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= The Philosophical Basis for ICANN =
= The Philosophical Basis for ICANN =
== What is ICANN and how does it fit into the story of the universe? ==
NOTE - This is in very early development. But enjoy and pass it around. Just don't edit it yet except for fixing spelling and grammar.
Thanks - [[Marc Perkel]] - marc@perkel.com
== How to use this document ==
This document is the original work of [[Marc Perkel]]. The idea here is to put some ideas on the table that are hopefully clear enough to get the [[ICANN]] community excited about these concepts as the foundation for [[Internet Governance]] (IG). After people get interested in this as worthwhile then a PDP process should be started to incorporate these ideas into the official structure of ICANN.
My hope is that people take these raw ideas and build on them to make it much more than what I have come up with. The Internet is expanding exponentially and it is never too early to start figuring this stuff out. It is my hope that by getting a good start on this it will have a positive effect on the eventual evolution of the human race and avoid plausible pitfalls for humanity as depicted in popular science fiction.
The ideas presented here is just a starting point. The idea here is to light a fire and get the process going. This is to be viewed as a starting point and the objective is to develop enough interest so that people smarter than me can run with it.
== What is ICANN and how does it fit into the story of the universe? ==
Officially ICANN is the Internet Corporation for the Assignment of Names and Numbers. Sounds fairly simple on the surface. Someone has to run the resource index. But the simplicity ends when you consider what the Internet is and the role of the internet in the evolution of humanity. In that context the role of ICANN is likely to be part of an ongoing process that might directly impact the future of human development.
Officially ICANN is the Internet Corporation for the Assignment of Names and Numbers. Sounds fairly simple on the surface. Someone has to run the resource index. But the simplicity ends when you consider what the Internet is and the role of the internet in the evolution of humanity. In that context the role of ICANN is likely to be part of an ongoing process that might directly impact the future of human development.
With the computer we could offload mental processes to machines. They could calculate far faster and more accurately than humans, and had more accurate memory for data and could compare and manipulate it for us much faster. These machines made it possible to offload a lot of our thinking the way machines allowed us to offload physical labor.
With the computer we could offload mental processes to machines. They could calculate far faster and more accurately than humans, and had more accurate memory for data and could compare and manipulate it for us much faster. These machines made it possible to offload a lot of our thinking the way machines allowed us to offload physical labor.
=== A More Complete Understanding of Evolution ===
Just like everything evolution is evolving. Not just our understanding of evolution is evolving - but evolution itself is evolving.
Evolution was first expressed in terms of "survival of the fittest." envoking images of two males fighting to the death and the survivor gets the prize of mating with the female. Or the eagle with the better eyesight gets more mice to eat than the eagle more nearsighted. Genetic mutation causing random differences and those that provide a benefit become the dominate trait over long periods of time.
Humans evolved an ability that changed evolution. Unlike other species where most all knowledge learned by an individual dies with the individual, humans developed symbolic language which allowed knowledge to accumulate. Our ability to survive increased as the knowledge increased. As a result of the success of this new ability humans evolved around this new ability and our brains reconfigured to support verbal communication. This new ability forked a new evolutionary paradigm, the information was evolving too. As we invented new things our abilities increased without a corresponding improvement in the DNA based hardware. This started information evolution.
We then applied our abilities to affect the evolution of other species. Farmers employed selective breeding so that we could change plants and animals we used for food. We took and evolutionary process and sped it up by applying our own selection criteria rather than the long process of survival of the fittest. This created a form of controlled evolution. This is a new paradigm.
With new technologies we can now engineer life at the genetic level and skip the whole breeding paradigm and go directly to what we want. This engineered paradigm of evolution is very new and we are very early in the development of custom life forms, but one has to assume that this will continue to expand in the future and will need to be incorporated into a new way of thinking about evolution.
In addition to altering our genetics we are now interfacing technology and biology so that these two technologies work together and talk to each other. This is opening up yet another paradigm, cybernetic evolution.
Just as language started humanity on the path to information evolution new technologies expanded this form of evolution. Written language allowed the speaker and the listener to be separated by time and space. Allowed information to be preserved and reproduced. Paper became an external form of information storage enhancing and supplementing our biological brain. Information could be remembered even after death.
