Editorial (incl. quotes from Plato and from Einstein)
Quote from Galileo and poem by Hanna Newcombe
Quotes from Eckersley, from Sperry, and from Teilhard de Chardin
Knowledge: An Evolutionary Perspective
A Review of Social Psychiatry in the Man-Made World by Jerzy A. Wojciechowski
Tannous and Holden
L'Alliance Universelle
Theobald and Schwartz
R.Muller.....
The Thirst for Knowledge
A Spatial Vantage Point
A Review of EGOSHELL by Robert A. Thompson and Louise S. Thompson
Hutcheon on Asimov
"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark;
the real tragedy is when men are afraid of the light."
Plato
Again, relevant material for this issue exceeded by far the space available. More knowledge about individuals and groups involved in work toward a sustainable society and a safer human future can be obtained through Dr. Hanna Newcombe, Director, Peace Research Institute-Dundas, 25 Dundana Avenue, Dundas, Ont. Canada, L9H 4E5, who publishes Peace Research Abstracts and Peace Research Reviews.
Another good contact is Jerome C. Glenn, American Council for the United Nations University, 4421 Garrison Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20016, U.S.A., who heads the Millennium Project of the United Nations University. That project continuously updates, improves, and publishes or broadcasts emerging thoughts, studies, and projections about the future to provide a basis for policy choice selection for a wide variety of global problems. -- Anyone with more specific interest in the Millennium Project might wish to read Glenn's article on the topic, published in THE YEARS AHEAD -- Perils, Problems, and Promises by Howard F. Didsbury Jr. (ed.), World Future Society, Washington, D.C., 1993 (available through the Futurist Bookstore, World Future Society, 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450, Bethesda, Maryland 20814, U.S.A.) The same book also contains a contribution by Robert Theobald "Turning the Century: Creating the Compassionate Era."
* * * * *
"Peace cannot be kept by force, it can only be achieved by understanding."
Einstein
In science, the authority embodied in the opinions of thousands is not worthy a spark of reason in one man.
Galileo
LONESOME AT THE BRINK
There is no one here but me
I bear the burden of this world's future
All decisions flow from my mind's centre
and all actions are done by my hands.
There is no one to blame, no one to praise,
no gods to guide, no angels to stand guard,
no demons to be feared. There is only I and Nature,
indifferent as ever to my fate and hers.
Yet I have these ten billion eyes,
ten billion hands and feet.
may prevail, if fate and wisdom
manage to conspire in conjoined embrace.
If not, farewell my love,
may luck fall to the next.
Dr. Hanna Newcombe, Director
Peace Research Institute-Dundas
expressing consciousness of human responsibility
Arguably, only science is powerful enough to persuade us to redirect its power -- to convince us of the seriousness of our situation, to strengthen our resolve to do something about it, and to guide what we do. Science can be the main (but by no means the only) source of knowledge and understanding that we need to remake our culture.
Richard Eckersley
Science Writer
In the eyes of science, to put it simply, man's creator becomes the vast interwoven fabric of all evolving nature, a tremendously complex concept that includes all the immutable and emergent forces of cosmic causation that control everything from high-energy subnuclear particles to galaxies, not forgetting the causal properties that govern brain function and behavior at individual, interpersonal, and social levels. For all these, science has gradually become our accepted authority, offering a cosmic scheme and view of the human psyche that renders most others simplistic by comparison and which grows and evolves as science advances.
Roger W. Sperry
Neuroscientist and Nobel Laureate
Il suffit, pour la Vérité, d'apparaître une seule fois, dans un seul esprit, pour que rien, jamais plus, ne puisse l'empêcher de tout envahir et de toute enflammer.
(It is sufficient for the truth to appear a single time in a single intellect, that nothing, ever anymore, can prevent it from pervading everything and setting everything on fire.)
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
KNOWLEDGE: AN EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE
Discussion of
Social Psychiatry in the Man-Made World
by Jerzy A. Wojciechowski
The key message of Professor Wojciechowski's paper is that each step forward in human knowledge leads to more new problems than can be solved by it. (Problems such as overpopulation, pollution, destruction of the ecosystem, for instance, became apparent only during the last few decades.) As understanding of the vastness and interrelationship of all problems increases, and as knowledge exceeds more and more the capacity of a single individual to cope with it, specialization must necessarily escalate. Unless, however, ties among the different specialties are strengthened and it is realized that each is only a fragment of a larger body of knowledge, tensions and frictions will develop, which humankind as a whole will not be able to survive. -- A healthy attitude toward the future of knowledge, thus, is the striving toward synergy. Synergy is the antidote to otherwise unavoidable self-destruction of humankind.
