Difference between revisions of "Holotopia: Five insights"

Revision as of 22:40, 31 May 2020

H O L O T O P I A P R O T O T Y P E

The holotopia vision is made concrete in terms of five interrelated insights.

Power structure

Powered by ingenuity of innovation, the Industrial Revolution improved the efficiency of human work beyond bounds. Where could the next revolution of this kind be coming from?

Collective mind

The printing press revolutionized communication, and enabled the Enlightenment. But the advent of the Internet and the interactive digital new media constitute a similar revolution. Doesn't this mean that the change we are proposing, from 'the candle' to 'the lightbulb', has already been completed?

Socialized reality

The Enlightenment was before all a change of epistemology. An ancient praxis was revived, by which the human reason was empowered to develop knowledge of knowledge—and on that as foundation, a completely new worldview. This led to "a great cultural revival", and to comprehensive change. On what grounds could a similar change begin today?

Narrow frame

Science gave us a completely new way to look at the world, and understand it. This gave us powers that the people in Galilei's time couldn't dream of. What might lead to the next revolution of this kind?

Convenience paradox

The Renaissance liberated our ancestors from preoccupation with the afterlife, and empowered them to seek happiness here and now. The lifestyle changed, and the culture blossomed. On what grounds could the next "great cultural revival" be developed?

The five insights form a whole

The black arrows point to a vicious cycle

Follow the black arrows in the Five Insights ideogram, to see that the anomalies they connect together cause or create one another:

It is the power structure that created dysfunctional communication
It is the lack of communication that keeps us in socialized reality
It is by founding knowledge in "reality" that we ended up with the narrow frame
It is by using the narrow frame that we mistook convenience for happiness
It is our pursuit of convenience that makes us create power structures

The red arrows point to a benign cycle

Follow the red arrows to see that we cannot really change one of the insights they connect, without also changing the other.

To stand up to the power structures, we must liberate ourselves from the socialized reality
Our collective mind cannot be structured to federate knowledge, unless we have a method for doing that
To liberate ourselves from socialized reality, our values need to be different
To broaden the narrow frame, we must see and unravel the power structure that keeps it in place
To step beyond convenience, we need a collective mind that federates knowledge

The holotopia strategy follows

We can now see why

a comprehensive change can be easy, even when smaller and obviously necessary changes may have proven impossible.

The strategy that defines the holotopia naturally follows: Instead of struggling with any of the details, we focus on changing the order of things as a whole.

This more informed and more effective strategy has "leverage points" through which it is most easily pursued—exactly as the bus with candle headlights might suggest.

What is really going on

One of our prototypes is a book manuscript titled "What's Going On?", and subtitle "A Cultural Revival". The book redefines what constitutes the news—by pointing to a breathtakingly spectacular event taking place in our own time. Slowly!

By knowing what's going on in this way, we know what needs to be done. The "problems" we are experiencing are like cracks in the walls of a house whose foundations are failing. Our situation calls for rebuilding, not fixing.

