Performance, Profit 'n' People - a future-state conversation.

Future being 1. 
Did you hear the one about the world of creatures called 'Humans' who, despite having 1000's of years speculating about the reasons they acted in the way they did, and what was 'good' for them individually and in groups, they failed to change even after they had the science to clarify those 1000's of years of speculation?

The irony was, no matter how diverse their ideas were, which were predominantly based on nothing more than stories and opinions of the past that had been introduced to them while young and impressionable, they all believed .. I mean .. THEY ALL believed, every single last one of them, (and there were billions on the planet) ... they all believed they were 'Right', based on the wiring their experience had created in a thing they called their 'brain'.

Don't get me wrong, many of them tried to identify a common 'belief' of what was 'good', although many missed an 'o' and there was some confusion over what was 'god' for quite a while! This attempt to define a common good ultimately saw them think their way was 'right' in large groups. That bit turned out to be quite bad actually, seeing many humans gaining power in large groups who thought they were 'right', until those large groups clashed and a lot of humans killed a lot of other humans trying to prove the other side wrong. It happened between land masses they called 'countries' and between 'ideals' they called 'religions' and sometimes, it happened between countries because of the religion in that country.

Future being 2.
Oh my, that's horrific!

Future being 1.
Yeah, isn't it! The story goes, their best guesses, myth's and legends about what was 'good' prevailed in the absence of any science until they eventually developed techniques to identify why they acted the way they did, I mean, until they eventually started to understand their 'brain'. With those discoveries they started to develop an understanding of themselves at both a psychological and neurological level ... they also had a multitude of systems they used to transfer data, with strange names like TV, Internet and E-Mail. 

Unfortunately, this data, presented in sounds and writing and pictures and video rarely managed to create the same 'knowledge' in the brains of the humans who saw it as existed in the brains of those who created it and so it really had little effect on the overall behaviours of the species. Even the ones who understood the science still acted in relation to their prior experience.

The funny thing about the whole situation was, despite coming to understand that they were designed to be self-serving (which was part of their survival capabilities and their success in becoming the dominant species on their planet) having the capacity to understand their formation, their education, what a psychologically mature and healthy adult required in it's formative and adult years to develop things like 'a positive self-concept' and 'confidence' (which happened to be one of the main things their whole capacity to interact with each other relied upon), and why they found it so difficult to change unless it was something they chose for themselves and why they seemed to hold on to the truth as they had formed it from past knowledge and experience, (almost at any expense - as in the case with the killing in groups) ... they used none of this knowledge to improve their own lives or the lives of others as a route to a better life for themselves!

They remained stubbornly short-sighted and predominantly invested in being' right'!

Around all of these events, they also developed a bartering and trading system they commonly referred to as 'An Economy'. This relied upon lumps of metal, paper and data, which they swapped for the production of material things they either wanted or needed and / or services provided by those with skills the individual didn't posses for themselves. In this way, one human who was good at understanding change, would receive some metal or paper in exchange for his time in helping others to understand change.

Future Being 2.
What kind of 'others' would want such help?

Future being 1. 
For example, the human who understood change, based on the science others didn't understand, might work with a small group of humans who spent their time using machines to make something to sit on. Then that person could swap the metal and paper they called 'money' for the thing to sit on to keep in his own personal space, which he would also have in return for the 'money' bits of metal and paper.

This was in essence a fair way of ensuring things were allocated a value and people could swap things that were hard to do or make for more bits of metal than they would get for easy things to do or make. It didn't always make sense, with some humans getting more bits of metal for moving other bits of metal between other people (called 'banking' or 'yanking' - something like that), but whatever it was called, the yankers would get a lot more of this 'money' than those people performing the manufacture or service activities in the first place, it was a strange set-up, but they seemed to put up with it.

The problem was, the bits of metal became a focal point; because the majority of humans didn't really understand what things were actually 'good' for them, i.e. for their brains and their bodies, they instead saw the generation and retention of this metal, paper and data they used to 'trade' as the route to more and more material things. 

The final irony here was, even though the groups of humans they called 'companies' or 'organisations' established to make 'money' thought they had the best design to achieve this, it was another one of the past myths and beliefs which didn't make any sense when considered with the new knowledge some humans had about the brain and change .. the trouble was, all of the leaders of these organisations thought they were 'right' based on their previous experience and failed to understand the principles of 'Change' in themselves.

This saw companies and countries develop leaders who largely led in the same way other humans had in the past, just because that's the way they'd always done it. They made more money, more places to live, more things to sell and these humans just kept breeding and breeding. They still killed each other sometimes, but not fast enough to stop the planet getting flooded with them until they started running out of things they could use on the planet to survive.

Future being 2
But that's terrible, it sounds like other creatures i've heard about on that planet. I think they were called lemmings or sheep or cows or something ... they used to follow others without thinking, even off of cliffs to their death in some cases, and other of these creatures would be controlled through fear even though they were in many cases bigger and stronger than the ..., I think it was humans..., who controlled them, so I heard ... and these Humans you talk about ... they followed each other like this too? They ignored the knowledge that was all around them? And they were meant to be the most advanced beings on that planet? Sheesh!


Future being 1.
Yeah, I know, funny when you put it like that isn't it!

Future being 2. 
So what happened to them? Did they change, or metaphorically all follow each other off the cliff?

Future being 1.
Err .... hmmmm ... although we're talking about it as if it's already happened, it's this time-continuum thingy we spoke about last week ... it's actually still panning out, so no-one knows how they're going to respond yet, they might change, but it seems unlikely - even those looking to lead change in companies to increase their capacity to make money fail more often than they succeed, if those leaders of companies and countries can change their understanding of what works and what's 'Good' there may yet be some hope, but without that as a next step, I can't see it ending well.

Future being 2.
Shame, it sounds like they have the potential to become something more than they are at present, anyway, there's no helping those who won't help themselves is there ... do you want another coffee?