The author especially points to the need to overcome a valueless science. Similarly, he is concerned with an overemphasis on competition, like that of the social Darwinists at the beginning of this century. Competition has its place, he says, but it plays only a subordinate part in nature. As knowledge increases, competition becomes more and more dangerous unless held in check by a superior vision -- the striving of all toward healthy progress.
Healthy progress demands the realization that the central goal of humanity is to become more human, Wojciechowski explains, and unless we understand this need in all its profundity, we cannot survive the constant increase of knowledge. -- However, the ceaseless multiplication of problems, which accompanies our increasing knowledge and understanding, is, the author believes, not necessarily to be deplored. Problems are stimulating, they initiate creativity; they activate the most distinctive part of our humanness.
The article excites through the thoroughness and depth of its thinking. It provides a refreshing and hopeful alternative to blind optimism and paralysing pessimism. But the key message, selected and condensed above, shows only a small part of the wisdom contained in the paper, which ought to be read in its entirety to be fully appreciated. -- A few selected quotes may serve as enticement:
"Biologically speaking, man is a product of a bygone era. His organism was formed a long time ago, and so were his basic needs, drives and desires. His emotional structure and subconscious inner life were developed in an epoch when intellectual knowledge was at the beginning, and the conditions of life vastly different from ours. The inner structure was attuned to the then existing level of knowledge and capacity to act." (P.168)
"Basic emotions, drives and desires do not seem to have evolved appreciably with the progress of civilization. Progress does refine our feelings within the existing emotional structures, but does not change these structures. The refinement of feelings is not a mere by-product of human development. It is a necessary condition of that development....[But] whether the refinement of feelings can progress indefinitely is an open and very interesting question." (P.169)
"Growing intellectual exchanges and cooperation developing worldwide produce an implosive effect which facilitates and accelerates the growth of intellectual potential of humanity and speeds up the process of intellectualization of man. Whether the acceleration of this process can continue indefinitely is not at all clear. It seems rather that we are approaching rapidly a limit imposed by our capacity to absorb knowledge and adjust to change. Going beyond this limit would require a quantum jump in our intellectual and psychological capacities. Whether such a jump can be engineered genetically or otherwise is a very interesting but open question." (P.170)
Wojciechowski is not only a thorough, but also a methodical thinker, who likes to condense the results of his thoughts into laws expressing his perception of nature's functioning, e.g.:
"Law V: To be human is to tend to a higher level of humanness." (P.171)
The amount of knowledge available on earth is expressed in two single letters, KC (knowledge construct), throughout the paper, and it is explained that the knowledge construct is constantly increasing through the process of intercommunication alone, and without increase of human brain capacity. One aspect of being human is that the desire to know exceeds the need to know, and that "the growth of worldwide communications, commercial relations, cultural exchanges, and the resulting globalization of mankind.... are devices facilitating and stimulating human synergy."
Synergy, in turn, produces more energy. -- "In contra-distinction to mechanical systems, which absorb more energy than they produce, the human system produces more energy than it absorbs and transforms lower, material type energy into higher, intellectual energy." (P.171)
A further product of synergy is what the author calls "evolutionary dynamism," which may be used to measure the extent of normality at the "individual, social, and species-wide level." At all these levels, harmonious and healthy growth demands that intellectual growth remains in tune with increased cultivation of emotions.
"Our definitions of normality and abnormality may well be rejected by scientifically minded specialists because they carry with them value judgments. Indeed, evolutionary perspective implies inevitably the notions of aim, purpose, and value." (P.172)
"Today, we view the world as a system of systems requiring the systemic approach....It is the great and lasting achievement of the systemic approach to have reintroduced values to our vision of reality. ....Systemic integration of mankind is a major fact with farreaching consequences. It heralds the beginning of a new, more advanced stage of development of the human species and a new chapter in history, namely the globalization of humanity."(P.172)
"Contrary to past epochs, from now on the future of humanity, and indeed the very survival of the human race, is in its own hands. Man will have a future if he is capable of envisaging a positive course for himself and planning for it. The capacity of dealing with the future entails the ability to cope with present and future problems. This in turn demands, among other things, a system of education geared to the solution of these problems. Educational systems which exist now are largely products of the past, hardly fit for preparing our youth to deal with problems which are with us already, let alone to plan for the future." (P.174)
All these quotes touch only a small part of the wisdom contained in Wojciechowski's paper. Its main message, however, stated briefly in the beginning, can be still further condensed into only two sentences: (1) Increase of our knowledge is unavoidable. (2) Humankind will not be able to survive that knowledge increase unless it is coordinated and guided by a superior goal or vision.
