Difference between revisions of "CONVERSATIONS"
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<div class="page-header" > <h1>Federation through Conversations</h1> </div> | <div class="page-header" > <h1>Federation through Conversations</h1> </div> | ||
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| + | <p>[[File:Elephants.jpeg]]<br><small><center>We'll connect the dots and see the elephant.</center></small></p> | ||
| + | <p></p> | ||
| + | <div class="row"> | ||
| + | <div class="col-md-3"><h2>The theme is the elephant</h2></div> | ||
| + | <div class="col-md-7"><h3>We are not only talking</h3> | ||
| + | <p>Don't be deceived by this seemingly innocent word, "conversations". The conversations that will now extend and continue our initiative are where the real action begins; and the real fun.</p> | ||
| + | <p>If you consider, as we do, the news about Donald Trump or some terrorists as nothing really new, then you might be ready for some really <em>good</em> news. Why give those people the publicity they don't deserve? Why use the media to spread <em>their</em> ideas? Just look at the world of five centuries ago – what do you see? Of course – you see Leonardo, you see Copernicus... You see the rebirth of the arts, you see the emergence of science. How much more <em>spectacular</em> will be the sight of this sort of development taking place in our own time! How much more worth our time are the messages of contemporary [[giants|<em>giants</em>]], the people who really <em>do</em> have something to tell us!</p> | ||
| + | <p>But even the conversations about the most relevant themes – about the challenges that mark our era – can be completely different than what they are. Weary about talking about the CO2 quotas? Disheartened by how slow the progress has been? Also then – and especially then – you'll be glad to hear that there is a whole different way. That we can be building a new world instead of trying to fix the old one. And that this engages the best of our enthusiasm and our creativity, instead of our strife and worries. </p> | ||
| + | <h3>A difference that makes a difference</h3> | ||
| + | <p>Although we shall not talk about him directly, the elephant in the above [[ideograms|<em>ideogram</em>]] is the main protagonist of our stories. It is a glimpse of him that we want to give by talking about all those people and events. This visual metaphor represents the whole big thing – the Renaissance-like change that now wants to emerge. The elephant is invisible, but we will have glimpses of him as soon as we begin to 'connect the dots'. And that's what we are about to do.</p> | ||
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| + | <div class="col-md-3"><h2>Glimpses of an emerging paradigm</h2></div> | ||
| + | <div class="col-md-7"><h3>Our goal is to see the whole</h3> | ||
| + | <p>Although we shall not talk about him directly, the elephant in the above [[ideograms|<em>ideogram</em>]] is the main protagonist of our stories. It is a glimpse of him that we want to give by talking about all those people and events. This visual metaphor represents the whole big thing – the Renaissance-like change that now wants to emerge. The elephant is invisible, but we will have glimpses of him as soon as we begin to 'connect the dots'. And that's what we are about to do.</p> | ||
| + | <p>Recall once again Galilei in house prison, the image which we are using here to point to repressed, or not-yet-heard voices of change. Galilei was not tried for his belief in Heliocentricity; that's just a minor technical detail. The big point was that he dared to state in public that when the reason contradicts the scriptures, it is still legitimate to be open to the possibility that the reason might be right. Today there is no Inquisition, and practically no censorship – and yet (as Italo Calvino observed decades ago, when still only the printed text was competing for our attention) the overabundance of our unorgarnized information will do the censoring just as well. And there are also other factors in play, which we will come back to. </p> | ||
| + | <h3>What the visionaries see</h3> | ||
| + | <p>It has been said that a visionary is a person who looks at the same things all of us look at, and sees something different. What we here call [[giants|<em>giants</em>]] are the people with an uncommon ability. You may call it intuition, or creative imagination. We think of it as <em>soaring intelligence</em>: Where the rest of might be painstakingly trying to fit the pieces together, they appear to somehow <em>see through</em> the pieces, and anticipate how they might fit together in a completely new way.</p> | ||
