Proposal for a strengthened cosmopolitan democracy model

A true democracy invites and engages everyone

Author: Christer Nylander

Author's Editor: Lisa Forstenius

Table of contents

Abstract

Introduction

General theory of change

Drivers of change

  • Positive social values ​​and virtues
  • Ability to understand wholeness
  • Leadership capacity
  • Creativity and problem solving capability
  • Critical thinking
  • Emotional references
  • Practical skills
  • Theoretical knowledge
  • Conflict resolution abilities

Inputs

  • Responsible institution
  • Financing
  • Technical expertise
  • Technical communication
  • Information

Activities

  • Communication
  • Seminars and meetings
  • Education
  • Ability training
  • Sharing
  • Consultative voting
  • Cooperation
  • Inter-mediation of experts
  • Donations and crowd-funding
  • Mentoring
  • Statistics and information
  • APPS
  • Cultural events
  • Playing computer games related to the SDGs
  • School activities related to SDGs

Outputs

  • Upgraded drivers of change
  • More knowledge
  • Deeper insights
  • Global language
  • Financial resources

Outcomes

Politicians

  • Organizations
  • Experts
  • Universities
  • Companies
  • Citizens
  • Impact

ARGUMENTATION FOR THE DOCP

Core values

Decision-making capacity

Effectiveness

Resources and financing

Trust and insight

Flexibility

Protection against the abuse of power

Accountability and transparency

Abstract

This proposal for a strengthened cosmopolitan democracy model is built on the idea that decision-makers and citizens around the world will not take appropriate actions to fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) until necessary individual and collective insights are achieved. The author believes in the plasticity of the brain and the possibility for everybody to develop necessary knowledge and abilities to accomplish the SDGs. To reach this goal emphasis should be put on providing a pedagogical digital communication platform, named Drivers of Change Platform (DOCP) for all politicians, experts, organizations, universities, companies and citizens in the world, and establish daily communication with these. The DOCP will use artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR) to facilitate individualized communication, education and other activities to achieve faster and deeper impact. For the global governance model to be optimal everyone on the planet should have access to 5G bandwidth, smartphones and AR/VR headsets, as well as accessible battery charging and a digital identity.

The DOCP is proposed to be established within the UN system, using the ECOSOC as the main responsible body. The total investments and operational costs for the DOCP are difficult to estimate since they depend on the level of ambition, but it will most certainly be self-financed due to the fact that the education and training of billions of people will save huge costs in developing countries. The author recommends that the rich countries implement an overt monetary policy, and make the aid a form of unconditional countertrade to finance both the DOCP and the SDGs. To develop, build and operate the DOCP, the author recommends cooperation with leading international companies, universities and organizations. The DOCP will be designed to be applicable to all kinds of human contexts and will be voluntary, non-judgmental, process focused, reflection based, positive, multiplex, synergetic, reality centered and interest based. The author is confident that the DOCP is a long-term, secure and effective way of reaching the SDGs since vast research demonstrates that real change comes from within.

The author means that the rather slow transformation of society is attributable to general deficits in inner drivers of change, for example:

  • Positive social values and virtues
  • Ability to understand wholeness of self, others, groups, society, nature, and systems
  • Leadership capacity of self, others, organizations and society
  • Creativity and problem solving capability
  • Critical thinking
  • Emotional references
  • Practical skills
  • Theoretical knowledge
  • Conflict resolution abilities

The author believes that the DOCP should include all the nine drivers of change, both explicit in education and training, and implicit in all other activities involving the DOCP. The DOCP should harbor possibilities for, among others, communication, seminars, education, training, sharing, consultative voting, cooperation, inter-mediation of experts, donations and crowd-funding, mentoring, statistics, apps, cultural events, computer games and school activities related to the SDGs. All activities on the DOCP will be free of charge for everybody.

The proposed strengthened cosmopolitan governance model generates international security by upgrading the ability of billions of humans to foresee, understand, and act in a way that is beneficial for all involved, thereby a) reducing competition for power b) diminishing inequality c) improving global governance d) strengthening peacekeeping institutions e) reducing the sectarian divide f) decreasing population growth g) bringing down crime and terrorism h) lessening elitism and populism and i) furthering the capacity to deal with climate change. It will also give citizens an extended network and a feeling of global collective mission and participation.

The DOCP will shorten the learning curve substantially and make it easier for all people to learn English, as first or second language, resulting in many positive side-effects. The DOCP will facilitate retraining of the global workforce enabling people to easier take up new occupations as a result of new technology and changed consumer demand. Furthermore, the DOCP will enable people that live in rural areas to participate in the global workforce, to obtain all kinds of education, and to enjoy the same cultural variety as people in the urban areas. This would mean a slower urbanization or even a reversed trend, and a prospering countryside.

The DOCP model is highly flexible in that:

  • the platform can easily develop and change
  • upgrading drivers of change and inner development is an individual task and experience, making it possible to respect different human contexts
  • countries develop their own laws, measures and regulations depending on their country-specific conditions to reach the SDGs, thereby keeping their sovereignty
  • the cosmopolitan democracy model can grow from infancy to maturity
  • not all countries have to join in at the start
  • the transformation speed will be maximized in each country, depending on how fast the inner drivers of change are upgraded, and
  • there is ample scope for testing new DOCP modules in different countries or regions before making them standards.

The only sanction regarding the DOCP, and this will be discussed later, is if countries do not join or seriously oppose the SDGs, which means that they will lose the opportunity to receive billions of dollars in aid and free education.

The author is of the opinion that a strengthened cosmopolitan model is urgently needed to regain and develop global democracy. Multi-stakeholder lobbying and public-private partnerships have gained considerable interest during recent decades, and even if they hold many good intentions, they also carry possible negative side-effects like sub-optimization of field solutions, debt-incurrence, corruption, higher costs, priority to high profit areas, environmental degradation, etcetera.

