From Knowledge To Understanding

From Knowledge to Understanding Domagoj Juričić

from knowledge to understanding 1. navigations and returns 2. the future - why are we where we are? - where have we arrived? - where do we go from here? - welcome to extremistan! - top trends that will reshape the world Traveling through time

NAVIGATIONS AND RETURNS Why are we where we are?

Life is an unending sequence of bifurcations*. The decision I take, implies all the decisions I did not take. The route I choose, is part of all the routes I did not choose. Our life is inevitably a permanent choice of one among infinity of ontological possibilities. *Bifurcate - to divide into a two parts or branches.

Sometime during the XII century a young man named Giovanni Bernardone, while still very young and very rich, dedicated to radically change his life. As a result of his transformation, we remember him today as Francis of Assisi who spoke of brother Sun and sister Moon, of brother wolf, and of water, fire and trees, and people as brothers and sisters as well. The world he had described and felt was a world where love was not only possible but made sense and had a universal meaning.

Brilliant and astute Machiavelli warned us that: “It is much safer to be feared than to be loved”. By describing the world, in addition, he has created one. World we live today is not that of Francis. It is the world of Machiavelli. Francis was the route not navigated.

Francesco Pico della Mirandola Francis Bacon Giordano Bruno

“ Through my window, what I see, are hats and coats covering automatic machines”. We did not navigate the world of Giordano Bruno. Instead, we chose that of Descartes and we have witnessed the triumph of mechanism and reductionism.

FOR NEWTON, THE LANGUAGE OF NATURE IS MATHEMATICS. NOTHING IS IMPORTANT IN SCIENCE THAT CANNOT BE MEASURED. SCIENCE IS THE SUPREME MANIFESTATION OF REASON, AND REASON IS THE SUPREME ATTRIBUTE OF HUMAN BEING.

“ SCIENCE IS AS MUCH AN INNER PATH OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT AS IT IS A DISCIPLINE AIMED AT ACCUMULATING KNOWLEDGE OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD. IT INVOLVES NOT ONLY A RIGOROUS TRAINING OF OUR FACULTIES OF OBSERVATION AND THINKING, BUT ALSO OF OTHER HUMAN FACULTIES WHICH CAN ATTUNE US TO THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION THAT UNDERLINES AND INTERPENETRATES THE PHYSICAL: FACULTIES SUCH AS FEELING, IMAGINATION AND INTUITION. SCIENCE, AS GOETHE CONCEIVED AND PRACTICED IT, HAS AS ITS HIGHEST GOAL THE AROUSAL OF THE FEELING OF WONDER THROUGH CONTEMPLATIVE LOOKING ( Anschauung ), IN WHICH THE SCIENTIST WOULD COME TO SEE GOD IN NATURE AND NATURE IN GOD.” Jeremy Naydler, Goethe on Science, pg. 23, Floris Books, England, 2000

NAVIGATIONS AND RETURNS Where have we arrived?

WE HAVE ARRIVED AT A POINT IN OUR HUMAN EVOLUTION, THE CHARACTERISTIC OF WHICH IS THAT WE KNOW A LOT, BUT WE UNDERSTAND VERY LITTLE.

To know LOVE or To understand LOVE

NAVIGATIONS AND RETURNS Where do we go from here?

Welcome to the Sigmund Freud couch Mmmh, what do we have here?

You can access knowledge today from almost every place in the world. The whole knowledge literally at the palm of your hand. Technology offers us that, making us equal in assessing to the knowledge...

Leonardo Da Vinci was creative, but alone

Have you noticed how the cleverest people at school are not those who make it in life?

Fundamentally, nothing has changed except that business is changing much faster than educational system.

All children are born artists!

Sir Ken Robinson - internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity

THE FUTURE Welcome to Extremistan!

Competition is closer than it appears

SPEED - the rate of change will be blinding, comprehensive in scope, and will touch every aspect of your life. COMPLEXITY - a quantum leap in the number of seemingly unrelated forces that will have a direct bearing on everything from lifestyles to work to personal and national security. RISK - new risks, higher risks, and more threats from terror to crime to global economic upheaval will alter every aspect of your life. CHANGE - drastic adjustments in your work, community, and relationships will force you to adopt quickly to radical changes. SURPRISE - sometimes good, sometimes difficult to imagine, surprise will become a daily feature of your life, often challenging sensibility and logic. 5 Factors that will define The Extreme Future Source: Institute for Global Futures

Some past forecasts Information technology, especially Internet and wireless will become a strategic competitive weapon in business. Energy terrorism will emerge. DNA will be used for predictive health care, longevity, and security. There will be a decline in petro-reserves, leading to energy innovations and global conflict. There will be a revolution in molecular manufacturing - known as Nanotech. Products that think will emerge. There will be an explosive growth of the personal security market. The Clean Tech market will emerge, promoting social responsibility and profit. Knowledge talent must compete in a global innovation-based economy free from borders. Innovation will be a key future driver of prosperity, democracy, and wealt creation. Source: Institute for Global Futures

