A proof of concept application

<p>What difference will the holoscope make? The Holotopia prototype, which is currently under development, is a proof of concept application.</p> <p>An assessment of the general condition we are in, which has been produced by The Club of Rome, provided us a benchmark challenge for putting the holoscope to a test. Based on a decade of this global think tank's research into the future prospects of mankind, a half-century ago, Aurelio Peccei issued the following warning:

"It is absolutely essential to find a way to change course."

Peccei also specified what will need to be done to "change course":

"The future will either be an inspired product of a great cultural revival, or there will be no future."

Can the 'headlights' we are proposing help our society "change course"? And if they can—what new course will result?</p>

A vision

<p>As a vision of a possible future, the holotopia presents an affirmative answer to the question in this website's preamble:

Think about the world at the twilight of the Middle Ages and the dawn of the Renaissance: devastating religious wars, terrifying epidemics… Think of the scholastics pondering about the angels dancing on a needlepoint; and Galilei in house arrest, whispering “and yet it moves” into his beard. Observe that the problems of the epoch were not resolved by focusing on those problems, but by a slow and steady development of an entirely new approach to knowledge. Several centuries of comprehensive evolution followed. Could a similar advent be in store for us today?

<p>Just as the case was in Galilei's time, a whole new order of things or paradigm is ready to emerge.</p> <p>Like the familiar utopias, the holotopia is a vision of a highly desirable or one could say ideal future. This future vision is indeed more desirable than what's been offered by most utopias—whose authors lacked the information to see what is possible. But unlike the utopias, the holotopia is readily realizable—because we already own the information that is needed for its fulfillment.</p> <p>Put simply, the holotopia is the future that is now available to us—if we used knowledge and creative redesign, instead of habit, to orient our handling of information. And if we used effective information to orient our handling of all other affairs. </p>

Making things whole

<p>What handling, what course of action, would be necessary and sufficient for us to pursue the holotopia vision?</p> <p>We point to a simple principle or rule of thumb: Instead of seeing the world in the light of our narrowly conceived self-interest, and trusting that "the free competition" or "the invisible hand" of the market or the academic "publish or perish" will turn our self-serving acts into the greatest common good (which is, in the light of our presented evidence, perceived as markedly "Middle Ages")—we see ourselves and what we do as parts in a larger whole or wholes. And we act in ways that make those larger wholes more whole.</p> <p>Hence this formula (which Vibeke didn't like, but since nobody's reading this yet, let's leave it for now as Dino's private joke and foible; it points to some subtleties which we may later unpack and look at):

But seek ye first the systemic wholeness,
in all matters and on all levels of detail; 
and all these things shall be added unto you.

</p>

An initiative

<p>The goal of the Holotopia initiative is to facilitate and streamline the realization of the holotopia vision.</p> <p>We chose Margaret Mead to be the icon of this initiative. Her familiar dictum points to the initiative's core mission:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

<p>It is, however, the 'small print' that we found most useful—Mead's insights, based on her research, into what exactly distinguishes "a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens" that is capable of making a large difference.</p>

<p>The following Mead's observation, made more than fifty years ago, points to an immediate effect of the Holotopia initiative:

"One necessary condition of successfully continuing our existence is the creation of an atmosphere of hope that the huge problems now confronting us can, in fact, be solved—and can be solved in time."

Five insights

<p>The holotopia vision is federated and made concrete in terms of the five insights.

</p> <p> Strategically located in five pivotal domains:

• values (the "pursuit of happiness"), the convenience paradox insight
• innovation (the way we use our creative powers, the technology, and our growing capacity to induce change), the power structure insight
• communication (the way we handle information, and the way new communication media are put to use), the collective mind insight
• foundations for truth and meaning (or knowledge about knowledge or epistemology), the socialized reality insight
• method (science, language, and whatever else is now trustingly used to create our worldview, and make sense of things), the narrow frame insight

the five insights point, respectively, to

• a revolution in values and in culture, similar to the Renaissance
• a revolutionary improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of human work, similar to what the Industrial Revolution made possible
• a revolution in communication, similar to what resulted from Gutenberg's invention
• a revolution in our use of knowledge, reminiscent of the Enlightenment
• a revolution in our capability to understand our world and ourselves, similar to what Science made possible

that are now within reach. Together, these more specific insights complete the larger insight that the holotopia stands for. </p> <p>At the same time, the five insights provide a framework for conversing about, and understanding, in an informed and effective way how breakthroughs can be achieved on a variety of age-old or yet-to-be-recognized frontiers, such as

