Changing things from the top down works when things are stable.

Our society lacks a feedback loop for controlling technology: a way to gauge intended effects from actual effects later on

Preserve the core, and let the rest flux. In their wonderful bestseller Built to Last, authors James Collins and Jerry Porras make a convincing argument that long-lived companies are able to thrive 50 years or more by retaining a very small heart of unchanging values, and then stimulating progress in everything else. At times "everything" includes changing the business the company operates in, migrating, say, from mining to insurance. Outside the core of values, nothing should be exempt from flux. Nothing.

Nobody is as smart as everybody.

What technology is really about is better ways to evolve. That is what we call an 'infinite game.' ... A finite game is played to win, and an infinite game is played to keep playing.

Humans are the reproductive organs of technology. We multiply manufactured artifacts and spread ideas and memes.

The organization and the environment are in concert.