This text is part of the text “Rebooting Humanity”

(The German Version can be found HERE)

Author No. 1 (Gerd Doeben-Henisch)

Contact: info@uffmm.org

(Start: June 14, 2024, Last Modification: June 14, 2024)

Starting Point

In both the section “Talking about the World” and the section “Verifiable Statements,” the theme of ‘change’ continuously emerges: our everyday world is characterized by everything we know being capable of ‘changing,’ including ourselves, constantly, often unconsciously; it just happens. In the context of people trying to collectively create an understanding of the world, perhaps also attempting to ‘plan’ what should be done together to achieve the best possible living situation for as many as possible in the future, the phenomenon of ‘change’ presents an ambivalent challenge: if there were no change, there would be no future, only ‘present’; but with change occurring, it becomes difficult to ‘look into the future’. How can we know into what future state all these changes will lead us? Do we even have a chance?

Changes

Motivation

In the current scenario, we assume a context of people trying to collectively form a picture of the world, who may also be attempting to ‘plan’ joint actions. It’s essential to recognize that the ‘relevant’ topics of interest are influenced by ‘which people’ one is working with, as each group within a society can and often does have its ‘own perspectives’. It is not only in ‘autocratic’ societal systems that citizens’ perspectives can be easily overlooked; there are plenty of examples in officially ‘democratic’ systems where citizens’ concerns are also overlooked, warranting closer analysis.

This discussion initially focuses on the fundamental mechanisms of ‘change’, specifically the ‘collective description’ of changes. The motivation for this emphasis stems from the fact that different people can only ‘coordinate (align) their actions’ if they first manage to ‘communicate and agree’ on the ‘contents of their actions’ through ‘communication processes’.

While simple situations or small groups may manage with verbal communication alone, most scenarios require ‘written texts’ (documents). However, written text has a disadvantage compared to direct speech: a ‘text’ can be ‘read’ in a situation where the ‘reader’ is not currently in the situation being described. In terms of ‘verifiability of statements’, this presents a real challenge: every text, due to ‘learned meaning relationships’, automatically has a ‘meaning’ that is activated ‘in the mind of the reader’, but it is crucial to verify whether there is a ‘real verifiable correspondence’ to the situation ‘described’ in the text.

If we assume that a group of people seriously contemplates a ‘future’ that they believe is ‘more likely to occur than not’—not just ‘theoretically’ but ‘actually’—then there must be a way to design the description of a ‘starting situation’ such that all participants have a chance to verify its accuracy in their shared everyday life.

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