| + | <p>Some difficulties are, however, inherent in this kind of seeing. Even a visionary can see (metaphorically) only a part of the elephant. This is because [[paradigm|<em>paradigm</em>]], or the elephant, is so large and complex that anyone can look at it only from a certain angle, which is defined by his or her field of interest and background. And when a visionary tries to explain what he sees to the rest of us, then there's another problem – even suitable words are lacking. So we may hear him talk about a rope, a fan or a hose – when really what he's talking about is the large animal's tail, or ear, or trunk.</p> | ||
| + | <h3>Why visionaries fail to communicate</h3> | ||
| + | <p>The reasons are complex, and the phenomenon is fascinating. We shall look into deeper reasons as we go along. But the large and obvious reason is that they are trying to show us the [[invisible elephant|<em>elephant</em>]], or some of its specific parts. And that our communication, presently, is conceived as fitting things into a (old) paradigm! And so naturally we only hear what fits in, and ignore what doesn't. But (and you will see some quite wonderful examples in a moment) – the real value of the giants' insight is exactly that it <em>changes</em> (improves) the conventional order of things.</p> | ||
| + | <p>And so we undertake to enable us to take advantage of the heritage, the jewels we have – by materializing the [[invisible elephant|<em>elephant</em>]] sufficiently so that new things can be understood in its context, and fitted in.</p> | ||
| + | <p>You will now easily understand why our primary interest is not to find out what some [[giants|<em>giant</em>]] "really saw" (even he would not be able to tell us that). What we are above all interested in is to use their views as signs on the road, and ultimately find and see 'the elephant'.</p> | ||
| + | <h3>The substance of our project</h3> | ||
| + | <p></p> | ||
| + | <p>[[File:Elephant.jpg]]<br><small><center>Our goal is to organize this activity, and foster this collective capability - of federating knowledge or 'connecting the dots'.</center></small></p> | ||
| + | <p></p> | ||
| + | <p>Seeing the whole thing is of course fascinating as a spectacle – 'a large exotic animal grazing at our universities, or visiting our lecture halls without being seen'. But the view of it becomes life-changing and essential, when what we are talking about is not really an animal, and not even a finished thing, but something that <em>we</em> need to create together.</p> | ||
| + | <p>So our goal is first of all a liberation from a certain fixed way of looking at things, which we acquired while growing up and through education. And then to – not exactly connect all the dots (which may be something each of us will have to do on our own), but foster this whole art, this capability we have all but lost, of connecting dots in general. We undertake to organize it as an academic, and real-world activity. We undertake to institutionalize it, give it the status of "knowledge creation" – which is what it really is, as we have already seen, and as we are about to see. </p> | ||
| + | </div></div> | ||
| + | <div class="row"> | ||
| + | <div class="col-md-3"></div> | ||
| + | <div class="col-md-6"><h3>The substance of this page</h3> | ||
| + | <p>So we are about to see only one small part of 'the elephant'. But this will be a crucial part. It will also be a [[paradigm|<em>paradigm</em>]] in its own right – a paradigm in knowledge work. In the large puzzle we need to put together, there is a piece we need to create and place in first, because it will show us what all the rest is going to look like.</p> | ||
| + | <p>In what follows we will looking at exactly the same 'piece in the puzzle' that we saw in Federation through Images. There we used keywords such as [[knowledge federation|<em>knowledge federation</em>]], [[systemic innovation|<em>systemic innovation</em>]], and [[guided evolution of society|<em>guided evolution of society</em>]], and the image of the bus with candle headlights to describe it. But while there our angle of looking and focus was on the foundations or <em>epistemology</em>), here our point of view will be the society's new needs, and the capabilities of new technology. We will then have covered all the three main motivations for [[knowledge federation|<em>knowledge federation</em>]] that were mentioned on the front page.</p> | ||
| + | <p>We'll tell the stories of two [[giants|<em>giants</em>]] – Douglas Engelbart as the icon of [[knowledge federation|<em>knowledge federation</em>]], and Erich Jantsch as the icon of [[systemic innovation|<em>systemic innovation</em>]]. But we'll also put on our map just a couple of the [[giants|<em>giants</em>]] on whose shoulders <em>they</em> stood.</p></div> | ||
| + | <div class="col-md-3">[[File:2Elephants.jpeg]]<br><small><center>The smaller elephant will call the larger one into existence.</center></small></div> | ||
| + | </div> | ||
| + | ------ | ||
