Benutzer:Jeanpol/theory and aims

FACING THE FUTURE

Jean-Pol Martin

Of course, my English is awfull. But it doesn't matter: "Neurone gehen spielerisch mit Unschärfen um".

Introduction

At the end of my life as a scholar, I had the huge pleasure to see my work widespread in the world. This was possible because of internet. In the early 80s I developed the teaching method Lernen durch Lehren in Germany. This teaching method is wellknowd in this country. As the internet step by step spread, very soon in Germany people edits an article about "Lernen durch Lehren" in Wikipedia. The more Wikipedia grows, the more scholars and teachers looking for informations about teaching methods, especially about "Lernen durch Lehren" viewed this article. The article about "Lernen durch Lehren" was translated in English ("Learning by teaching"). So more and more scholars and teachers in the English-speaking world could get informations about this method.

1. What people need to be happy

All people having to deal with human being have to know what people need to be happy .

1. Pyramid of needs

The most notable description of human needs was provided by Abraham Maslow 1954 . Of course he didn't claim having deliver a complete despiction of human behavior, but his pyramid included all relevant needs. From the beginning he was criticized about the hypothesis, that people have to achieve the first step (physiological needs) before climbing to the next step (security), than climbing to social needs and so on. But Maslow agreed with this critic, so the controversial was soon closed. Yout don't have to satisfy the physiological-needs before you satisfy the security-needs and the security-needs before you satisfy the need of social relationship. Here the adapted pyramid:

Sense/transendence

Selfrealisation

Social acceptance

Social relationship

Security

Physiological needs

2. Control

The term "control" isn't very pleasant because people don't want to be controlled. But they want to have their life "under control". All the activities from human beeings (and from animals) have just one goal: to keep alive, to survive. This means to have their environment and their own life under control. Willing to control the environment and their own life, they only have one indication in order to check their fitness: are my needs satisfyed? Because all the needs are to be satisfyed in order to keep the organism capable of surviving. Beginning with the physiological needs, its obvius that humans and animals have to maintain their bodies viable and fit in order to master the tasks day after day. They have to eat, to wasch their teeth and their bodies, to sleep. So they control their organism and maintain them able to control the livingtasks. The second step (security-needs) are synonymous with controlneeds, because if we don't have security, we don't control the situation and we are menaced, perhaps to loose our life. The next step (social-needs) means that we need other people helping us to control our environment and our life. The selfrealization-needs means, that we want to extend our control-field. We want to "control" more and more, so we have more possibilities to make us fit and able to live. Alls this activities are the opposite of dead (as definitive lost of control). The last step is the need of sense. We want a sense in our life. To stay alive is the goal. And we need a masterplan in order to stay alive. The sense may refer to a philosophy or a religion. The philosophy or religion give us a guideline, making us strong and fit by our effort to stay alive. When we lost for a short time our control-feeling, we are unhappy and fighting for recover the control. When the control is retrieved, the brain feel a flow and we are enjoying the recover of control.

3. Information processing and flow

Humans and animals are able to control physicaly their environment. For instance a lion controls his living espace just being present and menacing other animals willing to share this espace. Humans may control physicaly too, but they have develop the ability to build in their mind cognitive schemata, representing the real world and making us able trying virtuel variable solutions in our mind. We have cognitive landscapes in our mental representations. So we control the reality using cognitions. Processing informations and making cognitive schemata is crucial for beings. They have to keep in tuch with their environment in order to adapt their behavior, sticking to the ressources (energy) they need to live. If people are uncoupled from the environment, they will quikly die. Studies about the brain shows that processing informations deliver adrenalin dopamin and oxytocin and makes happy. This is important, because if processing informations is crucial to survive, the organism has to motivate the brain processing informations. So it does. It is very motivating to produce cognitive schemata. It is more motivating to conceptualizise. Conceptualizing is needed when people are making longlastings plans and developing huges strategies. If people are mastering difficult situations a long time, losing control and reaching control again and again, they are feeling flow. Flow is a intensive feeling, high motivating to performing and working hard. The most intensive flow is by conceptualization. For manager, teacher and leader it's crucial to know, that they can highly motivate their teams when they set the students and employees in situation giving continously opportunities to conceptualize.

