Holotopia: Five insights

H O L O T O P I A

Five Insights

The reality of the holotopia

The holotopia vision is made concrete in terms of five insights.

A natural way to introduce a new paradigm is to explore the analogy with a historical precedent. This strategy has been taken in Holoscope.org, and we here develop it further.

The holotopia vision is made concrete or federated in terms of five insights. Together, they show why a comprehensive paradigm shift is ready to take place in our time, by exploring specific five insights that are ready to emerge in pivotal areas of interest—as soon as we begin to connect the dots.

Convenience Paradox insight

The Convenience Paradox insight points to a revolution in "pursuit of happiness" and in culture, similar to the Renaissance.

The Renaissance liberated our ancestors from a religious dogma, and empowered them to seek and experience the joy of living here and now. The lifestyle changed, and the arts blossomed. Could a similar advent be in store for us today?

We use knowledge to illuminate what has remained obscure: the way our own inner condition and our cultural and natural environments influence the way we feel, and our very ability to feel; and how our handling changes those conditions—in the long run.

Power Structure insight

The Power Structure insight points to a revolution in innovation, on the scale of the Industrial Revolution, by which human work will be made incomparably more effective and efficient.

We look at what remained ignored: the "systems in which we live and work" (which we'll here call simply systems). Think of those systems as gigantic mechanisms, comprising people and technology. Their purpose is to take everyone's daily work as input, and turn it into socially useful effects.

If in spite the technology we are still as busy as were—should we not see if our systems might be wasting our time?

And if the effect of our best efforts turns out to be problems rather than solutions—should we not check whether those systems might be causing us problems?

Collective Mind insight

The Collective Mind insight points to a revolution in communication, analogous to the advent of the printing press

In effect, the network-interconnected interactive digital media have connected us all together in a similar way as the nervous system connects together the cells in an organism. We look at the process which we use, as cells, to process the knowledge together. How does our collective mind work?

Our civilization is like an overgrown organism, so poorly coordinated that it presents a danger to its environment, and to itself. It has recently acquired a nervous system, which could help its organs coordinate their action; but its cells have not yet learned how to use it.

Socialized Reality insight

The Socialized Reality insight is about a new foundation on which the truth and the meaning are developed, and a possibility for a quantum leap in awareness, similar to the Enlightenment.

Without thinking, from the traditional culture we've adopted a myth, incomparably more subversive than the myth of creation—the myth that the purpose of knowledge is to show us "the reality" as it truly is.

I am inserting here freely—because the overall story seems to be taking a new and much more exciting shape. See my comments (also freshly inserted) about the sixth insight below...

So the creation of a "spectacle of a new kind"—how we've forgotten culture, values, and perhaps most interestingly, how we slipped from the homo sapiens evolutionary path, which the academia stood for, and... But the holotopia is about the good news. So the "spectacle" is a spectacular revival of the age-old human themes—in a down-to-earth, effective, contemporary, yet truly spectacular way!

Here we have a key point, which anchors those inflationary words and makes the possibility both palpable and palatable. The point here is to complete the (modernization?) process that was buddying in Galilei's time. The whole thing happened to us, and happened only half-way, or less... Now we make it happen. Completely.

The story here is, of course, about rebuilding the foundations so that they hold all of culture—instead of holding only science and technology, and damaging the rest.

The spectacle here is that all those words—such as "science", "culture" and "truth"—still resonate somehow in our collective memory. Albeit in a rather empty and hollow tone. The point here is to give them a whole new meaning; and power!

Now you may read what I wrote earlier, in my usual boring tone. The point—that will be elaborated very carefully in the detailed presentation of this insight—is that the academic evolutionary path has brought us here, in front of this mirror. What an awesome place to be!

The insight that we are constructing rather than "discovering" is now so well documented and so widely accepted, that we may consider it the state of the art in science and philosophy. But that's only one half of the story.

The other half is that the reality construction has been the tool of choice of traditional socialization—which has been the leading source of renegade power.

Narrow Frame insight

The Narrow Frame insight is about a new way to explore the reality, with similar consequences as the once that science had.

We here look at our 'eyeglasses'; we look at the very way in which we see the world.

Once we've seen that the scientific concepts and methods are our own creation—we become empowered to create new ways of looking at the world, in order to see more.

We can create the way we see the world!

Holotopia as a whole

While each of the five insights brings forth a spectacular development taking place imperceptibly slowly in our present time, considered together they afford an even more spectacular sight—of a complete new paradigm that is ready to emerge. The point here is to see that the five insights and the changes they are pointing to and demanding are so closely related to each other, that it is easiest and most natural to consider them as one single whole. And that the natural strategy is to change that whole as a whole.

