About

The Founder

A Brief Autobiography

My name is A. Nicholas Frank. I was born in Budapest, Hungary. My father was an attorney, writer, lecturer, and dreamer. He wrote about the direction of social evolution and need for the workers of Europe to unite – an early dream of a united Europe in the 1930s manuscript he left behind. I lost him to illness when I was four years old. My mother’s devotion and heroic determination allowed me and my sister to survive the Holocaust and World War II.

Following the defeat of the Hungarian revolution by the Red Army, in 1956 I escaped from communist Hungary. After six years living in Montreal, Canada, I moved to Los Angeles, California. The many unanswered questions my mind collected as I grew up during those turbulent times of the mid-20th century prompted me in 1972 to begin a project to answer as many of life’s questions as I could.

From 1975 to 1985 I studied and experimented with stress to understand the neuroendocrine process and the psychological effects of stress on human behavior. While I learned a great deal, it became evident to me that there was something more important beyond the stress mechanisms of psychophysiology that has a greater impact on individual behavior and the functioning of society. In the spring of 1985 I took my wife and two small children on a year-and-a-half thinking, writing, and camping tour of Europe.

Upon our return from Europe I retired from all commercial work, living off of our investments and devoted the following twenty years to the search for a unified answer to personal, social, economic and environmental questions. Realizing that stress is merely a failure indicator of complex systems that are experiencing some degree of dysfunction, I turned my attention to understanding how complex socioeconomic systems work. For a long period of time I believed that the concept of synergy would shed light on that subject. However, when I realized that synergy does not fully explain the nature of complex emergent systems, and that synergy had come to be associated with corporate and commercial concerns, I felt the need to search for a more complete answer.

A satisfying and unifying answer developed in the form of the Holigent work and life concept. The Holigent organizing concept is modeled after natural self-organization. Holistic-emergent (holigent) evolutionary self-organization is in essence nature’s building code. It is the energetic primal self-organizing mechanism that enables simple parts and particles to come together and build our complex universe.

The Holigent socioeconomic self-organizing concept transforms the top-down, reductionist/compartmentalized and fragmentary institutional approach of our current socioeconomic system. The Holigent solution can gradually reorganize our existing system to function more like robust and sustainable natural systems: To develop through self-organization from the nucleus out and roots up, and function in balanced reciprocity with all other parts of the manmade and natural life support system. I introduce and explore this concept in my upcoming book, The Holigent Solution – Transition Race to Quality of Life, Peace and Sustainability.

Recognizing the urgent need to find solutions for humanity’s problems on our endangered planet, I am engaged in laying the conceptual foundation and developing an action plan to raise funds and build a model Holigent Urban Village. Such a project would demonstrate the quality of life, peace and sustainability potentials of the concept from which a national and a global program could be developed.

I live with my wife in Los Angeles, California. We have a son and a daughter. I work for Holigent.org full time at a salary of $1 per year.

About Holigent.Org

Aka Holigent Transition to Peace and Sustainability.Org

Holigent.org is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization developing and offering programs that help redesign the way we live, work, commute, consume and govern ourselves a community at a time and facilitate the development of a socioeconomic alternative that promotes quality of life, economic security, social harmony and sustainability.

We recognize that capitalist-consumerism, in its present form, has become an over-consuming and hyper-polluting unsustainable global economic monoculture. Furthermore, we realize that humanity does not have a well-defined Plan B for pursuing a sustainable and peaceful alternative. Therefore, we propose to collaborate with philanthropists, the public and governments in nonprofit efforts to build a demonstration mixed-use, live/work, car-free urban village. Holigent Villages will represent a new urban approach that provides solutions to the multiple problems that cities face in the U.S. and around the world.

We introduce the Holigent Delta Plan – a hybrid socioeconomic operating system. This alternative is based on a value system of monetary currency along with direct human resource input that will secure a high standard for quality of life, affordable housing, economic security, and social harmony all with a minimal footprint on the environment.

Holigent.org is taking a lead in mobilizing for this holistic-systemic solution. We are committed to raising funds and developing plans for the construction of a demonstration Holigent Urban Village community at a suitable location. This demonstration would allow real world, site-specific testing, improvement, and personalization of the Holigent Village model to local needs and preferences. Once successfully functioning and self-sustained, this model could be adapted for implementation in other urban locations creating supportive sustainable urban networks.

About Holigent.Org

Managing Director

An Even Briefer Autobiography

Hello, I am Elisa Frank, the daughter mentioned above! I joined my father’s team working for Holigent.org as I share his passion for finding comprehensive and sustainable solutions to the most pressing social and environmental challenges we face locally and globally.

I received my MA in Geography with an emphasis on Human-environment Relations from UC Santa Barbara and my BA in Geography/Environmental Studies with a minor in Spanish from UCLA. I have studied, lived, worked, interned, and traveled fairly extensively and have learned intimately and intensively about diverse cultures, ethnicities, politics, economies, people, emotions and environments. Learn more about my experience and view my publications here.

The Earth is a complex system in which humans are only one of numerous intricate and interconnected parts; unfortunately, we have had a disproportionate influence in altering the state of this system. Subsequently, I think we have not only a responsibility but also an urgent necessity to devote ourselves to restoring a healthy and sustainable balance to this unique and diverse living system. I work for Holigent.org full time at a salary of $1 per year.

Please Contact Me!

elisa[at]holigent[dot]org

An important and enjoyable part of my job is connecting, collaborating, corresponding and interacting with interested individuals, volunteers, organizations, and businesses.

About the Holigent concept

To understand the sorry state of our world one needs to consider the asymmetric development of Western civilization – rooted in ancient Greek philosophy, incubated in Europe and gone global mostly in the form of capitalist consumerism. Asymmetry, in this context, is referring to the high development of the objective, which is science and technology, and the under-development of the subjective, which includes ideas and innovations in our social, economic and political systems.

The ancient Greeks almost got it right, but we now acknowledge that every system, simple or complex, has both an atomistic structure and a holistic emergent property (quality) in synthesis (not as separate aspects). Science can weigh and measure the objective but not the subjective. Consequently, technology advanced but social innovation was left behind. Yet, recently on evolution’s time-scale, human consciousness and free will (the subjective) became the most significant force/factor on our planet, but without an appropriate organizing philosophy. Such asymmetric development is the underlying flaw in what is now our global socioeconomic system. It is inherently conflicted, fragile and unsustainable.

The Holigent Solution is offering a hybrid philosophical foundation (based on nature’s sustainable formula of evolutionary self-organization) and socioeconomic operating system to facilitate the transition to comprehensive sustainability a community at a time.