Dear Chris,
What’s to be done with a theory of human values?
Let’s say a theory of human values is a decent idea. Well, there are plenty of decent ideas out there. A few cause decent change. Most take a decent amount of time and effort.
The Phoenicians believed they could know more about geography. More about how to get from here to there. They began to theorize and test a grid system in their planning and at sea.
As the ages passed, more asked how to build a global coordinate system? How to use it? It was a big project. Investigatoors relied heavily on state-of-the-art methods of science and debate - straw draw; thumb wars; rock, paper, scissors - to build consensus, test, record new knowledge, disseminate learning, discover more stuff.
Widespread, practical, significant improvements in navigation for everyone took centuries and millennia and lots of energy.
Humanity was testing ideas. Laying them out over reality. Rubbing them against the world. Theory at work. Concepts honed. Gaps discovered. Models built. Methods tested. Plans made. Ideas and martinis stirred. Equator, prime meridian, degrees, poles, longitude. And then Q invented so many Gadgets!
Better. Not perfect. Ships still sank. Sailors still drowned. Owners still frowned. Inconsistent supply of Sicilian wine. Postcards lost at sea.
Didn’t matter. Not even. Travel travel. Trade trade. Explore. Discover. Every action created knowledge and further codified a global coordinate system. That a grid system lay over Earth was just an idea. Imagination. But that idea was getting mixed with real stuff - actions and objects. A rich layer of geographic information was stretching over the globe, growing more meaningful and useful to more people for more purposes. A new perception of reality was emerging.
Just as we reimagined and wrapped Earth with a layer of geographic information to navigate from place to place, we can wrap our world with values information to navigate self and Humanity from present to future. 1
Values Layer
Human Values are the patterns we notice, bound, label. The Values Layer is the information about the patterns we notice. 2
The values layer dissolves the dualism of human subjective experience (perception) and objective reality (patterns).
The values layer depicts the ecology of the Nhà3 - the relationships of patterns, values, representations, energy flows, actions.
The values layer is a public good and integrates with other layers of information (economic, demographic, geographic, financial).4
Humanity can design and build the values layer with existing information to be explicit, purposeful, comprehensive, coherent, useful, accessible, secure, private.
Dear Chris,
So what’s the significance of a Values Layer? What could happen if we could “see” values information and the ecology of our evolution?
Hmm, how to think about this…
Well, once there was no geographic information. Then there was some, a little. What happened when Humanity started to perceive, record, share geographic information more purposefully, systematically, freely?
It began gradually with the earliest explorers and merchants. But as more folks were more aware of a grid, they made more maps and charts, more folks traveled, more information came in. More information was shared. More maps, charts, routes. More travel. More folks started calling folks folks.
Everyone was learning. Learning by doing and inquiring. Who was going where? Why? How did they get there? How long did it take? Why? Who took the different routes and what was discovered along the way? Why? Who could ask more annoying questions faster than the next guy? Why?
Each action and inquiry revealed redundancies, improved efficiency, generated information. Coordinates, distances, weather, partnerships, obstacles, risks, plans, technologies. Information, knowledge, understanding normalize and became more useful to more people for more reasons.
Equator, prime meridian, time zones, longitude, geopolitical boundaries, GPS, property rights, boundary disputes, transportation networks, global trade, world economy, supergalactic coordinate systems.
We were born into a world with a thick layer of geographic information mixed up with everything else.
And that is just the way it is.
And a values layer? Getting there…I know I know, I describe a circuitous circumference. Thank you for your patience.
By 200 BCE, Humanity had put some serious energy into creating and codifying values like science, exploration, education, greed, oppression, honesty, compassion, power, cruelty, identity, love, intolerance, courage, communication, literacy, accountability, strength, growth. How much more energy had humanity allocated to these values by 2000 CE? 10x? 1000000x?
Who moved the energy into those values? When? Which values is Humanity investing in most heavily now? What energy sources are most important to these values? What’s the difference between nations, cultures, age groups? How effective are they in transferring energy into these values? Which values receive too little or too much energy? Which values do the most work? Have the most power?
The values layer depicts the where, when, who is actively and passively moving energy around our world. From one representation to another. From one system of values to another. From one pattern to another.
