Difference between revisions of "Holotopia summary"

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<div class="col-md-3"><h2>A challenge</h2></div>
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<div class="col-md-3"><h2>Our challenge</h2></div>
 
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<div class="col-md-3"><h2>A vision</h2></div>
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<div class="col-md-3"><h2>Our vision</h2></div>
 
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<blockquote>The <em>holotopia</em> is a <em>realizable</em> vision of a future that offers <em>more</em> than Peccei called for.</blockquote>  
 
<blockquote>The <em>holotopia</em> is a <em>realizable</em> vision of a future that offers <em>more</em> than Peccei called for.</blockquote>  
  
<p>This vision is made concrete in terms of <em>five insights</em>, which showing that a <em>comprehensive</em> change is now possible—analogous to the change that was germinating four centuries ago, when Galilei was held in house arrest:</p>  
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<p>This vision is made concrete in terms of <em>five insights</em>, which show that a <em>comprehensive improvement</em> of our condition is possible—analogous to the comprehensive wave of change that was germinating four centuries ago, when Galilei was held in house arrest:</p>  
 
<ul>
 
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<li>In innovation (analogy with Industrial Revolution)</li>  
 
<li>In innovation (analogy with Industrial Revolution)</li>  
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<div class="col-md-3"><h2>Mission</h2></div>
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<div class="col-md-3"><h2>Why this is possible</h2></div>
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<div class="col-md-7">The reason why comprehensive, Renaissance-like change is now possible is that—just as the case was in Galilei's time—it is mandated for <em>fundammental</em> reasons. In the course of our modernization we've made, namely, a fundamental error—which has been uncovered and reported, but not yet corrected. </p>
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<p>In 1952, in "Physics and Philosophy", Nobel Laureate Physicist Werner Heisenberg described it as follows:</p>
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"[T]he nineteenth century developed an extremely rigid frame for natural science which formed not only science but also the general outlook of great masses of people. This frame (...) was so narrow and rigid that it was difficult to find a place in it for many concepts of our language that had always belonged to its very substance, for instance, the concepts of mind, of the human soul or of life. Mind could be introduced into the general picture only as a kind of mirror of the material world; and when one studied the properties of this mirror in the science of psychology, the scientists were always tempted — if I may carry the comparison further — to pay more attention to its mechanical than to its optical properties. Even there one tried to apply the concepts of classical physics, primarily that of causality. In the same way life was to be explained as a physical and chemical process, governed by natural laws, completely determined by causality. Darwin’s concept of evolution provided ample evidence for this interpretation. It was especially difficult to find in this framework room for those parts of reality that had been the object of the traditional religion and seemed now more or less only imaginary. Therefore, in those European countries in which one was wont to follow the ideas up to their extreme consequences, an open hostility of science toward religion developed, and even in the other countries there was an increasing tendency toward indifference toward such questions (...). Confidence in the scientific method and in rational thinking replaced all other safeguards of the human mind."
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<div class="col-md-3"> [[File:Heisenberg.jpg]] <br><small><center>[[Werner Heisenberg]]</center></small></div>
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<blockquote>What action may have the power to set in motion a sweeping wave of change?</blockquote>
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<p>Heisenberg's point was that the "narrow and rigid" way of looking at the world, which our general culture adopted from the 19th century science, <em>was proven wrong</em> a century later by science itself. </p>
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<blockquote>Heisenberg believed that the greatest gift of modern physics to humanity would be the <em>cultural</em> change that is mandated by it.</blockquote>
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<p>It took us 25 years to develop an up-to-date academic alternative to the <em>narrow frame</em>.</p>  
  
<p>At the core of <em>holotopia</em> is a discovery, made repeatedly in 20th century science and philosophy, but not yet corrected: That along the way in which we got modernized, a fundamental error had been made.</p>  
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<p>The [[knowledge federation|<em>knowledge federation</em>]] [[prototype|<em>prototype</em>]] consists of about 40 more detailed <em>prototypes</em>, which provide all that is needed to complete the model of an academic field or paradigm—from epistemology and methods, to social processes, community and examples of application. </p>
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<div class="col-md-3"><h2>Our mission</h2></div>
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<blockquote>The <em>holotopia</em> mission is to set in motion a comprehensive wave of change.</blockquote>
  
<blockquote>Our mission is to correct that error.</blockquote>
 
  
 
<p>We implement this mission in two steps.</p>  
 
<p>We implement this mission in two steps.</p>  
  
<h3>Step One: Institutionalizing <em>knowledge federation</em></h3>  
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The first is to institutionalize <em>knowledge federation</em> as an academic field.
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The second step is to develop <em>holotopia</em> as an academic  project. 
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The first step is to have the academia—the institution that has the power to do that—change the relationship we have with information; to have us see information as a means to an end, as something we need to 'show us the way'. And to create and use information accordingly. This will then give us the collective vision, the ability to see where we are headed and choose our future.
  
