TRACKING SMILES Tracking The Art & Science of Tracking Survival Smiles for Survival Motivation Personal, Group & Universal motivations Intelligences Combining our Intelligences Living laws Opportunities in the Anthropocene Environments Nature, Community & Universal connection Structures Diversity without Division

Evolution and The Art and Science of Tracking Imagine that you are a hominin, a member of the human family that lived millions of years ago. You have evolved a big brain that came at a cost: you need a lot of energy to keep it running. This expensive evolved ability must have had a great payoff that allowed you to survive in a harsh and competitive environment. Your big brain brought great survival benefits through facilitating cooperation with your fellow hominins through giving you the ability to control your emotions. Working together as creative communities, you developed complex lithic technologies, firemaking, and hunting. By 200 000 years ago, you had evolved a brain capable of tracking the world around you and cooperating as we do today. Developing this ability to track and cooperate is the first river on the journey toward thriving futures.

Your emotional control shapes your social emotions: the feelings that you have about yourself and others. You care about what others think of you, and you feel embarrassed, ashamed, guilty, or proud, depending on how you behave. You can also blush, a unique human trait that shows your emotions to others. These social emotions help you to bond with your group, and to follow the norms and rules of your society. Smiling is a particular human trait that can communicate a sense that children and communities are thriving. However the system can be confused by false communication and fake smiling. Exploring our ability to truly express ourselves, discern truth from lies and be guided by genuine smiles is the second river on the journey toward thriving futures.

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) posits that intrinsic motivation is associated with well-being. The theory suggests that people are inherently motivated to engage in activities that meet their basic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. SDT has been found to be effective in promoting optimal motivation and leading to better psychological, behavioral, and developmental outcomes 12. By satisfying the basic and universal psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness, people tend to become happier when pursuing things that are intrinsically motivated and aligned with their own goals. This not only makes them feel more responsible about the outcomes, but also helps them to really focus their time on what they want to be doing. According to a study published in the journal Science Progress, maladaptive behaviors are a symptom of a deeper, more subversive modern crisis of human behavior, which the authors call “the Human Behavioral Crisis”. The authors argue that maladaptive behaviors are a major driver of ecological overshoot and that addressing these behaviors is critical for promoting sustainability and well-being. While there are no specific statistics on the prevalence of maladaptive behaviors, research suggests that these behaviors can have a significant impact on a person’s life and well-being. Maladaptive behaviors can lead to increased distress, discomfort, and anxiety over time, and may contribute to decreased quality of life and reduced ability to thrive.

The Triarchic Theory of Intelligence is a theory of human intelligence proposed by Robert J. Sternberg, a well-known psychologist whose research often focuses on human intelligence and creativity. The theory proposes that there are three distinct types of intelligence: practical, creative, and analytical. Each type of intelliegence learns through different combinations of bioogically primary and biologically secondary instruction methods. The Cognitive Load Theory is an instructional theory based on some aspects of human cognition. It takes an evolutionary approach to cognition and assumes two categories of knowledge: biologically primary and biologically secondary knowledge. Biologically primary knowledge is information humans have evolved to acquire over thousands of generations, while biologically secondary knowledge needs to be taught explicitly. The theory uses this architecture to generate a large range of instructional effects concerned with procedures for reducing extraneous working memory load in order to facilitate the acquisition of secondary knowledge in long-term memory.

The relationship between the Planetary Boundaries and the Anthropocene is that the Planetary Boundaries provide a framework for understanding the limits of the Earth’s systems, while the Anthropocene describes the impact of human activities on those systems. The Planetary Boundaries can be seen as a natural law that governs the Earth’s systems, while the Anthropocene can be seen as a law of human activity that has impacted the Earth’s systems. Oren Lyons, a Native American Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, Onondaga Council of Chiefs, Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy), has spoken about the importance of natural laws and their impact on the world. According to Lyons, Mother Earth has laws and rules, and one of them is balance. She will keep the balance regardless. If an element is out of balance, like the population of human beings on this Earth, She will balance it. How She does that we may not like. Most likely it’ll come with disease and this will be very democratic. It will go across people’s lives. It will go across leaders. It will go across everything because really there’s no mercy in Nature. Lyons also emphasizes that the Tree of Peace is a spiritual law and represents the law of Nature. He told us explicitly, Never challenge this law because you cannot prevail. You will not prevail; wrap your laws, your rules, and your conduct. He said, You, the leaders, when you’re weak as a human being, he said, this tree will give your spine strength. Wrap yourself around this tree because it’s powerful. Do not challenge the laws of Nature because you cannot, you will not, prevail.

Kerry Arabena, an Indigenous Australian academic and activist converges wisdom from Indigenous peoples' philosophic traditions with scientific and ethical understandings of contemporary modern thought to yield new understanding of universe referent citizenship, and our place in living systems. The concept of universe referent citizenship is related to prosocial behavior, nature connection, and regeneration in that it emphasizes the importance of our connection to the natural world and our responsibility to care for it. By recognizing our shared identity as inhabitants of the Earth, we can work together to promote the well-being of the planet and its inhabitants. This includes promoting prosocial behavior, such as cooperation and empathy, and working to regenerate the natural world through sustainable practices and conservation efforts.

The “Moral Courage Method,” emphasizes the importance of empathy, curiosity, and humility in communication. It teaches users to view themselves and others as more than “oppressed” or “oppressive” groups, create brave spaces for asking honest questions out of curiosity, not judgment, and hear rather than fear different opinions, values, interpretations, and ideas. It also encourages individuals to draw the best from multiple perspectives to become innovative problem-solvers. Honoring everyone's gifts through this sytem and build interconnectedness of small autonomous communities using a regenerative economic model is a complex and multifaceted issue. Build economic systems and social structures around this idea: 1. Community-based economies: Community-based economies prioritize local production and consumption, and are designed to meet the needs of the community. They are often based on principles of cooperation, mutual aid, and sustainability, and can help to build a sense of interconnectedness and shared responsibility within the community. 2. Regenerative economic models: Regenerative economic models are designed to promote the health and well-being of the natural world, as well as the human communities that depend on it. They prioritize sustainability, resilience, and regeneration, and are often based on principles of circularity, closed-loop systems, and regenerative agriculture. 3. Gift economies: Gift economies are based on the principle of giving and receiving without the expectation of immediate or direct return. They prioritize relationships and social connections over material goods, and can help to build a sense of interconnectedness and mutual support within the community. 4. Autonomous communities are self-governing and self-sufficient, and are often based on principles of cooperation, mutual aid, and sustainability. They prioritize local decision-making and local control over resources, and can help to build a sense of interconnectedness and shared responsibility within the community.