This strengthening of the cosmopolitan democracy model is increasingly relevant taking into account repeated statements from prominent persons like Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon, António Guterres and Pope Francis, stressing the importance of worldwide education in order to reach the SDGs. It is also fully in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the cognitive era, described by IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Intel, HP and others.

Introduction

Our civilization faces multiple global systemic risks as well as hundreds of social problems in every country. 1 2 In addition, potentially dangerous new technologies are being developed at an alarming speed. Despite thousands of international organizations and tens of millions of people actively involved in social issues around the world, the success of developing a resilient and sustainable planet has been meager. More institutions, laws and control mechanisms do not seem to be able to fix the problems, and perhaps this is quite understandable. The author means that decision-makers and citizens around the world will not take appropriate actions until necessary individual and collective insights are achieved. Most people are aware of the many global challenges we are currently facing, but lack critical insights into several aspects related to the problems and solutions. This constitutes a global system error that has been aggravated during recent decades due to an increasingly complex society. This means that a system solution focused on inner human abilities is required. This proposal intends to reinforce the cosmopolitan sovereignty model by reviving the United Nations, and capitalizing on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which holds an immense potential to help mankind to reach the SDGs, if properly used and disseminated to the world population. It uses a pull strategy free from indoctrination.

General theory of change

An often used model for change includes inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impact.3 For this model inputs refer to, among others, responsible institution, financing, technical expertise, equipment, knowledge, networks, personnel and trustworthiness. Activities include all things that engage stakeholders to initiate change, which means for example communication, seminars, education, training, sharing, consultative voting, cooperation, apps, inter-mediation of experts, donations and crowd-funding, mentoring, statistics, cultural events, and furthermore school activities and computer games related to the SDGs. Outputs refer foremost to upgraded inner "drivers of change" in the global population (see below), but also extended services, personal networks, more financial resources, and a feeling of global collective mission and participation. Outcomes applies to all decisions and acts of politicians, experts, organizations, universities, companies and citizens that contribute to a resilient and sustainable planet. Impact concerns the consequences of the outcomes showed in improved statistics related to the SDGs. Before elaborating on inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impact, the author would like to explain more about drivers of change.

Drivers of change

Drivers of change most often refer to the underlying and longer-term broader systemic factors of interaction between structural features, formal and informal institutions that affect the political and institutional environment for reform on national and international levels, as well as factors that more directly affect the incentives for change in the general population. This governance model goes further and focuses on the inner drivers of change in people, that is a prerequisite to reach those political and institutional reforms and incentives. In reality this means that the whole population must be involved. In order to foresee, understand and act in a way that creates resilience and sustainability, people must possess higher levels of several general abilities. The author has identified nine different essential inner drivers of change:

Positive social values and virtues

Positive social values and virtues are vital because they are the guiding principles of life. They transcend specific actions and situations and serve as standards or criteria. Every social value and virtue is interpreted differently by different people around the planet, but the process of adopting positive social values and virtues increases the ability to take wise decisions.

Ability to understand wholeness

Since the Cartesian area of the 17th century, information has been more and more fragmented mostly due to specialization. This has led to a diminished capability to understand the role of these fragments in a bigger whole. We can see this in science, technology, economics, sociology, media, and in most knowledge based areas. This has led to decisions based on incomplete data with devastating results and widespread misunderstandings and incomprehension. To understand the wholeness of self, others, groups, society, nature and systems, individuals have to make it a habit to place every fragment into the bigger picture and clarify its roles, impacts, consequences, inter-dependencies, etc.

Leadership capacity

With leadership capacity the author means the ability to guide oneself, a team, an organization, or a nation, in a way that leads to a resilient and sustainable society. People must free themselves from subconscious beliefs and shift to conscious values as the basis for their decision-making. This includes individuation, examining beliefs, letting go of the ones that do not serve us, and developing a new guidance system based on our deeply held values. As consciousness grows there is potentiality to shift from value-based decision-making to more and more intuition-based decision-making.

Creativity and problem solving capability

Creativity is characterized by the ability to perceive things in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate new ideas. Creativity can apply to anything, for example, technology, communication, politics, psychology, education, philosophy, sociology, business and economics. The process of creativity and problem solving includes among others, association, observation, reflection, as well as questioning, re-framing, networking, and experimenting. Creativity and the launching of new ideas can be augmented by multiple techniques.

Critical thinking

Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. It is used as a way of deciding whether a claim is true, partially true, or false. It is a tool by which one can reach well-grounded conclusions based on a reasoned process.

Emotional references

In order to understand other people's feelings we have to have our own similar emotional references derived from life experiences, books, films, music, games and much more. These are important conditions for empathy. Our capacity of increasing emotional references depends on their volume and quality. The more senses and deeper emotional values that are involved, the more profound impact they will have. AR/VR and AI may substitute practical experiences.

Practical skills

We need practical skills to understand how things work in real life both to be able to assist in various assignments, manage our own life, create resilience and sustainability, and to be creative and problem solving.

Theoretical knowledge

To comprehend the world around us, including physical objects, concepts and ideas, our history, human interaction, etcetera, we need theoretical knowledge. Of the enormous amount of accessible information on the planet we must give higher priority to knowledge that enhances our own abilities to act and contribute successfully to a sustainable and life affirming planet.

Conflict resolution abilities

Conflict resolution can be described as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of conflict and retribution. Conflict resolution techniques can be applied to a wide spectrum of situations, from a disagreement between countries to a conflict of thoughts in one's own mind.

