Blueprint for Tomorrow
Holons – Revisited (part 2)
Introduction
Anyone who has been following what is happening in our world should have got the idea that what we are doing is both unsustainable and destructive to our planet. Destructive as in we are heading towards a scenario where this planet of ours will become uninhabitable. Global Warming, loss of biodiversity, pollution; we are killing the Earth and failing humanity. We need, we absolutely must, move over to a sustainable way of doing things. To a sustainable, moneyless, socioeconomic system that balances our needs with those of the planet. But what would a sustainable society look like? Well, not like today's societies for a start!
The first article in this series was laying the foundations. That article explored the idea of autonomous, self-organising, holons that mimic nature mixed in with concepts like Mission Command and Leader - Leader as the foundation blocks for a sustainable moneyless society. In this article I want to explore that idea a bit more and try to answer the question of what would a sustainable society look like? I’m going to try and make the ideas a bit more concrete with a six layered structure of individuals, groups, zones, areas, sectors and then on to what I call a technate. But I’m also going to add a bit more to our blueprint. We have dynamic holons that form, achieve a task, and then dissolve. To that, I will add a second structure called sequences that focuses on skills.
I am aiming to move beyond the theory and towards a practical path to building a sustainable future. And from this article, I hope you will have some understanding of how it will work. In the next article I will look into the practicalities of forming, running, and dissolving holons; the nuts and bolts of making this real.
The Building Blocks of a Sustainable Society
For holons, you can think of Lego bricks. Each brick is a complete and functional unit but to get the most out of it we need to plug it together with other bricks. We can plug bricks together to make something greater. And then those somethings can be plugged together to make something even greater. But we can do more. We can reconfigure what we have built to make something different. They are adaptable and flexible. We can model this as holons within holons within holons. This system has inbuilt ways to change the structure and organisation. The individual bricks are like individual people. We can group the bricks together just as people can form groups to work on a task. From this we can build larger structures to create our final model.
So, like Lego bricks building somethings, there isn’t one organisational structure for building a holonic based moneyless socioeconomic system but we have to start somewhere. So, what I’m going to do is lay down a starting point from which the system can evolve as needed. Holons are task orientated but I’m going to start with a more geographical structure as that is easier to envision for a starting point. People and communities occupy physical space. Projects like farms and housing work on geographical areas. So, thinking tasks performed in a geographically area seems like a good place to start. The expectation, however, is that the system will then adapt and change as it evolves to become something else and that something else will be better adapted to the tasks that need to be done.
The structure I’m proposing consists of six layers as follows:
Individual – Virtually everyone has a skill and a roll to play in our system. So, I start with the individual. They can bring their skills and knowledge to solving problems that work towards the overall goal and purpose of the system.
Group – Individuals can work together on local community projects from waste management, to growing food, to building maintenance. As they do so they form the next holon in are holarchy; the group.
Zone – Groups can work together to form larger multi-community projects that are too large for one community such as growing luxury foods or a common energy farm that serves a number of communities. A zone could be, for example, an area like Southern England.
Area – the next level in our holarchy is the Area. Areas work on projects that server a larger number of communities over a much larger geographical area than zones. Such projects could be clothes manufacturing, for example, or travel systems. An Area could be something like the southern part of Scandinavia or the British Isles.
Sector – Sectors deal with much larger projects such as coordinating energy production between areas. Or handling agricultural production for world around distribution. A sector might cover an area the size of a continent, for example.
Technate – This is our final layer in our holarchy. This layer keeps the whole system together. Handles projects that effect the whole planet and perhaps even beyond. The term “technate” is borrowed from Technocracy Inc. and encompasses the idea of a state like entity that manages the resources of the planet using science and engineering. Originally in our design, this layer would cover just Europe and maybe a bit further out but as I’m now revising the idea, I think the technate should be planet around.
All change!
We have our starting point, so, now what happens?
Unlike a static structure, our holonic structure is responsive to change as the system is dynamic. So holons are created and, possibly, later they are dissolved. I say “possibly” because some holons may exist for a very long time. A maintenance holon, for example, may exist for as long as there are things to maintain. Where as other holons may come and go as the wind blows like a holon that produces a fashionable product and dissolves when the project is no longer in fashion.
Holons are created when individuals see a problem or an opportunity, a “tension” in our system, and they create a new holon to solve the problem or exploit the opportunity. That means that the holon has a purpose, a goal, and an intent. That goal and intent needs to fit in with the goal and intent of the above holon and with the over all goal and intent of the system as a whole. If all is well, the holon is formed and it can start working on it’s task.
Holons can come to an end when it has achieved its task. Alternatively, if it has no more members and it becomes obsolete it can be dissolved. Another way to end a holon is if it merges with another holon. That could happen if two holons realise they are duplicating each others work, for example.