• how to put an end to war
• where the greatest possible contribution to human knowledge might reside
• how "digitalization" and "digital transformation" may need to be peformed
• how to revolutionize religion
• in what way exactly we may need to change education

</p> <p>The dialogs about the five insights and other related themes will engage our collective creativity to deepen our understanding. The produced materials (edited and presented as art exhibitions, text, film...) will communicate the resulting insights and give them impact.</p>

A strategy

<p>While each of the five insights will alone show us our time and condition in a similar light as we might see the state of the world in Galilei's time, from which the Enlightenment emerged, even more illuminating are their relationships. By exploring them, we realize that we cannot meaningfully respond to any of those insights, without responding to them all. </p> <p>A larger, overarching insight results:

Comprehensive change might be easy, even when smaller and obviously necessary changes may seem impossible.

</p> <p>This insight points to the strategy that holotopia represents as a meme or a 'brand' —where instead of focusing on specific problems, or specific changes, we consciously aim to understand, and strategically transform, the very order of things that holds them in place.</p> <p>What could be more genuinely interesting than a meeting of knowledgeable people discussing how the humanity's perennial ideals now can realistically be reached? Even a meeting that completely fails to scale up to this potential can be a spectacle—by exhibiting the negative socialization that still hinders us from seeing what goes on, and taking part in it. Who would ever go back and watch Donald Trump's latest mischiefs on TV? </p>

A project

Holotopia is an artistic update of everyday reality. <p>We are reminded of Michelangelo painting his frescos on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel—and in the very heart of the old order of things sowing the seeds of "a great cultural revival". The Holotopia project is a collaboration of artists, scientists, knowledge-work media developers, young people, children and other stakeholders. We work together, and we all work as artists.</p>

A space

<p>
A snapshot of Holotopia's pilot project in Kunsthall 3.14, Bergen. </p> <p>Holotopia undertakes to develop whatever is needed for "changing course". Imagine it as a space, akin to a new continent or a "new world" that's just been discovered—which combines physical and virtual spaces, suitably interconnected. </p> <p>In a symbolic sense, we are developing

• A fireplace

where our varius dialogs take place, through which our insights are deepen by combining our collective intelligence with suitable insights from the past

• A library

where the necessary information is organized and provided, in a suitable form

• A workshop

where a new order of things emerges, through co-creation of prototypes

• A gallery

where the resulting prototypes are displayed

• A stage

where our events take place </p>

The Box

A model of The Box. <p> Holotopia's Box is an object designed for 'initiation' to holotopia, a way to help us 'unbox' our conception of the world and see, think and behave differently; change course inwardly, by embracing a new value.</p> <p>We approach The Box from a specific interest, an issue we may care about—such as communication, or IT innovation, or the pursuit of happiness and the ways to improve the human experience, and the human condition. But when we follow our interest a bit deeper, by (physically) opening the box or (symbolically) considering the relevant insights that have been made—we find that there is a large obstacle, preventing our issue to be resolved. </p> <p>We also see that by resolving this whole new issue, a much larger gains can be reached than what we originally anticipated and intended. And that there are other similar insights; and that they are all closely related.</p>

Icons and stories

<p>Since what we are presenting is a prototype—or in other words a modelof a handling of information that can and needs to be implemented on a large scale, to give us effective knowledge—we take the liberty to incorporate some of the insights into our models without showing how they might be federated. Those insights are here represented by suitable icons, and made accessible by telling stories. This roughly corresponds to the technique that good journalists tend to use—where important issues are pointed to by telling interesting and "sticky" people and situation stories. </p> <p>Each of the five insights will be federated by referring to specific icons and stories. In addition, we honor Margaret Mead as the icon of the holotopia, Socrates as the icon of the academia, Galilei as the icon of science, and Einstein as the icon of modern science.</p>

A vocabulary

<p>Science was not an exception; every new paradigm brings with it a new way of speaking. On the other hand, the only way to truly understand a paradigm is by stepping into its own scheme of things, its own manner of speaking, and experiencing how different yet coherent it is. The proof of the pie is, indeed, in eating it.</p> <p>While a deeper understanding of the holotopia may require time, and a dialog, the following sample of our keywords will already give an idea of the structure of the case or the argument we are presenting to the academia. We are showing that "developing knowledge federation as an academic field and a real-life praxis" is indeed part of academia's social function, and a natural and necessary continuation of the academic tradition. </p>