It is an easy exercise, to begin with, to see that the black arrows in the above ideogram can be interpreted as signifying direct consequences. One thing leads to another! Together, they form a vicious cycle—within which the contemporary issues we are witnessing are perpetually recreated. Already this may be sufficient to see the holotopia's main insight—that comprehensive change can be easy, even when smaller changes appear to be impossible.

The yellow arrows point to synergistic relationships. They show why the two insights or issues they connect may be perceived as two sides of a single coin.

The sixth insight

The spectacle...

While still drafting polyscopy, around 1998, I drafted a book manuscript with title "What's Going On?", and subtitle "A Cultural Renewal" (we may change this to "Revival", to completely agree with Peccei). The point was to re-define what constitutes the news; and the spectacle. What's presented in the book is a most spectacular moment in human history, which we are living through right now, without being a single bit aware of that. (Isn't that why so many of us are able to fully focus on making our apartments nice and cosy, and ignore that the whole house is falling apart?)

The insight here is that the "problems" we are experiencing are like cracks in the walls of a house whose foundations are failing. Indeed (when we dig a bit under the surface of things and take a look)—there aren't any foundations, really, to speak about. What's there has never been constructed. We are just building on whatever terrain things happened to be placed. Just building further. And higher.

What's Going on ideogram (the first half)

But the holotopia is about the good news. We can develop the architecture; we can found insights and other things consciously. This can do to culture (and other things) what architecture did to house construction... The point is to create a suitable foundation for every piece (...).

Isn't that what polyscopy and knowledge federation are really all about?!

Holotopia as a conversation

The holotopia is, however, not about one-way communication. The shift to a new paradigm definitely demands audience participation.

The five insights here present us with a context within which age-old themes and challenges can be explored and understood in a completely new way—in the context of the emerging paradigm, the holotopia. Hence we here, in this context, open the dialogs on fifteen most timely themes—which we label by the five insights, and their ten direct relationships. Since we've already seen the insights, it remains to name the relationships.

The black arrows (starting from convenience paradox):

From Zero to One—The Future of Happiness

The From Zero to One—The Future of Happiness conversation takes place in the context of the Convenience Paradox insight and the Power Structure insight.

All we know about happiness is in the interval between zero (complete misery) and one ("normal" happiness); but what about the rest? What about the happiness between one and plus infinity?

This conversation is about the humanity's best kept secret; and about the challenge to reveal it, by federating the experience of those who have explored this realm.

Cybernetics and the Future of Democracy

The Cybernetics and the Future of Democracy conversation has the Power Structure insight and the Collective Mind insight as context.

Without suitable communication–and–control, nobody is in control, and "democracy" is only a fiction. The Wiener–Jantsch–Reagan thread, detailed in Federation through Conversations, provides us a suitable springboard story.

Ludens—A Recent History of Humankind

The Ludens—A Recent History of Humankind conversation combines the Collective Mind insight and the Socialized Reality insight.

While we may be biologically equipped to evolve as the homo sapiens, we have in recent decades devolved culturally as the homo ludens, man the (game) player—who shuns knowledge and merely learns his various roles, and plays them out competitively. The Nietzsche–Ehrlich–Giddens thread, detailed in Federation through Conversations, will provide a suitable start.

Transdisciplinary Research and the Future of Academia

The Transdisciplinary Research and the Future of Academia conversation combines the Socialized Reality insight and the Narrow Frame insight.

However it might appear today, the original purpose of the academia (which we define as "the institutionalized academic tradition") is not the pursuit of "symbolic power", or academic careers. On the contrary—since its inception, its purpose has been to provide an antidote to the homo ludens devolution, by developing knowledge work and knowledge based on knowledge of knowledge. Could a similar advent be in store for us today? The socialized reality and the narrow frame insights will provide us a suitable context for proactively answering this question. The vignettes about Socrates and Galilei (founding fathers of Academia, and of science) will give us a head start.

From Zero to One—The Future of Education

The From Zero to One—The Future of Education conversation is in the context of the Narrow Frame insight and the Convenience Paradox insight.

Our troubles may well be reduced to a single, very basic error: We've adopted from the traditional culture an approach to education which is on the surface stuffing young people with data; and 'deep down' socializing them into a paradigm. Here socialization means replacing the young people's natural curiosity and creativity by boredom and obedience.

I am here once again inserting... references to a possible spectacle... Imagine...

Imagine if we all got, somehow, lobotomized... Not in hardware, of course, but in software. Would this not explain some of our stunning paradoxes? Perhaps my best shot at federating this possibility is by sharing my own experience. But a much better job can, of course, be done!

