Guided Evolution of Society: A Systems View (Contemporary Systems Thinking)

Rating:
Summary: Probably the only real design guide for cultural evolution
Review: Dr. Banathy has written what is probably the only work in existence on an evolutionary epistemology. He contends that humanity needs to take charge of its own cultural evolution, and to do that requires co-creative design of our future. His book provides powerful tools for accomplishing this.

The first part of the book takes the reader through the human evolution from a systems perspective. The latter half focuses on the methods for engaging in collective, participative design creating an evolutionary guidance system that can carry us forward. This work builds on Dr. Banathy's classic previous work on social systems design, "Designing Social Systems in a Changing World."

In the latter half of the book, the reader is taken through the design process of creating an evolutionary guidance system. This process begins with the establishment of common ground and continues through the determination of the functions and components of systems that can learn and grow toward and ideal future. The book talks about both the process and dynamics of design, highlighting that social systems design is both an iterative and a complex process of movement forward and recursive revision to what has been done. We cannot know the end state, but we can move toward our best vision of it.

The unique and intriguing aspect of Dr. Banathy's work in general, and this work in particular, is the emphasis on the process of social systems design. No prescribed future is proposed; rather, Dr. Banathy seeks to provide the methodological tools for humanity to create a better future. In this sense, the work does not try to advocate any other values than that people must take charge of their future and that everyone should be involved in the design of the social systems in which they will inhabit. It is thus, in a sense, a work about how to be a responsible citizen in the modern age.

It is a book about democracy, but not about government. Rather it is a book about focused, meaningful, and productive public dialogue, both generative and strategic. As a metaphor, Dr. Banathy reminds us of the citizen democracies of ancient Greece, where public issues could be debated in full view.

This book is an essential manual for people who are serious about social change, because the book talks about how to engage a large system in meaningful dialogue. And it is only through meaningful dialogue that the system will be change. Despite the plethora of proposals about what our future should be, it is impossible to sit back and determine it from an armchair. Rather, as Dr. Banathy describes, we must engage together and let that future emerge through our genuine, focused, and open dialogue.