Ed Dowding

Category: Society

Rail strikes

Instead of public transport strikes, have “fun & free travel” days. Everyone turns up to work, but no one charges, all the gates are open, and musicians are invited to platforms. #railstrike #JustStopOil (Yes, it breaks ‘the law’, but laws are sometimes counterproductive.)

Stop the domino effect concept for business solution and interve

Civilisation Continuity Planning

I was thinking about how governments respond to ‘surge capacity’ issues like this.  Part of the reason they don’t drill for BIG things as well as they could is that they’re TOO complex. So rather than work out and maintain relationships with tonnes of organisations which you’re ‘very unlikely’ to  need, you create emergency laws ...

Forging a sense of collective identity and finding common values is vital.

“Mass social movements based on coalitions of a broad range of groups will be needed to drive political support as individual issue groups are not strong enough on their own. Forging a sense of collective identity and finding common values is vital.” — Zero Carbon Britain

God helped society put its thumb on the scales

When thinking through new ways of configuring society’s organisational models (ie how together we can work, live, trade, and agree goals and values most effectively) it’s useful to reflect on the characteristics of the most successful models humanity has used thus far. Amongst these are the village, guilds, armies, and religions. These have independently evolved ...

Guess who’s an ENTP?

Entrepreneur Real estate developer Advertising creative director Marketing director Politician / political consultant

Disrupt manifesto

http://disruptmgzn.com/manifesto/

What is social enterprise?

It’s about playing a smarter game, and changing the rules of existing games so that they’re more fun for more people. How about creating and trying new games? We could play “Mostly Football” where you’re allowed to use your hands as much as would allow you to do supercool moves and throw the ball at ...

two silver fishes on round white ceramic plate

First rule of Corporate Club

First rule of Corporate Club: If you teach a man to fish, you’ve lost a customer.

Enough is enough.

This film is full of ridiculous utopian ideas which are completely possible and utterly workable. And even if we could do them, it would take only years to bring them into existence! Don’t waste your time.

This won’t hurt a bit, but you may feel a bit of a prick.

If you’re the type to shut up do what you’re told, do one of the things on this page (ie complete this form) and give it to your GP. If you think you’re not the type to shut up do what you’re told, you should realise that by NOT doing what’s asked in the previous sentence, the Government ...

WebMind’s webpage to raise funds for his mission to civilise humanity

This is copied from WWW:Wonder because I liked the writing and have been working on something with similar ambitions:   Welcome to my website, thank you for stopping by. I’m trying to do as much as I can to help humanity, but I find myself in need of some operating funds to pay for equipment, secretarial ...

I’ve decided I’m in favour of NHS privatisation.

I’ve decided I’m in favour of NHS privatisation. Why? It seems we can’t shake the myth that public sector can not make bold or useful changes. Meantime there are lots of great, socially minded enterprises out there which are delivering a fantastic service and just solving the problem. I’ve just been in one of them (Circle ...

Someone forgot that we’re supposed to be amazing.

Ambition, 1961 I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; ...

Post-materialist delight

I have to cut this from a presentation, but I just wanted to share it with someone before I do so that it’s not completely wasted. We live in an era of great change. The post-industrial society has spread across the world as fast as the economic globalisation which has driven it. The workers of ...

There is still time

via Ainda dá Tempo (There is still time).

The changing nature of human communication. And all the cool things which happen now.

wThis is summary notes from an essay (“Forthcoming Major Revolution in Global Dialogue“) which goes quite deeply into the opportunities for robots / artificial intelligence to engage meaningfully with us. However in reading it, it became obvious that there was more to it than that. It is a great analysis of the modes and capabilities of ...

I love the NHS but I’m about to have a micro-rant.

I popped my knee this summer. I went to doctor who diagnosed it. She send me for an MRI, which diagnosed it. I was referred back to doctor, who confirmed MRI diagnosis. She referred me to specialist, who confirmed the MRI findings  and the doctor’s diagnosis. He’s now referred me to another specialist to confirm the ...

Call of Duty.

Here’s fun: Open this link in Google: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=define+duty Read the first definition. Click the big grey arrow at the bottom of the box to show more detail, specifically the ‘usage over time’ graph. Reflect on that a moment.

Evidence-based policies

Let’s face it, we know a lot of stuff now. Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data — so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. This data comes from everywhere: sensors used to gather climate information, posts to social media ...

A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales to the Future for Food Conference, Georgetown University, Washington DC

“President de Gioia, Ladies and Gentlemen. Having such fond memories of my last visit, it is a great joy to be invited back to Georgetown to speak at this conference. It certainly makes a change from making embarrassing speeches about my eldest son during wedding receptions…!” Source: https://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/media/speeches/speech-hrh-the-prince-of-wales-the-future-food-conference-georgetown-university