Big Idea

I have a great idea. So in my ideologue, I keep a number of ideas (obviously). One of which has been titled “Jon and his new world”. Now I have batted this idea around for a long time, whether in the form of a book, a blog, or a thought exercise between friends. But it all centers around the formation of a society. Jon, or in some other versions, Ender, is given the ability to shape the world to his liking. Almost like a science experiment. He can try new ideas, see what works, rewind when things fail, create fictional characters etc. etc. This thought exercise would stretch the mind into thinking of things a different way, or into asking the question ‘how can we best govern the world?’ To all you people who think this is playing God, or being egotistical, I argue that it is no more playing God than going to the polls or running for your PTA board. We all have a right to voice our opinion of how society should be run, and I constantly look for an outlet to voice my opinion. Today I have reached a new evolution of this idea.

What I imagine is a tree. Like a tree, it will have a starting point and it will branch. Except instead of wood splitting, an idea will split. Instead of leaves, a microcosm of likeminded individuals would form. How would this work. Let me explain.

We start with a premise, for example: Jon is a thoughtful fellow who is discontent with the world. God, feeling merciful, decides to ease Jon’s maladies by giving him the power to change things. Jon is given a ‘blank template’ of a small town and is asked to rule them as he sees fit.

Now the premise is important, and will have to be given much thought, because all further choices are based on the conditions and rules of the premise.

Well from time zero (T0), Jon can make a decision. Should the people have a government or should they be allowed to reign free. A branch in the tree is born. One branch is government, the other is free reign. Because Jon likes government he continues down that branch. Should the government be centralized, localized, a hybrid, capitalism, socialism, communism, a mix. Branches, branches, branches.

This is about the time where I give up on this idea because the branches are infinite and the level of detail is inexhaustible, and well I have better things to do with my time than just write out the extrapolations and consequences of each decision.

That is until today when I have had my new idea. Why not use the web as a tool to spread this task amongst humanity, guaranteeing exposure to all variations of humanity and bias. So beginning with the premise, people will submit their ideas creating branches. To keep the branches from fragmenting too quickly the ideas will be pruned, just like a live tree or bush. Ideas that have been exhausted or proven unsustainable will be dropped to the background. Likewise, similar ideas will be bound together to ensure that the ideas are focused.

What is needed to make this idea work? Logistically you need a domain, a programmer, and an administrator. The logistics would be the easy part, creating the fertile ground for this tree is the tough part. How do you create the conditions for the tree to prosper? As stated before, the premise must be carefully chosen. If you start off with a small population how do you simulate population growth? How do you replicate competition amongst communities? Largely the answer to these questions will be self-regulation (like wikipedia) and popular-by-logic tactics. What I mean by the latter term: if someone comes up with an idea like ‘there should be no such things as guns’, someone would create a branch saying ‘then whoever makes/finds a gun will dominate’. The latter idea making more sense (my opinion) would be voted for most often and would become less likely to be pruned.

The fun part about this would be the versatility of the application. One could go as deep into their own viewpoints as they want. Lets say I want to go through the tree trunk of tribalism, to the branch of elder-rule, to the twig of male-female equality, to the leaf which could be a story telling of every day life in the tribal-elder ruled-sex equal world of Makmanuland.

The strong branches will most likely mimic examples of the real world, but maybe that will only last at first. The wild-branches will be where the fun is. Thinking of new ways that people can live. If you can think it, you can do it. That’s the spirit.