Theoretical Society: Designing our world to be better than it is

[Tranquil Claw 80]

Here are my questions regarding the topic of creating a society in this world that is better than the system it replaces.

Can this be done?

If so then how would you do it?

Are there any flaws with how you would do it?

If so then are there answers that solve these flaws without creating more flaws in the process?

If not then can you change your core idea to exclude or alter that flaw so that it has minimal impact on the society?

If your design passes these tests, how would you make it happen?

 

My goal with this thread is to bring out the ideas of potentially brilliant people to fulfill the goal of finding fixes to world problems and hopefully inspiring real world innovation.

 

Now before any of this even happens, we need to know what this theoretical society attempts to improve or solve in the real world. This can be anything from world hunger to preventing the next dictator from rising up and terrorizing the populace.

The specific criteria I want to fulfill in this case are the following:

Create an equal start for all citizens guaranteeing basic needs without stressing the economy beyond operational capacity.

Eliminate or neutralize corruption in both companies and government.

Encourage the implementation of scientific breakthroughs to the country's infrastructure.

Eliminate suppression of individuals and their ideas or discoveries should they potentially improve the world.

Guarantee basic rights unless in conflict with the rights of others.

Support preservation of the world and all its inhabitants.

Be capable of changing to fit circumstance while remaining intact and beneficial to all mentioned criteria.

 

This is the criteria for the theoretical society I hope to find. Try thinking outside the box. This is theoretical and anything can work with enough time and improvement.

 

To start off I've been tossing around the idea of needs supplying needs. In return for giving the government what it needs to function,the government gives the people what they need, in this case food, water, and shelter. Going into further details, the government is able to impose a labor tax on the people for a certain time period like once a week or every three days and is then required to supply basic utilities like running water, electricity, food, and shelter to those people. This time period is flexible and depends on the minimum quality of living as determined by the people. Should any individual question the government's timeframe, the government must then show/communicate the process used to provide for that individual using their work. A key principle In this system is that both government and individual remain in communication, which stresses the need for a localized government that doesn't appear too high up for an individual to contact. This goes on to my next idea, which is that government is tiered yet equal, which is my form of checks and balances. As government exercises power over a larger population, that power becomes limited.

 

On top of this system lies a variation of Capitalism designed to appeal to what an individual wants and how they can get it. Once the community is cared for and given an equal start, the focus becomes on relieving pressure on the average individual. The less things that are enforced the better. Material desire will be the motive for doing more than is required. Caring for your local community will only give and maintain a living. Anything added on to this living will be up to the individual. This is the most dangerous portion because things like greed come into play.

 

In getting a job the individual must first find the group involved with it such as the environmental, industrial, scientific, or miscellaneous groups. These groups are given a total fund (I have not yet determined how it is set) which will be redistributable as needed to members of that group. These groups will have direct power over the politics in the local government but can only use consensus to enforce such power. Say if the governor was purely an industrialist minded person, the environmental group could throw a hissy fit and either shorten his term or put forth agreed upon limitations to it. If this was a decision by vote, the environmentalists would get no say if their group was smaller. Coming to consensus in difficult situations can also drag in other views that otherwise would never have appeared, resulting in more solutions available. The governor on the other hand, would have control over major projects and regulations regarding the usage of government power and supply. State wide government will deal more with things that do not relate to the people than the city/community/town government.

Edited January 31, 2016 by Tranquil Claw

[simba86 1,541]

generally the only drawback to society is the people that live in it

[Tranquil Claw 80]

Then again what makes a society good is also the people that live in it.

Edited January 30, 2016 by Tranquil Claw

[SilverStarApple 849]

Then again what makes a society good is also the people that live in it.

I like this. And you. 

 

For my suggestion: One that a friend of mine with family in the NHS wholeheartedly agreed with when I suggested it to him: People that waste the NHS time should be treated like those that waste the Police or Fire Brigade's time, or at the very least, fined for it and given warnings. I'm not saying that car crash victims should be charged, or abuse victims, or seriously injured people, or even nervous hypochondriacs that want all the pills whenever they get a minor cold or papercut. Or even people that injure themselves bungee jumping or skiing. I'm talking about the people that allow themselves to succumb to preventable diseases or injure themselves trying to pull off stupid stunts on dares, like jumping off/onto cars in-motion, trying to backflip where there's clearly not enough space to do so, 

 

And for a 100% my suggestion: When I was a kid, there was a show on TV called Power Rangers. It started with a disclaimer that warned kids that all stunts are done by trained professionals, and should not be attempted at home. Child me rolled his eyes upon seeing this, because if Morphers were real, the police would use them. Still, at the end, they sometimes did a little after-show in the credits, where they showed specific stunts and how they pulled them off. There is a genre of shows for adults that don't know how technology or science works. Especially forensic science. My scientist friend hates these shows more than tournament players hate noobs like DSP, because they teach science incorrectly to morons that end up on juries, deciding the fate of people's lives on evidence that may or may not be utterly worthless and untrustworthy. On these shows, a short disclaimer must be at the start, stating that this is a fictional show and the science isn't real, and it's all just for entertainment, and in the credits, there must be an educational credits-bit where the actors point out what was wrong with each "Magic forensic breakthrough", which parts were actually right, and teach the viewers real science in the process. It's tempting to also say this should apply to those shows that insist aliens built the pyramids and so on, but this would likely be met with more resistance and seen as "The government wants to censor our aliens-are-real shows!".

