PATTERN: Purpose
In human institutions, purpose must be explicit, if intentional and voluntary participation is to be the norm.
In order for Institutions to support humans, they should not become mysterious meta-life forms which use humans as tools for viability.
A key aspect of this is to use the cyberneticist's insight, that;
The purpose of a system is what it does.
If those contributing to the viability of an Institution have a clear statement of its Purpose, then they can assess that statement against what it actually does, and moderate their contributions in accordance with that assessment.
Since complex endeavours are required to support complex civilisation, we need Institutions; if we value explicit structure in our institutions, and consider Purpose to be a key aspect, it is necessary to develop an approach to Purpose which can handle complexity.
Contributory Patterns
Hierarchies of Scope within a Pattern Language framework offer an approach to managing complexity of Purpose.
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Monday, 13 January 20 06:27:54 Europe/London