I wrote this essay about the Wisdom Project and how I see it working. There is a permanent link to this essay now from the About the Wisdom Project page.

The Wisdom Project: The Machine

The Wisdom Project’s purpose is to foster wisdom through dialogue. It is a type of think tank, yet it is not exclusive. Anyone anywhere is invited to participate in the dialogue and help this think tank produce useful information. No voices are given greater weight for any reason other than the quality of their contribution. Every member helps judge the quality of every contribution. You might think of it as a type of cooking. We all contribute ingredients to the stew…and we all help cook and season it. Much is thrown out and only the very best is served at the end of the process. Keep reading and hopefully you will see what I mean.

Wisdom is knowledge of what is most important.
Dialogue is the process of communication where parties work to express their ideas and understand the ideas of others.

The Wisdom Project is also about problem solving. For what is knowledge of what is most important, if not the solutions to the most critical problems? Wisdom is know what problems are most important and wisdom is also the solution, or solutions.

What are the most important questions and problems? What are the solutions and answers to these questions and problems? That is a never ending question, for both each person individually, and humanity as a whole. Yet, the purpose of the Wisdom Project is to help facilitate the process of identifying the answers, the process of acquiring wisdom.

How does the Wisdom Project work?
The Wisdom Project’s mission is to foster wisdom through dialogue. I think of it as a machine, much like a cider press. How does a cider press work? Well, you put apples into the front of the press, run it through a process of crushing and pressing to extract the juice, and out of the other end comes the precious Apple Cider.

The Wisdom Project is a machine for doing this exact same thing with information. Into the top of the machine go questions, problems, answers, and solutions. Out of the other end of the machine comes a list of the most important questions and problems…as well as the best solutions and answers we can come up with.

Building this machine is no simple matter. The Wisdom Project exists right now, but perfecting its design is the only thing that will enable it to produce the most useful and meaningful wisdom. For starters we need apples to put into the machine! Second we need to figure out the best way to foster and stimulate the dialogue so it is productive. I have many ideas about how to accomplish this, but I am always looking for help.

Let me start with describing my initial vision of the inner machinery.

The Nuts and Bolts of extracting Wisdom from Dialogue
I want to be able to take any problem, no matter how big and difficult, and present it to the Wisdom Project machine…and allow it to process this problem with enthusiasm, creativity, critical thinking, debate, in depth questioning, and relentless dedication until it produces a list of several of the best solutions humanity is capable of constructing. I want these solutions to be so impressive and well thought out that these solutions are regularly used and implemented in the real world. How can the Wisdom Project achieve this goal? Again it is through dialogue.

The heart of the Wisdom Project machinery is a forum. The forum is a well designed forum much like thousands of others on the Internet. Yet, it is more than just another forum, it is a forum modified to extract wisdom. How? Through post rating. In other words, every post in every forum can be rated for its quality (or wisdom) by any member of the forums.

The Power of individual Post rating
Why is the power of rating individual posts such a big deal? Why will this enable the Wisdom Project forums to become a machine for extracting wisdom from ideas? This is where it gets difficult for me to convey my vision of how this machine works. Let’s try an example.

Assume we have hundreds of eager people ready to debate any question or problem we post in the wisdom project forum.
Now we submit the problem:

Health Insurance
43.6 million people in the US do not have health insurance.
8.5 Million Children in the US do not have health insurance.
Question:
Hopefully, we can all agree we would like to live in a world where all people have health insurance so they can take care of their health and well being. If you had the power and influence to change the USA, what would you do to solve the problem of so many people and children without health insurance? Or, do you believe the current health care systems and policies are the best solution?

Now, the Wisdom Project machine begins to go to work. Let’s suppose 100 people submit well thought out solutions to the problem of health insurance. Some ideas are socialist, some are brutally capitalist, others are a mixture in between. Some people argue that people should pay for their own health insurance, and they would be able to do that if we lowered taxes and helped stimulate the economy. Others believe it is the duty of the state to provide free health insurance to all citizens. Others believe children should be gauranteed health insurance while adults should fend for themselves. Etc…Etc…the debate rages on. Yet, with one exception: Every time someone posts a solution, poses a question, or responds to a criticism, their post can and is rated by everyone participating in the debate.

The debate rages on and on for a couple of weeks. People don’t just post solutions, but they post criticisms and responses. They discuss their ideas, some people even change their minds. People find common ground and identify fundamental differences in political ideology. After a few weeks of intense dialogue, what do we have? We will have a powerful list of solutions, thanks to the post rating system.

Of course, this won’t be proven until this system is put to the test. But this is what I predict. At the end of the debate, we will be able to extract a list of the highest rated Solutions to our problem. But what solutions will be the highest rated? Well, this is part of the experiment, but I predict you will always find the highest rated solutions are indeed the most well thought out, the most well defended, and those championed by people who are the most considerate and open minded.

Wisdom will rise to the top
Remember wisdom is demonstrated not simply by what one says, but how one says it.

I predict that wise posts and people who post wisely will rise to the top of the ratings.

People who simply rant and rave at others will obviously have very low rated posts. Likewise, people who eloquently state their solution, yet respond with arrogance and disdain to all criciticism will likewise be rated low. On the other hand, people who post a well thought out solution, respond politely to all criticism, demonstrate an open mind, patiently explain why they think their solution would best overcome all alternatives…will be the most highly rated by the most people.

Let me give another example. Suppose we debated abortion. Should it be legal or illegal, or some combination depending upon situation.