 

Also, tax religion (All religions) the way businesses are taxed. I remember hearing that several preachers have stadium-sized megachurches where they preach to crowds of thousands, and that if the land the Vatican sits on was taxed, their government would have enough money to solve America's homeless crisis. We humans, as a species, have passed the point where nonbelievers and atheists are burned at the stake as witches and heretics. We have passed the point where we believe the earth is both the center of everything, and an impossibly short number of years old. We have passed the point where dictators and bosses and governments are seen as gods and holy figures immune to criticism. So why can we not pass the point where we tax all institutions properly, not just the ones that aren't powerful enough to object to it?

 

And every 5/3 years, all schools that want to stay open must have a full inspection of their materials, their teachers, the books they use, and so on. Also, as you hold the fate of children in your hands when you become a teacher, you should have to be tested more to become a teacher than you would to become a policeman or fireman.

 

Abusive teachers get fired and can risk imprisonment if they pull what they usually get away with today.

 

Tax the rich the way they claim to. You probably think they do, but no. They give tax breaks to the rich, the rich help the governments stay in power, and when the lack of money backfires on the government, they cut the money they spend on improving and maintaining things for the general public. After all, less money going out and the same money coming in = the bottom line doesn't suffer as much as it would if they didn't make those cuts. Of course, if they taxed the rich and the richest of the rich properly, they would not need to make cuts, and they could protect their precious bottom line AND serve the people they're meant to.

 

Censorship made illegal, especially when done by governments. Bleeping out profanities is okay, deciding that your people can't read "Subversive material" is not.

 

Tax the profit made by the worst of mobile games. Especially those that are basically Skinner Boxes.

Also, journalists found to be corrupt are fired immediately. Free speech becomes truly protected, and the police will protect those who incur the wrath of modern-day dictators expressing free speech the way it was meant to be used. And on-disc DLC is made illegal. You want to make additional content and ship it as extra stuff the player can pay extra to get? Fine. You want to make players pay extra for something that's already on the disc? No.

[Tranquil Claw 80]

Another thing I can add is that teachers are underpaid most of the time, driving away many of the good ones who go off to better jobs. Teachers are the core of any society, they are the ones who's opinions matter the most because they affect the next generation's knowledge considerably. I personally had a teacher that was the definition of free speech. She used to be the one in class who always didn't care and became popular at the expense of her education. She was the best teacher I've ever had just because she taught everything expressively and believed in student led education.

 

One problem stemming from the world's education system is that students are taught to believe in whatever the speaker tells them to, eventually growing into a habbit of listening without question to all authorities. This destroy's the populace's ability to make their own educated opinions later in life. This is why I support student led classes as they are just as effective most of the time and also teach social interaction and cooperation with peers to achieve common goals. You can learn more about this by looking up the Independent Project.

[Steel Accord 6,658]

@@Tranquil Claw,

 

Quickly, as I'm between work stations, I will say that human civilization as a whole has always been trying to build a better society. I mean compare to the Empires of old, and humans have done pretty well for themselves with some notable technological and social regressions here and there but never to the point where the globe has slipped back into total tribal barbarism.

 

There are initiatives in the work right now like the Venus Project or Seasteading Institute one could patron to.

[SilverStarApple 849]

@@Tranquil Claw,

 

Quickly, as I'm between work stations, I will say that human civilization as a whole has always been trying to build a better society. I mean compare to the Empires of old, and humans have done pretty well for themselves with some notable technological and social regressions here and there but never to the point where the globe has slipped back into total tribal barbarism.

 

There are initiatives in the work right now like the Venus Project or Seasteading Institute one could patron to.

Yes, and I think Seasteading is a good idea.

 

Still... we could do better here, too.

[Steel Accord 6,658]

Yes, and I think Seasteading is a good idea.

 

Still... we could do better here, too.

 

Oh no doubt, like building up, using more vertical rather than horizontal space. It was just a quick suggestion, there are other similar social projects that one could support and I'm glad such things exist.

[SilverStarApple 849]

Also, tax pot noodles and super noodles, the proceeds going to cancer-fighting charities. As a kid, my parents typically only bought Pot Noodles and Super noodles for me to eat, and as a result, I was a fat kid. I eat a lot better now, and I work out a lot, but during those early weeks of proper-food-eating, my stomach actually had trouble processing real food. Families don't buy noodles because they're too incompetent to operate a microwave, they do it because it's the cheapest thing possible. This must be patched.

Oh no doubt, like building up, using more vertical rather than horizontal space. It was just a quick suggestion, there are other similar social projects that one could support and I'm glad such things exist.

Yeah, that's a good idea. I like that idea.

[EpicEnergy 22,082]

I have a feeling there is no society that could be better than the ones we got.

[Splashee 28,537]

I am reading some design documents from Windows 95. An operating system that made Bill Gates the richest man (at the time? Maybe still is, I haven't checked Wikipedia yet).

It was such a hack, it would never had been accepted today. Still it changed the world for the better. Designing a better world, competing against the current world, requires sacrifices and hacks. And most likely won't make the world a better place.