Vierailijaluento: Jon Sundell: Coexist

How do we maximize the well-being of all people within the Earth's carrying capacity? What are the cooperative rules that produce this ideal outcome?

Instead of seeking answers from different political ideologies or from capitalism and socialism, what if we turn to natural and formal sciences for answers? This is what Jon Sundell does in his new book Coexist. Using first principles, Sundell starts his inquiry by laying out the immutable laws of nature to determine what is genuinely possible and impossible on this planet and in our society. The book weaves insights from physics, thermodynamics, biological and cultural evolution, game theory and systems thinking to reinvent how our markets, monetary system and democracy should ideally function. In doing this, the book continues a quest from the Enlightenment to use science to build the ideal society. What has changed since the 1700s, however, is the underlying science and technology. This means that answering these questions today will produce dramatically different results than before.