The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens

The Foundational Challenge: Stewardship, Responsibility, and Designing a New System with Indy Johar

Oct 23, 2024

01:37:01

Snipd AI

Indy Johar, an architect and co-founder of Dark Matter Labs, discusses the intricate link between system design and human behavior. He explores how our built environments shape cultural values, the need for proactive crisis management, and the importance of interdisciplinary thinking. Indy also examines radical ideas like self-owning land, emphasizes the shift from competition to cooperation in governance, and calls for a new understanding of individualism and collectivism in modern systems. His insights challenge us to rethink our approach to societal change.

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Quick takeaways

Economic systems often restrict true human potential, calling for structures that foster interconnection over competition and extraction.

Architecture provides a lens to understand societal systems, revealing how design can hinder or promote social equity and innovation.

Recognizing crises as catalysts for change highlights the potential for innovative governance approaches, especially by integrating diverse worldviews like indigenous practices.

Deep dives

Perception of Violence in Economic Realities

The disconnect between economic systems and human well-being is highlighted, illustrating how violence can manifest in day-to-day economic realities. This concept challenges the notion that economic choices are merely opportunities for individual freedom, suggesting instead that the existing systems often limit true human potential. The discussion emphasizes the importance of constructing systems that enable people to live more nobly, valuing relationships and interconnectedness over competition and extraction. This calls for a psychological shift that recognizes the harm inherent in contemporary economic frameworks.

Intro

3min

Reimagining Humanity's Relationship with the Planet

21min

Unpacking Crises: Dark Matter and Institutional Infrastructure

3min

The Necessity of Interdisciplinary Thinking in Solving Global Challenges

2min

Constructing Preemptive Peace in a Violent World

4min

Rethinking Sovereignty and Agency

16min

Navigating the Human Machine Economy

24min

Reconceptualizing Individualism and Collectivism in Modern Systems

3min

Navigating the Free Rider Problem in Ecological Stewardship

2min

10.

From Fear to Love: Navigating Societal Change

20min

(Conversation recorded on October 3rd, 2024)

While humans, like all animals, are subject to certain fundamental realities, we also possess the unique ability to shape the world around us through physical infrastructure, laws and institutions, and our economic and social systems. And yet, it’s important to remember that, as today’s guest would say, what we design designs us back. In short, the systems and structures we build influence our cultures, values, and identities.

Today, Nate is joined by architect and professor of planetary civics, Indy Johar, to explore the relationship between system design and human behavior - and what might be possible for transformational change. Along the way, they discuss the impact of sunk costs on our ability to change, the importance of new language to describe and respond to our human predicament, and envision future governance and economies that could enable the full spectrum of what it means to be human.

What sorts of unconventional ideas, like self-owning land and technology, could lead to economies that are capable of sustaining humans as well as foster a healthy planet? How do our current societies prevent us from embodying and living into our greatest gifts as human beings? Is it possible to intentionally redesign our systems at the physical, structural, and psychological levels in service of all the entangled life inhabiting the Earth?

About Indy Johar:

Indy Johar is co-founder of Dark Matter Labs, as well as the RIBA award winning architecture and urban practice Architecture00. He is also a founding director of Open Systems Lab, seeded WikiHouse (open source housing), and Open Desk (open source furniture company).

Indy is also a non-executive international Director of the BloxHub, which is the Nordic Hub for sustainable urbanization. He has taught & lectured at various institutions from the University of Bath, TU-Berlin; University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT and New School. He is currently a professor at RMIT University.

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