Collaboration is better than competition

Thank you DanK for your post. First I would like to point out that in the 1st round I explicitly said no rebuttals in the second round, which my opponent went ahead and violated. To counter my opponent, I am not saying competition completely is bad. I think friendly competition is fine such as in sports and so on. Though when it comes to economics, innovating, and solving problems, collaboration is a more powerful system. Yes the space race between the U.S. and Russia did give us the space programs of today because of competition. But wouldn't the U.S. and Russia been more productive if they collaborated? Two heads are always better than one. United We Stand, Divided We FallIn times of war, there is never a struggle for a nation and its military to collaborate so that we can defeat an enemy. In times of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina or the Haitian earthquake, there were no hesitations of nations to collaborate and help rebuild what was destroyed. [1] However when we’re not in war or there are no natural disasters, we totally abandon this collaborative mentality. But why is it only implemented during times of emergencies? The fact is that is how we should act everyday and the world would be a far better place than what it is today. Everything in the universe is energy. When we compete against each other, our energies are divided and dispersed in different directions. When we collaborate, our energies are channeled and focused like a laser beam which is a much powerful force. Let me give an analogy. In semiconductors, in a normal state, free electrons move in random directions and collide with each other, and overall produces no current or energy. Now when an electric field is applied, the electrons start moving in a unified direction creating current and kinetic energy.[2] Competition is akin to the free electrons moving in random directions and colliding against each other, which doesn’t produce net current and gets us nowhere. This is a huge reason why we can’t solve mass poverty around the world, despite we have the knowledge, mathematics, and technologies to solve it - simply when we compete our energies are divided, dispersed and constantly colliding. In a collaborative system, people act like the electrons that move in a unified direction which produces lots of current and energy. When we put our individual differences aside and all work together in the direction of actually improving our society, we create a powerful “electric field”, significantly more powerful than that of individual electrons acting independently on its own. Only in unity can we create abundance. The Human Body Analogy The human body is a collaborative system in which each individual part is no less important than another. All of the parts and organs play their own essential role and are equally as important to keep your body healthy and functioning properly. Imagine if your body had a competitive system where all your organs competed against each other; Your brain competed with your heart, or your lungs competed with your liver. It would be a disaster and you wouldn’t survive very long. Our bodies treat every organ with the same importance and optimally distributes the right amount of nutrients to each part in order to keep the body healthy. When we get sick such as getting a cold or flu, our body responds by distributing the nutrients to the parts that currently needs it the most, which in this case, the immune system. If you got a wound, then the body would immediately send the proper nutrients to that site. The body is not bias towards any individual part, there’s no competition. Every part depends on other parts in varying degrees; one part cannot stand alone. If it leaves out even a small individual part, the whole system would not properly function at its optimum level and could eventually fail. Ex:The brain cannot function without a nervous system, the heart cannot function without the lungs, etc. Every part is interconnected in some way and dependent upon each other. [3] [4] This same principle and system applies to society. Today with our competitive system, most of the economic energy is currently flowing to the minority of the population, just like if our brain recieved most of the nutrients in our body. In order for our planet’s economic system to function at its optimum, we must adapt the same principles that our own body uses which is a collaborative system. Every person on this planet is valuable and is no less important than any other person. Each person has his or her own unique individual skills and talents which each contribute an essential role and impacts the entire system or community. The great thing about a collaborative system is that people will be doing what their passion is, instead of a job that they hate because they’re forced to become ‘competitive’ in the system. If you’re an artist and love drawing/graphic design, then become the best artist you can be. If you love programming or engineering then become the best programmer/engineer you can be. Whatever it is you love doing, you would be able to spend most of your daily time on it, and at the same time benefiting the entire community with your efforts. All of our collective talents and efforts would be shared and absorbed by the entire community, and is reciprocated many times over. Collaboration would spur innovation faster than competition The main difference between competition and collaboration boils down to motive and purpose, the why. In competition, a business's motivation to innovate is only to create a product better than the other company. If a company produces mediocre products, its competitor would just need to create a slightly better than mediocre product in order to be more competitive. This is like the trend with every auto-companies keep coming out with new cars that were basically the same as last year's model except with a few upgrades in looks and technology, but is still basically the same car that goes from point a to b. This also applies to cellphones/smartphones and televisions. Just look at the new iPhone 6; it didn’t show any new groundbreaking innovation (I’m not trying to hate on Apple). Apple just doesn’t have the same standard for innovation ever since Steve Jobs passed. With collaboration, the main motive is not about being better than the other companies, but innovating in order to achieve a vision of higher purpose that makes a beneficial impact to the whole society. An example of this is Elon Musk's Tesla Motors. The main reason why he built Tesla is not because he wanted to make a better a car company than his competition. He built Tesla because of his vision of creating a sustainable future for transportation, and that mission is what drives him. [5] This also is why Tesla recently started to share its patents to any car company that wants to use it so that it can help speed up the innovation of electric vehicles and infrastructure. [6] Also, let’s not forget about the man who inspired Tesla Motors, Nikola Tesla. Nikola Tesla was the man who invented AC current, radio, the electric motor, etc. [7] Most importantly, he had an ambition to share and transmit free electricity wirelessly to the whole world starting with his Wardenclyffe tower. But unfortunately, his financial backer J.P. Morgan stopped the project once he discovered Tesla’s true intentions. [8][9] This just shows how Tesla’s innovation was not motivated by competition, recognition, or money. His innovation and efforts was simply motivated by his vision of improving the world. Yes, competition has helped spurred innovation in the past, but not as much as it potentially could moving forward if most of the companies and people collaborated. With collaboration, your competition is the problem itself. The focus is not earning more or having a higher ranking. Yes, so what if you beat the other person? But have you solved the problem? At the end of the day, solving problems that not only benefits you, but the whole entire community is far more significant and powerful, than competing for the single winner who gets the brownie points. [1] http://www.cmu.edu... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org... [3] http://cayugascience.wikispaces.com... [4] https://www.inkling.com... [5] http://www.teslamotors.com... [6] http://www.teslamotors.com... [7] http://science.howstuffworks.com... [8] http://theoatmeal.com... [9] http://en.wikipedia.org...