Difference between revisions of "Holotopia"
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<blockquote>Could a similar advent be in store for us today?</blockquote></p> | <blockquote>Could a similar advent be in store for us today?</blockquote></p> | ||
| − | <p>The key to the answer is in | + | <p>The key to the answer is in the <em>historicity</em> of "the relationship we have with knowledge"—which we let Stephen Toulmin represent. And that is what we here focus on.</p> |
<p>To reach an answer, we follow the lead that Stephen Toulmin left us in the above excerpt, quoted from his last book, "Return to Reason". At the point where the modern university was taking shape, it was the Church and the tradition that had the prerogative of telling the people how to conduct their daily affairs and what to believe in. And as the image of Galilei in house arrest might suggest—they held onto that prerogative most firmly! But the censorship and the prison could not stop an idea whose time had come. They were unable to prevent a completely <em>new</em> way to explore the world to transpire from astrophysics, where it originated, and transform first our pursuit of knowledge—and then our society and culture at large.</p> | <p>To reach an answer, we follow the lead that Stephen Toulmin left us in the above excerpt, quoted from his last book, "Return to Reason". At the point where the modern university was taking shape, it was the Church and the tradition that had the prerogative of telling the people how to conduct their daily affairs and what to believe in. And as the image of Galilei in house arrest might suggest—they held onto that prerogative most firmly! But the censorship and the prison could not stop an idea whose time had come. They were unable to prevent a completely <em>new</em> way to explore the world to transpire from astrophysics, where it originated, and transform first our pursuit of knowledge—and then our society and culture at large.</p> | ||
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<p>We must ask:</p> | <p>We must ask:</p> | ||
| − | <blockquote>Can the evolution of the academic tradition continue still further? </blockquote> | + | <blockquote>Can the evolution of the academic tradition, and of our handling of information and knowledge, continue still further? </blockquote> |
| − | <p>Could | + | <p>Could the academic tradition, once again, give us a completely <em>new</em> way to explore the world?</p> |
<blockquote>Can the free pursuit of knowledge, curated by the <em>knowledge of knowledge</em>, once again lead to "a great cultural revival" ?</blockquote> | <blockquote>Can the free pursuit of knowledge, curated by the <em>knowledge of knowledge</em>, once again lead to "a great cultural revival" ?</blockquote> | ||
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| − | <blockquote>I the course of our modernization, we | + | <blockquote>I the course of our modernization, we made a <em>fundamental error</em>—whose disastrous long-term consequences cannot be overstated.</blockquote> |
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| − | <p> | + | <p>From the traditional culture we have adopted a <em>myth</em> far more disruptive of modernization than the creation myth—the myth is that "truth" means "correspondence with reality"; and that the purpose of information, and of our pursuit of knowledge, is to "know reality objectively", as it truly is.</p> |
<p>During modernization, we only learned to use this <em>myth</em> in a new way. As the members of the <em>homo sapiens</em> species, we've been told, we have the evolutionary prerogative to reach "objective" or "true" knowledge by using our rational faculties (not by Divine revelation)—and based on it, to direct our personal affairs and our society, by making rational decisions. Give us a "true picture of reality"—and we'll know what is best for us, and what is to be done.</p> | <p>During modernization, we only learned to use this <em>myth</em> in a new way. As the members of the <em>homo sapiens</em> species, we've been told, we have the evolutionary prerogative to reach "objective" or "true" knowledge by using our rational faculties (not by Divine revelation)—and based on it, to direct our personal affairs and our society, by making rational decisions. Give us a "true picture of reality"—and we'll know what is best for us, and what is to be done.</p> | ||
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<p>It may take a moment of reflection to see how much this <em>myth</em> permeates our popular culture, our society and institutions; how much it marks "the relationship we have with information"—in all its various manifestations.</p> | <p>It may take a moment of reflection to see how much this <em>myth</em> permeates our popular culture, our society and institutions; how much it marks "the relationship we have with information"—in all its various manifestations.</p> | ||
| − | <p> | + | <p>This error has subsequently been detected and reported, but not corrected. (Yes, once again we witness that the link between information and action has been severed.)</p> |
<p> | <p> | ||
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<p>To organize and sum up what we above all need to know about the <em>nature</em> of <em>socialization</em>, and its relationship with power, we created the Odin–Bourdieu–Damasio [[thread|<em>thread</em>]], consisting of three short real-life stories or [[vignette|<em>vignettes</em>]]. (The <em>threads</em> are a technical tool we developed based on Vannevar Bush's idea of "trails"; we call them "threads" because we further weave them into <em>patterns</em>.) These insights are so central to <em>holotopia</em>, that we don't hesitate to summarize them also here, however briefly.</p> | <p>To organize and sum up what we above all need to know about the <em>nature</em> of <em>socialization</em>, and its relationship with power, we created the Odin–Bourdieu–Damasio [[thread|<em>thread</em>]], consisting of three short real-life stories or [[vignette|<em>vignettes</em>]]. (The <em>threads</em> are a technical tool we developed based on Vannevar Bush's idea of "trails"; we call them "threads" because we further weave them into <em>patterns</em>.) These insights are so central to <em>holotopia</em>, that we don't hesitate to summarize them also here, however briefly.</p> | ||
| − | <p>The first, Odin the Horse story, illustrates the turf behavior of | + | <p>The first, Odin the Horse story, points to the nature of turf struggle, by telling a story that illustrates the turf behavior of horses. </p> |