- - -
Dr. Jerzy A. Wojciechowski is Professor of Philosophy (Emeritus) at the University of Ottawa in Canada. -- The above paper was presented upon invitation at the 1985 Annual Professional Meeting of the American Association for Social Psychiatry in Boston.
* * * * *
Pioneers of an Evolving New World View
Among vigorous pioneers of an evolving new world view are Afif I. Tannous, an 89 year-old scholar and former professor of social science and Bill Holden, who assists him in assembling a "Manifesto Team." The aim of that team is to unite into one single powerful document the core ideas of all movements working for the changes needed to avoid the deterioration of our earth and of humanity, a document with the impact to move decision-makers at national and international levels.
Afif I. Tannous, a member of "Concerned Scientists," is not an unrealistic dreamer. In his own original manifesto of April 1992, he states in paragraph 4 that science and technology must lead the transformation because of their "exponentially growing knowledge and innovation that have increasingly permeated the modern era and created its dominant worldview." But their ability to produce both "miracles for human well-being" and devastating catastrophes demands a widening of their boundaries to include ethics, consciousness, subjective knowledge, and "holistic understanding of phenomena." [The editor worked for nine years with Professor Sperry on exactly these aims.]
Tannous' and Holden's efforts to produce a combined and superior manifesto are going on for many years now, the influx of new ideas seems unending, and the task becomes more and more monumental. In spite of this struggle, Bill Holden, an unusually conscientious person who is worried that he could miss important contributions which would decide the success of his and Tannous' labour, requests more "New Era Manifestos" (platforms, covenants or other condensed statements). -- (See: TRANET, January 1994, p.12) -- His address is: Bill Holden, 4131 Larwin Ave., Cypress, CA 90630-4128, U.S.A.
Clearing the Hurdle of Divergent Basic Convictions
The Précis de L'Alliance Universelle, a small booklet describing the principles of "L'Alliance Universelle" (Universal Alliance), contains on page 3 an exemplary example of progress toward global unity in spite of widely varying basic philosophical assumptions. Here, the creator is identified as "la Cause Première de Tout, indéfinie et indéfinissable, appelée par d'autres: Dieu, Nature, Hasard ou tout autremont." ("The First Cause of Everything, undefined and undefinable, called among others: God, Nature, Chance or otherwise.") -- Such an indentification overcomes centuries of fruitless wrangling and provides a common basis from which all of humankind can immediately proceed toward the creation of a saner and safer future.
To receive more information, please contact: L'Alliance Universelle, 73, Avenue de la Résistance, B.P.923, 83000 Toulon, France.
Councils of Wisdom
During a gathering of "Visioneers" on June 23, 1994 in Vancouver, the Futurist and Social Innovator Robert Theobald suggested that "Councils of Wisdom" be established to provide wise, non-partisan advice to those responsible for solving the seemingly intractable problems of our time.
Following up on his suggestion, Geraldine Schwartz, co-director of Creative Learning International," 503-1505 West 2nd Avenue, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6H 3Y4, and co-editor of The Visioneer, proposed to begin the task in September 1994. She invites advice or suggestions.
This information is based on pp. 2 and 3 of The Visioneer, Vol. 2, No. 3 (June 1994), in which G. Schwartz describes moments of openness to "the voice of God or the great wisdom of our cultural heritage" which initiate "a form of thinking we call insight or intuition." -- "Creative geniuses reach for it," she says, "and so manifest it in their creations that others can sense its source through their own intuitive knowing and recognize its beauty and sacredness. Thus the transcendent Music of a Mozart, the art of a Da Vinci, the words and poetry of a Shakespeare, all come from that deep place of knowing that somehow does not only reside in a single mind or heart, but also in the heart-mind of us all."
