I will try to put my proposal for research & development work to you in as succinct and straightforward a manner as possible. In preface let it be known that this basic design in a very rudimentary sense was begun while teaching and conducting research work in China. I came to China attempt to fulfill designs of advanced post-doctoral research, and with the express intention of applying my methods to the challenge of alternative development in well defined and delimited contexts. China presented an inherently complex problem at many levels, not the least of which were the ethical dilemmas of my own professional status as an anthropologist. The China Problem or Chinese Dilemma is might be understood in the following way:

How is it that one can induce the foundation of progressive social change without disturbing the structural and cultural foundations of a society, and in such a way as to allow a saturated, underdeveloped and over-populated human system to achieve its fundamental goals as a culturally homogeneous society while at the same time maintaining long-term adaptive equilibrium with its physical environment.

This kind of problem involves many issues at many levels. For instance, the issue became clearly in my daily life how to achieve greater equality, quality of life, freedom of thought and an understanding of the world for my students, such that they may enjoy a brighter and better future for themselves. These were issues that struck to the very heart of modern Chinese social life. On another level, it was clearly how to circumvent a very duplicitous and corrupt communist bureaucratic system that interposed itself in the daily lives of my students at almost every level. This was true not just of students, but of military personnel I knew, and people from virtually every area of life. At the same time, I was constrained to operate within the terms and limits that Chinese society set down for us. In other words, the solutions had to be compatible with the Chinese way and style of doing things.

I would suggest that this kind of problem is at the heart of most contemporary development issues in the world. My suggestion is also that the kind of solution that was eventually arrived at in China, in cooperation with a great number of people, both students, school officials and bureaucrats and businessmen alike, is a kind of solution that is efficacious and amenable to most development contexts in the world. This proposal is derivative of almost two years of contemplation and struggling with these core issues.

I propose what I call the Global Systems Center project. I do not have another name for it, though it should probably have one.

I have attempted to outline this project within the framework of the blue papers of which this is the cover sheet.

To summarize this proposed project, I would say the following:

1. Its central strategic objectives and priorities would be as follows:

a. Compartmentalized resolution of the grand problem presented by the human predicament on earth. This problem is complex and pervasive. It therefore demands realistic and comprehensive sets of solutions.

b. Advancement of knowledge and technology in the world conducive to alternative development in all areas of human activity.

2. These sets of solutions are defined in terms of a paradigm for alternative development, which includes coordinated programs in:

a. human development,

b. environmental redevelopment,

c. artificial systems development.

3. The basis for the center in the initial stage of its development is what I can accomplish within my own means in the framework of my own primary system. Generally, this will be to elaborate the core working system as well as the main areas of its involvement. I consider this to be to some extent a personal and private system, even though the major thrust and resources derivable from it may be invested into the development of this system.

a. defining & developing the core system.

b. laying the structural foundation for the bipartite secondary system.

c. defining, designing & developing through research the elaborated subsystems:

4. The basis of the center is at its secondary stage a bi-partite structure that is divided between:

a. the Advanced Systems Science Center

b. the Alternative Design Development Center

5. If the system were successful to the first two levels, then it would be hoped that it could be further elaborated into a quadripartite structure that included the multiple extension of the two centers of the second stage, and their elaboration into the following areas:

a. exchange programs & development projects

b. production systems.

6. The entire system at the third stage would coalesce into its final integrated form as a fully developed system. Basically, the design of this system is to provide a structural support for the global system it resides within. It is a system within a system as well as a systems science of this system. Its intention is to provide a structural antidote (or interrelated set of antidotes) to the functional ailments of the larger host system and to provide also the common integrated functional and structural framework and foundation for redirection of the host system in less dysfunctional ways. The object is to foster greater long term stability of the system.

While surely I would be interested in stepping the entire cycle through its stages of development, I believe that my main involvement must remain within the primary system I have established for myself. All other research or work that is not undertaken in the framework of the global system can be accomplished within terms of my own primary system. At the stage of the coming of age of the full blown system, my own primary system would be fundamentally separated and alienated from it. It would be up to other people to leave their mark upon the system.

Therefore, the Global Systems Center project must be a corporate affair that is greater than any one person, or even any particular party of people, that it may embrace. This entails establishing in an effective manner the following:

a. alternative and viable counter-coalitional structures within a competitive/cooperative framework

b. viable alternative organizational structure that is suitable to the functional success of the system.

I would say that these coalitional and organizational structures do not have to be large to be extremely effective. Efficiency would demand keeping these structures as minimal as possible. Experimentation of such structures, even in a radical sense, can result in the development of an optimum set of solutions in this regard.

The project must be a working system, and a workable system defined in terms of its productive efficacy in the real world. Thus as much as possible it must be self-supporting and self-organizing. As a system within a system it is basically as structurally separated from the host system as is possible, operating and functioning independently within it.

I have decided to undertake several works in relation to this project cycle within the framework of the near future. The first work is a blue-book for alternative development. The second is a primer upon advanced systems sciences the covers the main areas and the core aspects of this field. I propose as well a series of books to be undertaken in each of the subcategories. I propose as well a book undertaken on the philosophical and philological aspects of systems science and information. I therefore propose to undertake several series of works.

If things go well within the next few months, then the publishing framework for this undertaking will be secured and we will be able to begin laying the foundations for this system within a year. The time has come to focus a great deal of energy & resources upon this core area, in conjunction with the continuing development of my web-resources. I believe this foundation can be used upon which to build the initial platform for the program. I propose publishing a several concurrent series of works in the forthcoming couple of years:

Advanced Systems Science

Robidoux Studies

Bluebooks for Alternative Development

Alternative Anthropology

Fiction Series

Poetry Cycle

The challenge for accomplishing this program is not so much one of capital, though this is important of course. It is a question of cooperation and commitment by more people than just myself to a core set of principles that are involved in its articulation in the world.

Experience has taught me clearly that given a core group of 100 people chosen in a random way from almost any society or cultural background, and given a period of time, almost anything can be accomplished, if the people are

able to be organized in a way that realizes the greatest value per person, and they can themselves realize the greatest return value for themselves.

I will struggle with these issues by myself, if need be. This has become my reason for being as a human being in the world. I will emphasize the following:

1. I lack an appropriate context for its development: the appropriate context for its development in the long run is the entire world, not just the United States. Inherently, this should be established in a cross-cultural setting.

2. We (whoever we may be) need to develop coalitional & organizational structures for its successful implementation: the Internet makes this quite feasible and very easy to do.

3. At least part of the project demands a half-open academic context: library resources, physical facilities, structural legitimization, human intellectual resources & a built-in networking framework make this the ideal framework for its articulation. Such a project can revitalize any institution it is framed within.

4. The project does not require an inordinate amount of resources for the productive gain and success it can achieve: it does not have to be top-heavy or weighted down on the bottom and most of its resources can be self-producing from within an established system.

5. The system emergent from such a project will in the long run, have eufunctional benefit for any larger human system it is articulated within.