Abstract
Most of the contemporary discussions on world ecology are of an incremental nature, based on the present conditions of our lifestyles. The author argues that, besides such incrementalism, there is a need for an idealized design of "ways of living"(larger concept than lifestyles)of mankind for the year 2050. Such idealization can produce images of ways of living with new perspectives of happiness and life fulfillment, other than contemporary industrial, mass-consumption orientation. Based on Russell Ackoff's idealized systems design paradigm, the author has been developing the Social Systems Navigation(SSNV), a multi-layer, iterative idealization process seeking ultimate ideal images by defining several layers of intermediate ideal images. For example, from(1)the necessary per capita calorie intake per day, (2)world food production, (3)per capita energy consumption per year, etc., we can come up with a series of ultimate ideal images of sustainable lifestyle scenarious for the mankind for 2050 by the culture, age, life pattern, etc. From them, we can proceed to the multi-layer SSNV process. The year 2050 is close enough for us to relate with since some of us will still by alive then, yet far enough to allow us open systems thinking.
