Factors

Human longevity is becoming an important modulator on developed economies. Should government be sponsoring research into how best to employ an increasingly aged population?

Religion is diverse and popular. To what extent should government provide differential treatment of people with religions that have impact beyond the religious practitioner?

There is an increasing encroachment on human activities by technology. Consequently, access to technology provides differential ability. To what extent should government intervene to reduce that differential?

Diverse cultures within a country are sometimes the cause of social tensions. Should government be involved in controlling the degree of that diversity? If not, how should it act to reduce those tensions?

The increasing range and complexity of financial instruments appears to be correlated with increasing wealth. Is one of these causal, even if only in specific areas? If so this should impact on government policy toward financial services.

To what extent and in which areas should government by guided by the will of its citizens, and to what extent and in which areas should it guide its citizens? Is that balance something to do with comparison to other nations to avoid extremism?

A defining characteristic of this period of human history is information democratisation, wherein access to information has improved due to technological advances and the policies of libertarian and open governments. Information democratisation has empowered individuals, exposing nefarious activity, and increasing opportunities for many kinds of advances. Its importance to human progress will probably not be fully appreciated for some time. The way this is enabled by government and how it impinges on government are therefore important considerations.

Humans are social animals, and human ability to leverage the effort of each other is a crucial factor in the progress on humanity. Collaboration is a refinement of that social leveraging ability that further improves development. To what extent should government seek to encourage collabration and deminsh competitition?

Technology is a key agent of change in human activity. Skills in developing and exploiting technology are hugely important to the continued development of civilisation. With the increasing need for technology specialists in fast changing fields, will humanity reach a point where the pace of skills development is a limiting factor? If so, should government sponsor research into new methods of skills development?

Sophisticated systems confer benefits, but sophistication increases in proportion with complexity that acts to impede progress. The existing practice of subdivision of tasks to manage complexity may exhibit increasing difficulties as degenerate parts of complex systems begin to have unanticipated impacts on other parts of the system. New ideas are needed to prevent this effect.

A prerequisite for an advanced society is specialisation. Further advances require more specialisation and so more people using more automation. Where a population reaches a ceiling will progress be slowed?

Standardisation has been a powerful factor in human progress. It simplifies the interface between specialisations. Can interface standardisation be improved or even supplanted by better techniques?