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Preface

All references made in this wiki come from scientific journals based upon access to data that would not have been possible without the incredible work performed by Aaron Schwartz and Alexandra Elbakyan in the creation of Sci-hub, a decentralised shadow library of copyrighted scientific research papers. BurnZero is maintained by an anonymous group of moderators one of which is Voytek Bereza, a neuropsychopharmacist based in Sydney. If you find any factual errors we offer a bounty, just post the error on our subreddit to claim. Please read the following with a critical yet, open mind.

Part 1: Introduction

We are running out of places to hide from the ecological crisis. Whilst we are working on solutions to deforestation, biodiversity loss and climate change, these are only remedies to symptoms, not the underlying cause. Common logical fallacies mean most of us are unaware of how imminent the threat is. Many of those that are aware have been pacified by technology. The few who have broken through have elevated representatives to power to address the issue, only to find them captured by bad science and big finance.

They say to defeat a foe you must divide and conquer. However, we instinctively do it to ourselves through egotism and tribalism. XR, Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd... all fight for the same cause but are segregated, losing economies of scale and widespread public support. Solidarity is desperately needed but this requires trust in a cohesive vision. This evolving wiki, BurnZero, is dedicated to the search for that vision.

Part 2: Popular Delusions

Our personal paradigm often positions itself as the only paradigm. However, it is well known popular delusions and cognitive biases distort our view of a commonly shared reality. Before we can effectively address this crisis, first we must look at ourselves and dissolve our perceptual framework and assimilate new modes of thought. Due to the limited timeline involved and the neuroplasticity of those in power, traditional learning is no longer suited for the task. We need to induce pivotal mental states to change our minds before an ecological tipping point will.

Part 3: Learning from our mistakes

Our social experiments have failed to provide us with a long-term solution. Communism highlighted our selfish genes as primary drivers and neoliberalism has now brought us to the brink of environmental collapse. Instead of framing these failed systems as two ends of a spectrum and then bickering which is best, we need to accept they have failed and invent something new. New technologies have developed since Adam Smith and Marx, which might enable us to envisage something better.

Part 4: The Bad Machine

The irresponsible nature of corporate entities has been known since their inception. From their outset, the courts deemed them so potentially dangerous they could only be formed for a purpose then must be dissolved. This is because the corporate structure limits liability giving them an unfathomable advantage over personal liability accepting sole traders. Due to this advantage, corporates became so powerful they effectively lobbied for the removal of dissolution controls and effectively became self-sustaining profit generating machines. Their objective was codified in their incorporation statements as "shareholder primacy" which propagates through the machine via "fiduciary duty" ensuring all part work in the pursuit of financial gain of shareholders. This binding principle often gives corporates the traits of an inhuman, unfeeling, machine. Research has found people with narcissistic traits tend to get promoted 39% faster in their progression to CEO and that there are at least three times as many psychopaths in executive or CEO roles than in the overall population. Psychopaths constitute around 1% of the adult population and 20% of (North American) prison populations, they are reported to be responsible for about 50 % of all serious crimes potentially due to their lack of empathy. However, unlike psychopaths, a corporation's founding heuristics can be readily modified.

Part 5: Tenet of Incorporation

Incorporation statements (IC) are legal documents which detail specific rules, by which a corporation is to operate. If a corporation is analogous to a machine, ICs are the algorithms running all of the programs inside of the system. Furthermore, corporate entities now employ subsets of the ICs called Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) which govern the activity of the moving parts, i.e. its employees.

The primary tenet of any IC is the survival of the business. The secondary tenet, is optional, it codifies the corporation's fiduciary duty, the pursuit of profit for shareholders. This means there are two common types of corporations Not For Profit (those that only use the first tenet) such as a charity and a For Profit, those that use the first and second tenet such as Mcdonalds. What's common to both is that revenue generated are primarily associated with maintaining the survival of the business. So although Mcdonalds is deemed worse due to unaccounted externalities of profit so too are NFPs which hide externality costs within the pursuit of revenue for wages.

So, the question is, if the current types of ICs still create externalities which could be avoided. Is it possible to create another type of corporation which mitigates this. This was the idea behind B Corp, which is a NFP which certifies corporate ICs and SOPs to ensure they are sustainable.

Part 6: The Good Machine

When the concept of robotics was first invented, Issac Asimov created a thought experiment in his book i, Robot. In it, he imagines the creation of autonomous intelligence in the form of androids however a conundrum arose. If a machine is developed which has autonomy and was sufficiently enabled, how can we ensure that it primarily does no harm to humans? Without any handwritten laws a machine with the purpose of purely making money, will destroy everything in its path to achieve that goal. As such, Asimov developed the Four laws of robotics, distinct ethical rules to protect humans from the ruthlessness of machines:

• Zeroth Law - A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
• First Law - A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
• Second Law - A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
• Third Law - A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

These laws have been used as the basic ethical rules for the formulation of a series of tenets which has led to the development of an incorporation statement ofThe Transparent Company.

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References