But today we have much more that mere paper. We have the Internet which has virtually infinite storage and instant communication worldwide. We have computers that let us offload our thinking and can think for us in ways that our brains could never process. This new paradigm is causing humanity to evolve exponentially and experience hyper-evolution.
All these new forms of evolution create a new evolutionary class paradigm called engineered evolution; the ability to use our knowledge to design the next generation. The next generation will have far greater abilities to engineer an even more advanced generation, and so on.
Different Kinds of Evolution List:
* Traditional Evolution - survival of the fittest
* Information Evolution - The ability to store and build knowledge through language
* Controlled Evolution - Selective Breeding of plants and Animals
* Genetic Engineering Evolution - Building Custom Life
* Cybernetic Evolution - Mixing Machinery with Biology
* Engineered Evolution - The sum effect of all the new forms of evolution
The important point here is that we need to look beyond the scope of traditional evolution we aren't blinded to the effect of new forms of evolution. It isn't accurate to say that humans aren't evolving - or evolving backward - based on our DNA alone. In fact the new evolutionary paradigms are making traditional evolution obsolete. We are quickly developing the ability to determine what we will evolve into. Because of that we not have to face the question, what should we evolve into?
And you might be wondering, "What does this have to do with ICANN?" ICANN is a logical result of the Internet which is a logical result of human evolution. DNS is like the first brain cells of the Internet. It's the point where a world government is spontaneously forming as an emergent property. So it is at least a logical place to start this kind of discussion.
=== The Internet causes Humans to experience Hyper-Evolution ===
=== The Internet causes Humans to experience Hyper-Evolution ===
By creating the right kind of moral infrastructure we can have the language to make the arguments as to why an Orwellian society isn't our best choice and we can make that argument in objective terms that link back to the positive evolution of humanity and what that objectively means.
By creating the right kind of moral infrastructure we can have the language to make the arguments as to why an Orwellian society isn't our best choice and we can make that argument in objective terms that link back to the positive evolution of humanity and what that objectively means.
=== The Trajectory of Humanity ===
The idea of the trajectory of humanity is like trying to figure out where a missile is going by knowing where it is and where it has been. Likewise we can look at where humanity is and where we have been to determine where we are heading. Maybe even guide the trajectory so that where we get to is where we need to be.
Assuming that nothing unexpected and dramatic occurs that changes everything, we can see trends to give us some general ideas about the future. For example - if Moore's Law continues then we can expect that every computer in the year 2100 will be more powerful than the sum of all the computers on the planet today. That may be hard to imagine now what that will be like, but we can look backwards to the year 1960 and realize that the laptop computers of today represent more than the sum of all the computers on the planet back then.
We also have to note at this point that we are using our technology to look for signs of intelligent life on other planets and so far we have found nothing, which is disturbing. The elements to create life have existed in the universe for 10 billion years. Life on this planet has been around for 3.8 billion years leaving the possibility that something out there could be 6 billion years ahead of us. If that were the case they would have had plenty of time to colonize our entire galaxy and their electromagnetic signals would be everywhere.
But they aren't. All we hear from space is the silence of random noise. What does this mean?
# We could be the first life in our galaxy to get to this level.
# Advanced life in the Universe is at least extremely rare.
# When life reaches a level shortly beyond where we are it usually destroys itself.
# The galaxy is teaming with advanced life and we just don't have the technology to find it yet.
# Some other reason not listed here.
The one that should concern us most is number 3. That our technology gets away from us and because we don't get out in front to see where we are going in time we are doomed. We are at a critical point in human development where we are transitioning into and engineered form of evolution that we might not survive, unless of course we learn to live in right relationship with reality and we make sure that the coming disaster never occurs.
But possibilities 1 and 2 are also very plausible. The more we learn about this planet and how we formed we are becoming more aware of how lucky we are to be here. The right distance from the Sun. The right amount of gravity. Just the right amount of water on the surface. Not too thick or thin of an atmosphere. We have Jupiter acting as a giant vacuum cleaner sucking up asteroids. We are at the outer edges of the galaxy where things are more stable. Because of this, we may be it.
What if we were the only intelligent life in the galaxy or even in the whole universe? That means if we blow it and destroy itself then the universe goes back to being a dumb universe. Nothing in the universe that understands what particles are. No one to know about the big bang. No one to appreciate mathematics or the meaning of reality. The universe goes back to rocks colliding in space, stars exploding, and on one there to witness and comprehend it all.