What's Going on ideogram

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 <div class="col-md-7">
 <blockquote>
-The printing press revolutionized communication, and enabled the Enlightenment. We are now witnessing a similar revolution—spearheaded by the Internet and the new media. Are we comparing <em>that</em> with candle headlights?
+Powered by ingenuity of innovation, the Industrial Revolution improved the efficiency of human work beyond bounds. Where could the next revolution of this kind be coming from?
 </blockquote>
-<p>We look at the way in which this new technology is being used. And at the principle of operation that underlies this use. Without noticing, we have adopted the principle of operation that suited the old technology, the printing press—broadcasting. But the new technology, by linking us together in a similar way as the nervous system links the cells in an organism, enables and even <em>demands</em> completely new modalities of collaboration. Imagine if your own cells were using your nervous system to merely broadcast data! In a <em>collective mind</em>, broadcasting leads to collective madness—and not to "collective intelligence" as the creators of the new technology intended.</p>
 </div> </div>
@@ Line 25: / Line 24: @@
 <div class="col-md-7">
 <blockquote>
-The printing press revolutionized communication, and enabled the Enlightenment. But we too are witnessing a similar revolution—the advent of the Internet, and the new media. Are we saying that <em>they</em> constitute 'candle headlights'?
+The printing press revolutionized communication, and enabled the Enlightenment. But the advent of the Internet and the interactive digital new media constitute a similar revolution. Doesn't this mean that the change we are proposing, from 'the candle' to 'the lightbulb', has already been completed?
 </blockquote>
-<p>We look at the way in which this new technology is used. And at the principle of operation that underlies its use. Without noticing, we have adopted the principle of operation that suited the printing press—broadcasting. But the new technology, by connecting us together in a similar way as the nervous system connects the cells of an organism, enables and even <em>demands</em> entirely <em>different</em> modalities of collaboration. Imagine if your cells were using your nervous system to merely broadcast data! In a <em>collective mind</em>, broadcasting leads to collective madness—and not to "collective intelligence" as the creators of the new technology envisioned.</p>
 </div> </div>
@@ Line 35: / Line 33: @@
 <div class="col-md-7">
 <blockquote>
-The Enlightenment was above all a <em>fundamental</em> change—of the very way in which truth and meaning are conceived of and created. A comprehensive "cultural revival" naturally followed. Could a similar advent be in store for us today?
+The Enlightenment was before all a change of <em>epistemology</em>. An ancient praxis was revived, by which the human reason was empowered to develop <em>knowledge of knowledge</em>—and on that as foundation, a completely <em>new</em> worldview. <em>This</em> led to "a great cultural revival", and to <em>comprehensive</em> change. On what grounds could a similar change begin today?
 </blockquote>
-<p>From the traditional culture we have adopted a myth, incomparably more subversive than the myth of creation. This myth now serves as the foundation stone, on which the edifice of our culture has been erected.</p>
 </div> </div>
@@ Line 43: / Line 41: @@
 <div class="col-md-3"><h2>[[Holotopia:Narrow frame|Narrow frame]]</h2></div>
 <div class="col-md-7">
-<blockquote>Science brought a radical change of the way or <em>method</em> by which we explore the world—and gave us powers that the people in Galilei's time couldn't even dream of. Are we calling <em>that</em> a 'candle'?
+<blockquote>Science gave us a completely new way to look at the world, and understand it. This gave us powers that the people in Galilei's time couldn't dream of. What might lead to the <em>next</em> revolution of this kind?
 </blockquote>
-<p>Science developed to find causal explanations of natural phenomena; not to serve (as Whorf phrased it) as "the Grand Revelator of modern Western culture". Consequently, science constituted a <em>narrow frame</em>—which served us well for <em>some</em> purposes (such as science and technology) and poorly for others (such as culture). </p>
-<p>Its <em>main</em> disadvantage in this much larger role, however, is that it constitutes a  'hammer'—a <em>fixed</em> way to look at the world.</p>
 </div> </div>
@@ Line 55: / Line 50: @@
 <div class="col-md-7">
 <blockquote>
-The Renaissance liberated our ancestors from preoccupation with the afterlife, and empowered them to seek happiness here and now. The lifestyle changed, and the culture blossomed. Have we followed the pursuit of happiness to its end?
+The Renaissance liberated our ancestors from preoccupation with the afterlife, and empowered them to seek happiness here and now. The lifestyle changed, and the culture blossomed. On what grounds could the <em>next</em> "great cultural revival" be developed?
 </blockquote>
-<p>We <em>federate</em> information from a broad variety of cultures, historical eras and sources, to illuminate the <em>way</em> to human fulfillment.</p>
-<p>Lacking such information, and following our general cultural bias, we've confused happiness with <em>convenience</em>—i.e. with what <em>appears</em> as attractive at the moment. Instead of using information to choose the way, we use <em>convenience</em> to choose even—information!</p>
-<p>Needless to say, this grave error of perception of ours has been endlessly amplified by advertising.</p>
-<p>By applying the <em>holoscope</em>, we show that <em>convenience</em> is a deceptive, illusory value. And that in the shadow of its delusion, endless possibilities for improving our lives—through <em>human development</em>—wait to be uncovered.</p>
-<p>Turn of our fortunes can be made by pursuing <em>wholeness</em>, instead of <em>convenience</em>.</p>
 </div> </div>
@@ Line 75: / Line 65: @@
 <p>Follow the black arrows in the Five Insights <em>ideogram</em>, to see that the anomalies they connect together cause or <em>create</em> one another:
 <ul>
-<li>It is the <em>power structure</em> that created our dysfunctional communication</li>
+<li>It is the <em>power structure</em> that created dysfunctional communication</li>
 <li>It is the lack of communication that keeps us in <em>socialized reality</em></li>
 <li>It is by founding knowledge in "reality" that we ended up with the <em>narrow frame</em></li>
 <li>It is by using the <em>narrow frame</em> that we mistook <em>convenience</em> for happiness</li>
-<li>It is our pursuit of narrowly conceived self-interest that makes <em>the systems in which we live and work</em> dysfunctional and oppressive</li>
+<li>It is our pursuit of convenience that makes us create <em>power structures</em></li>
 </ul>
 </p>
@@ Line 86: / Line 76: @@
 <p>Follow the red arrows to see that we cannot really change one of the insights they connect, without also changing the other.</p>
 <ul>
-<li>To stand up to the <em>power structures</em>, we must liberate ourselves from the <em>socialized reality</em> they created for us</li>
+<li>To stand up to the <em>power structures</em>, we must liberate ourselves from the <em>socialized reality</em></li>
-<li>Our <em>collective mind</em> cannot <em>federate</em> knowledge, unless we have a general method for <em>creating</em> knowledge</li>
+<li>Our <em>collective mind</em> cannot be structured to <em>federate</em> knowledge, unless we have a method for doing that</li>
-<li>We can only liberate ourselves from <em>socialized reality</em>, if our values and our "human quality" are on the level</li>  <li>To broaden or replace our <em>narrow frame</em>, we must unravel the <em>power structure</em> that keeps it in place</li>
+<li>To liberate ourselves from <em>socialized reality</em>, our values need to be different</li>
-<li>To step beyond the <em>convenience paradox</em> and engage in "human development", we need a <em>collective mind</em> that illuminates the way</li>
+<li>To broaden the <em>narrow frame</em>, we must see and unravel the <em>power structure</em> that keeps it in place</li>
+<li>To step beyond <em>convenience</em>, we need a <em>collective mind</em> that federates knowledge</li>
 </ul>
 </div> </div>

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