The Post-Westphalian Ecosystem of Power: Structural Meta-Forces, Fractal Diffusion of Authority, and the Convergence Hypothesis Preface Whenever someone talks about global power networks, a familiar accusation surfaces: “That sounds like a conspiracy theory.” The label can silence legitimate inquiry, yet history reminds us that conspiracies—real ones—have always existed. By definition, a conspiracy is simply aContinue reading “Post-Westphalian Global Ecosystem of Power”
Category Archives: Civilization
Living in a World Too Complicated to Understand
Most of us sense it, even if we can’t always put it into words: life keeps getting more complicated. Every year brings more forms to fill out, more apps to master, more passwords to remember, and more rules we’re expected to follow. For many people, it feels like the world is being built for somebody else—and in a way, it is.
We Are All Managers Now: A Ground-Level Call for a Civilizational Paradigm Shift— in the fierce urgency of now
From Wall Street boardrooms to village cooperatives, from TikTok teens to overburdened single parents, we are all managers now. Managers of attention. Managers of ecosystems. Managers of fragile supply chains, of values, of our personal data streams, and of our very identity. And whether we admit it or not, we are managing a system careening toward collapse—unless we radically change how we think, decide, act, and collaborate.
The Lost Boys of the West: Why So Many Young Men Are Stuck—and How We Might Help Them Find Their Way
A generation ago, the typical arc of a young man’s life followed a predictable script: graduate, get a job, move out, maybe get married, build a life. Today, that script is in shreds—and for a growing cohort of young men in the West, it’s not being rewritten so much as left blank.
The Code of Nature: A Fractal Journey Toward Wisdom
We live in a universe of exquisite complexity—a vast, unfolding pattern of space and time, of entities and events, of form dancing within matter, guided by invisible laws. As a natural philosopher trained in both philosophy and systems theory, I’ve spent a lifetime asking not just how things work, but why they exist in such ordered beauty. And in my quest, I’ve come to believe that we are all part of something much larger than ourselves—an intelligent, self-organizing cosmos seeking meaning through pattern and value.
Collective Intelligence: Evolving Self and Knowledge towards Unity
Paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s “The Phenomenon of Man” envisions humanity as key drivers of cosmic evolution, now increasingly relevant with digital networks. The Noosphere represents our collective intelligence’s evolution towards an Omega Point of unity. Embracing this transformation poses ethical questions about identity and knowledge’s nature in a connected age.
“Its The System!”
My grandfather Ben Garside was 35 when he saw a car for the first time. He lived long enough to see men walk on the moon. When my mother was born, astronomers disagreed about whether there were other galaxies besides the Milky Way. When she died they estimated there were hundreds of billions of galaxies.Continue reading ““Its The System!””
The Simple Systems Worldview
Our civilization is becoming increasingly complex. But our brains are not getting smarter. We need to adopt a more efficient “methodical intelligence “. Science, for example, is a methodical intelligence. However, our conventional sciences evolved piecemeal and in disciplinary silos. Similarly, management practices have been sufficient in local contexts, but now all local economies competeContinue reading “The Simple Systems Worldview”
The Life and Death of Civilizations
Compiled by ChatGPT Prompted by Randal Adcock There is no reason to believe that civilizations last forever. As complex adaptive systems, civilizations need to deal with a large number of internal and external factors. As they become more complex to match the requirements of their environments they become more difficult to manage. Managing Complex CivilizationsContinue reading “The Life and Death of Civilizations”
Unveiling the Power of Feedback: Navigating Relationships and Ideas
Introduction: Feedback is a fundamental force that shapes our interactions, relationships, and the evolution of ideas. Whether we are aware of it or not, feedback mechanisms play a crucial role in steering the course of our personal and professional lives. This article aims to introduce the concept of feedback to those who may be unfamiliarContinue reading “Unveiling the Power of Feedback: Navigating Relationships and Ideas”
Randal Adcock 