Friday, March 11, 2016

Quantum Politics

21st Century politics are both a particle and a wave. Individuals take actions based on their particular personal values, the abruptness of the need to take action, how immoral they view the present and recent past, and finally whether the action is needed now.  Groups take action when multiple organizations form alliances and become what the media calls a movement.  Movements are waves and individuals are particles in the quantum politics of the 21st Century.

The 192 nation-states at COP-21 in December 2015, assumed the physical boundaries between nations continue to define their rights, duties and obligations.  They postponed action hoping that when the “real” time comes to address climate change, that some innovation, a change in behavior, technological invention or some nonhuman force will appear and magically save the world.  This irresponsibility is embedded in the current international system of governance.  Thus the present system of nation-states assumes a classical political world based on the separation of space and time, and the present political borders on maps.

The climate change movement represents a quantum political world based on space-time as a continuum. When looking down from the International Space Station, there are no political boundaries to see. When considering what action to take, climate change organizations envision future generations of children living in a world that has a stable climate.  A worldwide movement of individuals and groups, of particles and waves, based on quantum politics has formed to confront the classical political theory of how to govern.

Climate change is the vehicle that will transform the world’s governance systems from nation-states global political organizations like the UN with increased rights, duties and obligations.  There are many NGOs that operate without borders dealing more and more with the consequences of climate change due to the lack of action by policy makers.  Multinational corporations are pivoting to deal with the consequences of climate change.  Individuals become refugees or migrants by crossing borders. There are over 60 million people worldwide who are refugees and the number increases daily.  This increased mass of people migrating will destabilize governments and classical politics does not understand how to respond.

The frustration of climate change activists results from the classical political paradigm that separates time and space. Time is never a constraint on policy makers and political borders restrict their laws.  In quantum politics, future generations have value in the present and causality over time must be factored into present policies.  In quantum politics, spatial boundaries do not restrict policies or laws.  Finally, quantum politics is based on space-time as a continuum, a fabric that aligns the threads of the present and future, and that aligns the threads of individuals and groups across borders.

A worldwide movement of individuals and groups, of particles and waves, based on quantum politics has formed to confront the classical political theory of how to govern.

Quantum Entanglement

There are basic mistakes that classical politics makes similar to Albert Einstein’s mistakes about quantum mechanics.  Einstein referred to this physical phenomenon, that suggests objects separated by great distances effect one another, as “spooky action at a distance.” He rejected the possibility, refusing to believe that objects could influence each other no matter how far apart they were.  Classical politics also rejects spooky action at a distance when politicians deny the possibility that CO2 from American industry could influence other countries no matter how far apart the countries are.

Over the past 40 years, the Internet has grown to allow and encourage spooky action at a distance.  Events happen simultaneously in different parts of the world that support dealing with climate change in the present moment by coordinating, collaborating and communicating using the Internet.  Billions of dollars are being spent to upgrade the speed and capacity of the Internet, and make broadband available to everyone, everywhere. Spooky actions at a distance will increase exponentially as bandwidth and speed increase.

In quantum politics, there is quantum entanglement. Air pollution that happens in China effects North America. Political irresponsibility in America effects the worldwide pollution of land, air and water when waste is shipped overseas, when global CO2 levels increase and when oceans acidify. Evidence of spooky action at a distance is documented on the Internet as images, video and audio in ways that older generations making policy decisions now have never experienced.  

A molecule of CO2 released in California changes the global temperature and contributes to drought in India, extreme heat in France and flooding in England. The mistake of present day politicians is to misunderstand the global entanglement of individuals and organizations over time and space.

As the gravity of the situation increases, individuals will feel the impact, abrupt changes will happen, immoral consequences will become visible in the present moment.  As the mass of people effected increases and the situation gets worse, politics will deviate from the present path.  Quantum politics will become more visible and acknowledged by the Millennial Generation (born 1982-2004) as they become the policy makers.

Scalable

Classical politics, without timely action and dependent on boundaries, does not scale well to deal with the global consequences of climate change.  How will we build a low-carbon economy where 9 billion people thrive?  Classical politics denies the question can even be asked.  For decades, corporations were allowed to use propaganda, based on fear, uncertainty and doubt, to persuade the public and politicians that inaction was the best option.  

The transition to a low-carbon economy requires mass re-engineering of our global infrastructure and economic systems that will cause our personal behavior to change.  The scale of the carbon revolution is difficult to imagine until we examine the past 40 years of the digital revolution. The digital revolution scaled up from two people communicating with text between two computers, to billions of people communicating, collaborating and coordinating using images, video and audio through billions of devices.  The proliferation of computers, digital cameras, cellular phones and Internet connections scaled at exponential rates.

Quantum politics scales well to deal with the fabric of space-time resulting from the digital revolution. Quantum politics encourages individuals to take timely action at many locations based on shared values without border restrictions. Quantum politics supports multiple leaders across many organizations growing a movement at an exponential rate. Classical politics will not survive the carbon revolution.

Vision and Values

How might we envision a carbon revolution using the evidence and language of the digital revolution?  First, there are people with foresight who are envisioning a low-carbon economy and acting on that idea.  Visionary leaders like Elon Musk with Solar City, Tesla and a giga factory for batteries.  These visionary leaders are not like the politicians who can not enact polices.  The carbon revolution leaders are emerging to scale up the low-carbon economy.  “Silicon Valley is a mindset, not a location,” stated Reid Hoffman, Co-founder LinkedIn

The individual exceptionalism of the digital economy also values shared learning, a sense of community and collective benefits. This combination of cooperation and competition mashed up is “coopertition.” These values align with the global economy benefiting everyone with a level playing field for competition of ideas and actions.  The carbon revolution has coopertition to deal with the consequences of climate change through adaption and mitigation strategies.  The volume of scientific and engineering research related to a low-carbon economy and dealing with the consequences of climate change is increasing exponentially.  People are actively engaged in the values of the digital revolution and ready to scale those values up in the carbon revolution.

Classical politics excludes individuals and allows corrupt national organizations to control policies.  Quantum politics includes people and organizations that benefit individuals and the global community.

Growth

Growth and capitalism are not good or bad, only people make them so. Exponential growth is found in nature when an unlimited supply of resources are available.  The structure of the 20th Century economy we inherited supports short-term profits and growth in value.  The new low-carbon economy emerging supports growth using capitalism but with vision and values described above that benefit a broader community.

‘Growth-mindset’ was coined by the Stanford University professor of psychology Carol Dweck, and she compares it to the fixed mindset that doesn’t allow for flexibility, growth or failure.

‘Fail-fast’ is another digital revolution mashup.  The growth-mindset combined with fail-fast reveal acceptance of trying, learning from mistakes and failures.  Classical politics kills ambitious plans for the low-carbon economy by fixating on maintaining the past structure supporting fossil fuels. Classical politics allows critics too much rhetoric of fear, uncertainty and doubt about failures.  We can learn from innovation and failures.

Conclusion


Classical politics excludes individuals and allows corrupt national organizations to control policies.  Quantum politics includes people and organizations that benefit individuals and the global community. Climate change is the vehicle that will transform the world’s governance systems from nation-states global political organizations like the UN with increased rights, duties and obligations.  A worldwide movement of individuals and groups, based on quantum politics has formed to confront the classical political theory of how to govern.

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