by James | Jun 9, 2014 | Exploration I
What contracts should exist between the community and the individual?
Contracts between a community and an individual seems initially repellent, as an idea. Although in such a complex environment with a society that pays individuals has ideas of ownership of goods and has mandatory regimes and possible punishments it seems necessary for an exhaustive legal and insurance based contract must exist if not for lifetime members at least then for transitory members who ware there for the university/ higher education learning / experience.
Contracts will likely include:
- Forms of payments.
- Acceptance of punitive measures in cases of inappropriate behaviour.
- Minimum terms, training periods.
- Insurance and healthcare.
- Liability and external payments.
Now I am not a lawyer so there needs to be some legal representation to confirm the legal contract is acceptable. Eventually legally trained and qualified members of the community may well exist.
Also there may be variations of the contract in different host nations to correctly comply with civil law in that country as such there should be a publicly available (and translated) template that anyone can read with an up to date guide through the clauses and the reasons for each part so that the lay person can understand.
by James | Jun 2, 2014 | Exploration I
What are the minimum and maximum ages one should be allowed to enter?
This will no doubt change over time as the organisation grows and lifespan increases. The upper limit on age will be only guesswork. Certainly the panels created to deliberate entrance should take into account someones age till retirement or equally their youth. Initially, 18+ seems a reasonable standard and up to 60-65 as a maximum age.
However, it depends on how the community grows if eventually it offers an education system from infancy to university, the “starting age” drops dramatically if it starts an orphanage education system in developing countries it could drop to the new born.
Equally, life expectancy grows presently around 3 months a year so predicting a maximum age is very difficult.
These figures should be reviewed and debated regularly especially with relevant community changes or breakthroughs in longevity.
by James | Jun 1, 2014 | Exploration I
What amount of vacation is acceptable?
The number mandated by countries of paid vacation days varies a lot. The best would be around 30 days of paid leave + national / public holidays. These should allow members to travel home for important festivals and family gatherings, it should also give much needed rest from community chores and give you exposure to a different lifestyle.
Additional mandated vacation will occur on a regular 2 or 3 year basis, where members are sent on sabbatical or abroad to broaden their experience of the world (e50).
Finally, there should probably be a variation of days for permanent and transitory members but not too vast.
The most complicated elements would be in assuring the ‘pay’ into the savings account and holidays should only really be allowed at the end of the 6 month grace period.
by James | May 27, 2014 | Exploration I
What methods will exist for changing current or future mandates, regulations and amending or rewriting the constitution?
As described earlier (e76) there should be regular committees who rewrite the rules and regulations to reflect the changes of thinking of the time, what was considered moral or scientific fact 40 years ago is very different to now.
The other time it would be necessary is if an individual calls into question a rule or procedure, in this case a new debate committee will be formed and the reasoning behind the old rule will be reviewed and discussions with those involved.
Each debate on changing the regulation needs a 2/3 majority for or against if this doesn’t occur the group is expanded until a consensus is voted on.
Ultimately if the issue is consistently undecided it will involve the entire community at which point if threatening to destabilize the community into camps there will be a think tank on a better third solution and the elected official in charge will make a decision with the larger majority.
Disputes of this nature should be avoided from the outset by not writing or creating regulations that divide opinions so radically.
by James | May 26, 2014 | Exploration I
What methods of teaching will be employed?
There are various themes in pedagogy that cater to different types of learner so classes should do their best to reflect these types in the classroom.
There should be a division between lectures and seminars/lab work, or theory and practice/debate. This means information is distributed en mass initally and the discussed in smaller groups for clarification.
As stated earlier (e8) students who are proficient in a topic, mitosis for example, should be able to help assist teaching those of a lower level covering that subject. By explaining a topic one comes to understand it better.
Each high level student will have a mentor he can refer or defer to in times of need and have dialogues with. A mentor must be at least a number of grades above the student.
E-learning will be progressively worked on as will videos created to explain all topics in the subject, complete with questions to assess comprehension and open questions that students might consider writing experiments for, contemplate on or engage in dialogue about.
New methodologies of teaching should constantly be assessed and debated. Also all new members should have some exposure to teaching seminars and lectures [not just participating].
[Note: In the years since I’ve written this the rise of MOOC’s and available resources for learning everything from code to languages has exploded across the internet, in this case these give the community nearly all the material required to created an extremely nuanced hierarchy of grades without lifting a finger. However, all free open projects should be given as much support as possible via the community to continually help and improve their services. I know these initial thoughts were written on buses and trains around town, each one of them could be the basis of whole books in themselves, however the good news is there is a huge wellspring of available resources now to help any community member learn an incredible amount even if they are the first in the community to express an interest in the field.]