Would that not be a great loss? Should we not put out the effort to stick around long enough to at least see where this is all heading? Wouldn't going extinct now be like walking out of a movie right before it ends and just after it started to get interesting?
=== Testable Outcomes and Values ===
=== Testable Outcomes and Values ===
* Increase in knowledge over time
* Increase in knowledge over time
=== A Tale of two Koreas ===
=== Getting it right - A Tale of two Koreas ===
As an example of why making the right decision is better that making the wrong decision we can look at Korea. Korea was one nation split into two and went on very different paths from a common starting point. One can use east and west Germany as a similar example. Generally it is accepted in retrospect that South Korea has made more progress and is a more productive and healthier community than North Korea. Similarly West Germany did far better than East Germany.
As an example of why making the right decision is better that making the wrong decision we can look at Korea. Korea was one nation split into two and went on very different paths from a common starting point. One can use east and west Germany as a similar example. Generally it is accepted in retrospect that South Korea has made more progress and is a more productive and healthier community than North Korea. Similarly West Germany did far better than East Germany.
* Nations will have to determine the limits of war as waged on the Internet.
* Nations will have to determine the limits of war as waged on the Internet.
* Nations will have to learn to treat the citizens of other nations as they would expect other nations to treat their citizens.
* Nations will have to learn to treat the citizens of other nations as they would expect other nations to treat their citizens.
That transition will be similar to what happened in the computer world as different kinds of computers were interfaced to the Internet. Before the Internet there were computers made by Apple, or computer running Windows, Linux, Unix, Netware, etc. These computers all worked fine stand alone. But when they were networked the operating systems needed to be enhanced to talk to the world using standard protocols. Everyone needed a TCP/IP stack just to exchange random data. But soon thereafter the differences and incompatibilities started to surface. Files on one computer weren't compatible. There we different competing protocols with different platforms claiming to be the superior technology and fighting for dominance.
As a result the IETF was formed and without a lot of structure created standard protocols so that computers could, for example, exchange email, regardless o what kind of computer or device you were using. The process of standardization needed to happen and therefore it did.
Similarly nation states can no longer regard people as having two classes, citizens and foreigners. That is because we are all foreigners in most of the world, and would therefore be treated as second class citizens by most of the world under this model. The obvious solution is the acceptance of universal human rights with respect to all nations where nations treat "foreigners" just like they treat their own.
So in this context, if we were to ask the question "Is it right for America's NSA to collect information about the citizens of everyone in the world, one only has to ask, how would we feel if other nations did the same thing to us? If nations can't respect the rights of others, then by what authority does a nation demand that other nations respect their rights?
So - just like when the different operating systems joined the Internet so too nations themselves are connecting to the internet and are going to have to alter themselves to be compatible with universal protocols. And there really is no way around this process. Nations are just going to have to accept that this is something that has to be done if one is going to participate in the larger community. Since this must occur then nations can choose to be either embracing of the inevitable or be dragged kicking and screaming into the future.
I think the correct attitude, if I can be so bold, is to look at this as an opportunity for growth. We can take the best aspects of all of the world's diverse societies and incorporate them as the standard protocols of a new global society that we all share and define the relationships of the global community and national sovereignty in a healthy productive way. We can collectively decide to do it right and rejoice in the benefits of our success or we can fight and disrespect each other and argue who gets the blame. I say - let pull together and do it right. Let's accomplish greatness together and succeed.
=== Commercial Stakeholder Buy in ===
Just as the world is changing for nations so is the world changing for corporations. Technology continues to evolve and no place is the evolution faster than the Internet. This leads to technologies sometimes having a very short life because a new technology replaces it. An exciting world full of pitfalls and opportunity awaits those who get involved commercially.
One of the common conflicts in philosophy regarding the Internet from a commercial perspective is short term vs. big picture thinking. Something that has short term gain might have severe long term consequences. One has to find the balance and fine tune short term and long term decisions.
=== Problem than need to be solved ===
What is the jurisdiction of Internet Governance? Here are some immediate issues that these standard can be applied to.
