The Overlooked Power of Cooperation with Tamara Helenius

impact down stage so at first the title of this talk was going to be the overlooked power of cooperation but as I started digging into the different ideas and bringing them together another pattern emerged and I think a better name for this talk is actually the myths that make us what I'm sharing today is really my own personal Journey a lot of the sense making and unlearning that I've had to do to enable to be able to Envision a future that I want to see for myself and my two daughters when was the last time you heard a good story a story that made you bang a table or fall down laughing a couple of nights ago at a group dinner someone I just met called Pete had us rolling on the floor telling us stories about growing up with only one leg not the kind of thing you would think would be so funny he was born with one leg and as a child he had Prosthetics legs made in different sizes as he grew and he collected so many that one Halloween he lined them up and dressed up as a centipede pretty funny right he also told us that he appreciated how kids how blunt children are when children see him they shout what is that and adults hush them up and tell them to look away can you imagine that what that feels like having an adult tell a child to look away from you I thought about this story for a long time that week and I asked myself when I interact with somebody with physical or mental differences do I honor the person that they are do I look away and I realize that his story is going to change my behaviors and that's a lot of what this talk is about we're the only species that tell stories Bears don't stand around laughing about the camper that they chased up a tree telling stories is how we as humans entertain each other inform each other influence each other provoke thought and provoke actions like Pete's story stories change the behaviors of other humans now economics is a science but it's not a natural science economic studies production distribution consumptions of goods and services and it's rooted in human behaviors take away humans and the laws of physics stay the same take away humans the laws of chemistry don't change but when you take away humans there is no economics and that's the point that Robert Schiller the father of narrative economics makes here by looking just at the GDP just at wage wages interest rates and taxes we don't see the whole story it does not lead to meaningful understanding and it's at best incomplete but at worst harmful so we're talking about narratives behaviors and economies narratives affect behaviors behaviors affect economies but it feels like something's still missing does anyone want to take a guess what does economies affect environments excellent planetary health which means the planet Earth and all living things that depend on it narratives affect Behavior Behavior affects economy economy affects planetary Health well looking at this it becomes so obvious what we need to do if we're dissatisfied with the planetary Health outcomes we need new narratives in this chain we know that the current economic models are destroying the planet the only one we have to live on put another way the old 20th century narratives are going to end us and we need new narratives in this chain to produce new planetary outcomes does anyone recognize the Amazon rainforest that's supposed to be green right and these look familiar plastic lasts forever and here we see the outcome of our cultural obsession with fast fashion I want to share the quote published alongside this award-winning photo by munkata chasant the vast bulk of cheap Trend driven mass-produced clothes arrive in Ghana as waste land filled they decompose emit ethane gas worsening the climate crisis narratives form the myths that make us us myths hold great power and sway Collective Behavior because of myths humans can cooperate in extremely flexible ways with countless number of strangers and this separates us from other animals in fact the overarching thesis of sapiens the book is that human success is based almost entirely on Collective myths biblical creation cosmological creation human rights myths about modern States and of course money and this is important when we collectively decide to change myths we change behaviors dramatically and quickly we decided monarchy was an outdated form of governance we decided slavery one of the oldest institutions in human history was no longer acceptable and we reverse the pattern of History by deciding women should have the same rights as men so let's examine three shared myths that contribute to the negative outcomes of planetary health and let's replace them with help with myths that we want to have more positive impact John talked about GDP here are some recent headlines just the last three days this is what the average normal person will read about the economy and the takeaway is growth equals good declined equals bad want number go up and what exactly is being represented here it's called The Myth of the Church of economic growth growth is portrayed as the solution to all of our problems poverty unemployment overpopulation and even environmental degradation itself but GDP ignores negative externalities non-monetary factors like quality of life informal economy like care work and in general creates a very short-term Focus but we are so deeply entrenched in this 27 20th century myth how are we ever going to find our way out some people here are going to be very familiar with this image this is Kate rosworth's donut economics and she answers this question by developing a new economic framework that aims to balance social and planetary bounds instead of focusing solely on GDP growth we need an economy that meets the needs of all people within the means of the planet and Kate arrived at this thinking directly from uh directly by thinking differently than all other economists around her challenging the old 20th century ideas and building New Economic principles for 20th first century thinking when speaking about organizational design she changes the question from how much value can we extract from this organization to how many benefits can we generate through this organization and here are the Seven Ways to Think Like A 21st century Economist according to Kate and look at that first line the GDP curve right The Economist candidate building famously said anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in infinite World is either a Madman or an economist or in Kate's words our aim must be to thrive rather than to grow growth can't be the goal in and of itself again we need to meet the needs of people within the bounds and the means of the planet she suggests we start by thinking in systems by being distributive and being regenerative or working within the cycles of the Living World which brings me to the principles of regenerative economics John Fullerton is the founder of the capital Institute and the father of regenerative economics he derived these eight principles in right relationships seeks balance honors place and Community among others his goal in doing so is the transformation of our economic system to achieve social and ecological regeneration not just success but regeneration an economy that works in harmony with nature and regenerates sources rather than exploits them rather than exploiting them and he calls this the dawn of the regenerative age and I think that's a myth we can all get behind these principles include creating resilient and adaptive systems valuing diversity and