| + | <p>Here is one of the ways in which Peccei later framed the answer (in 1977, in The Human Quality, his personal reflections on the human condition and his recommendation for handling it): | ||
| + | <blockquote> | ||
| + | Let me recapitulate what seems to me the crucial question at this point of the human venture. Man has acquired such decisive power that his future depends essentially on how he will use it. However, the business of human life has become so complicated that he is culturally unprepared even to understand his new position clearly. As a consequence, his current predicament is not only worsening but, with the accelerated tempo of events, may become decidedly catastrophic in a not too distant future. The downward trend of human fortunes can be countered and reversed only by the advent of a new humanism essentially based on and aiming at man’s cultural development, that is, a substantial improvement in human quality throughout the world. | ||
| + | </blockquote> | ||
| + | </p></div> | ||
| + | <div class="col-md-3 round-images">[[File:Peccei.jpg]]<br><small><center>[[Aurelio Peccei]]</center></small></div> | ||
| + | </div> | ||
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| + | INSERT END ... | ||
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| + | XXXXXXX | ||
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<p>These conversations will <em>build</em> the public sphere, or the [[collective mind|<em>collective mind</em>]], which is capable of putting the themes of our time into focus; enrich our conversations with the insights of [[giants|<em>giant</em>]], help us build upon <em>their</em> insights, instead of ignoring them. </p> | <p>These conversations will <em>build</em> the public sphere, or the [[collective mind|<em>collective mind</em>]], which is capable of putting the themes of our time into focus; enrich our conversations with the insights of [[giants|<em>giant</em>]], help us build upon <em>their</em> insights, instead of ignoring them. </p> | ||
<p>While some of the themes we will be taking up are ubiquitous or perennial (how to resolve large contemporary issues; how to make academic research more useful and more creative; and many others) – having a [[prototypes|<em>prototype</em>]] will make them entirely different. We will no longer be talking about how to improve the candle. We will be talking about creating a light bulb!</p> | <p>While some of the themes we will be taking up are ubiquitous or perennial (how to resolve large contemporary issues; how to make academic research more useful and more creative; and many others) – having a [[prototypes|<em>prototype</em>]] will make them entirely different. We will no longer be talking about how to improve the candle. We will be talking about creating a light bulb!</p> | ||
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<p>When in Federation through Images we talked about the [[magical mirror|<em>mirror</em>]] existing at every university, we may have made it seem like an <em>entrance</em> to something – to an academic underground perhaps, or to an underworld. You may now perceive the [[magical mirror|<em>mirror</em>]] as an <em>exit</em> – from an academic and more generally creative reality where our creativity is confined to updating an outdated paradigm, to an incomparably freer yet more responsible and responsive one – where we are empowered to perceive and change this [[paradigm|<em>paradigm</em>]]. Where we are helping our society and culture evolve in a new way, and in a new direction.</p> | <p>When in Federation through Images we talked about the [[magical mirror|<em>mirror</em>]] existing at every university, we may have made it seem like an <em>entrance</em> to something – to an academic underground perhaps, or to an underworld. You may now perceive the [[magical mirror|<em>mirror</em>]] as an <em>exit</em> – from an academic and more generally creative reality where our creativity is confined to updating an outdated paradigm, to an incomparably freer yet more responsible and responsive one – where we are empowered to perceive and change this [[paradigm|<em>paradigm</em>]]. Where we are helping our society and culture evolve in a new way, and in a new direction.</p> | ||
