About John Boik

CogNarr is developed by John Boik, a research fellow at the Active Inference Institute. John received a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder, and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, where his graduate research focused on natural products and cancer biology. He conducted postdoctoral training in the Department of Statistics at Stanford University. He also holds a master's degree in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, in Portland, Oregon.

CogNarr Origins

The inspiration for CogNarr dates to Chapter 9, "Collaborative Governance System," of John's 2014 book Economic Direct Democracy: A Framework to End Poverty and Maximize Well-Being. That chapter described an online system by which users could share their potentially rich and complex ideas and inputs as part of decision-making processes. The book introduced the concept of a Local Economic Direct Democracy Association (LEDDA), a local, civic-club-like organization that would operate a new design of an economic system as a layer upon existing systems. The LEDDA was described further in a series of three papers published in 2020–2021 in Sustainability, which propose a global, science-based effort to develop and test new economic, governance, financial, and other systems designed to improve human and environmental well-being. The 2020–2021 series views a society as an organism and describes these systems as part of its cognitive architecture. The CogNarr concept, introduced in a series of two papers in 2024, is the core engine for a wider CogNarr ecosystem that could serve online decision making and other forms of communication across the business, governance, civil service, and non-profit sectors. One day, as the LEDDA framework matures (new papers are planned), CogNarr might well serve as part of its governance system. Links and references are provided on the Resources page.

Acknowledgments

CogNarr has grown through the ideas and encouragement of others. The project is grateful for and has benefited from lengthy and ongoing discussions with Michael Lennon and Lee Eyre. Thanks also to Glen EP Ropella for his support for and encouragement toward the application of CogNarr in the medical setting.