cooperation recognizing the interdependence of economic social and ecological systems and they sound very aligned with donate economics let's move on to the next myth survival of the fittest this phrase is misunderstood when people interpret fittest to mean the strongest or most physically capable it's a gross misinterpretation of the word and a failure to understand the complexity of evolutionary biology fittest actually links back well to two principles of regenerative economics secret balance and in right relationship being in the right relationship and in balance with the living systems of which we are apart fitting in those most well adapted to their environment will have the greatest reproductive success well adapted doesn't mean physical strength or size it includes intelligence cooperation and adaptability so Darwin didn't coin this phrase it was a contemporary of his named Hubert Spencer who thought Darwin's natural selection should be applied more broadly outside of biology even to societies and the misinterpretation of survival of the fittest is often used as justification for individualism and competition and isn't that one of the greatest counterproductive myths of our time but it's a false narrative species exhibit Cooperative behaviors and work together for the benefit of the group rather than just the individual Darwin also States very clearly the importance of sympathy as a trade for Reproductive success what was known as sympathy in Victoria England we might now know as empathy The evolutionary biologist and futurist Elizabeth sotoris has influenced a lot of my thinking and she emphasizes cultivating a sense of planetary citizenship she says the only sustainable future is one where we recognize we are all part of one living system on one small planet and that really strikes me so let's move on to the next myth the tragedy of the commons in 1968 an American ecologist Garrett Hardin penned an essay titled the tragedy of the commons and it has been one of the most durable myths of past Generations he describes a fenced off private pasture that's thriving and very well kept and then he describes a common pasture that anyone can use as battle worn and devastated he concludes that owners have incentive to take care of their land but humans are self-interested and will naturally exploit common pasture available to them you can see how this argument sounds plausible Hardin argued for the importance of markets in States and solving social and environmental problems his argument assumed individuals would always act in their own self-interest without regard for Collective good he didn't believe people were willing to cooperate for the benefit of the community Research into Commons have noticed some similarities between the tragedy of the commons and the prisoner's dilemma that is the game theory a potential conflict between individual self-interest and the collective interest of the group both can be resolved through cooperation and trust and in both scenarios the best outcome is achieved when individuals trust each other and cooperate both demonstrate individual self-interest that can lead to sub-optimal outcome for the group as a whole if you imagine herders instead of criminals criminals when herders remain silent or reduce their herd everyone benefits the most this is the cooperation and Trust solution if one herder confesses or increases their herds they are still they have the greatest profit but the other player becomes a sucker and if they both confessed they both are still worse off than when they say stay silent the prisoner's dilemma can only be played out once and the prisoners never talk to each other so very different than a Commons where communities managing the commons are in common uh are in daily contact and have built trust and those that violate the rules of the commons are kicked out of the commons of course the biggest thing that Harden got wrong was he was not even describing a Commons he was describing an unmanaged unfettered free-for-all Hardin failed to acknowledge that Commons have well-established rules enforced by social pressure and cultural norms enclosures of the commons which occur when private or public actors claim exclusive ownership and control of shared resources have historically led to social degradation social inequality and the loss of traditional knowledge and practices research has shown that common-based management can actually be more effective and sustainable than private or public management because it takes into account the longer term interests of the community and promotes cooperation and Trust this is Eleanor Ostrom and before Eleanor Ostrom tragedy of the commons was considered conventional wisdom over the span of many years she conducted meticulous field Research into existing Commons and derived eight principles which she observed in longer lasting sustainable Commons in 2009 she won the Nobel Prize in economic science for This research can you imagine anything more ironic than winning a Nobel prize in economics for proving that humans can cooperate Kate rosworth implores us to bring more attention to Commons by speaking about them and pointing them out earlier this week I had the chance to sit down with Jason Potts an economist and researcher and author of the book Innovation Commons Jason argues that Innovation Commons is a unique institutional form which produces a framework for creating and diffusing knowledge and innovation he looks at crypto as an innovation Commons it did not start out at closed it started out in the open and much of it is still open source open source software is one of the greatest examples of a Commons that we can point to think back to the prisoner's dilemma the best outcome is achieved when individuals trust each other and cooperate so what does this have to do with East Denver right if you didn't see it if you weren't here go watch why the dowels Will Change the World by Lauren from giveth and then definitely see regenerate Earth by John at refi Dao and the dozens of other speakers talking about building new coordination systems supporting public goods resilient and ethical token engineering novel governance medals that are focused on regeneration come talk to me Griff Livia Emilia Jeff Usama all of us at common stock dedicated to building cultural Frameworks and crypto economic Primitives to support communities that want to launch their own tokenized Commons come talk to John Daryl myself Griff Emilia about the joint venture between refi down common staff launching an incubator to support local startup Founders and communities to deploy local regenerative focused Commons or refi nodes these are the people deep in new narratives that lead to new behaviors that lead to a new economy that needs to new planetary health and together we got this thank you [Applause] should I take some questions I got one minute anyone wanna throw a question out in one minute no questions hey Seth hey Tamra um what are some other myths that you're excited about one that came to mind is the great reset and flipping that into the great regeneration um what are some other like big macro myths so I'm raising two young daughters and the thing that comes to mind is you know consumerism you know they're at this point they're almost teenagers one is a teenager there's a tween and it's like they are so eager to consume things and how do we change that mentality for young people to associate consuming things and Brands and fast fashion with their own value and self-worth okay cool thanks [Applause] [Music] [Applause]