• Keyword

<p>We use truth by convention to define concepts. The kind of truth used in mathematics. Alternative to reification. "When I say X, I mean Y." The icon is ... Quine, who observed that it's "the sign of maturing" of every science. Why not our knowledge work at large?</p> <p>This allows us to NOT use the candle, to NOT reify the 'candle'—but to create the way we look at the world!</p> <p>Furthermore, a keyword is, by convention, a way of looking. It's not REALITY – but a way to look at experience, to see it from a certain angle, to comprehend it in a certain way. </p> <p>This allows us to create the 'headlights' (instead of adopting them from the past)</p>

• Academia

<p>"Institutionalized academic tradition". We are extending our proposal to academia. </p>

• Epistemology vs. socialization

<p>Although these two keywords are not exactly antonyms, we here present them as two alternative means to the same end. What makes us believe that an insight is trustworthy, and needs to be acted on? How do we know that what we believe is "true"? Epistemology is knowledge of knowledge, and the insights and rules of thumb that follow from it. Socialization is an alternative—where we accept something as "true" because (often through innumerably many subtle 'carrots and sticks', and in our formative age while our critical faculties are not yet developed) we have been socialized to do that. </p> <p>Pierre Bourdieu here plays the role of an icon. His keyword "doxa", whose academic usage dates back all the way to Plato, points to the experience that what we've been socialized to accept as "the reality" is the only one possible. Bourdieu contributed a complete description of the social mechanics of socialization (which he called "theory of practice")—which includes an explanation of the relationship socialization has with power. A subtle but central point is that today "house arrest" is no longer needed; the victory of socialization over epistemology can be achieved by completely different means.</p> <p>The stories of Socrates and Galilei will illustrate that epistemology—as an antidote to power-driven socialization—is what the academic tradition has been since its inception. The image of Galilei in house arrest is there to highlight that the evolution of knowledge can be arrested. Could it be similar today?</p>

• Mirror

<p>This metaphor, central to our proposal, represents the situation or condition the academia has reached in its hitherto evolution. We've been socialized to keep busy, to "mind our own business". Hence we don't see the mirror. Yet it's there. The evolution of our tradition has brought us here, to this mirror. Our very next step is to stop and self-reflect.</p> <p>Our point—which we've elaborated in an "academically thorough way"—is that when the epistemological evidence is carefully considered, the evolution leads us through the mirror—and into a whole new academic reality.</p> <p>The holoscope is a prototype of that reality.</p> <p>The larger picture is that the academia must guide our society through the mirror—and to a new social reality. That's of course what the holotopia is about.</p>

• Wholeness

<p>The quality shared by a healthy organism and a well-constructed and well-functioning mechanism. Only when all the pieces are in place is the wholeness as the quality present. It makes all the difference! </p> <p>The idea of wholeness is illustrated by the bus with candle headlights. The 'bus' is not whole—and we don't see that. While in our present paradigm creating the holoscope (the 'headlights') is nobody's business, or interest, in the proposed paradigm that is indeed the first thing we need to focus on and achieve. We cannot aspire to wholeness by 'driving in the light of a pair of candles'.</p>

• Tradition vs. design

<p>Tradition and design are two alternative ways to wholeness. Tradition relies on Darwinian-style evolution; design on awareness of the whole and deliberate action. The point here is that when tradition can no longer be relied on, design must be used.</p> <p>Anthony Giddens is the Holotopia's icon of design and tradition. And of the insight that our contemporary condition can be understood as a precarious transition from one way of evolving to the next. We are no longer traditional; and we are not yet designing. And isn't that precisely what the Modernity ideogram, that bus with candle headlights, is telling?</p>

• Design epistemology

<p>The design epistemology is the crux of our proposal. It means considering knowledge work institutions, tools and professions as systemic elements of larger systems; instead of reifying the status quo (as one would naturally do in a traditional culture).</p> <p>The design epistemology is the epistemology that suits a culture that is no longer traditional. </p> <p>The design epistemology is a direct expression of the new "relationship we have with information", which is the subject of our proposal.</p>

• Prototype

<p>When Information is no longer conceived of as an "objective picture of reality", but an instrument to interact with the world around us—information cannot be confined to academic books and articles. The prototypes serve as models, as experiments, and as interventions.</p>