Cause vs. Consequence

[ivica]

Recent entry "What To Do? (Part 2)" on Azimuth blog starts with:

The XXXXXXXXX Foundation has an open, aggressive, and entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy. Our goal is to produce substantial, widespread and lasting changes to society that will maximize opportunity and minimize injustice. We tap into the minds of fearless thinkers who have big, bold, transformational ideas, and work with them to invest in strategies designed to solve persistent problems.

John Baez:

Assume they could spend 1-10 million dollars on a really good idea, and assume you really want to help the world.  What idea would you suggest?

Eric Brown (commenter from G+):

In general our lack of progress at addressing the most pressing global problems is because we either aren't looking at solving the root issue, or because we just don't think/believe that it possible to achieve. Most of said problems are essentially fallout from the wrong people/corporations/leaders being in control of things, basically manipulating the resources available to them to further their own ends.

John Baez:

Eric Brown wrote: "As it turns out, there is a fairly straightforward approach to addressing this root issue, working with the existing infrastructure (as opposed to trying to destabilize or replace it)."

Concretely speaking, what might you do if a foundation gave you 1-10 million dollars to use as you saw fit?

My answer: Nothing.
Net result of potential John's involment into that I see as negative.
That is locking him in a 1-10 M worth project about dealing with consequences,
i.e. 'putting him aside' by stealing his time which he could possibly use to think about the cause(s).

My 2 cents only. (beware of my english :-)

[ivica]

My answer #2. now assuming that John insist on not being 'locked in':

Start project to build "Cause -> Consequence" Network (or graph if you like), CCN.

In this network we have a bunch of nodes which are connected by arrows pointing from cause to consequence.
Elementary example with 2 nodes:  Cause -> Consequence.

How CCN looks like with all known about the issue plus some speculated/hypothesised/unpublished/non-peer-reviewed stuff included.

What are initial/the_top causes ?
What are end/final/the_bottom consequences ?
What loops are there ? etc...


Source: Quantum Network Theory (Part 1)