Holotopia: Five insights
Contents
H O L O T O P I A P R O T O T Y P E
Five Insights
At the turn of the 20th century, it appeared that the technology would liberate us from drudgery and toil, so that we may engage in finer pursuits; such as human development. But we appear to be just as stressed and busy as people ever were! What happened with all the time we've saved?
We look at the systems in which we live and work. Imagine them as gigantic machines, comprising people and technology, whose function is to take our daily work as input, and turn it into socially useful effects. If we are stressed and busy—should we not see if they might be wasting our time? And if the result of our best efforts are problems rather than solutions—should we not see whether they might be causing those problems?
The printing press revolutionized communication, and enabled the Enlightenment. We are now witnessing a similar revolution—spearheaded by the Internet and the new media. Are we comparing that with candle headlights?
We look at the way in which this new technology is being used. And at the principle of operation that underlies this use. Without noticing, we have adopted the principle of operation that suited the old technology, the printing press—broadcasting. But the new technology, by linking us together in a similar way as the nervous system links the cells in an organism, enables and even demands completely new modalities of collaboration. Imagine if your own cells were using your nervous system to merely broadcast data! In a collective mind, broadcasting leads to collective madness—and not to "collective intelligence" as the creators of the new technology intended.
The Enlightenment was a fundamental change—of the very way in which truth and meaning are conceived of and created—from which a sweeping "cultural revival" followed. Could a similar advent be in store for us today?
From the traditional culture we have adopted a myth incomparably more subversive than the myth of creation. This myth now serves as the foundation stone, on which the edifice of our culture has been constructed.
Galilei is once again in house arrest—but his prison has acquired a new shape, and we didn't recognize it. Culture has once again been turned into an instrument of power.
Science replaced the faith in the bible and the tradition—and gave us powers that people in Galilei's time couldn't even dream of. We cannot call that a 'candle'?
Science was never created for the role in which it now finds itself—the role which Benjamin Lee Whorf branded "the Grand Revelator of modern Western culture". Science found itself in that role by proving its superiority on a much narrower terrain—where causal explanations of natural phenomena are found.
Consequently science served us well for the purpose for which it was created—for developing science and technology; and it served us poorly for others—notably for developing culture.
But its main disadvantage is that it constitutes a fixed and narrowly focused way to look at the world. It has been said that to a person with a hammer in his hand everything looks like a nail. The problem with science, as the trusted provider of truth and meaning, is that it constitutes a 'hammer'.
The Renaissance liberated our ancestors from preoccupation with the afterlife, and empowered them to seek happiness here and now. Their lifestyle changed, and culture blossomed. Have we followed the pursuit of happiness to its end? Or could a surprising new turn, a "change of course", still be possible?
We federate information from a broad variety of cultures, historical eras and sources, to illuminate the way to human fulfillment.
Lacking such information, and following our general cultural bias, we've confused happiness with convenience—i.e. with what appears as attractive at the moment. Instead of using information to choose the way, we use convenience to choose even—information!
Needless to say, this grave error of perception of ours has been endlessly amplified by advertising.
By applying the holoscope, we show that convenience is a deceptive, illusory value. And that in the shadow of its delusion, endless possibilities for improving our lives—through human development—wait to be uncovered.
Turn of our fortunes can be made by pursuing wholeness, instead of convenience.
Sixth insight
The five insights form a whole
The black arrows point to a vicious cycle
Follow the black arrows in the Five Insights ideogram, to see that the anomalies they connect together cause or create one another:
- It is the power structure that created our dysfunctional communication
- It is the lack of communication that keeps us in socialized reality
- It is by founding knowledge in "reality" that we ended up with the narrow frame
- It is by using the narrow frame that we mistook convenience for happiness
- It is our pursuit of narrowly conceived self-interest that makes the systems in which we live and work dysfunctional and oppressive
The red arrows point to a benign cycle
Follow the red arrows to see that we cannot really change one of the insights they connect, without also changing the other.
- To stand up to the power structures, we must liberate ourselves from the socialized reality they created for us
- Our collective mind cannot federate knowledge, unless we have a general method for creating knowledge
- We can only liberate ourselves from socialized reality, if our values and our "human quality" are on the level
- To broaden or replace our narrow frame, we must unravel the power structure that keeps it in place
- To step beyond the convenience paradox and engage in "human development", we need a collective mind that illuminates the way
The holotopia strategy follows
We can now see why
The strategy that defines the holotopia naturally follows: Instead of struggling with any of the details, we focus on changing the order of things as a whole.a comprehensive change can be easy, even when smaller and obviously necessary changes may have proven impossible.
This more informed and more effective strategy has "leverage points" through which it is most easily pursued—exactly as the bus with candle headlights might suggest.
What is really going on
One of our prototypes is a book manuscript titled "What's Going On?", and subtitle "A Cultural Revival". The book redefines what constitutes the news—by pointing to a breathtakingly spectacular event taking place in our own time. Slowly!
By knowing what's going on in this way, we know what needs to be done. The "problems" we are experiencing are like cracks in the walls of a house whose foundations are failing. Our situation calls for rebuilding, not fixing.
What's Going on ideogram