Ideas for Project 10^100: psycho hygiene system

Some days ago, Google announced on their home page a new project, the Project 10¹⁰⁰. They collect ideas and will honor the idea that will help the most people. Practically, this means that the five best ideas are sponsored with 2 million USD on average, to be executed. So to win this contest, I though about how to help basically all the people in the world, that way taking Google's approach to the extreme. If you have only 2 million USD for that, it's a big task to help ALL humans, and substantially, of course ... but it might be done, if we don't cure effects, but causes of human problems. Man, I'm an utopist beyond measure today ... you might smile at the ideas, it's granted to you ;-) Here goes the idea I sent to Google's Project 10¹⁰⁰ some minutes ago:

10. What one sentence best describes your idea? (maximum 150 characters)

As all human problems are due to misprogramming of the brain, their solution must start by managing the brain content.

11. Describe your idea in more depth. (maximum 300 words)

Comparing "successful" times and times of society deterioration (e.g. in Germany 1955 vs. today) makes it apparent that the deterioration of values, morals, goals and maxims of action (here called: brain programming) is resp. must be the cause.

Of course, the development of societies is complex (i.e. feedback-driven), but still, result and feedback are mainly determined by brain programming.

All other problems are secondary: the world is not scarce on resources, the people in it are wasteful in handling them. And they are wasteful because they want to be (it's determined by their values). Also, wars and hatred come initially from wrong human behavior that was determined by the programming of the brain. This programming is (for the most part) acquired through life ... .

The idea is now, that we need to find the kind of brain programming where societies can build upon and where the world can survive with. If this is found, we need a scientifically proven system how to implement this in people (new and old ones). This requires intense research, as the public school system is in no way sufficient for that job.

12. What problem or issue does your idea address? (maximum 150 words)

Psychologic dysfunctionality, defined as bain programming whereupon societies and the world can never flourish.

13. If your idea were to become a reality, who would benefit the most and how? (maximum 150 words)

The upcoming generation in the whole world, more precisely: people before their adolescence, the younger the better, because it's easy for them to acquire correct brain programming, as new programs must not fight through a conflict with old ones to get in place. Additionally, all future generations, as the good brain programming replicates itself.

14. What are the initial steps required to get this idea off the ground? (maximum 150 words)

Scientific research into the issue:

1. Agree on a ISO standard what brain programming (values etc.) societies must embrace in order for the world to survive and be a good place to live.

2. Experiment with many forms of new learning mechanisms and self-stabilizing social mechanisms that can break the feedback-determined deterioration process of societies.

3. Introduce these values etc. into international school system.

15. Describe the optimal outcome should your idea be selected and successfully implemented. How would you measure it? (maximum 150 words)

The world would be a better place to live, as all people would think in better ways and therefore also act in better ways. As the problem is here taken by its root, the positive effects will follow  automatically.

Measurement: conformance to the previously "values" ISO standard, when measuring the personality of people worldwide.

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Start date: 2008-09-30
Post date: 2008-09-30
Version date: 2008-09-30 (for last meaningful change)

One personality disorder for everybody

There is an ongoing discussion regarding the causes of personality disorders (according to the Wikipedia article on personality disorders). Depth psychology emphasizes childhood as the key area, psychotherapy emphasizes adolescence and the identity buildup phase, learning models and behaviorists emphasize that personality disorders are something learned. Globally, they are rather complimentary and support each other well, so that the overall impression (without any detailed knowledge) is that personality disorders develop from a complex interdependency of genetic loading and the environment.

I thought about what (simple) illustration to use for such a complex situation, and perhaps the following might serve well for some aspects: there is a solution of a substance that can crystallize. It does not crystallize however unless crystallization seed is there (e.g. some dust particles). Now I compare the crystallization seed with the genetic loading, and the solved substance with problematic aspects of the environment. The environment has, so to speak, the potential to create personality disorders in a limited number of people, by unloading its problematic aspects unto them. The people that get "struck" by the crystallizing substance are those with some genetic qualities (for example less stress resistance, which would, in a healthy world, be just a harmless side-effect of appreciable qualities like high-degree empathy). In terms of system-theory, the different kinds of personality disorders seem to me the different self-supporting, self-stabililizing programs that are possible to run on the human brain (within a specific social environment).

The interesting thing is now: to a higher or lesser degree, every (or nearly every) person seems to have a personality disorder. If you don't yet believe that, go through the list in the Wikipedia article on personality disorders and find out what symptoms fit for you. At least I found myself in this list ... (ICD-10 F60.6) and also friends of mine. Now this does not mean that I or any of my readers needs a therapy ... the degree might be far lower than what would need a therapy (note that a society assigns therapy only to those that cannot contribute to the society in a meaningful degree any more ... society does not want to help you, it wants you as a tool for its own survival). It does however mean that most people don't reach their highest personal and social potential because they're in the grip of their rigid, dysfunctional behavior patterns.

