphysics [01:03:44]. Humanity must move beyond individual benefit in communication and decision-making to a collective responsibility, recognizing that individual and collective well-being are deeply entangled [01:01:55]. This requires significant effort in developing robust sense-making and choice-making capacities at a civilization-level scale [01:09:03].