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(Margaret Mead, Continuities in Cultural Evolution, 1964)
The aim of this knowledge federation proposal is to correct a fundamental error.
Which has been academically uncovered more than fifty years ago. Various other reported problems and error—including the discontinuity in cultural evolution and the non-sustainability of global trends—can and need to be seen as its consequences.
A purpose of knowledge federation is to not show that "the huge problems now confronting us" do have a simple solution—but also, and importantly, to choreograph and streamline and begin the process by which solutions will be crafted; and evolutionary course changed and good progress resumed.
“A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels", Albert Einstein warned in an interview to The New York Times, in 1946. A good ways to comprehend the knowledge federation initiative is to see it as a way to correct a fundamental or epistemological error; which Descartes and other founding fathers of the Enlightenment committed, and led us into; whose many consequences include that science and technology prospered—while cultural evolution got disrupted and culture fell behind. I propose knowledge federation as a practical way to correct this error; and reverse the negative trends; and continue cultural evolution.
Another way to see it is a way to do what is our human task urgent and immediate—to empower our next generation, and next-gen academic in particular, to be creative in ways that their situation requires. Which we'll do by correcting an institutional error—in the way academic tradition and science in particular instituted itself; which grew out of the fundamental error I just mentioned.
Another way is that it's the correct use of IT; Doug Engelbart and other founders of IT revolution envisioned it as enabler for the kind of revolution that KF is here to represent.
Another way is to use the authority of university and science to provide the society THE key thing—VISION; and the ability to follow it. Fifty-five years ago, at the inception of the environmental movement, in an effort to institute academic transdisciplinarity, Erich Jantsch quoted Norbert Wiener, founder of Cybernetics:
"There is only one thing more important than know-how; this is know-what.
It goes without saying that disciplines cannot provide know-what; need to transcend. Connect the dots. Put ideas together.
Thirty years of work, book just out; material in an accessible way—through stories or vignettes. Here to complement—by sharing the academic essence. NOT details—but structure; and invite you to reproduce it by following the hints. And continue through dialog which will follow the book.
I am by background a mathematician; you'll understand me correctly if you see that there is nothing hypothetical. Only thing is "knowledge must be federated"—by which I mean that we must listen, put together and ACT—not ignore academic reports. Definition of knowledge, which is a convention—it's how I use this word. Everything else follows.
Reduce it all to a simple formula:
Holoscope leads to Holotopia.
Seeing things whole and making things whole.
While KF is a product of work of many excellent people—I'll speak in first person to remain in front of you accountable for this; and represent it as an attorney. And stand accountable to answer questions.
Another reason is to turn it into an outcry; And break the spell of ignoring! Which is THE first necessary step we must do in any sort of positive scenario! As you will see—documented in Liberation book—Whoever tried to present transdisciplinarity ended up ignored! Here—eliminate the basic objection, lack of rigor, by showing that it restores rigor; and that it follows as next step in academia's evolution. And by producing the prototype, and way to implement it—set the evolution in motion!
Another reason is to use my natural voice to invite you to be part of this; as the thing we need to turn worrying about the future or ignoring the issue—into concerted transgenerational re-creation. Yes, this is academic; and yet not at all in the sense as it's become—interested only to people separated from everyday reality. The point is to unite us all around empowering knowledge to make a difference.
I'll let knowledge federation introduce itself in its other manners of speaking; and illustrate its manner of speaking by letting it federate its own meaning and message.
- In Federation through Ideograms I'll use three simple metaphorical images
- In Federation through Keywords I'll define and use a handful of custom-defined terms, which are necessary for comprehending what goes on
- In Federation through Prototypes you'll see how information is taken into concerted action, empowered to make a difference
- And in Federation through Action I'll point out what exactly I propose as the next two steps—to make the sort of difference that must be made.
Dino Karabeg