Addressing the Wicked Problem of Housing Insecurity in Binghamton New York with Rebecca Rathmell
This View of Life
Originally published on September 9, 2024
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Hunter-Gatherer Societies, Human Origins, and Modern Democracies with Vivek Venkataraman (Part 2)
This View of Life
Hunter-gatherer societies are fascinating in their own right and--with appropriate caution--a major source of insight about our ancestral past, stretching back to our origin as a species. Remarkably, hunter-gatherer societies also have much to teach us about modern Democratic governance. Vivek Venkataraman is an idea guide to this subject, with a background in philosophy, primatology, and human evolutionary biology, along with direct experience living with and researching indigenous people in Malaysia. Originally published January 29, 2025.
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Hunter-Gatherer Societies, Human Origins, and Modern Democracies with Vivek Venkataraman (Part 1)
This View of Life
Originally published on January 8, 2025. Hunter-gatherer societies are fascinating in their own right and--with appropriate caution--a major source of insight about our ancestral past, stretching back to our origin as a species. Remarkably, hunter-gatherer societies also have much to teach us about modern Democratic governance. Vivek Venkataraman is an idea guide to this subject, with a background in philosophy, primatology, and human evolutionary biology, along with direct experience living with and researching indigenous people in Malaysia. Check out the resources, articles, and more...
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Barry-Wehmiller’s Bold Experiment in Prosocial Cultural Evolution
This View of Life
Who is Barry-Wehmiller (BW)? Not a person, but a and star attraction of the . If you are familiar with this movement, you might have read , by CEO Bob Chapman and , co-founder of the Conscious Capitalism movement. Or perhaps a Harvard Business School case report titled . But BW deserves to become known far beyond its current circle of fame. Not only has it created an extraordinary culture of caring for itself, but it has replicated its culture in over 140 other companies that it has acquired--or rather adopted, to use its preferred word. Stated in scientific...
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Assessing the Complexity/Evolution Paradigm for Economics with Eric Beinhocker
This View of Life
The first book-length articulation of an economic paradigm based on complex systems science and evolutionary science was Eric Beinhocker's , published in 2006. He is currently Professor of Public Policy Practice at Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government and . Eric joins me to assess progress during the last 18 years and prospects for the future. One of Eric's recent essays that we discuss is titled . Originally published on August 7, 2024.
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Evolving Prosocial Cities, with Jonathan Rose
This View of Life
Few people know more about cities than Jonathan Rose, author of . Jonathan is a practitioner in addition to a scholar. His is at the forefront of "building wellbeing through communities of opportunity". In our conversation, we discuss how two bodies of knowledge that are new within the last 50 years--complex systems science and generalized Darwinism--can help to catalyze prosocial cultural evolution at the scale of whole cities. Originally published on August 10, 2024.
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Conscious Capitalism Viewed Through The Lens of a New Paradigm with Bob Chapman & Raj Sisodia
This View of Life
Conscious capitalism is well known as a business movement that goes against almost everything that is taught in business school. However, the same movement makes perfect sense when viewed through the lens of a based on a combination of complex systems science and evolutionary science. I discuss this paradigm shift with two leaders of the Conscious Capitalism movement and . Originally published May 10, 2024.
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A Theory of Everyone as a New Paradigm with Michael Muthukrishna and David Sloan Wilson
This View of Life
Michael Muthukrishna's new book is the latest in a lineage of authors that include Peter Richerson and Robert Boyd (, ) and Joseph Henrich (, ). All of them illustrate what I call completing the Darwinian revolution in my own book . In this podcast, Michael and I discuss the paradigmatic nature of generalized Darwinism and how it can improve our ability to accomplish positive change in the real world. Originally published on May 10, 2024.
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Updating Darwin and Tocqueville on Self Interest, Rightly Understood, with Robert Putnam
This View of Life
In 1831, two youths embarked upon voyages that would change the way that we view the world today. The first was Charles Darwin and the second was Alexis de Tocqueville. Both addressed the nature of competition, cooperation, and community in ways that are highly relevant to the social dilemmas facing us today. Join the legendary and me as we update these pioneers on what Tocqueville called "self interest, rightly understood." Originally published May 20, 2024.
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Wicked Problems and How To Solve Them with Guru Madhavan
This View of Life
is Norman R. Augustine Senior Scholar, Senior Director of Programs, and Director of the Forum on Complex Unifiable Systems (FOCUS) at the US National Academy of Engineering. His new book is on how to solve wicked problems anywhere, but it is also rooted in a particular place--Binghamton, New York--where Guru did his graduate training at Binghamton University and where we first met and started working with each other. Join me as we discuss the general nature of wicked problems and how Binghamton and Binghamton University can become a city and university that is adept at solving them....
info_outlineIs it time to fundamentally rethink economics - its theoretical foundations, activities and processes; its purpose and goals? How should we reimagine and redesign our economic models to better reflect and serve human needs and wants, and the flourishing of all life on our one planet?
It is often said that the world faces challenges that are complex and systemic. But in fact, the world is a complex, interconnected “system of systems”. These complexities and interconnectivities amplify the global challenges facing us, whether economic, social or environmental. They also mean that a deep understanding of the behaviour of these systems is critical to solving these problems for the long-term.
Leading evolutionary theorist David Sloan Wilson and influential economist Dennis Snower have long advocated for an improved understanding of economics as a complex system.
Across a recent series of major articles, they argue for a paradigm shift away from the orthodox, neoclassical model of economics, which focuses on individual challenges to be tackled through decisions by individual decision-makers and views ‘externalities’ as a phenomenon to be ‘corrected’ through government intervention, in favour of a new multilevel paradigm, based on insights from evolutionary science. This is a model that takes proper account of the complexity of our social natures and relations, and the centrality of collective challenges in our lives – challenges that can only be effectively tackled through a carefully orchestrated, context-specific combination of social, political and institutional mechanisms.
Though such a paradigm shift has long proved elusive, Snower and Sloan Wilson argue that is an achievable goal, and one that’s more necessary now than ever before, at a time of economic and ecological crisis, when new narratives and new modes of cooperation will be critical to building successful multilateral alliances for innovation and change.