4. Explorative behavior and flow

The psychologist Dietrich Dörner examines the characteristics of successful problem solvers and emphasizes their explorative attitude. An explorative attitude is the willingness of people to enter situations that contain a high degree of uncertainty. The logical chain can be described as follows: exploratory people seek out fields with which they are not familiar and try to assert themselves in these fields in a problem-solving manner. Every experience gained in this way is processed into an abstract, cognitive scheme. The more experience, the more schemes, the wider the cognitive map. A wide cognitive map ensures control over more areas, enabler faster processing of new impressions and protects against emotional burglaries. It ensures that new situations are successfuly mastered. The feeling of control is strengthened, self-confidence grows and thus the willingness to tackle unknown fields, i.e. to behave in an explorative manner again. Explorative behavior mus be rewarded, The control feeling achieved with explorative behavior in case of success culminates in the flow effect. Csikszentmilhalyi (1999) describes following prerequisites to flow-feeling:

• Enter unknown fields, discover new things;
• Open-ended situations for which one is responsible;
• Solving problems, mastering high demands;
• Exploitation of your own resources;
• Feeling of self-limitation;
• Control over one's own actions and the environment.

In principle, any demanding exploratory activity can lead to flow.

5. Project as a happyness-generating structure

Searching for task profiles that demands explorative behavior, that favor conceptualization and that provides continously flow, we discover that the projects-structures places this tasks at disposal. Projects offer the possibility to satisfy all the needs we have listed in the pyramid:

• Physiological needs: projects are giving your life a structure during the project-time. You have to focuse your energy on a target and set the organism in awerness. You have tasks and they give you mental and phsically a aim-focused dynamism.
• Security: projects have a beginning and an end. So you have control about the time. The material basis is ensured and the people working in the project are stable too.
• Social relations: the colleagues are committed to the project-goals and you are working together and support each others.
• Social recognition: everybody in the team will be proud of some success and will be praised for it. Of course hierarchy take place, but usually, when the teamleader is competent, each collaborator find social recognition in the projectcontext.
• Self-realization: project give you the opportunity to unfold your talents in many fields and ways. You can show what you are able to do in various situations. And usually there's no upper limit. Especially you will find a wide field for information processing and conceptualizing and this is what make humans particulary happy.
• Sense: if you identify yourself with the project-goals, all your activities make sense.

Projects are the best structure to satisfy human needs and to be happy. That is the reason why manager, teacher and leader have to provide their students and collaborators this way of working. A very important component is the fact, that projects offer the chance to feel free and selfgoverning. You can increase your self-confidence.

6. Basic needs and human right

The philosophical tradition transmitted us concepts like "dignity", "freedom", "equality", "virtue", "true" and several other notions who are abstract and difficult to realize in the real world. The reason is that philosophy believed from the very beginning that a higher might have exigences we have to filfull. And this exigencies are idealistic concepts. They are difficult to materialize and philosopher discuss about each from them without reaching a consense. So it seems much usefuller to focuse on the human needs if we want to build a world and a society who give humans the opportunity to be happy. So the "new human right" could sound this way:

• Art. 1: Thinking: The central basic need is thinking (informations processing and conceptualization). Conditions must be created so that all people have access to information and the possibility of conceptualization.
• Art. 2: Health (physiological needs): All measures are taken worldwide to enable living beings to satisfy their physiological needs. Nature as a reservoir is treated carefully and gently.
• Art. 3: Security: Worldwide efforts are being made to create structures that ensure maximum safety for all living beings (including jobs and home).
• Art. 4: Social inclusion: It is ensured worldwide that living beings can move in a socially supportive environment. Structures are to be created that socially support self-realization.
• Art. 5: Self-realization and participation: It must be ensured worldwide that living beings can all develop their potential. Nature must be treated with care. The development of the individual can only take place within the framework of the structures surrounding him. There must be the possibility of influencing these structures, i.e. of participing. Society depends on as many people as possible making their intellectual, emotional and material resources available for this purpose.
• Art. 6: Meaning: It is ensured worldwide that living being can experience their live as meaningful and satisfying.

2. Public participation as a source of happiness

Assuming that projects are the best structure conducting to satisfy the human needs, the most motivating projects are embedded in public participation. Participating to city-related projects satisfied the security-needs, the needs for social realtions and for social recognition and above all the need for self-realization and for meaning . In several countries like Switzerland or Sweden the public participation is quite advanced. Facing the problems mankind has to cope with, like globalwarming, migrations, poor/rich gap and all the conflicts, that this problems are generating, cooperation is crucial. We need all intellectual and emotional ressources that human beigns can provide. In a city there are many occasions to arrange public participation, for instance when a new area is to create with parks, buildings, malls, playgrounds. Differents methods can be used . It's important to note, that public participation can't work immediately. They have to go a long learning process. The trial and error principle is often the way we learn. Politicians are often not interested in support public participation because they have other goals as the citizen. Politicians often emphasize the economics interests from people they supports them. They forget, that they have to focuse on the citizen interests, what are often other than the interests from investors. Citizen have to claim what they want in order to satisfy their needs. And the politicians are elected in order to satisfy the citizen-needs, not the inverstor needs. Citizen should require a steady "Bürgerbeteiligungsrat" like in Potsdam . People have to learn, how they can participate in their near environment, in their city, their state and in the world. For each domain they are specifical methods .