Inputs

Inputs refer to everything that must be in place to initiate DOCP activities. Some of these are:

Responsible institution

The UN is the only major institution where most countries on the planet are gathered to discuss and decide over global issues. The UN has a workforce of about 44 000 people, and operations are extended directly and indirectly to 193 members states.4 The UN family, and especially the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), has an excellent infrastructure and conditions for dealing with implementation of the SDGs. ECOSOC is at the heart of the United Nations system to advance the three dimensions of sustainable development - economic, social and environmental. ECOSOC is a gateway for UN partnership and participation by the rest of the world and offers a unique global meeting point for productive dialogues among policymakers, parliamentarians, academics, foundations, businesses, youth and 3,200+ registered non-governmental organizations. 5 6

Thus, ECOSOC has vast knowledge and experience regarding parts of the suggested model, and the author is convinced that ECOSOC has all the major prerequisites and trustworthiness that are needed. In order to materialize the DOCP, a resolution in the UN General Assembly must be adopted.

Financing

It is very difficult to estimate the total investments and operational costs for the DOCP, since it depends on the level of ambition, but it will most certainly be self-financed by the fact that education and training of billions of people will save huge costs in developing countries. The level of support when it comes to marketing the DOCP, sufficient bandwidth and access to smartphones and headsets for everyone on the planet, as well as accessible battery charging, will also affect the financial requirements. The author recommends using an expansionary monetary policy, i.e. a direct purchase of government bonds by international and national central banks (also called overt monetary financing or functional finance) from rich countries, and in this way making the aid a form of unconditional countertrade. 7 8 It is estimated that 20-40 percent of world trade already involves countertrade, and the method would likely incentivize many potential donor countries due to the positive effects on the GDP, in contrary to pooling, which extracts financing capital from rich countries and decreases their GDP.

Technical expertise

In order to develop, build and operate the DOCP, extensive technical and other expertise is necessary. In order to achieve faster and deeper impact of the DOCP and facilitate high quality communication with a multi-billion population, AR/VR and AI should be adopted. The goal is that each person will have an individualized relation with the DOCP where functions as fields of interests, history, progress, plans, learning styles, motivation levels, experiences, cultural contexts etcetera would be included. Some features of these cognitive computer systems include; adaptation - learning from past experiences, resolving ambiguity and tolerating unpredictability, feeding on dynamic data in real time; interactive - with users or other devices; iterative and stateful - defining problems and appropriate feedback; contextual - understanding, identifying, and extracting contextual elements such as meaning, time, location, regulations, processes, tasks and goals, that can be in digital form as well as sensory inputs.9 This technical expertise and required equipment is certainly not present at ECOSOC, but can be found on the planet. This means cooperation with leading companies, universities and organizations.10 The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) could be a natural hub for cooperation within the ICT area. Naturally, the UN must own and operate the system and by nature the sophistication of the DOCP will develop gradually.

Communication techniques

Computers, but foremost mobiles and AR/VR headsets, will be the communication tools for people using the DOCP. The challenges are, besides the DOCP system, sufficient bandwidth and access to smartphones and headsets for everyone on the planet, as well as accessible battery charging. Everyone will need a digital identity to access the DOCP.

Information

Information can come from a myriad of sources, like the UN, universities, organizations, governments, companies, communities, experts, journalists and ordinary citizens in the form of reports, articles, documents, databases, apps, newsletters, calendars, catalogs, educations, video clips, guidelines, podcasts, lectures, surveys, web pages, layouts, images, etcetera. The more information that is stored on cloud computers, the easier it is to access.

Activities

Activities include all things that engage stakeholders to initiate change. The input to the activities may come from all stakeholders around the world including the UN family. Certain policy rules follow each activity type to minimize bias and conflicts. Examples of these are:

Communication

The prime aim is to establish a daily individualized communication with some kind of personalized AI entity (avatar) that provides assistance, feedback, newsletters, alerts, etcetera.11 The DOCP is designed to be applicable to all kinds of human contexts, and therefore each individual has a very unique experience. In order to visualize what a day could look like and to understand the profound impact it will have, one example is described below. This instance may be a few years ahead when the maturity of AI and AR/VR has attained a somewhat more advanced level.

At breakfast I chat with my avatar and tell it that I am having a meeting before lunch about a design of a new agroforestry food system for a certain city and that I am meeting Mr X, Mrs Y etcetera. I explain some of the challenges in a simple way. The avatar gives me some samples of other designs that have recently been implemented, as well as some articles related to the subject. The avatar provides information about the participants of the meeting, and perhaps some articles or lectures they have been part of. The avatar interprets the challenges of the meeting and asks me if I have thought about certain important social values and norms that I seem to have had problems with earlier in similar situations. The avatar goes through all the nine drivers of change to help me prepare for and optimize the meeting. After lunch I look at a 10 minute presentation in my AR/VR headset showing a new innovation that turns sea water into fresh water that a university would like to crowd-fund. Later I decide to give 100 dollars to the project, and I also participate in a consultative voting related to a public transport initiative that the avatar showed me a few days earlier. I tell my avatar to send off a few emails and book a time for a group AR/VR meeting next month. When I come home I attend a virtual online course in how to grow vegetables under tree canopies. Before going to sleep I give a summary of the day to my avatar, which gives me a short feedback and encouragement. The next day could be quite different. I could, for example, go on a AR/VR tour to Australia to see how the barrier-reefs are recovering. Another possibility could be that I am part of an expert group discussing a new type of house construction where people from all over the world could meet in a beautiful VR office located on a mountain hill. The avatar might recommend me to take more part in the local agroforestry food production since I have felt more stressed than usual the past couple of weeks. I can give my avatar permission to see my bank account and mobile applications, and use them to give me helpful feedback. For another person the experience could be quite different and interaction with the DOCP could vary during the day. However, nobody can avoid reflecting over the nine drivers of change and SDGs, on a daily basis, when using the DOCP. As AI becomes more advanced so will more complex communication and feedback.

