A Problem Well-Stated Is Half-Solved with Daniel Schmachtenberger

• Many of the problems we face are interrelated, and can therefore be thought of as a meta-problem or meta-crisis. On one hand, if we try to solve problems without accounting for their inter-relatedness, we may create bigger, longer-term problems. For example, if we try to address elephant poaching without accounting for hunger, we may push people to poach even more endangered species, or if we address misinformation through fact-checking, we may exacerbate polarization. On the other hand, if we approach problems in a way that does account for their inter-relatedness, we can solve many problems at once.
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• Daniel talks about generator functions of existential risk — underlying forces that drive many of the problems we face today. Specifically, he outlines three generator functions of existential risk: 

• ~rivalrous dynamics, manifested by arms races and tragedy of the commons, 

• ~the subsuming of our substrate, from the degradation of our biosphere to the degradation of our attention, and 

• ~exponential technology, or technology that exponentially makes better versions of itself. 
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• Daniel says that any civilization that doesn't address these three generator functions will inexorably self-terminate. 
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• Before World War II, risk was locally existential, because individual societies could collapse without affecting other societies. After WWII and with the development of the atomic bomb, risk became globally existential, because it became possible to extinguish all of human civilization.
  
  In order to manage global existential risk, the superpowers aligned on what Daniel might call the Bretton Woods order — which included the Bretton Woods agreements, the United Nations, and mutually-assured destruction.
  
  Today, with multiple nuclear countries, non-state actors bearing other catastrophe weapons, and humanity hitting planetary boundaries, we have unmanaged global existential risk. Daniel argues that we need a new form of global coordination in order to manage global existential risk.
  
  

• In the vacuum of what Daniel sees as a failure of our institutions to manage global existential risk, he sees two attractors — two states that we're naturally gravitating towards. Those two attractors are: oppression and chaos. Oppression is characterized by China's model of digital authoritarianism, where the state uses its power to limit the freedom of citizens, while chaos is characterized by regulatory failure in the West, where the state often fails to be an effective check on the market. 
  
  Daniel argues that we need a third attractor — a force that can manage global existential existential risk without devolving into oppression or chaos. He makes the case that this third attractor must be the people, comprehensively educated and enabled by humane technology. Ultimately, Daniel is calling for a new cultural Enlightenment, that has the emergent wisdom to manage global existential risk and realize a more protopic world.

[Unedited] A Problem Well-Stated Is Half-Solved

Generator functions of existential risk? Exponential technology? Epistemic capacity? This episode is packed with insightful frames, which we’ll be starting to use in future episodes. So, along with the edited version of this episode, we highly recommend listening to the unedited version.

The Consilience Project:

The Consilience Project is developing a body of social theory and analysis that explains and seeks solutions to the unique challenges we face today. It focuses on the deeper generator functions beneath the world’s major problems, drawing on the best of social theory while showing where existing theories and institutions are no longer adequate to fix the current problem landscape. The aim of the project is to help catalyze a cultural enlightenment that will develop a new set of shared values and capacities adequate to the needs of our time.

Democracy and the Epistemic Commons:

This is a featured article from The Consilience Project. It makes the case that democracy cannot function without an epistemically healthy public sphere, and that only a new movement for cultural enlightenment can reboot our ailing institutions, create new ones, and ultimately restore our democracy.

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