During the last few years immense strides have been made towards a better understanding of the universe, of outer space, our planet, our biosphere, our continents, our seas and oceans, and the world smaller than ourselves, the world of microscopic, atomic matter and life. Let us not forget that five centuries ago we did not even know that our Earth was round, and less than 70 years ago we did not know that there were bacteria. We have learned so much. We have advanced dramatically into the infinitely large and infinitely small. Man has extended prodigiously with mechanical and scientific means the vision of his eyes, the hearing of his ears, the power of his hands, the distance of his legs, the capacity of his brain. Humankind since the beginning of life this century has been able to treble the total number of its living members, to extend life, to improve life for so many of us in so many respects. The greater questions are now being posed. A crucial one is whether we can also extend our hearts and souls to the new global dimensions created by our minds, hands and senses.
THE THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE
TRANET (A digest for the alternative and transformational movements), Box 567, Rangeley, ME 04970, U.S.A. documents in issue after issue the desperate thirst for knowledge in countries where poverty prevails. Requests for books and other learning material are accompanied by descriptions of scarcity unimaginable in our schools.
Here are some examples:
TRANET, May 1993, p. 8 (from Kenya) I teach mathematics...the demand has far outstripped our library of 30 books. And since our funds are so limited that we run out of chalk before the final week of the term, purchase of books is out of the question.
P. 9 (from Namibia) I am a WorldTeach Volunteer, an organization affiliated with the Harvard Institute for International Development.... This school has 900 students in grades 1-7. I have only 30 books in our library.
(From Botswana) I am a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching English in this remote village in the Kalahari Desert. The 200 students aged 13-18 prepare for admission to the very few senior secondary schools in Botswana. Less than 10% of our students pass. This is because they have no books in English.
Please contact TRANET at the above address to receive information about collection points in the U.S.A. from where books can be shipped out most economically.
A SPATIAL VANTAGE POINT
Discussion of EGOSHELL
by R.A.Thompson and L.S.Thompson
Instant advanced knowledge could be provided in spite of wide-spread illiteracy, the Thompsons believe. They describe Learning Institutes similar to exhibitions, in which visitors can select the field of their preference at whatever level of sophistication they choose -- from pre-school levels to those of post-doctoral scholarship. Preference choices will correlate individual gifts and occupations, ensure maximum contributions to our world, and lead to maximum personal satisfaction. Moreover, the learner becomes, wherever possible, part of a three-dimensional reality that involves all his or her senses. Travelling through the universe in a space ship (which is stationary while the pictures on the walls and the ceiling move) fills the student with the same awe experienced by the astronauts and the same love and respect for our own tiny vulnerable planet.
The entire learning experience is, in fact, focused on the transformation of an ego-centered perspective to a spatial one. New terms are coined to redirect our very thought patterns -- such as ecoshell (the mantle of all physical life surrounding our earth), egoshell (the mantle of all perceptual experience straddling our earth), and so on. Instead of the present "tree-branch" model of knowledge (specialized knowledge branching constantly out into more detailed specialization, with hardly any understanding among different specialists), a "shell-like" model is introduced (consisting of a large, interdependent general knowledge core, about inorganic reality (1), surrounded by life (2), and thought and consciousness (3), with specialized knowledge wrapped only around the outermost shell and constant awareness of all shells' interactions with one another). This progression from inorganic matter to life and to consciousness reflects the very path and nature of evolution itself and incorporates a basic understanding of it into the foundations of our knowledge. In the authors' own words:
"Neil Armstrong's "giant leap for all mankind" was not merely a metaphor for movement, nor even one of technological advance. It was most of all expressive of a psychological quantum jump to the spatial vantage point, a leap that has provided a spatial contrast for all of our former localized perceptions.
"We observe that those of us who took that "leap" and became aware of our emerging space-age reality are now challenging many traditional, localized concepts using the contrast provided by that spatial reality. This alone has pitted the aware against the unaware and, in turn, caused a modern resurgence of the historical lifestyle crisis that has waxed and waned over the wandering course of civilization, much like the tidal phases of the moon.