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The vision is of course necessary, but it is not sufficient. We still need a way to create those 'headlights'; and to use them to steer toward the future we chose. That is what the second step will secure.
  
<blockquote>The first step is to institutionalize <em>knowledge federation</em> as an academic field.</blockquote>
 
  
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<div class="col-md-3"><h2>For more information</h2></div>
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<ul>
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<li>[http://holotopia.info|<b>holotopia.info</b>] provides an overview of <em>holotopia</em> project etc.</li>
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<li>[http://holoscope.info|<b>holoscope.info</b>] is a blog providing the timeline and ideas for development. The blog post "White Is the New Black" is an interview where the <em>holotopia</em> project is explained.</li>
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<b>To be completed...</b>
 

Revision as of 07:44, 29 November 2020

H O L O T O P I A:    AN   A C T I O N A B L E    S T R A T E G Y



Our challenge

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

This diagnosis of our civilization's condition was made in 1980 by Aurerelio Peccei, The Club of Rome's founding president, based on a decade of this international think tank's research into the future prospects of mankind.

That "our civilization is on a collision course with nature" was at that point a scientifically fact. But the visionary scientists who established The Club of Rome saw that the roots of our contemporary crisis were in a misbalanced way in which our civilization developed—where science and technology prospered at an accelerated rate, while culture and human values decayed.

On the morning of March 14, 1984, the day he passed away, Peccei dictated to his secretary from a hospital bed (as part of "Agenda for the End of the Century"):

"Human development is the most important goal."

Peccei.jpg
Aurelio Peccei

Our vision

The holotopia is a realizable vision of a future that offers more than Peccei called for.

This vision is made concrete in terms of five insights, which show that a comprehensive improvement of our condition is possible—analogous to the comprehensive wave of change that was germinating four centuries ago, when Galilei was held in house arrest:

  • In innovation (analogy with Industrial Revolution)
  • In communication (analogy with Copernican Revolution)
  • In foundation or epistemology (analogy with Enlightenment)
  • In method (analogy with Scientific Revolution)
  • In values (analogy with Renaissance)

A strategy

The holotopia strategy is to focus our efforts on comprehensive and positive change.

The five insights show why such change may be easy—even when smaller and obviously necessary changes may be impossible.


Why this is possible

The reason why comprehensive, Renaissance-like change is now possible is that—just as the case was in Galilei's time—it is mandated for fundammental reasons. In the course of our modernization we've made, namely, a fundamental error—which has been uncovered and reported, but not yet corrected. </p>

In 1952, in "Physics and Philosophy", Nobel Laureate Physicist Werner Heisenberg described it as follows:


"[T]he nineteenth century developed an extremely rigid frame for natural science which formed not only science but also the general outlook of great masses of people. This frame (...) was so narrow and rigid that it was difficult to find a place in it for many concepts of our language that had always belonged to its very substance, for instance, the concepts of mind, of the human soul or of life. Mind could be introduced into the general picture only as a kind of mirror of the material world; and when one studied the properties of this mirror in the science of psychology, the scientists were always tempted — if I may carry the comparison further — to pay more attention to its mechanical than to its optical properties. Even there one tried to apply the concepts of classical physics, primarily that of causality. In the same way life was to be explained as a physical and chemical process, governed by natural laws, completely determined by causality. Darwin’s concept of evolution provided ample evidence for this interpretation. It was especially difficult to find in this framework room for those parts of reality that had been the object of the traditional religion and seemed now more or less only imaginary. Therefore, in those European countries in which one was wont to follow the ideas up to their extreme consequences, an open hostility of science toward religion developed, and even in the other countries there was an increasing tendency toward indifference toward such questions (...). Confidence in the scientific method and in rational thinking replaced all other safeguards of the human mind."

Heisenberg's point was that the "narrow and rigid" way of looking at the world, which our general culture adopted from the 19th century science, was proven wrong a century later by science itself.

Heisenberg believed that the greatest gift of modern physics to humanity would be the cultural change that is mandated by it.

It took us 25 years to develop an up-to-date academic alternative to the narrow frame.

The knowledge federation prototype consists of about 40 more detailed prototypes, which provide all that is needed to complete the model of an academic field or paradigm—from epistemology and methods, to social processes, community and examples of application.


Our mission

The holotopia mission is to set in motion a comprehensive wave of change.


We implement this mission in two steps.

The first is to institutionalize knowledge federation as an academic field.


The second step is to develop holotopia as an academic  project. 


The first step is to have the academia—the institution that has the power to do that—change the relationship we have with information; to have us see information as a means to an end, as something we need to 'show us the way'. And to create and use information accordingly. This will then give us the collective vision, the ability to see where we are headed and choose our future.

The vision is of course necessary, but it is not sufficient. We still need a way to create those 'headlights'; and to use them to steer toward the future we chose. That is what the second step will secure.


For more information

  • holotopia.info provides an overview of holotopia project etc.
  • holoscope.info is a blog providing the timeline and ideas for development. The blog post "White Is the New Black" is an interview where the holotopia project is explained.