Rules for Humans and Their Ideas

I'm going a bit crazy watching people argue unproductively and hatefully.

People are jumping to random sides of issues without any consistent philosophy to justify their opinions. People are shouting past each other, arguing against points the other side is not making.? There is constant bullying.? Attacks on appearances constantly masquerade as arguments.??

While all this might be entertaining for a while, it is a waste of resources, especially when humanity has big problems to solve.? Imagine the value we could capture by listening and comparing ideas. Imagine both sides expecting that they could benefit from exchanging ideas. Imagine the time saved if people only gave their opinions when ready and willing to converse.

In any argument, there ought to be a common ground.? There ought to be rules to make each argument useful and not hateful. So, where do we start?

At the beginning, of course.??We do have a common history.

At some point in the distant past, humans became different from other animals.? We had ideas that we retained and passed on to others.? Some other animals do this, but we mastered the art. Human civilization was built by standing on the countless shoulders of humanity that created, improved, and shared the infinite ideas that made the foundation of human civilization today. Welcome the pinnacle.

As we improve ideas, we continue to improve the effectiveness of sharing them: language, art, storytelling, music, writing, printing, radio, film, TV, digital systems, social media, and artificial intelligence; anatomy, philosophy, and psychology.? Humanity's numbers grow.? Our power to communicate ideas grows exponentially. Our networks of other humans are unprecedented and growing at an unimaginable rate.??

Our collective set of ideas is growing exponentially.? The number of ideas we individually encounter every day is already a challenge.? This is going to continue.

We did not evolve to be inundated with the volume and breadth of this many new ideas.? How do we cope?? Badly.? Some people shut off the world.? Some scream to block new ideas.? Some censor ideas and ban people from sharing.? Many rush into the fray for a second to lob their opinions at each other and rush off to the safety of their thought fortresses.?We can do better.

It might help to agree a few common rules.

Let me suggest a few rules derived from a single starting point.? This set of rules is extensible. If you think of more and better rules, please share them.

Let’s get started.

Given the essence of being human and the mechanisms that created human civilization, we can conclude that,?

At the very least, the individual and collective purpose of our lives is to continue to build and improve human civilization.?

‘Improve’ includes the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of humanity.

‘At the very least’ acknowledges that individuals have other reasons and purposes that are special to each of us.

From this common starting point, we can write the first rule:

Rule 0:? A responsibility shared by every individual, and demanded by human civilization, is to improve humanity’s collection of ideas, and thus improve human civilization.

• Ideas can be small, such as “I should eat more vegetables because that is healthy.”??
• Ideas can be philosophical, such as “Always help people in distress if you can do so without being harmed.”
• Ideas can be technological, such as the best way to build a reactor.
• Ideas can be a policy, such as “Thou shalt not steal.”
• Ideas can be entertaining, artistic, medical, etc.
• Ideas can be impossible to categorize.
• Ideas will always be abundant.

It is an easy leap from Rule 0 to figure out how to be a good human:? You must participate in our shared responsibility.? Here is a simple goal on which we can agree, useful every day of our lives:

Rule 1:? Find and share better ideas than the ones you have now.

Finding ideas means either creating them from scratch or improving existing ones. (Some might say ‘discover,’ ‘search for,’ or ‘find’ ideas.? Ideas are not entities floating around waiting to be discovered.? Discovering an idea means creating the idea in your mind.)

What constitutes a ‘better’ idea?? That’s up to you.??

An idea might just ‘feel’ better. The result might taste better, look better, sound better, etc. These are very personal and may be difficult to share effectively.

A more analytical determination of 'better' might begin with some critical thinking:

• What is the value of this better idea?
• What will this cost?
• What is the risk?
• What is the evidence?
• What are the alternatives?

Why share???

Good ideas will do more good if shared with more humans. Effectively sharing one good idea is better than creating one brilliant idea and keeping it to yourself.

What about good deeds?

Good deeds are good for the humans involved, although it is rare that a single good deed will directly benefit large numbers of humans.? On the other hand, demonstrating a good deed may be a very effective way to share specific ideas with numerous humans.??

Our most effective efforts will be to prioritize activities that help humans to follow Rule 1.? From this, we can write Rules 2 and 3.

Rule 2:? When possible, work to improve humanity’s ability to learn and share

Learning to be creative, brainstorm, collaborate, design, combine ideas, share, debate, think critically, etc. are essential skills. Investments in this area are the most efficient way to improve the number and reach of good ideas.

Rule 3: Celebrate the creation of original ideas as well as the improvement, combination, and effective use of existing ideas.??

Truly original thinking is rare and precious. ? More often, civilization advances by improving existing ideas.? Both are golden.? A major improvement to an important idea is much better than creating a small but original one.?