"Those who now understand the space-age reality cannot willingly return to earlier forms of awareness -- lesser realities -- based on superstition or on other inconsistent fantasies." (P.281)
The first reaction to the Thompsons' suggestion, of course, is that the cost would be exorbitant. Besides, there would be no truly free choice at all. Reality would be chosen not by the individual, but by the richest persons and nations on earth -- those able to afford contributions to such Instant Learning Institutes. And only Western style logical knowledge would be taught. -- The Thompsons' reply is that the price of worldwide instant knowledge would be less than is now expended on weapons by all nations together, that only about 200 such institutes, strategically located and interconnected, would be needed, and that the acquisition of scientific principles and logical thinking by everyone would be of the greatest benefit. It would provide a desperately needed basis for mutual understanding, would expose the insanity of wars, of resource depletion, and of runaway population growth. In short, it would be the fastest and most efficient way to save our planet and our humanity. -- To counter accusations of utopian fantasy, the Thompsons explain:
"Lest the reader believe that actions taken to practice egology [planetary individualism balanced with planetary interdependence] would be futile, we need only remember that the world has always seemed fixed in the moments before great changes in human history. Catholic power seemed unassailable in the late fifteenth century -- it was the height of the Inquisition -- but only decades away was the upheaval of the Reformation....And who would have thought today's "world village" possible fifty years ago? Since social reality always precedes human understanding of it, there has, of course, been a disparity between that which our world society has become and that which it understands itself to be. It is inevitable however (so history has shown), that such understanding will emerge -- if we do not reduce ourselves to cinders in the interim." (P.295)
- - -
R.A.Thompson, a former satellite specialist, is the head of Spatialworld Corporation, an organization founded to create a worldwide network of future-oriented cultural facilities interconnected via satellite to form the equivalent of a planetary brain. L.S.Thompson, a surgical nurse turned field biologist, is Spatialworld's vice-president for research. Both authors enrich the book with a wealth of pertinent knowledge and invite the reader's cooperation with their venture. Please contact the Planetary Institute for Egology, Spatialworld Corporation, Box 2001, Mystic, CT 06355-0624, U.S.A.
* * * * *
Asimov sounded a stark warning concerning the need for a this-world focus. He argued that humanity can no longer afford to seek refuge in the false security of supernatural fantasy, for continued reliance on heavenly solutions could kill us all. Just as it is human beings alone who are destroying the world, he said, so it must be we alone who save it.
The following information has been reprinted from TRANET, November 1993, p.4:
Technologies limit our inner capacities say many of the articles in Vol.6 No.2 of Holistic Education Review (ed. Jeffrey Kane, School of Education, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY 11530, U.S.A.). This special issue on "Technology and Childhood" points out that technology produces power but not meaning or understanding. The end of technocratic education is to transfer disembodied bits of knowledge which is useful to military/industrial production, neglecting any deep purpose for life or comprehensive understanding of the cosmos. Children are no longer given time to think, contemplate or create; caught as they are in the high speed transfer of bits of information they may need sometime in the future.
In like manner the process of education "programs youngsters to receive information without independent mental exploration. The technologies we introduce into the classroom (computers, language booths, TV, programmed learning, rigid teaching schedules, etc.) are part of a cultural transformation moving us away from reverence for thinking, learning and individual and the breakdown of society."
Holistic educators see all the educational options being offered by politicians and establishment educators (choice, more school time, more tests, more standards, special ed., higher salaries, etc.) as mere technological fixes on a bad system. A much deeper evaluation of the purpose and techniques of learning (vs. educating or schooling) must transform us into a learning society opening the system to the development of the whole person.
* * * *
The EPE Institute, P.O.Box 1059, CH-8401 Winterthur, Switzerland, a group pursuing Research on Global Education, Politics, and Economics, founded April 25, 1994, explains its aims in Concept for a New World Order as attacking "the root causes of the world's problems and find a solution to them, so paving the way for politics to stimulate the birth of a new civilization."
The Institute's symbols are the sun (selfless world-authority, radiating light and warmth to all without prejudice), and the human organism (selfless cooperation). -- Human nature is explained as emerging from its animal origin and striving for spirituality.
As an example of their persuasion, Woodrow Wilson (U.S.President and initiator of the League of Nations) is quoted: "Leadership means: elevating men out of their daily routine and onto the plane of their better selves; inspiring them with enthusiasm for a higher task and higher ideals!"
