Save lives, reduce suffering
The first thing that comes to mind is to become a medical doctor or a peace negotiator. But this is The Game-Changing Game, where you're encouraged to think beyond conventions. Can you think of a completely NEW way to save lives and reduce suffering? On a VERY large scale?
Save lives and reduce suffering by making knowledge work work
Suitably created knowledge-work professions can show us the way to a safe and healthy world. And as you will see next, creating them is The Game's core purpose.
Professor Nick Bostrom heads The Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University. Related to the
Global Catastrophic Risks conference, which he organized in 2008, the leading experts were asked to estimate the probability that the humanity will survive until the end of this century; the median answer was 19%.
REFLECTION: In an article Bostrom argued that while those estimates are of course only speculations, one thing is clear: Reducing the probability of disaster by even 1% would be an uncommonly effective way to save lives and reduce suffering. Reflect about his insight. We are accustomed to (have been trained to) think in terms of direct causes and consequences; saving the life to a single person in mortal danger leads of course to hugs of gratitude... but think in contrast to the possibility of reducing the probability of large human disasters. We are talking about not only the mortal danger that threatens a person, or one million people, but the whole human population; and even the future generations.
REFLECTION: In The Future of Human Evolution Bostrom argued that we have reached a stage where our (systemic) evolution must become conscious, specifically by modifying the 'fitness function' of human (social and cultural) evolution. Can you understand the goal of The Game (to re-create professions, in particular the knowledge-work professions—i.e. informing) as a way to serve that goal? And what about The Game itself?
Late Professor Werner Kollath was a pioneer of the scientific study of hygiene (cultivation of health). In his book "Civilization-Induced Diseases and Death Causes" (Haug, 1958) Kollath argued that the lifestyle-induced diseases that were already in his time becoming dominant required a completely new approach to health and medicine, in which information would play a key role. His book was intended to be the first in a series of books on (what he envisioned as) political hygiene.
REFLECTION: Again we are talking about statistical and not mechanistic causality. Tune up to this way of looking. The non-existence of political hygiene during the past half-century has 'caused'(in this subtle way) quite a bit of deaths and suffering. How much? Furthermore, political hygiene is not only about human, but also about environmental health. Think about likely effects of the non-existence of political hygiene. Can you compare those subtle effects to the obviously more spectacular effects of, for ex., Hitler and his war machinery? For additional information use this blog vignette about Werner Kollath and contemporary healthcare. Reflect about creating a public informing that would include key elements of political hygiene as a way to save lives and reduce suffering.