Dialectical thinking

In everyday life every thought, every action leads to a counter-thought or counter-action. This counterthought is to be welcomed, because it triggers a reflection which, if an effective strategy is used, is cancelled out in a synthesis. Dialectical thinking permanently leads to the integration of apparently contradictory positions that unite and develop on a higher line of balance. Especially for political actors this insight can be very ftuitful, because it enables a common approach to problems across parties. Reaching the consensus provides flow and is a way to happiness.

Public participation leads to public intelligence

As said, the problems mankind is facing force us to be more intelligent. Thanks internet and AI it is possible to connect people like neurons, building sort of neuronal networks and a big brain. So human beings could set up a collective intelligence. If the structures make easy to participate, people will learn step by step more about their city and their state and be more and more able to understand the problems and to face them. This is very crucial, because the global warming - for instance - is speedy progressing.

Behavior in neural networks

In order to be effective "neurons", people have to show following behavior:

• Neurons are open and transparent
• Neurons pass on their knowledge immediately. Since neurons are not afraid of making mistakes and embarrassing themselves, they fire very quickly
• When neurons are docked, they immediately react
• Neurons try to make constant contact with other neurons; they are not afraid of being penetrating
• Neurons are not offended
• Neuron do not pause; they do not take a break until their project is completed
• Neural networks play around
• Neural networks have a basic democratic attitude

3. Integration as never ending participation-project

Migrations ar today a crucial problem because climate change and wars are menacing worldwide hugh populations. So billions of people are looking for better places. Europe and the USA, where the most populations from poor countries are willing to immigrate, try to control the immigration but they face many problems. Unlike other problems like pollution or the gap between rich and poor, which are not permanently visible, migrations set up many negative reactions in the population. Currently in Europe this is the main topic and leads to hugh conflicts and political negative consequences, like trying to close the borders, nationalism and aggressions against foreingers. Within the populations sharp differences are emerging. Public participation would open the opportunity to get people together, which have not the same opinion but are willing to solve the mains problems resulting from the migrations. As migrations are not just temporary, but takes allways place in the history of mankind, it would be favorable if lasting public participation structures will be established. The subtopics concerning the migrants are: education, home, jobs and salaries and integration, what means common goals and cultures. We should begin soon, the earlier, the better.

4. AI will help to solve problems -> happiness

In the future we have to:

• identify problems
• search people willing to solve the problem
• build neuronal networks
• search informations about the problem-fields
• feed the KI with problem-relevant informations
• search a konsens about the right option
• implement the solution
• identify new problems
• and so on

Exemple 1 (management of refugees)

We allways have to start from the basic needs. How do we can provide resources in order to satisfy the basic needs of refugees? How much refugees and how much resources? We can exactly collect informations about refugees and about our resources in the area(homes, food, schools, jobs and so on). Concerning the refugees we can collect informations about country of origine, gender, healthy, mental condition, number of children, cultural habits (eating, religion). Then it is possible to feed AI with this informations and ask the best option to distribuate the people in homes and communities.

Exemple 2 (sustaining people working in hard jobs)

The job of politicians is to provide happiness for the citizen. In a city a lot of differents interests are taking place: first the entrepreneurs and employer have much power regarding influence and opportunities to push trough their desires. Of course politicians should support the entrepreneurial activities and set up structures favorable to the economy. Cities need founds to provide social offer like schools, hospitals, public buildings, streets and transportation. But only politicians are entitled and able to protect the citizen. Voters give their vote in order to elect people who defend them against overwelming power of investors or entrepreneurs. Today the neoliberal policies worldwide stresses just one aim for alle social activities: yield for capital. 20 years ago extensive fields in the society were in the public sector. For instance hospitals and old people's homes. Today they are private and the employees stays under stress, especially regarding the time available to do some work. They have no time to speak with patients and old people. The manager have to bring yields and therefore they try to spare personal. This is also observable in the sytem gastronomy. Waters are stressed and have no time to speak relaxed with consumers. If we compare this with the basic needs and the chances to be happy, this situations for employees are definitly negative. In the future it will be possible to observe with the help from IA which activities are stressfully and how it's possible to reduce the stress. Of course the initiative must come from politicians. They can delivrate certificates for employers whith high worker-satisfaction. In this case, public-participation could be set up.

See also

• Jean-Pol Martin
• Jean-Pol Martin biography in German
• Learning by teaching