Holotopia
Contents
Holotopia
Imagine...
You are about to board a bus for a long night ride, when you notice two flimsy, flickering streaks of light emanating from two wax candles, placed in the circular holes where the headlights of the bus are expected to be. Candles? As headlights? You rub your eyes in disbelief. What sort of nonsense is this? A weird joke? An art project?
Well of course, the idea of candles as headlights is absurd. So why talk about it? The reason is that on a much larger scale—where the things such as our society, and the way we handle information, are so large that we cannot see them with naked eye—this absurdity has become reality.
By depicting our society as a bus, and the way we handle information as a pair of candle headlights, the Modernity ideogram renders our contemporary situation in a nutshell.
Our proposal
The crux of our knowledge federation proposal, which is detailed on this website, 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."
Suppose we handled information as we handle other man-made thing—by suiting it to the purposes that must served. How would information be different? How would it be used? By what methods, what social processes, and by whom would it be created? What new information formats would emerge, and supplement or replace the traditional books and articles? How would information technology be adapted? What would public informing be like? And academic communication, and education?
The substance of our knowledge federation proposal is a complete and academically coherent answer to those and other related questions; an answer that is not only described and explained, but also implemented—as a collection of real-life embedded prototypes.
In the language of our metaphor, we have created a prototype of the lightbulb.
Seeing things whole
The Information ideogram, shown on the right, serves to explain the principle of operation of the 'lightbulb'; and how the information it emits is different from the one we have.
The ideogram shows an "i", which stands for "information", as composed of a circle placed on top of a square. The square represents the detailed and technical information, as it might emanate from the sciences. The circle represents the function or the point of it all—which might be an insight into the nature of a situation; or a rule of thumb, pointing to a general way to handle situations of that kind; or a project, which implements such handling.
The underlying design principle is an adaptation of a well-known principle from computer science, called "object orientation": The details must be organized and made available, but stowed away (within the 'square')—so that only the requisite functions are offered (as the 'circle') to the next larger whole. This idea can easily be understood if one thinks of the automobile, where the details that implement its functions (the engine, the electrical circuitry...) are hidden under the hub, and only what is needed for operating the vehicle (the steering wheel, the instruments...) is made visible and accessible to the driver.
The BottomUp - TopDown intervention tool for shifting positions, which was part of Holotopia's pilot project in Kunsthall 3.14, Bergen, suggests transcendence of fixed relations between top and bottom, and builds awareness of the benefits of multiple points of
view; and moving in-between.
We call the practice that implements that design principle—which is the principle of operation of the 'lightbulb'—knowledge federation.
Political federation brings smaller units together, to give them higher visibility and impact. Knowledge federation does that to information. Its purpose is to turn disparate pieces of information into effective information (the information that fulfills core purposes; which gives us the knowledge we need); and restore knowledge to power.
We here refer to the proposed 'lightbulb' by the pseudonym holoscope, to highlight its distinguishing characteristic— that it helps us see things whole.
The holoscope uses suitable information in a suitable way, to illuminate what remained obscure or hidden, so that we may correctly see the shape and the dimensions of the whole (correct our perspective).
The holoscope complements the usual approach in the sciences:
Science gave us new ways to look at the world: The telescope and the microscope enabled us to see the things that were too distant or too small to be seen by the naked eye, and our vision expanded beyond bounds. But science had the tendency to keep us focused on things that were either too distant or too small to be relevant—compared to all those big things nearby, which now demand our attention. The holoscope is conceived as a way to look at the world that helps us see any chosen thing or theme as a whole—from all sides; and in correct proportions.
A proof of concept application
What difference will the holoscope make? The Holotopia prototype, which is currently under development, is a proof of concept application.
An assessment of the general condition we are in, which has been produced by The Club of Rome, provided us a benchmark challenge to put the holoscope to test. Based on a decade of this global think tank's research into the future prospects of mankind, in a book titled "One Hundred Pages for the Future" 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."
