The Roadmap to A Wiser World
Although the public launch of the project occurred in June 2023, much of the work had already been completed beforehand. The primary focus at the initial stage after the launch is therefore on presenting the work that has already been done. The presentation of this material will occur in steps, in the form of separate sub-projects.
But the aim is for A Wiser World to become a truly crowd-sourced project where people from all over the world shape the platform and its evolution. The content is not supposed to be decided upon by just one person. It is impossible to reach the goal of a wiser world unless a community of people acts together. So even if the initial focus of the project is on presenting the prior work, all feedback is welcome right at the start.
To learn more about the person behind A Wiser World, the values that guide this work, and how you can become part of the community, please take a look at the about page.
Let us now look at the plan for the sub-projects within A Wiser World.
Project Zero: The First Principles of Wisdom
The goal of A Wiser World is to make the world wiser, and this is to be done by finding and explaining the first principles of each relevant topic. So if we want to reach this goal while staying true to our method, that means we must begin by finding the first principles of “wisdom”. This means we need to identify the most fundamental laws and facts of wisdom. It involves figuring out what wisdom means, how it differs from knowledge or merely having information, what wisdom consists of and how to achieve it. If we don’t have a clear understanding of these things we are likely to miss our goal, just like a hunter is likely to miss its target if it doesn’t know what the target looks like. So that is the first step on our journey towards a wiser world.
We can call this step “Project Zero” because this particular sub-project is like a “ground zero” for A Wiser World: it is the underlying foundation of the whole project, upon which everything else is built.
For more details about the plan and the status of this project see the project page for Project Zero.
Project One: The First Principles of Psychology
The next step is to develop the first principles of psychology. The reason for this is that the analysis in Project Zero shows that a key to achieving wisdom is to have a greater understanding of values and actions, which are both things that are studied in psychology. Another reason is that on our mission to establish the first principles of all fields of study, the social sciences is where these are most lacking at the moment.
Finding the first principles of psychology involves identifying the basic units to which the laws of psychology apply. In physics these basic units are the particles. The laws of physics, like gravity, the electromagnetic force, etc apply to these particles, and combinations of particles. As we will see, in the case of psychology these units are the stimulus, the response and the relation. Project One also involves finding the fundamental laws of psychology that apply to these basic units.
For more details about the plan and the status of this project see the project page for Project One.
Project Two: The First Principles of Mental Health
The goal of A Wiser World is to find the wisdom that allows people to have a good life, and create a good society. Establishing how to improve our mental health therefore becomes an important pillar in the project. When we have the first principles of psychology, we can quite easily establish the first principles of mental health as well. This includes understanding psychiatric disorders and psychotherapy from first principles, as well as how people who do not suffer from psychiatric disorders can improve their well-being.
For more details about the plan and the status of this project see the project page for Project Two.
Project Three: The First Principles of Philosophy
After the first principles of psychology have been developed we can move on to philosophy. We can begin looking at questions like “What is knowledge?”, “What is reality?”, “What is the good life?”, “What is logic?”. These are questions that people have thought about for millenia, but despite all the time and energy that these questions have received, little progress has been made. It turns out that the core reason for this is that we have had a poor understanding of the thing we use to philosophize: our mind. Once we have found the first principles of psychology we will begin to see the philosophical questions from a completely new perspective, and the answers to them will start to become clear.
For more details about the plan and the status of this project see the project page for Project Three.
Project Four: The First Principles of Politics
The goal of politics is to make society better, although people may differ greatly as to what they think is a “better” society. It is a difficult task since it involves the collaboration of many people. With the first principles of philosophy to guide us in finding an objective definition of what a better society is, and the first principles of psychology to guide us in how people best collaborate, we can move on to establish the first principles of politics. Work on this project will begin much further along in the project, since it depends on the work of previous sub-projects.
For more details about the plan and the status of this project see the project page for Project Four.
Project Five: ???
Who knows what the next sub-project will be then. By this time, hopefully A Wiser World has become a fully crowd-sourced project where decisions on what to explore, expand and express are made by the community. Maybe the next focus is on the first principles of gardening, of data science, of learning a new language, of biology, of project management, or of house building… Or maybe all at once! We will see!
Project X: The First Principles of Practical Matters
In parallel with the above sub-projects runs a different kind of project called “Project X”. The name is short for “Project Extra”, because the project involves finding the first principles of all the “extra stuff” in the project. For example, finding the first principles of collaborating on an online project, the first principles of holding a good meeting, for discussing issues in chat format, for taking good notes, etc. This sub-project is less structured compared to the other ones and will focus on whatever appears as useful during the progression of the overarching project.
For more details about the plan and the status of this project see the project page for Project X.
This concludes the introduction to A Wiser World.
Next up: The First Principles of Wisdom – Overview
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