Fundation

Our eyes are separated about 2.7 inches (7 cm). They are setup to point at the front of the cranial box.

We look forward by design. Birds for instance have a great lateral view. They even see what is coming from behind. We don't. We can't look back. Humans, as many other mammals, are weak to a predator attacking from behind. So we used something a lot of mammals use: cover my back and I'll cover yours.

While some are feeding or caring for the little ones, there are others watching for them. They provide security for the group so when they need to feed and rest, there are others to watch for them. It's a contract. A social contract.

"Now, because men can't generate new forces, but only to unite and manage the existing ones, it has no mean of survival other than form by aggregation a sum of forces to exceed the resistance..." Jean Jacques Russeau (1712-1778)

We sophisticated cover my back and I'll cover yours inventing societies. Most of them guarantee a reasonable freedom of thought. So we continued to look forward.

Result?

Progress.

Problem

The success of men brings the problem of progress. How success can be a problem?

A very cool way to understand this idea is to watch this film:




This is a link to the full movie online

That film says a lot about climate change and it's true we did that. But is equally true that we are a key to find a solution.

Macro

The problem of the climate change is a problem of scale. The more radical problems started when men invented technology to scale well... basically everything...

But scale is needed. We are a lot of people. If you are a trekker you already know Earth is a spaceship with enough humanoids. Dangerously close to too many.

If you are not, the action on the big side of things will make you feel kind of powerless. The direct action is more on hands of politicians. It's true you can lobby tangentially by helping on this campaigns:

WWF
Repower america

But it hardly will provide you of direct feedback. That may make you feel powerless unless you focus on the other side.

Micro

What happens if you start managing micro climate changes?

Typical situation: you cached the elevator, inside is a person you barely know and you feel uncomfortable with silence. You start a chit chat talking about temperature, humidity, how rainy or how shiny the day is. It may even be about how the climate change is affecting us and you mention you are blogging for Blog Action Day 2009.

You can even hate the guy but you still have a neutral common denominator to talk about. That's because context provided by weather. It's our common denominator. It is frivolous but good at the same time because a positive conversation can emerge from that. Maybe it becomes one extra donor or an unexpected but convenient future word of mouth.

The elevator suddenly does not feel uncomfortable anymore.

The attitudes we have affect the ambient where we are. You can notice that on the positive and the negative. People notices when a person's attitude pollutes an ambient. Party is over.

Love for the new, hate for the new

The key for a change of attitude is neophilia. The love for the new. It doesn't mean the love for the new products. Well it does, but is not only that. Is more about to be willing to embrace what is new.

Without neophilia people is shielded. New ideas can't fixate nor spread. Signals of a lack of it?

- a movement failing to attract new volunteers or donors
- inability to expand the market share
- inability to develop better business for the company
- lack of inspiration
- dependence on external changes

The lack of neophilia makes people to be reluctant to change. The exact contrary attitude is called neophobia and is defined by dramatization about change.

We are looking forward creatures. Wired to look ahead by design. People will always find hard to look inside.

They use to get attached to what they already know at the same time they fear the unknown.

Unexpected interference

Strangely, modern life is making us to live with computers and software. Which may unexpectedly help on the lack of neophilia issue.

So far, homo sapiens has demonstrated quite well to be capable of behaving like monkeys with laptops.

Also guns, but that's another long story.

So, how do we get more sapiens and less monkey?

How we can be less monkeys when, instead of looking inside, our very design is making us a looking-to-the-front kind of predator?

How can we be more neophilic to good stuff? even when we don't realize yet it is good?

The geek answer: is because software is a memeplex and we can decide to manage it.

Think of it this way: if our mindsets and points of view are software, then the neophilia is what allows to uninstall and install new software.

So it can easily happen that we have some mind model working like software that is too costly to justify keeping it. Or even worst: it can be creating conflict with incoming new and lucrative stuff.

If we use the love for the new consciously we will improve anything faster.

Utility

The key on neophilia is to be utilitarian. What works should be kept, what don't removed. Recycling attitudes should be no big deal. Uninstall the obsolete to make some space, install something new, something sustainable, something cool: a better deal.

I'm optimistic about this because people uses technology more and more each day. It may or may not be explicit, but they'll eventually get the idea of neophilia. Why?

They will eventually gravitate to it through the currently increasing technophilia. The love for technology.

But is neophilia the real door to can-do kind of attitudes.

The most intelligent can-do people are those who can make it sustainable. For that they require perspective. Sadly, not exactly something you can get from the supermarket.
 

Perspective

Connecting the dots in the right way is only achievable through perspective. This guy took the idea of perspective about our planet literally.

Every time I think I have a big problem, I watch this, take a deep breath and think again:

Long tail

With more people having perspective something interesting can happen: a long tail of voices.

A long tail is an interesting model that explains how lots of tribes can have as much or more momentum over a subject than the top 40 hits.

Blog Action Day is helping on this because bloggers can make a relevant conversation with the audience and among them. Every blogger is a voice in a tribe. And they found more than 10 thousand ones including this very blog.

What if the conversation doesn't stop?
What if we get a vibrant long tail of voices of people that has good hearts and good will?
What if that force gets stronger than parochial irrelevances in the political agendas?

The message

Once again Carl was impressively assertive and visionary on this message:

The new focus

The macro climate change is nothing but a reflection of our lives.

The got-to-work-then-some-entertainment lifestyle is not valid anymore. More social integrated models are needed.

Volunteering is interesting to develop neophilia because it may put you in contact with things otherwise you'll never be. With people otherwise you'll never know. Being part of stories you didn't imagine.

Ask people about volunteering in some movement. You may be surprised on how socially valuable you are and you didn't knew.

If you have a company have in mind that money is not the only lucrative thing you can get from your activity. Check if you can get social capital from being profound, real and profitable.

Conclusion

We may or may not find a solution for this. And it may or may not be on time. But is a sure thing that who is omitting gives space to the mediocre.

Problem is if we fail on doing our homework, we let nature to take the measures needed to fix the issue.

And she will eventually implement a solution not asking our permission nor being polite with us.