This more detailed assessment, from Peccei's book "Human Quality", will also be relevant:
Can the 'headlights' we are proposing help our society "change course"? And if they can—what new course will result?"Let me recapitulate what seems to me the crucial question at this point of the human venture. Man has acquired such decisive power that his future depends essentially on how he will use it. However, the business of human life has become so complicated that he is culturally unprepared even to understand his new position clearly. As a consequence, his current predicament is not only worsening but, with the accelerated tempo of events, may become decidedly catastrophic in a not too distant future. The downward trend of human fortunes can be countered and reversed only by the advent of a new humanism essentially based on and aiming at man’s cultural development, that is, a substantial improvement in human quality throughout the world."
A single axiom
Being keenly aware of the uncommon importance of our theme, practical and academic, we have done "an academically thorough job" making a case for our proposal.
How can one make a case for a paradigm—without himself relying on the paradigm that is being proposed? We made a case for our proposal based on a single principle or axiom: that knowledge must be federated. This principle demands that whatever we believe or claim that we "know", and the way we act and manage our affairs—must, to the best of our ability, reflect the available information.
As for the rest—the proof of the pudding is in the eating. We show, again and again, that the changes we are proposing are (often dramatic) improvements of the common practice—according to this principle.
Notice, in particular, that we are not assuming that the above-mentioned Aurelio Peccei's diagnosis is "true". Here too we have done a thorough job finding supporting evidence, and enclosing it within the square. But in this high-level presentation that is offered here, within the Holotopia prototype, we do not need any of that. Since what we are proposing is a process, and since The Club of Rome was already a federation project, we can simply assume that what they gave us has been federated; and show how the results of their federation has been federated further, by applying our proposed prototype.
Furthermore, the focus of the Holotopia project is on the good news. Regardless of whether the above diagnosis is right, we still, obviously, need to be able to federate a new paradigm when the circumstances allow or require that; just as our great forefathers did, in Galilei's time. Especially if this can lead to immense improvements of our condition, as we show it can.
As we are writing these lines, the COVID-19 pandemic is in full swing. It is interesting to draw a parallel—between the virtual global shutdown that was caused in response to this immediate threat, and the virtually complete lack of reaction to the incomparably larger but more distant in the future threat that The Club of Rome was pointing to. Isn't this alone sufficient evidence that we are 'driving with candle headlights'?
A vision
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?
By using the holoscope to illuminate our contemporary situation, we show that just as the case was in Galilei's time, a whole new order of things or paradigm is ready to emerge.
Like the familiar utopias, the holotopia is a vision of a highly desirable 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.
Making things whole
In what way exactly do we need to "change course", to pursue and fulfill the holotopia vision?
From all the detailed information that we carefully selected and considered, and organized and made available in the square so that this claim can be verified, we distilled a simple principle or rule of thumb: We need to see ourselves and what we do as parts in a larger whole or wholes; and act in ways that make those larger wholes more whole.
But this is, of course, exactly the course of action that the Modernity ideogram is pointing to.
It is also a radical alternative to what is now common: Instead of considering each of them as a means to an end, which needs to evolve further to serve us in new conditions, we reify not only our science, journalism and education, but also the corporation, the "democracy" and whatever else constitutes our culture. A within such narrow confines, we pursue what we consider "our own interest" competitively—trusting that "the free competition", acting through "the invisible hand" of the market or the academic "publish or perish", will turn our self-serving acts into the greatest common good.
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.
An initiative
The goal of the Holotopia initiative is to facilitate and streamline the realization of the holotopia vision.
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."
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.
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."
Federating the holotopia
A vocabulary
Science was not an exception; every new paradigm brings with it a new way of speaking.
We begin this federation by introducing a handful of our keywords, which will already explain why the holotopia vision follows naturally from "a slow and steady development of an entirely new approach to knowledge"; just as it did in Galilei's time.
- Keyword
Our keywords are defined by using truth by convention—which is the alternative to now common reification (assuming that when we define, for instance, "culture", we are supposed to say "what culture really is"). Truth by convention is the kind of truth that is common in mathematics: "Let X be...". Which, of course, defines a convention: When I say X, I mean Y." Our icon of this approach to truth, philosopher Villard Van Orman Quine, considered the transition to truth by convention to be the sign of maturing of every science.
This way of defining concepts allows us to depart from the ways of looking we've inherited (the 'candles'), and create new ones (the 'lightbulbs').Truth by convention provides us the necessary 'Archimedean point'—enabling us to use knowledge as 'lever', to "move the world".