Seminars and meetings

AR/VR seminars and meetings will be productive, energy-efficient and time-saving. Organizers can select virtual conference halls and venues to optimize their events and have AR/VR pre-meetings with keynote speakers and others involved. There is no need to fly all over the world to have genuine meetings. It is also possible to intensify the efficiency of events by using multiple AR/VR clips, 3D holographic images and videos, telepresence, plural whiteboards, etcetera. AI assistance will facilitate to quickly access information during a meeting. AR/VR meetings will allow for nuanced non-verbal communication with proper eye contact, subtle cues such as interpersonal distance, and eventually with more senses involved. Excellent seminars and meetings can be actualized independent of the organizers' resources. AR/VR seminars and meetings are crucial in minimizing air traffic, energy demands and greenhouse gas emissions, not only in the industrialized parts of the world. Here it is imperative to take into account all the developing countries, comprising circa 6 billion people, who are going through a very fast process of industrialization.

Education

With free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) using AI and AR/VR in all disciplines, personalized education is possible for all people on earth, ranging from elementary school, upper secondary school to university and research levels.12 The MOOCs may be country-specific or general and include ordinary school subjects, global challenges and social problems, global and local solutions, language training, and practical subjects. This will save huge sums for developing countries and make it possible for people to educate themselves at home, during the day or after work, and enabling both women and men to access education and training independent of financial resources. AI tutors will guide students in a way that optimizes results taking into account different human contexts. Drivers of change will be included in all courses.

Ability training

This refers to a specialized training of the nine drivers of change (see Outputs/Drivers of change below). This module aims at accelerating and furthering development of the nine abilities that the author believes are imperative to foresee, understand and act in a way that creates resilience and sustainability.

Sharing

In the process of the rapid transformation of society due to the SDGs, many interesting and useful outputs will be produced that should be shared between countries and individuals. It could be best practice, research, layouts, seminars, lectures, but also physical objects in local neighborhoods.

Consultative voting

As people gradually upgrade their inner drivers of change and become more knowledgeable, engaged and insightful concerning global and local challenges and solutions, they can contribute to society in a more positive way. This relates to citizens, organizations, universities, politicians, experts, and entrepreneurs. Their views on various subjects can help municipalities, governments, organizations, companies or the ECOSOC in providing groundwork for decisions. This makes people feel that they are taken seriously, thereby creating more engagement and trust. By using AR/VR and AI it is possible to inform the individual and help him/her quickly gain insight about miscellaneous issues. Consultative voting makes it easier to reach local, regional, national and international agreements. The same voting module could be used for direct democracy if appropriate.

Cooperation

One of the effects of using the DOCP will be that millions of people will be wanting to cooperate, either in the local communities, other regions or in other countries. It may concern house building, food production, R&D, political subjects, human rights issues, etcetera. It could be nonprofit, paid by organizations or governments, or in the form of joint ventures. This can provide significant support to materialize projects. It may also result in cooperatives and long-term employment opportunities.

Inter-mediation of experts

When transforming a whole planet, millions of experts will be needed. The know-how of these experts can be used much more efficiently with the use of AR/VR and AI because traveling can be minimized and the time needed to gain insight into the projects will be much shorter. With a module that facilitates inter-mediation of experts the work to match demand and supply will ease substantially.

Donations and crowd-funding

Many people that are engaged, insightful and have financial resources would certainly want to donate to or crowd-fund individual projects, innovations, education packages, research, etcetera. Vast financial resources are needed and it is a kind of win-win situation for both donors and receivers when our common future is at stake. This can be local, regional, national or international activities.

Mentoring

In a global process, where society is changing at a very fast pace and billions of people are undergoing an accelerated inner development, there is an extensive need of mentoring on all levels during a sustained period of time. The personal avatar in the DOCP, will stimulate one's own ability for self-reflection and reflection on the problem, issue or situation at hand. A mentoring module where people can offer face to face coaching can bring advanced guidance and social bonds between humans across continents and countries.

Statistics and information

In order for people and AI avatars to find relevant global statistics and information it is vital that the DOCP harbors or can access ditto. The UN family already has vast databases with world information. Two examples of cooperation between the UN and other organizations are the GVADATA and GlobalStat. 13 14 The ECOSOC should stimulate governments, municipalities and organizations to migrate their databases to the DOCP system or make them easily accessible to minimize double work.

APPS

There are more than two million apps on the market, and some of these can be important tools to reach the SDGs. Ehealth, farming apps, city apps, environment apps, water apps, metering apps, alert apps, etcetera can be connected to the DOCP, giving guidance of high quality to the individual.

Cultural events

By offering a variety of international cultural events on the DOCP, all people on the planet can enjoy, benefit from and be inspired by high quality entertainment, independent of time and place, which is an important part of individual development.

Playing computer games related to the SDGs

Playing computer games related to the SDGs can be a very good way of upgrading inner drivers of change, knowledge, and insights, while having fun at the same time. One example is a world game that in an inspiring way includes all different aspects of the SDGs.

School activities related to SDGs

Besides computer games related to the SDGs, more time in school ought to be devoted to the DOCP. The main advantage of ditto in school is to teach children relevant knowledge in a quick way and to upgrade inner drivers of change. The teacher would then have more time to engage students in meaningful reflection, dialogue, role plays, writings, and readings, as well as providing assistance to those with certain needs.

Outputs

The primary output of all activities is a global population that can foresee, understand and act on situations in a way that creates resilience and sustainability. Naturally, this is a continuous process facilitated by using the DOCP on a daily basis. This means, among other things:

Upgraded drivers of change

Positive social values and norms

Upgrading positive and social values will lead to a higher understanding of a) the meaning of various social values and virtues b) the long-term consequences of different social values and virtues c) social values and virtues in different contexts d) how social values and virtues function in practice, and how to put these into practice.

