PUSH - Howard Rheingold

2:00 - 3:30pm Social Dances: Networks, Power, and Meaning
Howard Rheingold

Many thousands of years ago humans created a new form of wealth – more protein than a family could eat before it rotted. Best place to store my catch is in my neighbors belly. This was make possible by cooperation. That cooperation was coerced by leaders to build cities.
Literacy was another new form of wealth. Initially this form of wealth was controlled by the elite. With the invention of printing press this form of wealth was able to be shared with a larger crowd. This led to literate societies that through cooperation created democracy, religious reformation, and science.

Social Dilemmas - 3 mythic narratives
1. The prisoner’s Dilemma. Do you rat your co-conspirators out or stay quiet.
2. The tragedy of the commons. In aggregate people tend to destroy common assets.
3. Public Good

A social contract is an agreement to deal with a social dilemma. A social contract is also a form of cooperation that represents a solution to greater dilemma.

Examples of online communities that are working on defining new social contracts.

http://thinkcycle.org/
http://folding.stanford.edu/
http://cooperationcommons.org/