And, like mining for gold, humanity has to move and discard many worthless ideas to find the precious few.? Better to discuss a lot of worthless ideas containing only a few good ones than to try to prevent the discussion of worthless ideas.??

Enough about creating and improving ideas. What are the rules for sharing good ideas?

Rule 4: Share responsibly.

According to the Rules, your purpose is to share good ideas.? That does not mean you are responsible for sharing every good idea, but if you decide to share an idea, do it responsibly.??

The act of sharing your idea means that you should expect that it will encounter a competing idea.? Your responsibility then turns to examining both ideas and selecting the better one for yourself. Working together with the owners of competing ideas allows the examination of all sides.? If done responsibly, the process always has a chance to uncover new ideas and combine existing ones.?

Comparing ideas improves your understanding of your own ideas.

"He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that." – John Stuart Mill

This process of sharing cannot happen without open discussion, advocation, and some debate. Anything that stops this process breaks Rules 1.?

There are many good ideas for sharing and discussing effectively, not limited to the following:

1. A word or a few words cannot be expected to convey a complete idea.??
2. A popular idea can still be a bad idea.
3. It is never responsible to argue that your idea is good because you are a good, righteous, popular, or prominent person.???
4. If you are an expert, you should teach, not argue.? Good teachers listen to their students. Stay humble. Big ideas and decisions span multiple areas of expertise. Experts in one area are not experts elsewhere.? You need to listen to conflicting ideas to have a responsible discussion.??
5. Examining both ideas together requires a back-and-forth comparison.? Critical thinking improves the comparison.???
6. If you are unwilling to participate in examining competing ideas, you cannot share your ideas responsibly.?
7. If there is conflict, stop and double-check that you agree on the conflict area and the criteria for judging an idea as better or worse.? This step can result in a much more useful, shorter discussion.
8. It is critical to understand that responsibly discussing ideas does not mean that there is a winner and a loser.? All comparisons will produce additional information that is helpful for the participants.? A good discussion has the chance to create a better idea altogether.? It may show that neither idea is very good.? It may result in better explanations.? There may be a winning idea.? In that case, all the participants will be better for it.
9. Responsible sharing encourages responses such as: “That is a good point,” “Let me think about that,” “I will do further research,” and “I would like to continue this later.”
10. Name-calling, ad hominem attacks, shouting, threats, silencing, and physical violence break Rules 1 and 4.? Ideas worth defending require sharing responsibly.? If you cannot do so, leave the sharing to a better advocate of your idea, and learn to share ideas responsibly.
11. Be patient and model good sharing, per Rule 2.
12. Refusing to discuss and debate a bad idea guarantees it will live on.? If you want to kill a bad idea, share a better idea persuasively.
13. You may grow tired of advocating for your better idea.? Learn to be a more efficient advocate. Get help. Improve your arguments.? Reexamine your own idea.? Could you be wrong? Can you see from the other side?

Since our individual purpose is to improve human civilization with more and better ideas, we need to individually value our fellow humans as collections of ideas and potential idea sources. Finding potential value in the collections of fellow humans has the huge side benefit of invalidating common forms of prejudice.? We can use this to write Rules 5, 6, and 7.

Rule 5:? Judge ideas, not people.??

There are bad ideas.? There are good ideas.

There are no bad people.? There are people with bad ideas. ? (They may also have good ideas.)

There are no good people.? There are people with good ideas.? (They may also have bad ideas.)

Every person has the potential to create and share good ideas. Thus, every person has value to human civilization.

Wrong:? Bill is bad.? Bill is stupid and dishonorable.? “Bill, you are an idiot and a thief.”??

Correct: Bill has some very bad ideas. Bill says workers do not need hearing protection in loud areas.? He plans to spend his rent money on a new truck.? Bill embezzled money last month.? “Bill, I understand your explanation.? I will share a different viewpoint and some better ideas.”? “Bill, that is a terrible idea.? Here’s why.”

People are their collection of ideas.? If a person has no thoughts, which can only happen if they have no mind, e.g. they are declared brain dead, we say they are not a person. ? If they change many of their ideas, we say they are no longer the same person.? A person who has changed their mind may say they are a changed person.

If Bill thinks hearing protection is unnecessary when operating loud machinery, he has a bad idea.? If Bill shares that idea with Jeff, who believes that hearing protection is valuable, and both share responsibly, the result may be that Bill will change his mind and start to wear hearing protection.? Bill is no longer the person who believes hearing protection is unnecessary.??

