integration

I had a fascinating conversation with the head of Integral Miami, an organization devoted to promoting multi-dimensional solutions to the world's biggest problems. The attraction for me is that I have always used the Integral philosophy in all of my work. I am a true believer that you can't solve any real world problem without considering at least the dimensions of technological capabilities, economic costs and benefits, public values, and legal realities. So he and I could have talked for hours (which in fact we did).


I suspect that one of the reasons most government solutions fail is that they ignore the impact of at least one key dimension. Either the solution is not technologically feasible (CAN SPAM Act), is not economically viable (most health care proposals), violates some core public value (the "death" tax, CIA eavesdropping), or is simply unconstitutional (again CIA eavesdropping).

What we need is to get more integral thinkers into public policy and somehow avoid the political compromising and horsetrading that makes just about every government solution weak at best.