Goldman Sachs has a piece of code that allows it to engage in sophisticated high speed and high volume trades on various stock and commodities markets.
It has generated many millions of dollars each year.
It is part of their ‘Crown Jewels’.
We get to know about this piece of code because someone allegedly stole it the other day.
Which leads me to ask: “What is Pharma’s Code?”
What’s written in the code that drives Pharma’s conduct?
Before we knew about the mechanical, chemical and electrical working of the human body, we had the Homunculus, or little human.
This soul was supposed to reside inside each person and was responsible for the workings of the human being.
Later, when no trace of a homunculus could be found, thinking about the body shifted to the concept of the body as a mechanical apparatus, a complex machine of many parts.
An Evolution in Thoughtware & Orgware
The next step was thinking about the human body as a mechanical device run by a series of complex bio-chemical processes.
These insights allowed far-reaching advances in medical treatment, for which Pharma was largely responsible.
The next wave of thinking followed the development of computers.
The body was seen as a mechanical device, run by a series of complex bio-chemical processes, operated by a network of electro-chemical impulses.
And like computers, at the heart of our operating systems there was a piece of code.
Behavioural code. Cultural code. Genetic code.
A mechanical device, run by a series of complex chemical processes, operated by a network of electro-chemical impulses and controlled by a few million lines of code.
What’s Next?
So what will be the next wave of thinking about what it is to be human?
And what role will Pharma play in helping to reach that understanding?
The explosive development of Social Media suggests that self-regulated distributed networks may be a significant part of that new thinking.
Thinking Pharma believes that the new Thoughtware will involve thinking about more than one individual when figuring out how things work.
This way of thinking has been a part of the mental health community for decades.
It thinks of Mental Health as not something that you can measure in one person, but exists across a related group of individuals.
As for the Goldman Sachs trading code,
The alleged thief may claim that he couldn’t help himself, his behaviour was programmed into his genetic code.
And maybe Pharma will claim that its’ current problems are just the logical consequence of the programming of its code of behaviour.
Maybe it’s time to re-write the code.
(Tomorrow’s Blog: Beeware of Thoughtware)
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