* Net Neutrality
* Government Spying
* Government Censorship
* Intellectually Property
* Law Enforcement
* Differences in laws between nations
=== Expanding the role of the GAC to other unrelated issues ===
ICANN provides an international forum 4 times a year where international issues can be worked out between countries. ICANN is a more efficient forum and more fairly balanced than the United Nations and therefore it is reasonable to consider that the structure could be used as a forum for negotiations between countries for issues like:
* International Banking Regulations - differences between laws have led to countries becoming tax havens to as to scam governments out of revenue and allow an oligarchy of super rich people to control the affiar of nations rather than to pay taxes due.
* International Corporations and Commerce - Standardization, especially regarding Internet related transactions, would be useful to make the Internet safe and consistent for all users of all countries.
* Internet Human Rights - Countries agree to basic human rights and commit to treating the citizens of other nations as they would expect other nations to treat their citizens.
* Global Visions - Forming task forces to understand emerging new technologies and make recommendation to the GAC for consistent international law.
Additionally ICANN can work on creating models to facilitate international cooperation. ICANN could provide arbitration and mediation services bringing in organization like JAMS and other kinds of experts in coordinating the development of better ways to get things done. ICANN can create both a philosophical foundation for cooperation between all the planets stakeholders and build the tools for which the Global Public Good can be accurately determined and implemented.
Even if ICANN isn't ultimately the organization that implements these goals we can create a blueprint for successor organizations that will follow us to use.
== What I want to see ICANN do ==
== What I want to see ICANN do ==
=== Recognize ICANN's role in Big History ===
=== Recognize ICANN's role in Big History ===
As stated earlier ICANN is actually predicted by the evolution of the universe itself. This is explained by:
* Evolution is a fundamental property of the universe.
* Evolution leads to life.
* Life evolves into intelligent life.
* Intelligent life will invent the computer.
* The invention of the computer leads to the invention of the Internet.
* The invention of the internet leads to the implementation of a symbolic name to resource locator (DNS).
* Someone has to administrate DNS and that is ICANN.
Because of this ICANN is sort of the preordained initial form of Internet Governance (IG). Everything has to start somewhere and where it starts and who is involved is somewhat by random chance. Someone has to win the lottery and whoever wins will have to ask themselves, "Why Me?" ICANN is just in the right place at the right time.
Like a lottery winner ICANN has to claim its prize or the jackpot will move onto the next drawing which mat be far less suited than ICANN is. Would we want the United Nations taking over the Internet? Or would we rather have a world wide oligarchy form that will dominate humanity where we will be controlled by warring corporations and rich ideologues fighting for personal power? Or will the machines evolve into life forms and kill off all the biology and move out into space to conquer the universe?
It is our turn. We can choose to pick up the ball and run with it or we can sit back and hope someone else do it at a later time when it is harder because bad things might be more entrenched.
Another analogy, perhaps better, is that a plane has crashed and ICANN has the seat next to the escape hatch and because we are sitting there it is our duty to open the door and assist everyone in exiting the plane in 90 seconds before the plane burns everyone up. The sooner we get started the more likely the results will be better.
So - we won the lottery. Are we going to go claim the prize or leave the money on the table? I say - let's go for it!
=== Right Relationship with Reality ===
=== Right Relationship with Reality ===
So where do fundamental values come from? Whee does right and wrong come from? Where does morality itself come from? What should ICANN use to determine these values in constructing the framework for IG? Fortunately we have a template that is discoverable and that template is reality itself.
Reality includes the set of all things that is actually real. It even includes all other reality that actually do exist, at the exclusion only of those things that do not exist. For the purpose of this discussion we don't have to have the argument as to what is real or what isn't.
Rather, what we should do is accept that we live in a universe and that we exist. We know that we have a past, present, and future. We are subject to the laws of cause and effect. Our present was caused by the events of the past. Our future will be determined by our choices in the present. Because our ancestors made the right choices, we exist. If we make the right choices our descendents will continue to exist. If we make the wrong choices, we could go extinct. If we are extinct we are no longer part of reality.
The concept of living in right relationship to reality is based on the axiom that survival is better than extinction. Thus it means that we need to take an active role to make decisions that lead to the goal of survival as opposed to extinction. In order to survive, especially in a state of hyper-evolution, we have to understand reality, understand our place in the universe, and to make decisions to get us from where we are to where we need to be.
