Constrained uptake/absorption capacity

Unthought as Cognitive Foundation of Global Civilization (Part #6)

It is readily assumed that a variety of social services raise no special issues with regard to their delivery or uptake -- notably in the proposal and design of new strategies. For example, blithe declarations regarding the "rule of law" avoid attention to the backlog of cases, the cost of legal proceedings, and the absence of legal aid. The ideal could be more accurately reframed as the "rule of lawyers".

A more general argument can be made with regard to "social safety nets" and the lack of attention to the proportion of people who "fall through" them.

Assumptions regarding universal access to information in a global knowledge-based society avoid recognition of the significant copyright and paywall barriers to such access and to effective use. Acclaimed "democratic" procedures for feedback and public consultation avoid attention to whether this is effectively elicited beyond the tokenistic requirements of claims for public relations purposes, and whether a significant proportion of input in in fact given due consideration (Considering All the Strategic Options -- whilst ignoring alternatives and disclaiming cognitive protectionism, 2009).

A related assumption is that with regard to the openness of institutions to proposals for remedial responses to challenges and crises -- whether furnished by the public or by independent expert groups, as discussed separately (Enabling Collective Intelligence in Response to Emergencies, 2010). Dennis Meadows recently declared:

In 1972, and for some time after that, I was very optimistic. I was naively optimistic. I honestly believed in what I called the "doorstep model of implementation." That is to say, you do a piece of work. You learn the "truth." You lay it on the decision maker's doorstep, and when he comes out in the morning, he finds it and changes his behavior. (Megan Gambino, Is it Too Late for Sustainable Development? Dennis Meadows thinks so, Smithsonian.com, 16 March 2012).

A further consideration is the extent to which the amount of information generated is now such that people have long reached a level of saturation -- marked by selective resistance to new ideas of any kind. Uptake is now widely constrained, leading to information flows of questionable value along unpredictable pathways of "least resistance".

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Constrained uptake/absorption capacity