CONVERSATIONS
Federation through Action
As I said—a prototype is incomplete unless it has a clear impact model and a concrete action plan; and the knowledge federation prototype is no exception. Before I tell you what exactly we've planned to do to make a difference that makes a difference—here's a note about the strategy; a mountain top view of the general direction I'll invite you to spearhead by taking one or two concrete steps.
In 1999 The Economist issued a challenge—to write an essay describing what the world would be like in 2050; I called my contribution "World in the year 2000". Nobody can predict what the world will be like in 2050, I explained; what we, however, do know is that the answer will crucially depend on how we see the world and act today. I then pointed to the diagnoses that our current trends are not sustainable, that we are headed towards systemic collapse; and concluded that our strategy now must be to create an embryo of a whole new order of things or paradigm.
And transform the dynamic of collapse into the dynamic of re-creation.
I'll add to this an ethical, which follows from what I've shared here—that it is our urgent and foremost duty to liberate our next generation, our students and children, from the world; and instead of preparing them to fit in, and reproduce it—empower them to be creative in ways that their new situation will necessitate.
This two-step call to action has been choreographed as (the beginning of) a practical sequence of steps to achieve that goal.
As I said—the holotopia dialog is our new and evolving collective mind; where we'll think in a new way—which is alert, informed and co-creative; and use this new thinking to create first of all the process by which we communicate and create information; and refocus this process on the core themes of our lives and times; and then—instead of remaining passive spectators of the (media) "spectacle"—be empowered to act knowledge-based.
Considering the importance of this prototype, you won't be surprised when I tell you that I've been developing versions of it all along; I called them key point dialogs, because each of them is a way in which a community of people can collectively walk to the metaphorical mountain top and find—and then also follow—a good direction. I described a few of them in the Liberaition book.
The Liberation book itself is part of this new dialog; its function being to seed the dialog, by challenging our core beliefs, by turning them on their head. The writing of this book was my own initiation into holotopia dialog: To liberate myself sufficiently from the world, I retired early and spent about five years in a self-imposed quarantine; condensing all that's been done and giving it a clear and comprehensible form. But its main effect was that I moved to holotopia; and I don't intend to come back to the world. So the dialog is the only way for me to continue living among people.
The dialog is not intended to be a single conversation—but an endlessly fertile space where we'll create, through artful and judicious use of technology, ever new ways to co-create and share knowledge about the themes that matter. But here I want to be concrete—so let me give you a flavor.
A few years ago I was sailing with a couple of friends off the coast of Croatia; and they said they'd introduce me to someone. Soon we docked on a tiny island called Šćedro, near the much larger island Hvar; where they introduced me to Irena Meier, a Croatian artist living in Switzerland; who owns a house and a small bay on Šćedro, with nobody around. With at least a dozen artistically created conversation places! Some which were tiny, like this one:
And some of which were large.
Naturally, I instantly began planning a holotopia dialog in Irena's place; and Irena gladly joined me, as if she had just been waiting for this. She then took me on a five-minute walk to an adjacent bay; and showed me a church in ruin—which was another strong place, as if made for our purpose.
Here's the plan that came out of this conversation: I imagine it as a radical recreation of the conventional "reality show"; where a group of people spend say, a week, in this place, with a film crew; and converse, in various combinations.
As a practical way to change our collective mind; by first of all changing our mindset (which compels us to create "the huge problems now confronting us", while we try to resolve them); and then changing the way in which we communicate—and by elevating us above "the world" and "the information jungle", foster (the collective mind that will give us) the kind of awareness we the people now vitally need.
The Liberation book has that as function—to ignite the dialog; by providing an initial prototype of new thinking, and of the future vision alias holotopia.
The dialog will ignite the self-organization; it will elevate us jointly to a level (on the metaphorical mountain, above 'information jungle') from where we can clearly see what must be done; and then self-organize further, by creating prototypes.
The dialog is holotopia's new collective mind; which will organize us to be creative in the manner our situation demands. The dialog is also the media-enabled communication channel that will provide us awareness. It is by the dialog that the media content on this entirely new news channel will be created.
I have prepared several scenarios how and where these dialogs will begin; I hold back from telling you about them—the important point being that the dialog will continuously recreate itself; by producing newer—and more daring, more to the point, more distinctly functional (ways to produce) knowledge (together).
As academia's—and society's—evolutionary organ.
And as a practical way to to empower our next generation—and the next-generation scientists or academic researchers in particular—to be creative in ways that their situation demands; and in particular and more concretely—to re-create the systems in which we live in work, instead of learning how to fit in and compete within their confines.
By instituting knowledge federation we'll also play the strongest card we have in our hands, act upon the "systemic leverage point" that we control when confronting the power structure—the information; the university's prerogative to tell the world what the information needs to be like; and on a more fundamental level—to provide a new, federated epistemology and methodology for creating truth and meaning.
This can be done in a number of ways; but the concrete way, which is already in implementation is to institute the knowledge federation at the Inter University Center Dubrovnik under the patronage of the World Academy of Art and Science. The IUC has the world's leading universities as members; their students can take the IUC courses for credit, with the consent of their departments. Ands the WAAS is an academic organization whose members do not distinguish themselves by "academic productivity"—but by making a difference in the world.
The idea now is to launch the Collaborology course as an instance of the game-changing game; where the WAAS members will (act as Z-players and) empower the international students and entrepreneurs (as A-players) to re-create "the world".