One of the discussion I had at ICANN 47 in Durban was about this topic. "What is the purpose of humanity in the universe?" I don't remember who but someone said, "The purpose of humanity is to survive long enough to determine what the purpose of humanity is," I had a longer and more complex answer but his answer was easier to understand and incorporated the principles that I thought were important. His answer implied not only do we survive, but that our understanding of reality would increase over time and in the future our understanding of our own purpose will increase.
To that end we need to act in the Global Public Good so that humanity flourishes. So that our understanding of reality increases. In order to do that we need a global society that gets along, cooperates, values knowledge, innovation, safety, personal dignity, and is generally wise. We take responsibility for our actions and we learn to live in harmony with the natural world.
When we live in right relationship with reality then many of the questions we face as an ICANN community can be solved in these terms and that the right choice can be distinguished from the wrong choice in terms that can be described scientifically and derived from universal principled based on our commitment to remain as a member of the real world.
The alternative is to be reckless and petty and to end up becoming extinct and forgotten. And in 4 billion years when the Sun expands and destroys the Earth the only remnant of our existence will be the two Voyager spacecraft that are the only human made objects to leave our solar system.
=== Is this only about the Internet ===
What is the scope of this proposal? Is it only about the Internet? Should it be about everything? Conversely, is it outside the scope of ICANN and we should be talking only about DNS related issues. Some people might think that world domination is mission creep, and they would be right.
The short answer is - I have no idea.
A longer answer is - it's all related. What is being proposed here is more of a thought experiment. Although ICANN is charged specifically with DNS which is a single technical aspect of the Internet, we have formed what is now the official world community where the world comes together to resolve policy conflicts between governments and between nations and non-government stakeholders. ICANN is to the Internet what the United Nations is to war. And as the UN branched out into social unrest, international law, disease control, and disaster relief. ICANN too has to branch out to deal with related issues.
One has to also look at the role of ICANN from the perspective of the future especially with the hyper-evolution of the Internet. It is easy to see that as technology creates a world community that the ball is moving into our court and that we are presently in a unique position to get it right from the start. We can, and should, at least come up with the philosophical framework for the future.
What we come up with can be applied to all aspects of life. For example, if we adopt the view that the positive evolution of humanity is a better path than extinction, and the the idea of the Global Public Interest is a good standard, then these ideas could be easily applied to decisions about the environment. Clean air and water is better than polluted air and water. Peace is better than war. Nuclear annihilation is a bad idea. We all sort of know this but if we have a solid philosophical infrastructure we can precisely explain why these statement are true and we can create testable outcomes to check our decisions against.
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta Magna Carta] for example became the philosophical framework that lead to constitutional democracies. We don't know where our work will lead but it very well could happen that something we never dreamed of will be based on the work we do here, and that's why we should do it.
=== Write a philosophical preamble to the bylaws to define our mission in big picture terms ===
=== Write a philosophical preamble to the bylaws to define our mission in big picture terms ===
=== A commitment to getting it right ===
=== A commitment to getting it right ===
There's an old saying, "If you don't have time to get it right when are you going to find time to do it over?"
I think ICANN can come up with a form of IG and get it right as long as we use the right methods to get there. We need to start working on this early and get stakeholder buy in on the fundamental principles laid out here.
* And all inclusive approach seeing humanity as a single community.
* A commitment to reality based thinking
* staying with the Global Public Good theme
* Testing new ideas against fundamental principles
* Checking our work with tests that result in measurable outcomes.
== Conclusion ==
We have a unique opportunity to form the basis of global society and get in on the ground floor and do it right. Humanity is at a critical point in the evolution of life on this planet and we are giving birth to a new future that is very different than anything this planet has ever been through before. This new future can be compared to a zygote, just a bunch of cells that are just beginning to an organism that we will eventually become.
We are in a unique position to start out right while this is forming. We can either act or not act. But if we don't act then someone else will, or flaws might develop (America's NSA, International Oligarchy) that might become the model for human development. Such a model could lead to extinction.
We have an opportunity to write the operating system for humanity's future and I think we should do it and do it right. Otherwise we could end up regretting our inaction.
It is at least worth serious discussion and consideration.
[[Category:Loose initiatives]]