Ability to understand wholeness

Upgrading the ability to understand wholeness will lead to a higher understanding of a) how self, others, groups, society, nature and other systems interact b) how changes in fragments can change the whole c) subjectivity d) context e) history, and how to integrate fragmented knowledge into a greater whole.

Leadership capacity

Upgrading leadership capacity will lead to a higher understanding of a) self, others, organizations and society b) human motivation c) different modes of decision-making - instinct, subconscious beliefs, conscious beliefs, values, intuition, and inspiration d) body, soul and mind e) different kinds of coaching f) effects of uncertainty and g) how to create internal and external stability.

Creativity and problem solving capability

Upgrading creativity and problem solving capability will make it easier to find hidden patterns, making connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, generating new ideas, finding relevant facts, using intuition and emotions, being non-judgmental, understanding logic barriers, and to questioning.

Critical thinking

Upgrading critical thinking promotes a) recognizing problems b) understanding the importance of facts c) gathering and arranging relevant information d) recognizing unstated assumptions and values e) comprehending and using language with accuracy, clarity and discernment f) interpreting data, to appraise evidence and evaluate arguments g) recognizing the existence of logical relationships between propositions h) drawing adequate warranted conclusions and making relevant generalizations i) putting to test the conclusions and generalizations at which one arrives j) reconstructing one's patterns of beliefs on the basis of wider experience k) rendering accurate judgments about specific things and qualities in everyday life.

Emotional references

Upgrading emotional references will lead to a higher understanding of a) how other people's emotions affect their behavior b) how my behavior affects other people c) how other people's behavior affects other people d) how to raise the ability to feel emotions of other humans and animals.

Practical skills

Upgrading practical skills will lead to a higher understanding of a) practical skills b) implications of practical skills c) how to develop practical skills and exercising these.

Theoretical knowledge

Upgrading theoretical knowledge will lead to a higher understanding of a) relevant theoretical knowledge b) theoretical knowledge in practical terms c) how to develop theoretical knowledge d) the history behind theoretical knowledge e) the implications of theoretical knowledge.

Conflict resolution abilities

Upgrading conflict resolution abilities will lead to a higher understanding of a) the causes of conflict b) how the other views the conflict based on their beliefs, perspectives and attitudes c) the feelings of the other person d) how the other person experiences my behavior e) different resolution techniques f) how to increase the ability to listen actively.

More knowledge

All activities on the DOCP are intended to increase relevant knowledge to fulfill the SDGs, which may include information from all faculties.

Deeper insights

The entire human outcome of the interaction with the DOCP will result in a higher understanding of cause and effect in specific contexts. These insights can manifest suddenly in the form of seeing problems in a new way, connecting the problems to other relevant problems and solutions, releasing past experiences that are blocking the solution, or seeing problems in larger and coherent contexts. Some characteristics of human behavior that will grow more dominant are:

  • Pro-active instead of reactive action
  • Co-operation instead of competition
  • With nature instead of against
  • Compassion instead of indifference
  • Well-being instead of hardship
  • Health instead of ill-health
  • Calmness instead of stress
  • Positivism instead of negativism
  • Love instead of hate
  • Trust instead of fear
  • Peace instead of conflict
  • Engagement instead of idleness
  • Quality instead of quantity
  • Joy instead of sorrow
  • Tolerance instead of anger
  • Forgiveness instead of hate
  • Honesty instead of deceit
  • Curiosity instead of indifference
  • Intimacy instead of lust
  • Generosity instead of greed
  • Humbleness instead of arrogance
  • Security instead of insecurity
  • Politeness instead of rudeness
  • Self-esteem instead of shame
  • Openness instead of secrecy
  • Friendship instead of hostility
  • Goodness instead of malevolence
  • Creativity instead of unimaginativeness
  • Gratitude instead of ungratefulness
  • Non-acquisitiveness instead
  • of overspending
  • Integrity instead of hypocrisy
  • Gratification instead of dissatisfaction
  • Meaningfulness instead of meaninglessness
  • Holistic perspective instead
  • of fragmented view
  • Decreasing instead of increasing
  • class differences
  • Long-sightedness instead of
  • short-sightedness
  • Personal networks and collective mission

When people interact and cooperate in communications, educations, seminars, sharing, mentoring, etcetera, personal networks grow. This creates higher level of well-being and a feeling of participation in something bigger than oneself. Extended networks result in more options to engage in different issues as well as closing the gap between community and professionals.

Global language

With AR/VR and AI it is possible to shorten the learning curve substantially, which will enable billions of people to learn English rapidly and thereby get a chance to access the enormous volume of information on the internet. Of course, any language or subject would be possible to learn much faster.

Financial resources

Donations and crowd-funding through the DOCP, will help financing individual projects, innovations, education packages, research, and provide general aid to developing countries. As the general inner drivers of change are upgraded among the population of the richer countries, people who have financial means will find it natural to share these, and thereby increase economic equality. The new general lifestyle of the future will make large fortunes unnecessary.

Outcomes

Outcomes applies to all decisions and acts of politicians, experts, organizations, universities, companies and citizens that contribute to the SDGs. The outcomes of the DOCP will be billions of gradually more and more wise decisions and acts every day. A few examples of these would be:

Politicians

For example a) transforming the existing agriculture to agroforestry food systems around cities and villages b) actively stimulating local citizens to engage in reaching the SDGs c) encouraging citizens to consume less, reduce flying and car driving, increase waste sorting and recycling, borrowing instead of buying, using public transport and green electricity, and eating less meat d) giving everybody a job so that they can take part in the transformation e) introducing a significant carbon tax and stimulating green energy investments and electric vehicles f) divesting from fossil fuels g) protecting land for increased biodiversity h) enforcing restrictions on industry i) investing in robotized and labor intensive local production j) using fiscal redistribution to create economic equality k) removing silo thinking.