| − | <p>The second story | + | <p>The second story, involving Pierre Bourdieu observing the modernization of Algerian society during and after the 1954-62 Algerian War of Independence, invite us to look at the human culture as, in effect, a turf—similar to the meadow where Odin the Horse history is played out, only more complex—as much as our culture is more complex than the culture of the horses. This story allows us to see how much of what we call "culture" can emerge through sophisticated turf struggle—where no more than "symbolic power" is used.</p> |
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[[File:Bourdieu-insight.jpeg]] | [[File:Bourdieu-insight.jpeg]] | ||
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| − | <p> | + | <p>Bourdieu used interchangeably two keywords—"field" and "game"—to refer to this "turf". Calling it a field invokes the association with something akin to a magnetic field, which orients people's seemingly random or "free" behavior, even without anyone noticing. Calling it a game suggests something that structures or "gamifies" our social existence, by giving everyone a certain role. Those roles, Bourdieu observed, tend to be transmitted from one body to the next—usually without anyone noticing the subtle power play, or "turf behavior", they engender (Bourdieu used the keyword "habitus" to point to the embodied predispositions to act and think in a certain way, which correspond to a role). Everyone bows to the king, and I naturally do that too. For the socialized <em>experience</em>—that our social <em>and</em> natural "reality" is the only one that is possible (which plays a key role in <em>socialization</em>, determining the very structure and the rules of the game), Bourdieu used the keyword <em>doxa</em>. </p> |
| − | <p> | + | <p>Antonio Damasio, as cognitive neuroscientist, completes this <em>thread</em> by explaining that we, humans, are <em>not</em> the rational decision makers, as the founding fathers of the Enlightenment made us believe. Each of us has an <em>embodied</em> cognitive filter, which <em>determines what options</em> we rationally consider. This cognitive filter can be <em>programmed</em> through socialization. Damasio's insight shows that <em>socialization</em>, and <em>socialized reality</em> construction, carry far more power than the creators of our laws and institutions were able to imagine.</p> |
| − | < | + | <blockquote>But <em>socialized reality</em> construction is not only or even primarily an instrument of power struggle. It is, indeed, also <em>the</em> way in which the traditional culture reproduces itself and evolves. It has served as 'cultural DNA', the only one that was available.</p> |
| − | < | + | <p>We may now perceive the earlier culture's "realities"—the belief in God and the Devil and the eternal punishments—as instruments of domination; <em>and</em> we may also see them as instruments of <em>socialization</em>, by which certain cultural values, and certain "human quality" are maintained. Both are correct, and both are relevant. </p> |
| − | < | + | <p>By creating for us a whole other "reality"—based on the scientific, rational exploration of natural phenomena—the modernity committed two errors.</p> |
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| + | <p>The first was that the nature and the value of the cultural heritage—and most importantly the <em>roles</em> it played—were ignored, and abandoned to disrepair. A brief thought experiment—an imaginary visit to a cathedral—will help us see what this entails. There is awe-inspiring architecture; frescos of Old Masters on the walls; we hear Bach cantatas; and there's of course the ritual. All this comprised an ecosystem for people to live and grow—the destruction of which (lacking the equivalent of CO2 and temperature measurements) we are not even able to perceive, and much less to control. </p> | ||
| + | <p>The second is that the <em>creation</em> of <em>symbolic power</em> has been abandoned to <em>new</em> <em>power structures</em> (here the [https://youtu.be/lOUcXK_7d_c insights and the story of Edward Bernays], Freud's American nephew who became "the pioneer of modern public relations and propaganda", is iconic). | ||
| + | </p> | ||
<p>This diagnosis suggests itself.</p> | <p>This diagnosis suggests itself.</p> | ||
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<blockquote>The Enlightenment did not liberate us from power-related reality construction, as it is believed.</blockquote> | <blockquote>The Enlightenment did not liberate us from power-related reality construction, as it is believed.</blockquote> | ||
| − | <blockquote> | + | <blockquote>The <em>socialized reality</em> constructions only changed hands—from the kings and the clergy, to the corporations and the media.</blockquote> |
| − | <p>Ironically, the | + | <p>Ironically, the carefully cultivated academic self-identity—as "objective" observers of reality—keeps us, academic researchers, and information and knowledge at large, on the 'back seat'—and without real impact.</p> |
<h3>Remedy</h3> | <h3>Remedy</h3> | ||
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<p>In the spirit of the <em>holoscope</em>, we introduce an answer by a metaphorical image, the Mirror <em>ideogram</em>. As the <em>ideograms</em> tend to, the Mirror <em>ideogram</em> too renders the essence of a situation, in a way that points to a way in which the situation may need to be handled—<em>and</em> to some subtler points as well.</p> | <p>In the spirit of the <em>holoscope</em>, we introduce an answer by a metaphorical image, the Mirror <em>ideogram</em>. As the <em>ideograms</em> tend to, the Mirror <em>ideogram</em> too renders the essence of a situation, in a way that points to a way in which the situation may need to be handled—<em>and</em> to some subtler points as well.</p> | ||
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<p>When we look at the <em>mirror</em>, we see ourselves <em>in the world</em> that surrounds us. We are then impelled to acknowledge that we are not <em>above</em> the world, looking at it "objectively".</p> | <p>When we look at the <em>mirror</em>, we see ourselves <em>in the world</em> that surrounds us. We are then impelled to acknowledge that we are not <em>above</em> the world, looking at it "objectively".</p> | ||
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| + | <p>END OF REIFICATION</p> | ||
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| + | <p>BEGINNING OF ACCOUNTABILITY</p> | ||
<p>Two consequences are intended.</p> | <p>Two consequences are intended.</p> | ||
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Revision as of 13:30, 24 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