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<p>This new good news will bring to the forefront entirely new heroes. Pierre Bourdieu, for example, whose talents brought him from a village in the Pyrenees to the forefront of French intelligentsia. Bourdieu became a leading sociologist by understanding, in a new way, how the society functions and evolves. And how this evolution is shaped by the subtle power relationships that are woven into our communication. Buddhadasa, Thailand's enlightened monk and scholar, will help us understand that at the core of the teachings of the Buddha – and of all world religions as well – is a deep insight about ourselves, from which an entirely different way of evolving culturally and socially – liberated from those power relationships – naturally follows. Bourdieu's "theory of practice" will then help us see how and why the institutionalized religion grew to be an instrument of that very renegade power, instead of liberating us from it. And how our other institutions suffered from that same tendency, including our academic institutions notwithstanding. We will then more easily appreciate Erich Jantsch's efforts to bring our work on contemporary issues beyond fixing problems within the narrow limits of our present-day institutions, and institutionalized routines and values. And to bring the university institution to adapt to and assume the leadership role in this transition. We will then also understand and appreciate the value of Douglas Engelbart's work on showing us how to use "digital technology" to develop "a super new nervous system to upgrade our collective social organisms" – which will vastly enhance this evolution. And why Jantsch and Engelbart – and so incredibly many other 20th century [[giants|<em>giants</em>]] – remained ignored.</p> | <p>This new good news will bring to the forefront entirely new heroes. Pierre Bourdieu, for example, whose talents brought him from a village in the Pyrenees to the forefront of French intelligentsia. Bourdieu became a leading sociologist by understanding, in a new way, how the society functions and evolves. And how this evolution is shaped by the subtle power relationships that are woven into our communication. Buddhadasa, Thailand's enlightened monk and scholar, will help us understand that at the core of the teachings of the Buddha – and of all world religions as well – is a deep insight about ourselves, from which an entirely different way of evolving culturally and socially – liberated from those power relationships – naturally follows. Bourdieu's "theory of practice" will then help us see how and why the institutionalized religion grew to be an instrument of that very renegade power, instead of liberating us from it. And how our other institutions suffered from that same tendency, including our academic institutions notwithstanding. We will then more easily appreciate Erich Jantsch's efforts to bring our work on contemporary issues beyond fixing problems within the narrow limits of our present-day institutions, and institutionalized routines and values. And to bring the university institution to adapt to and assume the leadership role in this transition. We will then also understand and appreciate the value of Douglas Engelbart's work on showing us how to use "digital technology" to develop "a super new nervous system to upgrade our collective social organisms" – which will vastly enhance this evolution. And why Jantsch and Engelbart – and so incredibly many other 20th century [[giants|<em>giants</em>]] – remained ignored.</p> | ||
</div> | </div> | ||
Revision as of 11:19, 6 September 2018
Contents
Federation through Conversations
The theme is the elephant
We are not only talking
Don't be deceived by this seemingly innocent word, "conversations". The conversations that will now extend and continue our initiative are where the real action begins; and the real fun.
If you consider, as we do, the news about Donald Trump or some terrorists as nothing really new, then you might be ready for some really good news. Why give those people the publicity they don't deserve? Why use the media to spread their ideas? Just look at the world of five centuries ago – what do you see? Of course – you see Leonardo, you see Copernicus... You see the rebirth of the arts, you see the emergence of science. How much more spectacular will be the sight of this sort of development taking place in our own time! How much more worth our time are the messages of contemporary giants, the people who really do have something to tell us!
But even the conversations about the most relevant themes – about the challenges that mark our era – can be completely different than what they are. Weary about talking about the CO2 quotas? Disheartened by how slow the progress has been? Also then – and especially then – you'll be glad to hear that there is a whole different way. That we can be building a new world instead of trying to fix the old one. And that this engages the best of our enthusiasm and our creativity, instead of our strife and worries.
A difference that makes a difference
Although we shall not talk about him directly, the elephant in the above ideogram is the main protagonist of our stories. It is a glimpse of him that we want to give by talking about all those people and events. This visual metaphor represents the whole big thing – the Renaissance-like change that now wants to emerge. The elephant is invisible, but we will have glimpses of him as soon as we begin to 'connect the dots'. And that's what we are about to do.