What’s Tom been up to the last few months?

I’ve been out of touch here for several months.  This short newsletter shares a bit of what I’ve been up to – including a very important video interview that is profoundly shaping my thinking.  I also enthusiastically encourage you to subscribe to CII’s newsletter.  I offer a table of contents for the July issue to invite you into it….

Since my last major post – AI Series #1: Dimensions of Generative AI / ChatGPT two and a half months ago, my inquiries have led me in many unexpected directions.  Most significantly:

*  What is the proper place in our political and social change ecosystems for Citizen Assemblies and other “minipublics” to help the voice and wisdom of We the People play a significant role in urgently needed systemic transformation? 

and

*  What needs to happen in and around Citizen Assemblies and other “minipublics” to help citizen deliberators comprehend and come to grips with what’s driving the converging crises (“polycrisis”) of our times and provide guidance to facilitate the systemic transformations needed?

In conversation with other deliberative democracy change agents, I’m taking a much closer look at the current limitations and potential new forms of wisdom-generating citizen deliberations.  This is extremely challenging and has not yet settled in a way that I know how to communicate in these mailings.  Thus the seeming silence.  But LOTS is going on.

If you really want to delve into the systemic drivers of the polycrisis and its related existential threats, I encourage you to take the time to watch Daniel Schmachtenberger’s 3-hour conversation with Nate Hagen (I watched it 3 times!).  Schmachtenberger notes that all these systemic drivers are rooted in a deep cultural assumption of separateness and a potent form of human intelligence that pursues narrow short-term goals.  He also points out that most forms of AI arise out of and are designed to empower that narrow intelligence, thus serving to accelerate all the converging crises we face.  Then, much in alignment with the basic premise of wise democracy, he suggests that wisdom – which serves long-term broadly beneficial goals – must now bind and constrain the mass exercise of narrow intelligence.

Clarifying all that is a major focus of my work right now, as well as re-visioning what the core manifestations and applications of wise democracy would necessarily look like.

I’ll see if I can say more here in the coming months.  In the meantime, I strongly suggest you stay in touch by subscribing to the Co-Intelligence Institute’s free newsletter.  Here’s a link to subscribe – and a link to the latest newsletter.  I’ll outline its contents below.

Blessings on the Immense Journey we’re all on together!

Coheartedly,
Tom

Table of Contents for the CII’s July Newsletter

•  Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of The Tao of Democracy
•  Real World Co-Intelligence Reflections: The SeaCHANGE Conference
•  Community Reflections from Rosa Zubizarreta on Alicia Juarrero
•  We Are Looking for Someone to Join Our Core Team!
•  July’s Wise Democracy Pattern: Inclusive Stakeholder Governance
•  July’s Co-Intelligence Poem

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Tom Atlee, The Co-Intelligence Institute, POB 493, Eugene, OR 97440

site: https://co-intelligence.institute 
blog: https://tomatleeblog.com]

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