Do not judge people harshly for improving their ideas, i.e. changing their minds.? “Flip-flopping” into accepting a better idea is good for everyone.? Never discourage this.? Humans have confirmation bias.? It is always hard for us to change our ideas.? Therefore, we must go out of our way to praise those who successfully change their ideas.

We should forgive people who have done bad things but have since discarded their bad ideas and replaced them with better ideas. ? (Of course, we cannot know with complete certainty that another person’s ideas have changed.? We need to watch for evidence of their changed ideas through their actions.)??

Rule 6:? Don’t judge people for anything other than their current collection of ideas. The rest is trivial.

Praise or shame for things beyond a person’s control are both wrong.??

Staggering amounts of time, effort, and human lives are wasted on tiny, irrelevant differences between humans.

Examples of terrible reasons to judge people:?

Body circumstances – DNA, age, sex, race, ethnicity, epicanthic fold, nose width, height, weight, body part size, musculature, number of limbs, motor control, asymmetry, color of hair, handedness, smoothness of skin, allergies, food preferences, sexual preferences, sensory abilities, mental proficiency, etc.?

Birth circumstances – parents, siblings, place of birth, family wealth, parent's religion, native language, accent,?etc.

Past circumstances – No one can control their past circumstances.? The only things people can control are their current ideas. These are the ones they will use to decide how to go forward.

Criticizing any human for anything beyond their control is shameful bullying.? Praising a tall body or shaming a bald head are equally horrible.? Human civilization is not built stronger on a foundation of symmetrical bodies or those with blue eyes.? Ideas are not better or worse coming from the left-handed, those born in Connecticut, or the divorced. We need for focus our minds on the important things. We can't afford to lose good ideas by ignoring people for terrible reasons.

Your body is important in one way:? Your body is the vessel for your good ideas.? Take care of it. ? Be especially careful with your brain and mind.? Live a long life to accumulate and spread your ideas.? Don’t judge your body for things that you cannot control.? Accept that you are a biological being with physical flaws, mental quirks, and biological drives. These attributes of your body do not diminish or increase your potential value or the value of your good ideas.? You have value because you have a mind capable of finding and sharing better ideas. Every body can.

Learn the quirks of human minds and how we are drawn to certain bad ideas.? For example, you are human and so you are biased to think that attractive people who speak well are smart and trustworthy.? This flaw is used to successfully exploit most people (via advertising), causes the wrong people to be promoted, and results in some poor relationships.? ? For the same reason, “first impressions” and nice clothing are not useful ways to judge people.? Instead, ask the right questions and listen to their ideas.

Humans have biological drives.? You are not fully in control of your thoughts or desires.? You cannot make yourself not think of a pink elephant.? You cannot make yourself love certain foods.? You are responsible for your actions, based on your decisions, based on your ideas.

“Bill is left-handed, and you know what left-handed people are like.”? This type of thinking is perhaps the worst.

People are amazing individuals.? Each is uniquely valuable because they have unique collections of ideas. The most harmful and wrong ideas are those that start with “Everybody knows that [a certain grouping of people] think…”. ? Zero people are average.? The differences between the averages of large groups are insignificant compared to the variations within the groups.? Judging a group based on their bodies or birth statistics compounds the error.? Judging individual people by mind-reading whole groups is a consistently horrible idea.? Every application of a stereotype to judge an individual is a bad idea.? Every genocide is an example.??

Those people breaking Rule 6 expose their terrible ideas.? Please find the energy to invoke Rule 4.? Demand a comparison of their very bad ideas versus much better ideas based on this Rule.? Otherwise, these bad ideas will live on.

Bad ideas: Judging the value of people by their bodies or circumstances. Grouping people by stereotypes. Expecting stereotypical behavior based on their appearance or accent.

Much better ideas: Individuals are unique because they carry different collections of ideas.? Diverse collections of ideas have more value.? All humans have the potential for good ideas. Grouping people diminishes their value.??

“We aren’t going to include Joyce because you say that right-handed people are less creative, Bill?? Let’s discuss that.? Even if this is true on average, how is that useful?? A difference in averages does not help us judge individuals.? All people have the potential for good ideas.? They all have different collections of ideas. Have you asked Joyce about her ideas?”

Rule 7 – Do not waste a human mind.

As the complexity of life and the pace of change increase, humanity needs to maximize the number and quality of minds at work, improving civilization.???

Therefore, as we improve, we should strive to eliminate every mindless, body-based job, for example, digging, load carrying, fruit-picking, and repetitive factory labor. ? Automation of such jobs should be a priority.???The future of a fully inclusive human civilization depends on the training and education of all minds.

We should use artificial intelligence and other tools to assist human minds by giving them more power and time for thinking, creating ideas, and sharing them. More time, more minds, more power means a better human civilization. Faster.