I've described this in my blog in a couple of places, in sufficient detail. So here comes a summary: Not only the creative mind, but also the good old sense making, seems to function as a slow, annealing-like process. The point is that it takes uninterrupted time—quite a bit more of it, than what most of us ever have. So just imagine the consequences.

And now about the education. I first of all had to undo its consequences, painstakingly and never completely. But OK, it works. If I give things enough of this uninterrupted time. What we have as education is a perfect substitute. Or should we say—a murder of this essential human capability. Where to perform, we are compelled to give up this kind of time and reflection completely, and... well.. just perform!

What consequences might this have for contemporary academia?

In the back of my mind, not wanting to interrupt this work, I am writing a blog post titled "In Conversation with Noah". Two years ago he was virtually begging me not to take him to school. It's not that I didn't know what to do—I didn't see anything that I might do. It turned out that I had a kid who had this ability, naturally. Not any more. I was unable to help him! But to a problem that seemed completely hopeless, a holistic solution creatively emerged—to engage Noah in holotopia. Let's empower him (and of course all those other kids...) to change the system; to make a difference. This is of course not meant to be my private story, but a parable. End of insert

Can we envision, and even begin to implement, an education that develops "the human quality", as Peccei would have it? The combination of (a resolution of) the socialized reality, with (a resolution of) the convenience paradox will provide a fertile context for developing this conversation, and the corresponding line of action.

Future of Art

The Future of Art conversation combines the Convenience Paradox insight and the Collective Mind insight.

Here we have a leverage point par excellence; and a natural way to begin.

I really like this polarity: On the one side we have an age-old and profound cultural issue (the convenience paradox is about directly reviving the values, and the culture): on the other side we have the new information technology, and how to use it (the collective mind is the latest secret that the Silicon Valley hasn't uncovered yet). Those two are like two poles of a high-voltage electricity generator...

The opportunity here is to evolve the collective mind by engaging us the people to think together (in a technology-enabled way) about some of the oldest and deepest human issues. In a new way!

How to Put an End to War

The How to Put an End to War conversation takes place in the context provided by the Power Structure insight and the Socialized Reality insight

Alfred Nobel had the right idea: Empower the creative people and their ideas, and the humanity's all-sided progress will naturally be secured. But our creativity, when applied to the cause of peace, has largely favored the palliative approaches (resolving specific conflicts and improving specific situations), and ignoring those more interesting curative ones. What would it take to really put an end to war—once and for all? A combination of the power structure insight and the socialized reality insight will help us see why this is realistically possible. The Chomsky–Harari–Graeber thread, discussed in Federation through Conversations, will give us a head start.

Largest Contribution to Knowledge

The Largest Contribution to Knowledge conversation has the Collective Mind insight and the Narrow Frame insight as context.

If you've followed us thus far, you may have already understood why that the systemic contributions to human knowledge (improvements of the 'algorithm' by which knowledge is handled in our society and in all walks of life) are likely to be incomparably larger than any specific contributions of knowledge. A fine important point is that a real breakthrough in this all-important domain needs to include both the social process and the method by which knowledge is handled—because they are the yin and the yang of knowledge work. Hence the collective mind and the narrow frame insight—and especially the ways in which we propose to handle them—will provide us exactly the right context for this quest.

Liberation—The Future of Religion

The Liberation—The Future of Religion conversation has the Socialized Reality insight and the Convenience Paradox insight as context.

In the traditional societies, religion has played the all-important role of connecting the people to an ethical purpose, and to each other. While discussing the consequences of the narrow frame (the narrow conceptual frame and way of looking at the world that our society adopted from the 19th century science), Heisenberg singled out the destruction of religion and the erosion of values. Can this trend be reversed? Imagine a world where instead of religions quarreling with one another, and the rest of us quarreling with religion—we evolve religion, so that we may learn from all traditions; and so that we may all benefit and evolve further. We offer the strategy to re-evolve religion, knowledge-based, as a natural antidote to religion-inspired hatred, terrorism and politics. The story of Buddhadasa's rediscovery of the Buddha's original insight will be a natural way to begin.

Collaboration—the Future of Politics

The Collaboration—the Future of Politics conversation takes place within the Narrow Frame insight and the Power Structure insight as context.

The story here is really about the power structure as a model of the intuitive notion of "power holder" or "enemy", and the various consequences of this view. The long story made short—we will here talk about the possibility of transcending the "us against them" approach to political thought and action altogether; and developing an approach where all of us collaborate to find remedies to the power structure issue. The context for this timely effort is here provided by combining the (resolution to) narrow frame issue, where (instead of reifying the age-old patterns of thought and action) we create completely new ways of seeing and speaking; and the (resolution to) power structure issue, where we see that our common future lies in the re-creation of "the systems in which we live and work", by being the new systems.