After weeks of intense debate there will be 3 basic positions. Legal, Illegal, and then combination positions (late term abortions and rape and incest exceptions etc..) We will be able to extract the highest rated answer/argument in support of each of the 3 major positions. Why will this be valuable? Because the people who have the highest rated answer for each position will be very special people. They will have expressed their position eloquently and effectively enough to receive high ratings from their allies, but they will also have impressed their opponents with their eloquence and style of communication.

The Wisdom Project Forums will encourage and nurture friendly open debate skills.
People will want to win debates and be the highest rated defender of their arguments. But to do this you must not only impress your allies, but you must impress your opponents.

Let’s say for example, someone presents an argument that you see is highly flawed and vulnerable. You could choose to rip into that argument with caustic sarcasm and wit. This might receive high ratings from your allies…but this might really offend your opponents. They may feel hurt and humiliated by your tone, so they would rate you very low. But what if you took a different tactic?

What if instead of piercing sarcasm, you gently but succinctly explained to your opponents why this argument was no good. Instead of humiliating them, you took a tone of teaching, really trying to convey to them why what they said did not make sense. This would still impress your allies, but your opponents wouldn’t hate you for it. In fact you may gain their respect and even change some minds.

The End of Vacuous Rhetoric
What is more frustrating then a nationally televised debate where nothing of substance is said? This is the norm now for political debates and press conferences. Such political behavior will never be effective in the Wisdom Project Forums. The only types of posts that will receive high ratings are posts that genuinely express a solution to the problem being debated. Anyone who posts vacuous meaningless drivel, the equivalent of a response a politician would normally give, would be rated in accordance with what they said.

In the world today, what makes a person’s voice heard and noticed? Who they are and what they have accomplished. A politician’s voice is heard because they hold office. A PHD scholar’s voice is respected because they have letters after their name. But perhaps Joe Schmoe a local social studies teacher has the wisest solution to a particular problem. How would anyone ever hear about it? In the real world, Joe Schmoe would have to fight to have anyone hear their voice. But in the Wisdom Project forums, Joe Schmoe could simply eloquently post their view, respond to questions and criticism, and suddenly Joe Schmoe would find his view rising to the top of the heap-why? Because of the quality of his ideas. Not who he is. Not what he has done in life. The quality of his ideas alone would give him stature, as it should be.

A place to learn
I hope you are beginning to see the power of this Wisdom Project machine. It is merely a way of improving upon a mature technology-the technology of the modern bulliten board. There is another important element of the Wisdom Project Forum System: The feedback each person who participates will receive, will enable profound learning.

Naturally, the primary way you should learn in a debate is through listening to opposing arguments and questions. But the Wisdom Project post rating system, will enable a whole new way to learn about yourself and others.

The Wisdom Project will provide individual members with report cards in which a potentially enormous amount of interesting information will be displayed. For instance, members will be able to see which of their posts were the most controvercial, that is which of their posts receieved the most ratings. Members will also be able to see which of their posts were considered the most wise or the most foolish. Members will be able to see how they are rated by other members over all, by averaging the rating they received for every post they ever made. Finally, members will be able to see how they are rated by different segments of the population-based simply upon all members wisdom rating.

For example, I expect there will be interesting differences between which people receive thehighest overall rating from the total populace, and which people receives the highest overall rating from just the top 30% of the populace. I may be wrong, but we will just have to wait and see.

The Power of a Wisdom Rating
The potency and meaningfulness of a wisdom rating cannot be underestimated. A person’s overall wisdom rating will reflect upon the quality of their ideas, how well they communicate, how effectively they discuss controvercial subjects, how well they respond to criticism and attack, and finally how well they learn and grow as a result of debate and discussion. I expect a high wisdom rating will eventually grow to be an incredibly respected thing, very difficult to achieve and maintain.

Imagine if the Wisdom Project forum hosted 12 1 month debates a year on the most important questions of our day. The debates were intense and attracted hundreds if not thousands of participants. At the end of the year, imagine qualities of the people that would have the highest overall wisdom rating’s. Imagine the person who would have the single highest wisdom rating for that year? This person will have had to have presented many very good original ideas, responded to tons of criticism and attacks, and impressed opponents and allies alike. It will be quite an accomplishment..and I expect a very special person. And so what better than a nationally recognized award which is accompanied by a cash prize?

Every year, there can be an award for the Wisest person in the USA, even one per state and for other countries. Also, a wisest person in the world is a natural option. This award could and should be on a par with a Nobel Prize, for it is a type of nobel prize for debate and problem solving.

Forget SAT’s….Achieve a high Wisdom Rating
Imagine if a high school student participated in numerous wisdom project discussions over the course of his or her high school career. The wisdom rating of a student could become as important a score as an SAT or GRE. Would it not tell you an enormous amount about the student? Perhaps there would be a yearly award for the highest wisdom rating among graduating seniors along with significant scholarship money.

The Wisdom Project
The Wisdom Project is an organization whose mission is to foster wisdom. The central means it uses to accomplish this goal is through creating and stimulating meaningful constructive dialogue. Eventually, the Wisdom Project will formally be made into a non-profit organization so that it can accept tax deductible charitable contributions.

The Wisdom Project is a machine and I believe it can and will be a powerful force. Yet, to work it needs several things. It needs thoughtful engineering and design. It needs people who have the wisdom to know what questions should be debated and discussed. Once the machine is engineered correctly it simply needs to be fed and maintained.

The fuel this machine runs on is people, their ideas, their minds. And like everything else, it can acquire this vital fuel using money. Money will be raised and used to stimulate and motivate people to invest their time and energy in the forums and debates. At first cash prizes will be offered to stimulate initial participation in the forums. Eventually, a large cash prize will be offered to the national (USA) Wisest Person of the year, and perhaps a scholarship for a high school graduate.

To make all this happen, I need help, from inspired intelligent people. I hope you are one such person.