Energy flows from parent to child, young to old, forest to home, nation to city, earth to destruction, wasteland to restoration, hand to art, suffering to learning. The energies of our values are divergent currents, carving canyons, spinning gyres and rogue waves. The energies of our values are convergent currents causing our evolution. Causing the world we’ve got and the future we create. Causing the Nhà.
Our values control a lot of energy and create the future we’ll get. It’s tough to move energy to the right places if we can’t perceive the place. The Values Layer is the place we need to perceive so that we can more wisely create.
Kinda trippy.
How much energy did Eratosthenes put into his values?
He ate a date. Noticed the sunset. Thought “beautiful” in an offhandishly wistful sort of way because he was a little tipsy. And so some energy from that date he ate went to the value of beauty.
Because Archy is not fast but wishes he were, Eratosthenes let Archy win at tag (a representation of values like fun and play). By doing this he added some energy to, reinforced the patterns of, values like friendship, fun, play.
Which values did he strip energy from? Which did he want to weaken and leave in the past. Ignorance and stodginess perhaps? Throughout his life, he allocated enormous energy to values of music, science, geography, intelligence, learning.
How much energy did ancient Greece, Rome, Florence - the cities, rulers, peoples, cultures - allocate to these values, to the sustainability of the patterns that we perceive in the representations of these values today? Because of the energy they allocated to those values, how much more work do those values do today - how much more power do they have - than if they had not put that energy into them?
Our ancient ancestors began organizing the world - behaviors, thoughts, people, objects, language. Subsequent connections, differences, similarities came to take on meaning over time and space. If they liked the patterns that began to form, that they began to be able to perceive, they put more energy into those patterns, codifying their existence. If they didn’t like them, less energy. Decay.
The total number of relationships expands exponentially with the evolution and growth of Humanity. Life explains a lot of it. But consciousness explains more.
As the world we create gets more complex, and presses on the boundaries of what evolution prepared us to manage, we reimagine reality and wrap it with layers of information, usually assistend by lots of technology, that aid our ability to navigate an increasingly complex world. Humanity did this with Time - 24 hours. We did it with Space - latitude, longitude. We did it with Communication - language. Now we must do it with Values.
Humanity has been using and contributing to the Values Layer forever. But contributions and use is mostly unintentional, informal, unconscious, implicit. The power of the Values Layer is still mostly latent but quickly concentrating with a few individuals and groups.
Today governments, corporations, the wealthiest people allocate energy to values like power, security, safety, protection, education, growth, predictability, domination, stability, wealth, intelligence, freedom, power, equity, art, war. Their choice of values has an outsized impact on the well-being of everything else.
But all of us choose values to honor and each of us contributes to the Values Layer. With every breath. Which values did you add energy to today? Breathing? Which values did you strip energy from? Not breathing?5
A values layer will be awesome. But having tons more information is not enough to create a future we want. Evidence?
See Information Age.
Or, read the next essay about how Values Signatures can make the Values Layer more significant and useful.
Just as we wrap Earth (objective ) with a layer of ideas (subjective - latitude, equator, degrees) and information to navigate geographic space, we can wrap our world (objective - patterns in/of representations of values) with a layer of ideas (subjective - human values) and information to navigate values space.
Use values layer of information to understand, plan and cause more equitable power distribution. Without layer, alignment and equitable power distribution not possible if only because we do not know, do not have empirical evidence, where energy is concentrated and flowing and why.
An awkward but fun, for me, way to say we could be adding energy to the value Life with every breath we take. By the same act taking energy away from death, our death anyway.
For over 10,000 years Indigenous Peoples along the California coast have invested energy into a set of values related to living in a harmonious reciprocal relationship with Nature. Thank goodness that the harsh fate of history (surge of other colonizer values) did not result in completely stopping the transfer of that energy from one struggling/surviving generation to the next (x 500 generations!), and did not completely erase those Indigenous values. Rather, there’s been a resurgence of this energy flow such that Indigenous values are being more broadly shared and learned. You, Matt, have helped me see that were it not for this investment of energy into these values over time, and an amplification of those values more recently, we would not have witnessed humanity get to work with these values and we would not be currently celebrating designation of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary.🙏
Thank you Matt for continuing to guide us, one small step at a time, on a journey of Values enlightenment. Although today it felt more like a half-mile! Keep moving forward and bringing others along.