Difference between revisions of "Holotopia"
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| − | <div class="col-md-3"><h2> | + | <div class="col-md-3"><h2>A proof of concept application</h2></div> |
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<p>The Club of Rome's assessment of the situation we are in, provided us with a benchmark challenge for putting the proposed ideas to a test.</p> | <p>The Club of Rome's assessment of the situation we are in, provided us with a benchmark challenge for putting the proposed ideas to a test.</p> | ||
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<p>Since Thomas More coined this term and described the first utopia, a number of visions of an ideal but non-existing social and cultural order of things have been proposed. But in view of adverse and contrasting realities, the word "utopia" acquired the negative meaning of an unrealizable fancy.</p> | <p>Since Thomas More coined this term and described the first utopia, a number of visions of an ideal but non-existing social and cultural order of things have been proposed. But in view of adverse and contrasting realities, the word "utopia" acquired the negative meaning of an unrealizable fancy.</p> | ||
| − | <p>As the optimism regarding our future | + | <p>As the optimism regarding our future waned, apocalyptic or "dystopian" visions became common. The "protopias" emerged as a compromise, where the focus is on smaller but practically realizable improvements.</p> |
<p>The <em>holotopia</em> is different in spirit from them all. It is a <em>more</em> attractive vision of the future than what the common utopias offered—whose authors either lacked the information to see what was possible, or lived in the times when the resources we have did not yet exist. And yet the <em>holotopia</em> is readily realizable—because we already have the information and other resources that are needed for its fulfillment.</p> | <p>The <em>holotopia</em> is different in spirit from them all. It is a <em>more</em> attractive vision of the future than what the common utopias offered—whose authors either lacked the information to see what was possible, or lived in the times when the resources we have did not yet exist. And yet the <em>holotopia</em> is readily realizable—because we already have the information and other resources that are needed for its fulfillment.</p> | ||
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| − | <div class="col-md-3"><h2>A | + | <div class="col-md-3"><h2>A principle</h2></div> |
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<blockquote>To see things whole, we must look at all sides.</blockquote> | <blockquote>To see things whole, we must look at all sides.</blockquote> | ||
| − | <p>The <em>holoscope</em> distinguishes itself by allowing for a deliberate creation and choice of <em>multiple</em> ways of looking or <em>scopes</em>. | + | <p>The <em>holoscope</em> distinguishes itself by allowing for a deliberate creation and choice of <em>multiple</em> ways of looking at a theme or issue, which are called <em>scopes</em>. The resulting views are not offered as "reality pictures" contending for the "reality" status with one another and with our conventional ones—but as simplifications similar to projections in technical drawing. They are accompanied by an invitation to genuinely try to look at the theme at hand in a certain specific way; or to do that collaboratively, in a [[dialog|<em>dialog</em>]].</p> |
| − | <p>To liberate our | + | <p>To liberate our worldview from the inherited concepts and methods and allow for deliberate choice of <em>scopes</em>, we used the scientific method as venture point—and modified it by taking recourse to insights reached in 20th century science and philosophy. </p> |
<blockquote> | <blockquote> | ||
Science gave us new ways to look at the world: The telescope and the microscope enabled us to see the things that are too distant or too small to be seen by the naked eye, and our vision expanded beyond bounds. But science had the <em>tendency to keep us focused on things that were either too distant or too small to be relevant—compared to all those large things or issues nearby, which now demand our attention</em>. The <em>holoscope</em> is conceived as a way to look at the world that helps us see <em>any</em> chosen thing or theme as a whole—from all sides; and in proportion. | Science gave us new ways to look at the world: The telescope and the microscope enabled us to see the things that are too distant or too small to be seen by the naked eye, and our vision expanded beyond bounds. But science had the <em>tendency to keep us focused on things that were either too distant or too small to be relevant—compared to all those large things or issues nearby, which now demand our attention</em>. The <em>holoscope</em> is conceived as a way to look at the world that helps us see <em>any</em> chosen thing or theme as a whole—from all sides; and in proportion. | ||
</blockquote> | </blockquote> | ||
| + | <p>This capability of the <em>holoscope</em> is what will allow us to discover structural problems (or metaphorically the cracks in the cup) in major aspects of our everyday reality, which—when we look at them in our habitual ways (or metaphorically when we see them in the light of the candle)—appear to us as just normal. </p> | ||
<p>All elements in our proposal are deliberately left unfinished, rendered as a collection of <em>prototypes</em>. Think of them as composing a cardboard map of a city, and a construction site. By sharing them, we are not making a case for that specific 'city'—but for 'architecture' as an academic field, and a real-life <em>praxis</em>. </p> | <p>All elements in our proposal are deliberately left unfinished, rendered as a collection of <em>prototypes</em>. Think of them as composing a cardboard map of a city, and a construction site. By sharing them, we are not making a case for that specific 'city'—but for 'architecture' as an academic field, and a real-life <em>praxis</em>. </p> | ||
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<div class="page-header" ><h2>Five insights</h2></div> | <div class="page-header" ><h2>Five insights</h2></div> | ||
Revision as of 04:47, 17 August 2020
HOLOTOPIA
An Actionable Strategy
Imagine...
You are about to board a bus for a long night ride, when you notice the flickering streaks of light emanating from two wax candles, placed where the headlights of the bus are expected to be. Candles? As headlights?
Of course, the idea of candles as headlights is absurd. So why propose it?
Because on a much larger scale this absurdity has become reality.
The Modernity ideogram renders the essence of our contemporary situation by depicting our society as an accelerating bus without a steering wheel, and the way we look at the world, try to comprehend and handle it as guided by a pair of candle headlights.
Modernity ideogram
Our proposal
The core of our knowledge federation proposal is to change the relationship we have with information.
What is our relationship with information presently like?
Here is how Neil Postman described it:
"The tie between information and action has been severed. Information is now a commodity that can be bought and sold, or used as a form of entertainment, or worn like a garment to enhance one's status. It comes indiscriminately, directed at no one in particular, disconnected from usefulness; we are glutted with information, drowning in information, have no control over it, don't know what to do with it."
Neil Postman
What would information and our handling of information be like, if we treated them as we treat other human-made things—if we adapted them to the purposes that need to be served?
By what methods, what social processes, and by whom would information be created? What new information formats would emerge, and supplement or replace the traditional books and articles? How would information technology be adapted and applied? What would public informing be like? And academic communication, and education?
The substance of our proposal is a complete prototype of knowledge federation, by which those and other related questions are answered.
Our call to action is to institutionalize and develop knowledge federation as an academic field, and a real-life praxis (informed practice)—and by doing that restore agency to information, and power to knowledge.