Concepts, and also views defined by convention, are not reified; they are ideal ways of looking or scopes. They allow us to depart from our single, socialized ways of seeing things, and "see the other side". Hence they are not saying "this is how things "really are"; they are saying "look in this way, and see if you can see something you missed before, and see the whole more accurately.
- Dialog
It follows that dialog must be used, instead of conventional "peer reviews" etc.
A "piece of information" is no longer required to fit with the other pieces, and into a "reality puzzle". On the contrary, we are instructed to hold onto our gestalts most gently, resist our resistances (as they may be results of renegade, power-motivated socialization), and be ready to change not only our gestalts but even the general order of things or paradigm, when that is required. The dialog is our keyword that points to a suitable attitude, and communication discipline.
The dialog served as the vital source to the academia. We, however, adopted this keyword from David Bohm, who gave it a bit more contemporary and agile meaning.
- Wholeness
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!
The idea of wholeness is illustrated by the bus with candle headlights. The bus is not whole. A relatively tiny piece can mean the difference between the whole thing being a mass suicide machine—or a vehicle that can take us to the kind of future we may reasonably choose for ourselves.
- Tradition and design
Tradition and design are two alternative ways to wholeness. Tradition relies on Darwinian-style evolution; design on awareness and deliberate action. When tradition can no longer be relied on, design must be used.
In a more detailed explanation, we would quote Anthony Giddens, as the icon of design and tradition, to show 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. Which is, of course, what the Modernity ideogram is pointing to.
- Socialization and epistemology
Although these two keywords are not exactly antonyms, we here present them as two alternative means to the same end. Aside from what we can see and experience ourselves—what can make us trust that something is "true" (worthy of being believed and acted on)? Through innumerably many subtle 'carrots and sticks', often in our formative age when our critical faculties are not yet developed, we may be socialized to accept something as true. Epistemology—where we use reasoning, based on knowledge of knowledge, is the more rational or academic alternative.
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. He called it "theory of practice", and used it to explain how subtle socialization may be used as an instrument of power. To the red thread of our holotopia story, these two keywords contribute a way in which (metaphorically speaking) Galilei could be held in "house arrest" even when no visible means of censorship or coercion are in place.
- Design epistemology
By considering the available knowledge of knowledge (or metaphorically, by self-reflecting in front of the mirror), we become aware that the belief that the purpose of information is to show us "the reality as it truly is" can no longer be rationally defended. And that, on the other hand, our society's vital need is for effective information, the one that will fulfill in it certain vitally important roles. The design epistemology is a convention, according to which information is an essential piece in a larger whole or wholes—and must be created, evaluated, treated and used accordingly. That is, of course, what the bus with candle headlights is also suggesting.
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).
The design epistemology is the epistemology that suits a culture that is no longer traditional.
- Prototype
A prototype is a characteristic "result" that follows from the design epistemology.
When Information is no longer conceived of as an "objective picture of reality", but an instrument to interact with the world around us—then information cannot be only results of observing the world; it cannot be confined to academic books and articles. The prototypes serve as models, as experiments, and as interventions.
- Insight
An insight is another characteristic result of practicing design epistemology. To give information, and knowledge, the power to make a difference—we need to be able to condense a multitude of academic results and other data or facts into the kind of high-level insights that the Modernity ideogram and the mirror metaphor might exemplify.
A technical word we use for this type insight is gestalt. The point is to highlight—as the Gestalt ideogram might—that sensory data can be interpreted in more than one way. In the holoscope, finding an interpretation of one's situation that points to a way to handle it that restores wholeness is considered as tantamount to "being informed".
- Elephant
The elephant is roughly equivalent to the paradigm that is ready to emerge. And hence to both holoscope (as an academic paradigm) and holotopia (as a larger, societal one).
This keyword brings up several associations:
- With the expression "elephant in the room", which is used for something large and important present amongst us, which, however, remains ignored because of our cognitive biases (socialization)
- With the parable of the blind or blindfolded men touching an elephant—which highlights that while our visionary thinkers may have seen and described different parts of the paradigm, from the point of view of their disciplines or traditions, our challenge is to use what they left us as roadsigns, and instead of arguing about the details see the whole big thing
This suggests, correctly, that we are about to create a completely new kind of media event, and spectacle—show and make visible this huge, exotic 'animal', which nobody has really seen yet!
