Newsletter #79 — February 5, 2023

Colleague Activities

Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.

• Effective Communication Strategies
  Overview of Monthly Conflict Transformation Empathy Cafes — Information about how you can participate in monthly Empathy Cafe for the Conflict Transformation, Mediation, Peacebuilding, Bridging, and Security Community to come together and connect.
• Improving Problem Assessment
  Healthy Democracy, Healthy People — A new nonpartisan initiative from major public health and civic engagement groups that supports public health professionals and policymakers who are working to advance civic participation and public health.
• Race / Anti-Racism
  More In Common Report: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Highly Regarded as a "Leader, Brave, and Activist" — Presenting a survey showing that Americans’ views of MLK Day” found most Americans value and respect Dr. King and they think that racial equality has improved since the 1960’s.
• Countering Disinformation Efforts
  Internet Censorship 2023: A Global Map of Internet Restrictions — Interested in learning how your country compares to the rest of the world on internet censorship? Comparitek has broken down every country’s online restrictions into an easy-to-read guide.
• Big Picture Thinking Projects
  The Forward Party — The Forward Party is fighting for the American people with practical, common-sense solutions, forged by bringing people together instead of driving them apart.
• Escalation Limiting Projects
  Council on Technology and Social Cohesion — Social cohesion is the glue that hold society together -- particularly in the face of toxic polarization. We need technology that builds trust and civic health rather than outrage and division
• Escalation Limiting Projects
  One Woman Is Holding Politicians Accountable for Nasty Speech. It’s Changing Politics. — An example of somebody with the bright idea that is making a real difference -- The Dignity Index, a strategy for encouraging and reinforcing constructive political rhetoric.

Beyond Intractability in Context

From around the web, more insight into the nature of our conflict problems, limits of business-as-usual thinking, and things people are doing to try to make things better.

• Civic Education
  We Need a National Civics Requirement — A compelling argument for strengthening the teaching of "civics" -- the underlying commonality that binds together US democracy's diverse citizenry.
• Effective Problem-Solving Efforts
  I’m a Congressman Who Codes. A.I. Freaks Me Out. — An example of somebody who is trying to come up with realistic ways of limiting the downsides of A.I while enjoying the upsides.
• Interstate War
  What Really Took America to War in Iraq — As the war in Iraq slides further into history, we now have a chance to reflect on articles like this that offer a more detached and objective account of events (and lessons for the future).
• Effective Problem-Solving Efforts
  Congress Must Halt Big Tech’s Power Grab — We need to do more than complain about the power of big tech. Here is somebody who's trying to find a way to control that power. Who can improve on these ideas?
• Social Complexity
  Five Rules for an Aging World — A look at a little recognized but, quite probably, major threat to human society – the collapse of fertility rates.
• Education
  Life is Inherently Uncomfortable — An argument that universities should focus less on being safe and nurturing and more on preparing students for a world of controversy and conflict in which things do not always go well.
• Social Complexity
  Reverse Dominance Hierarchies — An eye-opening look at the evolutionary history of humanity and the processes that selected for egalitarianism.
• Education
  When colleges take political positions, they show who isn’t wanted — A persuasive argument that universities should not, as institutions, take political positions -- positions that cut off critically needed debate on important social issues.
• Social Complexity
  Does the Textual Corpus for Large Language Models Have Enough Information to Train an AGI? — For those trying to understand where A.I. might be taking us, a look at the nature of "intelligence" and the potential of the new technologies.

About the MBI Newsletters

Once or twice a week, we will compile BI news, along with new posts from our Hyper-polarization Blog and elsewhere on BI into a Newsletter that will be posted here and sent out by email through Substack to subscribers. You can sign up to receive your copy on our Newsletter Sign Up Page and find the latest newsletter here on our Newsletter page. Past newsletters can be found in the Newsletter Archive. 

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