OSE Theory of Integrated Industrial Productivity on a Small Scale
OSE has proven Industrial Productivity on a Small Scale. Next proofs of concept include demonstating that highly integrated, complex industrial ecologies can be achieved, and staffed accordingly. This is a prerequisite to delivering an Economy in a Box - a foundation for novel human settlements that are independent from global geopolitical instability, and which do no harm to the planet. This concept is a prerequisite for delivering a peaceful and prosperous civilization - an idea whose time has come. See Countries Currently at War.
Key Challenges
An advanced economy has more intelligence. It cannot be fragmented intelligence, but must be wholistic intelligence - otherwise we get conflicts of interest, non-circular material flows, human and societal disintegration, etc. These are all symptoms of knowhow that is not integrated and absorbed into the population - but instead used only partially, by elites, or small groups rather than the population as a whole.
OSE's challenge is twofold: integration and application. Integration involves life-work integration (work is not separate - otherwise it is part of a system of fragmented intelligence), technological integration into closed loop, modular, integrated product ecologies. It means handling more intelligent systems - more intelligently. This stretches the limits of human capacity, so in order to survive, OSE believes that humans need to get smarter.
Humans must adapt to a novel technology base that is not harmful, and which provides for everyone. This takes more responsibility, integration, intelligence.
The challenge is that these 3 qualities are in short supply in the human population, and must be nurtured. OSE's solution is living infrastructures that collaborate with, and teach and learn from - their human collaborators. This is a design challenge, founded upon what people do for a living. People cannot continue to live in jobs that do not teach. In essence - a new nature of jobs or livelihood must be created. The primary question that OSE intends to answer is whether ecotechnological product ecosystems can be made robust enough - and simple enough to use - so that they are used responsibly. This is a new paradigm of thinking, which requires that technology be made transparent and more interactive - as opposed to remaining as black boxes for non-wholistic experts.
Thus - collaboration, integration, ecology, transparency, interactivity, feedback, intelligence, growth mindset, inclusivity, diversity - all emerge as desirable features.
To sum up the challenge: huge centralized systems today provide for human needs. This has many failure points. These systems are overall dumb, wasteful, and lazy - ie, done in the easiest as opposed to the most beneficial way. That is the challenge that OSE aims to solve: can we create more intelligent product and production ecosystems - on a much smaller scale? Or are we resigned to centralization for ever? Added intelligence leads to distribution. Can humans handle the higher intelligence required for higher distribution? This is the question that OSE is solving by creating smaller scale productive ecosystems, where literally 'advanced civilization can be created from dirt and twigs on any parcel of land'. More rigorously, OSE aims to answer 3 questions - what is the smallest scale at which this is possible? What is the smallest scale at which this is practical? What is the limit of innovation and evolution that can arise as a result? The answer to the first question provides important baselines on the Art of Possibility that is involved - via an elite experiment. The second answer is the scale at which large-scale replication for transformation can occur. The third answer relates to how humans evolve as an intergalactic species, not confined to earthly existence with its earthly challenges.