Five insights
But is the holotopia vision attainable? Is the "atmosphere of hope" it fosters realistic?
To answer that question, we must 'open the hub' (look at 'the square'), and see how this vision has been federated.
The 'engine' or the core of holotopia are specific five insights.
Strategically located in five pivotal domains:
- values (the "pursuit of happiness")
- innovation (the way we use our creative powers, the technology, and our growing capacity to induce change)
- communication (the way we handle information, and the way new communication media are put to use)
- foundations for truth and meaning (or knowledge of knowledge or epistemology)
- method (the "scientific method", the language and whatever else we use to create our worldview and to communicate)
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
- an empowerment of new thinking, reminiscent of the Enlightenment
- a revolution in our capability to understand our world and ourselves, similar to what science made possible
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 made 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 the traditional instruments of democracy may need to evolve
- how to revolutionize religion, and eliminate religion-inspired hatred and divisions
- in what way we need to change education
A strategy
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.
A larger, overarching insight results:
Comprehensive change might be easy, even when smaller and obviously necessary changes may seem impossible.
This larger insight points to the strategy that holotopia represents as a meme —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.
This "new thinking" approach to our contemporary situation brings with it completely new issues, and new priorities. Naturally, our focus expands from the symptoms of systemic disorder, such as the environmental destruction and the climate change, to include "systemic leverage points", such as the way information is being conceived of and handled. Exactly as the Modernity ideogram suggests.
A tactic
Considering that our great precursors were routinely ignored, we must concede that what we are facing is not a problem to be solved, but a paradox. How can we break this spell?
Answers are found, and tried, of course, by federating what the creative people have said or done in the past.
An idea, federated first of all from Vibeke and then from her sources or giants, is to break the spell by creating real spectacles.
Guy Debord clearly saw (the political and cultural consequences of "the spectacle") what on the one hand flagrantly destroys what was once called "culture"; and on the other hand destroys... yes, you guessed it. It follows that it's the artist's urgent, contemporary chore to counteract the creation of all those destructive spectacles. How?
Well, here we have an opportunity to create a spectacle of a completely new kind. Which (as Debord clearly saw) is a necessary first step in the process of "changing course", toward a culture that will use its information, media and other resources in a more conscious and purposeful way.
I am not going to theorize this further. But—the time taken to do this theorizing properly could not be better spent...
A project
Holotopia is an artistic update of everyday reality.
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.
What sort of art will call the next Renaissance into existence?
A space
A snapshot of Holotopia's pilot project in Kunsthall 3.14, Bergen.
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.
In a symbolic sense, we are developing
- A fireplace
- A library
- A workshop
- A gallery
- A stage
Talking about space brings up certain most interesting connotations and possibilities—about which we'll here only just begin to reflect, in small print.
Re-reading now Lefebre's "The Production of Space", and revisiting some of Guy Debord's works and his personal story left me with the growing feeling, which I had already on my first encounter with Vibeke's world which she so generously shared—namely that those people saw the elephant from a most interesting and relevant angle. And that their vision must now be federated. Of course, just like everyone else, they expressed what they saw in an inaccessible language. Debord's Marxist narrative, in particular, might have appeared to work in the 1950s and 60s when he used it—but not later. Perhaps one of the reasons why he drank heavily and committed suicide...
But on a much more positive note: Art, conceived of as "the production of space", could not be more à jour than it is today!
The Box
A model of The Box.
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.
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.
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.
Icons and stories
Since what we are presenting is a prototype—or in other words a model of 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 journalists use—where important issues are pointed to by telling interesting and "sticky" people and situation stories.
Each of the five insights will be federated by referring to specific icons and stories. We honor Margaret Mead as the icon of the holotopia as a whole.
Likewise, the story of Socrates, who is our icon of the academia, will point to the social role and the values that the academia stands for. The story of Galilei, as the icon of the Enlightenment, will remind us of the social dynamic that can trigger a sweeping change. The story of Newton, as the icon of science, will point to the historical roots of our present worldview; Einstein, as the icon of modern science, will show how our way of looking at the world has changed in physics. We shall then see how the holotopia most naturally follows, now as in Galilei's time, by applying the consequences of a change that already took place in science, in all walks of life.