The Institute's basic guidelines are further condensed at the end of the book. In economics, global production and distribution contribute to "the implementation of the high ideal of politics;" in politics, a new world order is based on "a new culture and education;" and education is the focal point of all. Lifelong education and university study is stressed, but the most stunning contention is that education in uterus is "of outstanding importance." -- "The positive thoughts and feelings of the mother act like the sun on the development of the foetus," it is explained. "An environment of beauty and poetry paves the way for positive thinking and feelings during pregnancy. It is one of the few decisive tasks of the state to care for future mothers in the interest of society as a whole."
Is there really proof for such an assumption? During further correspondence with the Institute I was assured that there is; nevertheless, I feel obliged to repeat the words of Herodotus, when he -- in the 5th century B.C. -- heard that the sun stands in the north at noon when one sails southward along the African coastline for many months: "I don't believe it! But I write it down here nevertheless; perhaps someone else will believe it."
THE COURAGE TO THINK INDEPENDENTLY
Bertrand Russell: The conviction that it is important to believe this or that, even if a free inquiry would not support the belief, is one which is common to almost all religions and which inspires all systems of state education. The consequence is that the minds of the young are stunted and are filled with fanatical hostility both to those who have other fanaticisms and, even more virulently, to those who object to all fanaticisms. A habit of basing convictions upon evidence, and of giving to them only that degree of certainty which the evidence warrants would, if it became general, cure most of the ills from which the world is suffering....The above evils are independent of the particular creed in question and exist equally in all creeds which are held dogmatically. But there are also, in most religions, specific ethical tenets which do definite harm. The Catholic condemnation of birth control, if it could prevail, would make the mitigation of poverty and the abolition of war impossible....We are sometimes told that only fanaticism can make a social group effective. I think this is totally contrary to the lessons of history. But, in any case, only those who slavishly worship success can think that effectiveness is admirable without regard to what is effected. For my part, I think it is better to do a little good than to do much harm. The world that I would wish to see would be one freed from the virulence of group hostilities and capable of realizing that happiness for all is to be derived rather from co-operation than from strife. I should wish to see a world in which education is aimed at mental freedom rather than at imprisoning the minds of the young in a rigid armour of dogma calculated to protect them through life against the shafts of impartial evidence. The world needs open hearts and open minds, and it is not through rigid systems, whether old or new, that these can be derived.
(Extracted from B. Russell's preface to Why I am not a Christian)
* * * * *
This is the great challenge to higher education today: to equip mature intelligent adults with the intellectual resources needed to respond to the most complex, powerful, and all encompassing changes the human race has ever known -- to become responsible, creative, effective individuals able to adapt to, achieve within, and guide our very perplexing new world.
Richard Crews, President
Columbia Pacific University
Robert Theobald (futurist and social innovator):
Our educational system was designed to provide workers with a body of information which would last all their lives and prepare them to take orders. Today we need people who know how to continue to learn throughout their lives and to work in teams. Small changes at the margin of systems will not make a difference. We need totally new approaches to education, which will break the isolation of the student and encourage them to think broadly rather than to see their own specialty as the center of the universe.
At least half a day a week should be spent NOT doing one's job. One should spend one's time looking at other aspects of the world and broadening horizons. The argument against this direction is that vital work will not be accomplished. The appropriate rejoinder is that one's work never gets done and that the only way to get closer to being effective is to restructure one's activities so one has less to do.
We should face up to the fact that the words "strategic planning" have outlived their usefulness and move to "visionary thinking." Strategic planning assumes that it is possible to see the future clearly enough to know not only the questions which are likely to emerge in the future but also the answers to them. The consequence is that one is blindsided by unexpected events which were missed out of the strategic plan.
A classic, non-business example is the failure of the democracies to recognize the danger of ethnic violence after the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Everybody had concentrated on the dangers of nuclear war for so long that people in power had forgotten that the cold war had prevented violence from escalating out of control for two generations. When the great power competition ended, all the old ethnic hatred rose to the surface.
Strategic planning channels thinking. In today's world, nobody can be fully aware what the next issues will be. It is like running the rapids on a river. One cannot plan ahead but must rather be poised to take advantage of the currents and avoid the dangers of the snags. Organization for this type of activity is inevitably highly flexible.
Visionary thinking starts from the same assumptions. It defines what we hope to achieve and it highlights the questions to which we should be paying attention. Visionary thinking does not always aim to provide neat answers to questions knowing that there may not be any. And it reminds us again and again that it is the questions and issues we miss that are most dangerous. - - The ability to think creatively and realistically is the core skill for the twenty-first century.
