Diversity is one of the eight spokes on The Pirate Wheel. It addresses institutional, personal, ideological, and technical diversity.

Polycultures and heterogeneity are essential for society. We see this primarily in the stagnation and the vulnerability of societies that have become too homogenous and monocultural.

A technical monoculture is vulnerable to exploitation. If just one weakness is found, it means that every single system can be taken over and exploited. Therefore, diverse technical polycultures (open polycultures) are paramount for the resilience of society.

An ideological and institutional monoculture always leads to stagnation. For society to flourish, it must take advantage of the empowerment given to its citizens and let the best ideas and cultures win in an enabling, open environment. People have been wrong many times before, and it is likely that many of the ideas we have today will be seen as ridicule tomorrow. To enable this development, there must be a polyculture and diversity of ideas and processes.

A populous monoculture is just as dangerous from an ideological and viewpoint perspective as it is from the more well-known genetic perspective.

Populous, ideological, technical, and institutional polycultures are consequences of citizen empowerment and a prerequisite for the development of society in general, and the open society in particular.

Updated 2011-Nov-24.