Now it is also clear that healthy social relationships and groups have a curative effect on the personality disorders of their members (at least on mild degrees of those). And I count the relationship to God among the healthy relationships, and a healthy church among the healthy groups (which just means that their curative effect is supposedly a social effect, nothing supernatural). There are persons in my mind who indeed got (nearly) healed by long-term (~25 yrs., in one example) involvement with God and a healthy church!! Which does not mean that every relationship to God or every church is such a place. Most churches seem to be infected themselves by some kind of "group disorder". Which is not the fault of any single person, but a fixed behavioral pattern that develops in a likewise complex interdependency (in this case, of group attributes and environment) as the personality orders do ... .

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Start date: 2008-09-21
Post date: 2008-09-21
Version date: 2008-09-21 (for last meaningful change)

On intuition

Hey, I'm going to try out a new form of blogging: 10-minute posting. That is, one post must not take longer to write than 10 minutes (surprise!). Though this will affect quality, I'll hopefully get out more of the thoughts that come to my brain ... currenty, most are stored in freemind mindmap.

This time, it's about intuition, inspired by a great discussion with a brother of mine, who's currently undergoing preparation for an actor's school. There, he had to train intuitive behavior.

So what's intuition? Just some thoughts:

• It seems to be the lower-level programming of the brain, comparable to "firmware" in devices of information technology. As such, it is the first thing we'd want to do, but it can be superseded by higher-level programs. Which consist, for example, out of social norms for adequate behavior or long-term goals that make us cange or hold back contraproductive short-term behavior.
• They say, most people have forgotten how to behave intuitively, that is, "what they really want".
• Some (emotional) people are uncapable of analyzing their own intuitive behavior, they just "feel that something is right". Other (analytical) people are used to observe themselves closely, so that they can assign detailed descriptions and reasons to their intuitive motivations. This might seem to others as if they cannot be intuitive at all, but that's not the case: the threshold of analyze-ability is different.

Now it's interesting to see that our own, intuitive behavior is, on average, of no good moral quality. 'cause of that, our society needs rules to function. The ideal case (and I believe that was the case with Jesus and in Paradise) is where intuitive behavior is congruent with socially adequate behavior. Then, no conflict between what I want and what I should arises.

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Start date: 2008-09-14
Post date: 2008-09-15
Version date: 2008-09-15 (for last meaningful change)

Me 2.0

There's all this hype going on about the "web 2.0", which is "social Internet". So how about the version 2.0 update of myself: the social me. It's long overdue, I suppose. I envision myself to approach my fellow humans directly, audaciously, furiously, and at the same time lovingly, warmly, and heartily. That's quite the opposite of the current state, the vision of the Different Me ... (more Jesus-like, I suppose).

But updating is often a difficult process - at least with computer programs, and with humans also, I suppose. I'll mention here to things that should belong to this process, taken from my notes on "Personal Life Development":

Have community by phone calls. Discuss relevant issues for personal life development, and create blog posts from the results.

Have a good conversation every day (>40min), esp. about spiritual and life-practical issues. This should enable a delightful lifestyle independent of what the rest of the day is filled with.

One of the first concrete actions that was coherent with this notes was to go for lunch with a neighbour of mine. Now, we could've had an open, honest , helpful conversation as many times before. But I think this time it was my fault that this was not really the case ... . Without justifying me, I think that there are causes for my current difficulties: the last three weeks I worked in Frankfurt, and most (not all) conversations with my colleagues had been on a shallow level. We worked on things, so we discussed things. Sometimes my mind wanted to break free from being captured in such a way, but when I was tired from the work I was too tired to even think about something different. When Anna Eleanor Roosevelt said "Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.", she missed to mention those who discuss just things ... .

So I got acclimatized to small talk, and now I'm reluctant to get honest and open again in conversation, even where I have the opportunity. What a pity! Seems like I will need some more exercise to undo the acclimatization ... . Whom am I going to call up now? Let me see ...

Note on a style change for my blog posts

As you may have notices, this blog post is shorter, less elaborate and more personal than most of the previous. It shall be the start of a new variant how i use my blog: more in diary style to document and reflect daily events and developments (esp. of personality, as in this one). Such posts might be of worth to myself in the future, also, just as other people use their diary. Another reason is that I'm awfully tired to write sophisticated, highly intellectual posts for many people, of whom most will never read them. (You can see my tiredness from the fact that August 2008 has seen no blog posts at all.) All this thinking had no life-changing effect until now, which esp. means that I did not get to know God better in deed (instead of in speculation). So I'm trying to exchange thinking for action now ... .

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Start date: 2008-09-11
Post date: 2008-09-11
Version date: 2008-09-11 (for last meaningful change)