Organizations

For example a) demonstrating and building strong opinion when politicians do not act adequately b) actively supporting good projects c) cooperating closer with other organizations to achieve higher impact d) cooperating more with international organizations e) working harder to find wise solutions to the SDGs.

Experts

For example a) allocating more time to achieve higher understanding of other academic disciplines b) working harder to produce long-term, radical and creative solutions c) initiating more multidisciplinary cooperation.

Universities

For example a) including the nine drivers of change in all educations b) focusing research to areas especially important to the SDGs c) demanding multidisciplinary cooperation in all research d) working hard to reform financing of research e) establishing more international cooperation f) stimulating long-term, radical and creative solutions g) allocating more time in education to achieve higher understanding of other academic disciplines.

Companies

For example a) increasing the numbers of radical solutions at scale in order to reach resilience and sustainability b) increasing investments in high quality products and lending of ditto, in order to reduce waste c) taking better care of employees to reduce stress and sick-leave d) hiring experts within the SDGs as advisors to corporate managements and boards e) decreasing corporate lobbying for business-as-usual f) meeting environmental requirements when investing g) using more AR/VR conferences h) waste recycling i) avoiding tax havens.

Citizens

For example a) eating healthier food b) allocating more time to learning about the challenges of our planet c) actively engaging in organizations that support the SDGs d) avoiding food waste e) investing more time in upgrading one's inner drivers of change f) choosing public transportation or bicycling h) treating others well i) being health-conscious j) being less materialistic k) avoiding air travel l) choosing food and products that are organic and fair-trade m) recycling household waste.

Impact

Impact concerns the consequences of the outcomes showed in improved statistics related to the SDGs. Global systemic risks and national social problems will gradually decrease in severity. A few examples of these would be a) reduced costs for ill health b) higher health index c) less welfare costs for alcoholism and other addictions d) falling demand for unhealthy food e) less demand for fossil fuels f) decreasing emissions of greenhouse gases g) reduced costs for fraud, criminality and security h) declining aggression and violence on all levels of society i) dropping cases of rape, prostitution and trafficking j) decreasing inequality k) increasing signs of more biodiversity l) more fish in the oceans m) reduced starvation on the planet n) increasing access to fresh water o) fewer international conflicts.

ARGUMENTATION FOR THE DOCP

Core values

The proposed strengthened cosmopolitan governance model focuses on inner drivers of change, where positive social values are a vital part. The author means that it is possible to upgrade social values by education, training, dialogue and reflection, without indoctrination. The DOCP will be designed to be applicable to all kinds of human contexts which means, for example, different age groups, education levels, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, genders, cultures, income groups, geographic locations, disability status, nationality, social values, norms, etcetera. It is voluntary, non-judgmental, process focused, reflection based, positive, multiplex, synergetic, reality centered and interest based. This means that it is feasible to upgrade the inner drivers of change in every human whatever their conditions or starting level, and simultaneously respect equal value of all human beings. In order for people to trust and use the DOCP it is imperative that all data on the DOCP that deals with individual development, can only be accessed by the concerned individual. No crime investigation or other urgent matter may allow for exemptions. The author is convinced that the fantastic opportunity of AI and AR/VR should be disseminated to all people on the planet. If not, the inequalities will accelerate even further with devastating negative effects.

Decision-making capacity

The proposed model takes the standpoint that human change must begin within us, before it can be manifested outwards. When upgrading inner drivers of change, the decision-making ability of policymakers will gradually increase, and the political support from the population will grow, as will the capacity for self-governing. The model permits a high level of democracy, making it possible for citizens to influence, on a daily basis, local, regional, national and global issues. This will ensure that decisions are taken as closely as possible with the citizens, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, which most certainly will minimize crippling delays. The author trusts that this strengthened cosmopolitan governance model will work for centuries and that national sovereignty will gradually decrease without serious conflicts.

The opposite strategy, to focus international enforced structures and push activities like global laws, taxes, regulations etcetera can work short-term, but is likely to be politically counteracted in coming elections, neutralized by the Jevons Paradox, result in negative side effects, or being circumvented by people.15

An indirect governance model, called the Global Redesign Initiative (GRI), by the World Economic Forum, favoring multi-stakeholder lobbying and public-private partnerships, has attracted a lot of interest. Even if it has good intentions it carries many possible negative side-effects like sub-optimization of field solutions, debt-incurrence, corruption, higher costs, priority to high profit areas, environmental degradation, etcetera. Leaving governance to self-selected and potentially self-interested MNCs may also risk undermining public acceptance and democracy. Therefore, the author would recommend that the GRI and similar concepts are reevaluated to see how one could use the corporate sector in the best possible way and at the same time develop a true cosmopolitan democracy.

A centralized global model of governance, like a United Nations parliamentary assembly, would most certainly be rejected by the majority of nations since it would seriously diminish sovereignty of individual countries. Proponents argue that a world government could be small, decentralized, and liberal. Firstly, by obvious reasons most nuclear weapon states will not be interested to join a world government that will eliminate their power position. Secondly, the global challenges, and the Agenda 2030, cover a very broad spectrum of issues that are extremely difficult to solve. Consequently, a world government cannot be small, decentralized and liberal.

A vital part of global governance is to reach all people on earth. The DOCP model accomplishes this by a national infrastructure for 5G bandwidth, and by reassuring access to smartphones and AR/VR headsets, offering accessible battery charging and obtaining a digital identity. This will enable all citizens to be part of the DOCP, eGovernment and eHealth, as well as a digital financial system, increasing the overall capacity for decision-making, effectiveness, accountability and transparency.