Robert Theobald can be reached at 509 Conti, New Orleans, LA 70130, U.S.A. The above excerpts are from his 1994 talk to executives at the Planning Forum in New York City (published in his mailing of May 5, 1994 to his co-workers, pp. 8/9).
* * * * *
Beyond the Boundaries of the Humanly Comprehensible
Quotes from Max Payne's book review of Genius: Richard Feynman & Modern Physics by James Gleick (reviewed in The Scientific and Medical Network Newsletter [available from David Lorimer, Lesser Halings, Tilehouse Lane, Denham, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB9 5DG], Spring 1994, pp.73-75.):
Having passed the boundaries of the humanly comprehensible, quantum physics is now at the frontier of the experimentally verifiable. The latest theories may require the energy of a collapsing star to test them.
Perhaps only 200 people world-wide really understand quantum physics. Of those less than 20 are the great creative thinkers that advance the subject, and Feynman won his place in that elite of the elite by his bold speculative thinking, his originality, and his sheer exuberant zest to know.
Human genius is a problem. Just how are such exceptional abilities possible? It is appropriate that a book about Richard Feynman should raise a fundamental problem, as yet unsolved, which goes beyond the boundaries of the immediate subject. It is the merit of Gleick's book that it makes the reality of that genius clear.
THOUGHT IN ACTION
The Institute for Social Inventions, 20 Heber Road, London NW2 6AA, UK, promotes social inventions through a variety of methods. One of them is the publications of The Book of Visions: An Encyclopaedia of Social Innovations. Another one is an annual competition "with 1,000 Pounds in prizes for novel ideas and projects that will improve the quality of life or help restore a human scale to our society."
* * * *
The Institute for Bioregional Studies, 449 University Avenue, Suite 126, Charlottetown, P.E.I., Canada, CIA 8K3, offers programs to students whose motivations lead them to seek careers in environmental studies, teachers who wish to better inform their students and others desiring to pursue or enhance ecological lifestyles. Knowledge of economical land use ideas has been synthesized from a multitude of disciplines: ecological theory, biology, anthropology, sociology, landscape architecture, energy conservation, plus urban & rural planning. -- The "Bioregional" perspective means that our focus is on the design and evolution of interdependent and economically self-reliant communities. -- Graduate and undergraduate college credit is available. -- All programs are held at: Shades of Harmony Farm, North Kingston, Nova Scotia, Canada.
REFLECTIONS
In the presence of concern and responsibility, knowledge will lead us to the gates of heaven, in their absence to the gates of hell.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to thank Norma Sperry for extending her husband's permission to quote from his published work, Robert Theobald and the editors of TRANET for blanket permissions to use their publications freely, H.Newcombe for her original contribution, A.J. Wojciechowski for permission to quote from his article, R.Thompson for correcting the discussion of his book and permission to use excerpts from it, as well as David Lorimer and Max Payne for permission to use quotes from Payne's bookreview of Gleick's work on Feynman.
REFERENCES
Asimov (see: Hutcheon)
Crews, R. Modern Higher Education. San Rafael, CA: Columbia Pacific University Press, 1993.
Eckersley, R. The West's Deepening Cultural Crisis. The Futurist, November/December 1993, pp. 8-12.
Gleick, J. Genius: Richard Feynman & Modern Physics. Little, Brown & Co., 1992.
Hutcheon, P.D. The Legacy of Isaac Asimov. The Humanist, March/April 1993, pp.3-5.
Muller, R. The Birth of a Global Civilization. World Happiness and Cooperation, P.O.Box 1153, Anacortes, WA 98221, U.S.A.
Newcombe, H. -- Lonesome at the Brink. Original Contribution. Contact: Peace-Research Institute-Dundas, 25 Dundas Ave., Dundas, ON, L9H 4E5
Payne, M. [Bookreview of Gleick's Genius]. The Scientific and Medical Network Newsletter, Spring 1994.
Russell, B. Why I am not a Christian. (Ed. Paul Edward.) London: Unwin Paperbacks. 1957 (several subsequent reprints).
Sperry, R.W. Science and Moral Priority, New York: Columbia University Press. Republished by Praeger (now Greenwood), New York, 1985.
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