Disruptive innovations create jobs. -- Clayton Christensen
In Part 1 of this Creating a Science of the Metacrisis series, you learned how to map the “metacrisis” – consisting of the planet’s ecological crises and human society’s who-gets-what crises -- as a first step toward creating a science of the metacrisis …
In Part 2 of this series, you learned how to map the decision-making system for meeting human physical needs – called “the Human Enterprise” – that is creating the planet’s ecological crises …
In Part 3 of this series, you learned how to map the decision-making system for deciding who-gets-what – called “Political Economic Decision-making” or “the Political Economy” – that is creating human society’s crises of who-gets-what …
In Part 4 of this series, you learned how to design and use a simple decision-making process for meeting human physical needs (called a “regenerative decision-making process”) …
… and how to design and use a simple Observe – Orient – Decide – Act (OODA) loop containing a regenerative decision-making process (called a “regenerative OODA loop”) …
… for scaling back the extraction flows and pollution flows of the Human Enterprise, allowing the biosphere to regenerate itself, and allowing the regenerated biosphere to reverse the planet’s ecological crises as a whole …
It was my intention – in this Part 5 of the series – to outline for you a simple educational process for averting and/or mitigating human society’s who-get-what crises. That has turned out to be a bigger task than I imagined, and that article is a work-in-progress for now.
Instead, I’ll conclude this Creating a Science of the Metacrisis series with an outline of the job and career opportunities for a new breed of scientist -- who may be called a “metacrisis scientist” – for reversing the planet’s ecological crises.
What is the job of a metacrisis scientist?
A metacrisis scientist’s job – for reversing the planet’s eco-crises – includes …
understanding the decision-making system for meeting human physical needs (the Human Enterprise) that’s creating the planet’s eco-crises,
working with people everywhere to design and use regenerative decision-making processes:
o for identifying options for meeting human physical needs
o for evaluating the performance benefits, economic (avoided cost) benefits, and regeneration (avoided extraction & avoided pollution) benefits of those options
o for comparing those benefits, and
o for persuading themselves what option(s) they want to adopt and deciding to adopt them, and
working with people everywhere to design and use regenerative OODA loops:
o for exponentially faster decision-making
o for adopting exponentially more regenerative options
o for delivering exponentially more regeneration benefits
working with other metacrisis scientists to design, build and use computer-implemented applications (“apps”) and databases for delivering “regenerative information services” in the form of:
o accurate evaluations, comparisons and measurements
o of performance benefits, economic benefits and regeneration benefits
o of Things-We-Extract options and Things-We-Use options for meeting human physical needs …
Reversing the planet’s eco-crises will create jobs and career opportunities for metacrisis scientists with training, skills and experience in the following disciplines:
Ecology
Applying the scientist’s understanding of ecological science – specifically, the ecology of human beings’ relationship with the biosphere – for understanding the decision-making system (the Human Enterprise) that’s creating the planet’s eco-crises
Physical Sciences
Designing, building and using apps and units-of-physical-performance databases for evaluating performance benefits of Things-We-Extract options and Things-We-Use options for meeting human physical needs
Designing, building and using apps and incurred-pollution-per-unit-of-physical-performance databases for evaluating regeneration (avoided pollution) benefits of Things-We-Use options for meeting human physical needs
Natural Sciences
Designing, building and using apps and number-of-species-per-area databases for evaluating regeneration (avoided extraction) benefits of Things-We-Extract options for meeting human physical needs
Cost Accounting
Designing, building and using apps and incurred-cost-per-unit-of-physical-performance databases for evaluating economic (avoided cost) benefits of Things-We-Extract options and Things-We-Use options for meeting human physical needs
Information Sciences
Designing, building and using apps and databases for evaluating performance benefits, economic benefits and regeneration benefits of Things-We-Extract options and Things-We-Use options for meeting human physical needs
Psychology
Applying the scientist’s understanding of psychology – specifically the cognitive psychology of human decision-making and human decision-making processes – for designing and using regenerative decision-making processes and regenerative OODA loops
Regenerative Design
Using regenerative information services to design regenerative options that deliver more performance benefits, more economic benefits and more regeneration benefits
Designing regenerative decision-making processes and regenerative OODA loops tailored to fit the specific needs of decision-makers.
Designing regenerative planning processes for delivering more benefits from decision-makers’ sequential adoption of regenerative options.
Designing regenerative procurement processes for ensuring delivery of expected benefits from regenerative options.
Regenerative Information Services Enterprise
Performing the business functions of a large enterprise for delivering regenerative information services, including:
governance and administration
marketing and sales
finance and accounting
customer services
human resources
enterprise information systems
research and development
communications and public relations
investor relations
From an investment point of view, reversing the planet’s ecological crises might look like entrepreneurs investing $9.70 billion in a regenerative database to deliver a 100x return in the form of $970 billion of regenerative information services …
… and might look like entrepreneurs providing $970 billion of regenerative information services to deliver a 100x return in the form of $97 trillion of avoided costs[1] …
With avoided costs on a scale of $97 trillion – and a regenerative information services market on a scale of $970 billion – waiting to be won, your career as a metacrisis scientist can begin today.
[1] Project Drawdown showed that we have available to us 93 kinds of regenerative options that – when widely adopted – were estimated to deliver more than $97 trillion of avoided costs and more than 1 trillion tons of avoided carbon pollution.
When you read my simple e-book, We Can Reverse the Planet’s Eco-crises, you’ll learn:
where the diamonds – in the form of “regenerative options” delivering trillions in avoided cost savings and avoided pollution – are buried, and
how to use a simple tool – in the form of a “regenerative decision-making process” – for mining those diamonds, winning those trillions in avoided cost savings and reversing the planet’s eco-crises as a whole.
When you read the articles in my Regenerative Decision-making newsletter:
… you’re giving yourself essential tools and skills for your successful career in reversing the planet’s ecological crises.
I’m super grateful for your kind attention.
Thank you for reading and aloha!
P.S. I cross-posted this article on Medium to give it greater reach.