The suggested DOCP model can probably be accepted by most of the UN members, even if it will take some time to agree on all details and not all members join in at the start. Once the DOCP is up running and functioning satisfactorily the decision-making capacity within each respective country will increase on a daily basis in relation to the upgraded inner drivers of change in the population. Furthermore, by using consultative voting it will be easier to reach both international and national agreements that are binding and have a high probability of materializing. The author does not believe that direct democracy is feasible in the near future in the majority of issues related to the SDGs, since they are usually very complex and include many deep deliberations. However, in some cases direct democracy might be both appropriate and applicable.

An adequate question is why the DOCP would be popular to use for the majority of citizens on the planet. Even if the author means that there is an international urge among governments to implement the SDGs, and there is quite a high chance that the DOCP could receive substantial sums for marketing, this is probably not the main attractor. The activities on the DOCP involving AR/VR and AI, facilitating individualized assistance in ways that people have never experienced, will be magnetizing. Billions of people with inadequate basic education, or lack of resources to reach higher academic levels, will get an opening for free education independent of time and location. It will be easier for professionals, academics and business people to access knowledge that can be useful in their work. Young people will be able to play exciting games using AR/VR and AI. The list of useful and stimulating activities on the DOCP will be numerous. At the same time, people all over the world will be working with their inner drivers of change and receiving individual feedback - a novelty without barriers for human development. Since the costs and resources to build the DOCP will be considerable, and partly possible only because the financing is shared among the majority of the countries on earth, it is not likely that many other global platforms will be able to attract more people.

Some governments whose social values seriously clash with those of the SDGs, will probably hesitate to join the DOCP, even if they have signed the 2030 Agenda and the Paris agreement. It will take diplomacy, patience and the urge of their citizens to change standpoint. However, the immense transfer of funds to developing countries intended for the SDGs and free education will probably make it difficult for most nations to reject.

Effectiveness

If the DOCP is successfully established within the UN family, and especially at ECOSOC, there is great opportunity to effectively address the global challenges. It is better to have billions of citizens and decisions-makers with more knowledge and higher insights working for common goals, than governments or global institutions trying to force people with limited insights in some direction. The more one attempts to exert control in society, the more vulnerable one becomes since political oppression creates fundamental conflict within the individual. With the DOCP each country will work with different pull and push strategies depending on respective conditions, and they will have considerably higher support from people using the DOCP, if political policies are adequate. The DOCP will make it possible for developing countries to take a leap from being an underdeveloped society to a society with state of the art technology and infrastructure, that is more resilient and sustainable than in developed countries.

The author is convinced that the DOCP will move the planet into more resilience and sustainability. However, there may be some uncertainties about priorities and development paths. The SDGs can be solved in numerous ways, and in the first major phase of transformation, some choices may be more important than others. To exemplify, the climate change that we are experiencing requires a radical decrease of greenhouse gas emissions, and simultaneously requires sustainable soil and landscape management that ensures food production, fresh water, wind protection, temperature resistance, biodiversity, with the use of organic fertilizers and pest control. At the same time robotization in nearly all sectors in the coming decades will increase unemployment to extreme levels, which may negatively influence the fulfilling of many of the SDGs. If humanity should choose to implement a food system based on agroforestry located in and around cities and villages with the aim to self-supply, it would solve or mitigate many challenges the world is facing today such as energy production and transportation with fossil fuels, unemployment, water pollution, starvation, industrial food production, poverty, inequality, health issues, migration, drug-resistant bacteria, etcetera. However, other solutions to the climate change and deficient global food production system, may have dramatically different consequences. Thus, in the beginning of the DOCP process, when inner drivers of change and insights still are in an early stage of development, the risk for unfavorable global opinion building, decision-making and implementation, is higher. This risk also refers to solutions regarding infrastructure, energy, ICT, building construction and industrial materials. Therefore, it is vital that ECOSOC, and other organizations and universities, deeply explore the pros and cons of some global solutions that have major implications for humanity, in order to make it easier for individual countries to avoid mistakes. This can hardly be overstated since the population of the developing countries is around six billion. If there are obvious risks that developing countries follow development paths that are unsustainable because of existing technology, rich countries must multiply R&D efforts to find better solutions.

Resources and financing

One major advantage with the DOCP is that the costs for upgrading the inner drivers of change in the global population will be low compared to if all countries were to try to achieve this on their own. In practice it would be impossible to copy the DOCP due to complexity and high investments. The author believes that many governments would like more support from their citizens in order to implement necessary strategies, and would therefore find the DOCP supportive. It is likely that global costs for implementing the SDGs will be considerably lower with the DOCP, which will ease financing. The investments in worldwide 5G bandwidth can probably be significantly reduced by using satellites, and furthermore, smartphones, AR/VR headsets and battery charging, will most certainly be much cheaper by using mega-robotic factories.

At the moment the UN focuses on different potential sources of financing the SDGs, for example governments, civil society, philanthropic organizations, entre-preneurs, institutional investors, banks, project developers and development finance institutions. The Financial Innovation Platform, initiated by the UN, aims at $2.5 trillion annual funding for the SDGs.16 This figure corresponds to about 3.4 percent of the Gross World Product (2015, nominal), and consequently higher for the rich part of the world. The author is positive to all attempts to pool various financial sources since they are certainly needed, but suspects that these funds will be difficult to arrange with mentioned strategy, without putting developing countries in deep debt, since rich countries never have been generous on this scale. The author's suggestion to use overt monetary financing would benefit both donor and developing countries without serious disadvantages, if handled appropriately (see Chapter: Description of model/Inputs/Financing).

A major challenge is to plan and develop AR/VR and AI modules in the way that benefits people most, and simultaneously is secure and realistic in terms of costs and time to build. A new Partnership on AI was initiated in September 2016 by Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft. Their goals are, among others, to support research, recommend best practices, advance public understanding and awareness of AI, and provide a regular, structured platform for AI researchers and key stakeholders.17 18 This global collaboration around AI is promising for the DOCP project. As research and development within AR/VR and AI expands it will gradually be possible to recreate more sensory experiences, as well as more advanced AI, which will increase attractivity and efficiency further. If properly developed, AR/VR and AI would revolutionize education and our society as a whole. Unfortunately, it also holds the power to degenerate and destroy humanity if used improperly, which implies a need of rigorous preparatory work.