Mapping the Future Future map Anticipate Evolve Innovate Adapt

Mapping the Future: example Fueling the Future Options Issues End of Oil Nuclear Geopolitics Security Terrorism Solar Hydrogen BioFuels Wind Nano Tech

10 extreme innovations that will rock your world in 2025 Teleportation of objects around the planet. Specialized DNA for sale online. Space tourism to the Moon and Mars. 4 billion people doing e-commerce. Hydrogen engines for transportation. Cybernetic health enhancement of humans. Downloading memories and drugs. Domestic robots. Source: Institute for Global Futures

The World of 2040 90% of nations are democratic and enjoy free trade and open markets. Innovation is the key driver of global GDP growth, which tops 7% annually. Hunger and poverty are virtually eliminated, and innovation has raised the global standard of living through increased trade, better health care, and social services. Innovation industries are supported by online quality education that is free to all. Innovation has been a key force in establishing global peace and security. Innovations in media have enabled more cross-cultural understanding, reducing global tensions and conflict. Vibrant global trade enables billions of entrepreneurs to achieve wealth and self-reliance, and to invest in democratic reforms in their nations. Longer life and a marked increase in personal wealth and quality of life are available to all. Communications and the Internet are available to all nations and peoples. Source: Institute for Global Futures

Signs of the Innovation Economy One third of US GDP is already based on innovation industries. By 2015, more than two-thirds of US GDP and more than one-third of the world GDP will be based on innovation industries. IT drives more than two-thirds of labor productivity today. By 2015, innovation industries will dominate labor productivity worldwide. More than billion people are connected to the Internet today. By 2015, 3 billion people will be online. The nano-tech industry generates more than $10 billion today. By 2015, nano-tech will generate more than $1 trillion and employ one million workers. Total ICT spending worldwide is about $2 trillion today. By 2015, it will exceed $5 trillion. Where there is a high-tech penetration of computers, wireless, and Internet access, democratic societies thrive and economic productivity is robust. Source: Institute for Global Futures

The formula of the Innovation Economy I + C + D = P2 (Innovation + Capitalism + Democracy = Prosperity and Peace)

Top 10 Industries of the IE Pharma/Health Energy Manufacturing Communications Transportation Security Entertainment Media Education and Learning Knowledge Engineering Smart Materials Source: Institute for Global Futures

How to kill the future of your economy? Don’t invest in innovation, science or technology. Don’t develop, acquire, or protect intellectual property. Don’t fix the education system. Hold back on immigration. Stop training workers to invent innovation. Limit personal privacy. Allow terrorism and crime to persist. Don’t protect individual freedoms; no free press, no free trade. Create barriers to free enterprise.

Why education must change to prepare the future workforce The current education system has failed to complete its most vital and strategic mandate: preparing the workforce for the future. Education does not have the leadership, guts, or vision to reinvent itself. Most schools, kindergarten through college, are not in sync with changes in the marketplace - more competitive, more complex, more global, more innovation-driven. Teachers are not the problem. Pay teachers double and retain them for the Innovation Economy. Measure this performance, hire the best, and fire the slackers. Political leaders have lacked the courage to create Future-Ready national innovation curriculum: more science, more soul, more innovation, more high-tech, a more global outlook, more entrepreneurial skills. We are teaching kids about the past. We need to teach kids about the future. How to survive in the Extreme Future.

Headlines from the past: 1876 - 1943 “ The telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” Western Union internal memo, 1876 “ Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible” Lord Kelvin, Royal Society president, 1895 “ Everything that can be invented has been invented.” Charles H. Duell, US Office of Patents, 1899 “ Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” Harry M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927 “ I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

Global Disruptive Opportunities 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 Low Medium High Post Genomic Society On-Demand Wireless Broadband Terrorism Human Enhancement Pervasive Intelligence Peer to Peer Real-Time Knowledge Cyber-Human Smart Spaces Grid I-Marketplace Workforce Shortage Droids Hydrogen Colonize Space Designed Evolution Nano Economy Quantum

Extreme competition. Complex technology. Dynamic global trade. Increased population. Disruptive act of terrorism. Sophisticated crime. Climate risks. Expensive energy. This is the world of 2015. The world in 2015 will be an extreme future in which the overlapping of the above scenarios will demand insight, skills, collaboration, and leadership. The level of accelerated change and the complexity of challenges will be like snowboarding an avalanche from the top of Mt. Everest - intense, demanding, and fast. Maybe even lethal. And that’s the good news.

From Knowledge To Understanding

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