

Please, help me change the world.  - preci_peace

The world has changed, and now we have a decision to make. Never before in history has the average person been so deeply and personally connected to the entire world population of individuals, being able to communicate globally with anyone, anywhere, nearly instantaneously. Traditional boundaries - walls, fences, rivers, mountains, deserts, borders - have ceased being the obstacles to the flow of thoughts and ideas, and we are seeing a collective uprising of the individual for the betterment of the group. Technology has created an entirely new playing field in which any one person - you, me, our neighbors, our friends, our families, and our loved ones - can have the same impact on the global discussion. Now, for the first time in human history, every single person on this planet has equal opportunity - and equal responsibility - to make a real positive difference in the world. Let’s start now, by first starting over.<p>We need a societal reset before we take that next step together, because the values and goals our society operates on now isn’t the base we want to build upon. If we’re going to change the world, we’ll need three things: direction, guidance, and effort. All three, equally, from every person on the planet. No leaders, no levels, no factions, just a group of people openly deciding what they want the future of their society to be, by actively working together to get it there.<p>Sound too far fetched? A simple fantasy of what human behaviour should be, compared to the harsh reality of what humanity is? Too dependent on the cooperation of groups of people who (judging by what occurs daily around the world, and looking back at history) utterly despise one another? You’re right. Given the differences in culture and societies around the globe, not to mention the current geopolitical and economic tension, the idea is completely impossible. But so was man learning to fly.<p>The problem isn’t in the idea, the problem is in our society. We’ve measured success in personal acquisition - our individual conquest over all we see - the sum total of all we’ve taken and kept for ourselves during the time we spend on this planet. Our laws are then designed to protect this collection, preventing those we’ve “succeeded” over from benefiting from our wealth. It’s time to start taking control of our own society, and the change needs to begin with what our society values. We need to strive for and admire (and most importantly reward) those who have actively and beneficially CONTRIBUTED to our global society, encourage and assist those have been negatively affected by it (no matter the reason), accept those who have passively benefited from society, and discourage those who exploit it. A paradigm shift in what we value; elegance over power, efficiency over speed, creativity over conformity. We need to realize that our society was built on the shoulders of giants, and with this in mind we need to actively assist others up to our level, and then aid them in reaching higher still.<p>Knowledge then, is where we need to start. What the world needs going into the future is intellectual equality. We need an open and free collection of all of human knowledge, broken down and laid out for all to learn from and contribute to. All the information we know, but also all the data we’ve collected, all the facts, theories, instructions, explanations, and examples. Most of this information already scattered around the internet. Some of this knowledge is “protected” by patent, copyright, ownership, and our outdated societal values. That needs to change, and this information needs to be accessible to all. What we need to work together on now are the connections. Linked webpages need to be summarized into individual relevant bits of information. Soon after, we’ll move one step beyond “searching” for information to being instantly able to “find” information when we have a question. One continually updating collection of everything, giving you, myself, and every single person on this planet equal opportunity to stand together on the shoulders of those who’ve come before us, gaze out upon the expanse of human knowledge, look up to the sky for what comes next, and climb up to meet it together.<p>Sorry, got a little carried away, so to summarize:
-All forms of global/national/economic power are a representation of the collective effect we as individuals have on society
-Technology has brought us to a point where we can communicate amongst ourselves where/what we want this collective effect to have an impact
-Knowledge is power. Power corrupts.
-Knowing this, we need an open and free collection of all human knowledge. This must be easily accessible for everyone. This is where you guys come in. 
-Where do we go from there? We’ll decide that together. Equally. Always.
======
voodoochilo
as long as one cannot eat knowledge you're always only talking to a fraction
of mankind. same with medicin, fresh water, cloths, housing, energy,
transportation, reading, writing and on and on. i think that there's only
minor interest in knowledge if you are hungry, cold or being robbed for your
OLPC. so first things first.

for example, in my spare time i repair old computers and give them to poor
kids because i believe passionately in the neccessity for kids to learn things
about/with computers. then i pray that their parents will not sell the damn
thing to buy food or pay debts but it happens all the time - 70%. then they
tell me it was stolen or sth, because they are ashamed. nevertheless i
continue my path.

there is no boom-bang-revolution-thingie, only millions of small boring
exhausting steps towards changing sth at all.