As an example, we could take a Zone level wind farm project.
A need is identified. - An older wind farm is coming to the end of its life cycle (this is the tension) and needs to be replaced. This is going to effect a number of communities that were serviced by the former wind farm.
The Groups representing the effected communities come together to form a Zone level holon with the task of constructing a new wind farm. This will require a Zone level governance meeting (no need for central approval). The project is checked to see that it aligns with the goals and intent of the Zone holon (there is also another approval step at this stage. More on that later). If it achieves consent, the holon is started and necessary resources allocated as needed.
The holon runs the project to construct the wind farm. Rolls are defined and filled by holon members.
When the construction is completed, the holon self dissolves (efficient as no other holons are needed) and the wind farm is handed over to an Area holon that is responsible for managing a number of wind farms. Another holon is formed to maintain the wind farm. Documentation and lessons learnt are then added to the knowledge database for use by future holons (this allows for feedback and continuous improvement). Unused resources are returned to the Zone holon (to minimise waste).
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| The life cycle of a holon |
Those Who Know Make the Decisions
In the above example of a wind farm, the members of the holon would be technical experts. Each with one or more rolls within the holon. Power engineers who know about wind farms. Perhaps ecologists would also be involved if the farm has to be built on a new site. Experts managing the Energy Account and resource allocation would also be involved. We need experts because of the complex nature of the project. We often assume that everyone's opinion is equal but there are many technical issues where that is not true. It takes technical skill and many years of study to be able to understand how the system works. And we have a problem, as humans, where unskilled people with poor knowledge tend to over estimate their abilities (what is often referred to as the “Dunning-Kruger Effect”). Bad decisions, as in technically incorrect, could lead to waste, damage, and project failure. Often, the people who know how to do things are in the minority and we can end up with the “expert in the room problem”. But think about it, who should design a bridge? Civil engineers or the general public? If you needed brain surgery, who would you rather perform the brain surgery? Brain surgeons or would you leave decisions up to the vote of the majority?
There would also be members who have the link roll. They act as the link between the project holon and the community level group holons as well as the above Area holon.
Within the holon there would be technical meetings to plan and then implement the technical solution. There would also be governance meetings to look at the organisation. The project would, most likely, need a few sub holons, and they would be created in the governance meeting. For example, there might be a sub holon to connect the system to the main power grid that then supplies the communities. There could be another holon responsible for transporting the new wind turbines to the site. These sub holons could come and go during the projects life time.
Doubling Up
What happens if the experts are wrong? Although experts are more likely to make technically correct decision than the general public, experts are not perfect and can make mistakes but the system isn’t without accountability. To handle errors, information is open so other experts can check on what is happening in a project. For that, we need another structure.
So far I have talked about holons; the whys and hows. But the structure that I would like to introduce now is the sequences. Holons focus on tasks and get things done but the sequences focus on skills. They are like standards organisations and they define the current “best practices” for each given technical area such as power systems, education, health, or transport to name but a few. They are formed at each level of the holarchy and are headed up by a director who is a technical expert in the given domain. The sequences approve projects if each project meets the required standards (this is the second approval mentioned earlier).
The sequences can also be responsible for technical oversight. Each project would be subjected to expert review to see that everything is done according to standards and technically correct decisions are made. For example, a wind power project would have a number of safety standards. The sequence responsible for power and wind farms would define those standards. A representative from the sequence would inspect the wind farm project to insure that the safety standards were followed. This transparency ensure accountability.
Another function of the sequences is communications. Lessons learnt can be pass to the sequence and adjustments can be made to the relevant standards. Also, each sequence can function as a channel for technical experts to keep up to date with the changes in their technical field. So, a sequence also acts as a professional society.
Sequences have no control over how a project is implemented but they can approve a project or cancel a project if standards are violated. They can also help in identifying duplicated work. You can think of the way the connect as being like the way muscles and nerves connect. The holons are the muscles, they get the work done, and the sequences are like the nervous system, they ensure coordination and that the work is done correctly.
Summary
In this article I looked a bit more at the design of a holonic based, sustainable, moneyless, socioeconomic system. I have laid out the initial six layered structure but noted that that structure is expected to change. It is a structure that works like nature. It is made up of autonomous holons that self organise. Each holon is temporary unless their function is essential. They self-optimise, minimising waste, and removing redundancy. I have also introduced the idea of sequences so the system is expert guided. Experts fill the rolls in each holon so they can be trusted but we also have the other organisation to ensure standards and accountability. It is a distributed system so there is no central control and no bureaucracy. The system continues to adapt and learn. In the next article, I will look more at the formation and the running of a holon.