When discussing financing and costs it may be worth mentioning that the DOCP might be the solution for a global common language and education. About 30 percent of the global population are already reasonably competent in English, and more than 85 percent of the scientific, technological and academic production is performed in this language.19 Huge cost-savings can be made if all citizens on the planet speak English, either as first or second language, and many positive side-effects would be achievable related to conflicts, communication, education, R&D, documentation, translation, media coverage, and trade.

The DOCP would also facilitate retraining of the global workforce enabling people to easier take up new occupations because of new technology and changed consumer demand. Furthermore, the DOCP will enable people that live in rural areas to participate in the global workforce, to obtain all kinds of education, and to enjoy the same cultural variety as people in the urban areas. This would mean a slower urbanization or even a reversed trend, and a prospering countryside.

Trust and insight

The proposed governance model generates trust and transparency by upgrading the ability of billions of people to foresee, understand, and act in a way that is beneficial for all involved. This would, among other things mean: a) reduced competition for power b) diminished inequality c) improved global governance d) strengthened peacekeeping institutions e) reduced the sectarian divide f) decreased population growth g) reduced crime and terrorism h) lessened elitism and populism and finally i) improved capacity to deal with climate change.

The author is of the opinion that there is a considerable mistrust in global institutions and centralized governance, and that the only way to install long-term trust is therefore by upgrading inner drivers of change and insights in both decision-makers and citizens.

Flexibility

The DOCP model is highly flexible in that: a) the platform can easily develop and change, and is at its core an evolving model for change b) upgrading drivers of change and inner development is an individual task and experience, making it possible to respect different human contexts c) countries develop their own laws, measures and regulations depending on their country-specific conditions to reach the SDGs, thereby keeping their sovereignty d) the cosmopolitan democracy model can grow from infancy to maturity e) not all countries have to join in at the start f) the transformation speed will be maximized in each country, depending on how fast the inner drivers of change are upgraded g) there is ample scope for testing new DOCP modules in different countries or regions before making them standards.

Protection against the abuse of power

The author means that the negative effects of existing international, national, regional and local power structures are difficult to change with legal, political or economic measures. The DOCP model protects against abuse of power by upgrading inner drivers of change in decision-makers and citizens around the world. Naturally, this is a gradual process. Should there be any disagreements related to the DOCP, these can probably be solved within the UN system.

Accountability and transparency

The international accountability of the DOCP model is limited in the way that nations decide their own laws, measures, regulations and accountability, to reach the SDGs. However, this does not exclude international agreements and pertinent accountability. The implicit governance model of the DOCP is to upgrade inner drivers of change in the global population to increase the ability to foresee, understand and act in favor of the SDGs. This means that accountability and transparency will be inherent in this model. Furthermore, a digital identity for everyone, enabling citizens to be part of a digital financial system as well as eGovernment, has the potential to substantially increase national accountability and transparency. When it comes to the operations of the DOCP, the UN system will ensure accountability and transparency.

Footnotes

1 Owen Cotton-Barratt, Sebastian Farquhar, John Halstead, Stefan Schubert, Andrew Snyder-Beattie, 2016, Global Catastrophic Risks, Global Challenges Foundation.

2 Vincent N. Parrillo (ed.), 2008, Encyclopedia of Social Problems 1 & 2, Parrillo, SAGE Publications, Inc .

3 The W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Introduction to Logic Models, (accessed March 10, 2017); available from https://cctst.uc.edu/sites/default/files/cis/introduction%20to%20logic%20models.pdf

4 United Nations Careers, (accessed March 10, 2017); available from https://careers.un.org/lbw/home.aspx?viewtype=VD.

5 The United Nations Economic and Social Council, About us, (accessed March 10, 2017); available from https://www.un.org/ecosoc/en/about-us.

6 Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, About, (accessed March 10, 2017); available from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/aboutun.html.

7 Abba P. Lerner, 1943, "Functional Finance and the Federal Debt", Social Research, 10(1), 38-51 (accessed April 1, 2017); from https://k.web.umkc.edu/keltons/Papers/501/functional%20finance.pdf

8 Mathew Forstater, Functional Finance and Full Employment: Lessons from Lerner for Today? 1999 (accessed April 1, 2017); from https://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp272.pdf

9 "Cognitive computing", Wikipedia, (accessed March 10, 2017); available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_computing

10 Partnership on AI, Goals (accessed March 10, 2017); available from https://www.partnershiponai.org/

11 Example of AI agent. "Google's Sundar Pichai Introduces Pixel Phone and Daydream VR" (accessed March 10, 2017); available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN9OhliypPo.

12 Wikipedia, Massive open online course (accessed March 10, 2017); available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course.

13 GVADATA, About, (accessed March 10, 2017); available from https://gvadata.ch/about-gvadata.

14 GLOBALSTAT, About, (accessed March 10, 2017); available from https://www.globalstat.eu/en/.

15 Wikipedia, Jevons paradox (accessed March 10, 2017); available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons's_paradox.

16 Sustainable Development, UN, private sector to create platform for financing SDGs, (accessed March 10, 2017); available from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2016/10/un-private-sector-to-create-platform-for-financing-sdgs.

17 Partnership on AI, Goals (accessed March 10, 2017); available from https://www.partnershiponai.org/

18 Future of Life Institute. Asilomar AI Principles (Accessed March 9, 2017); available from https://futureoflife.org/ai-principles/

19 AIIC, One world, one language? (accessed March 10, 2017); available from https://aiic.net/page/732/one-world-one-language/lang/1

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