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   <div class="col-md-3"><h2>Roots of an emerging paradigm</h2></div>
 
   <div class="col-md-3"><h2>Roots of an emerging paradigm</h2></div>
 
<div class="col-md-7"><h3>What distinguishes academic knowledge</h3>
 
<div class="col-md-7"><h3>What distinguishes academic knowledge</h3>
<p>No rational person will claim that knowledge should not be useful. And yet there are good reasons why instructions in practical skills such as cooking and automobile repair – and sometimes even design and architecture – are not admitted to the university. Academic knowledge is the knowledge of principles; it is knowledge that is rigorously founded in time-tested academic methods and procedures. Our standards of excellence and ideas of what constitutes good or academic knowledge and knowledge work have been evolving since antiquity. They now find their foremost expression in science and philosophy.</p>
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<p>No rational person will claim that knowledge should not be useful. And yet there are good reasons why instructions in practical skills such as cooking and automobile repair – and sometimes even design and architecture – are not admitted to the university. Academic knowledge is the knowledge of principles; it is knowledge that is rigorously founded in time-tested academic methods and procedures.</p>
<p>We here look at the [[paradigm|<em>paradigm</em>]] modeled by [[knowledge federation|<em>knowledge federation</em>]] from its fundamental side. Although it may at first glance appear as a disruption or a revolution – we shall see that it is indeed a natural continuation or <em>evo</em>lution of the revolutionary processes that began in science a century ago. We shall see it as a way to <em>both</em> overcome the epistemological or fundamental incongruences that resulted from the earlier mentioned disruption (of the fundamental assumptions that underlie our practices)  – <em>and</em> develop an academic praxis that will give the people and the society exactly the kind of knowledge they now most vitally need! </p></div>
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<p>We here look at the [[paradigm|<em>paradigm</em>]] modeled by [[knowledge federation|<em>knowledge federation</em>]] from its fundamental side. Although it may at first glance appear as a disruption or a revolution – we shall see that it is indeed a natural continuation or <em>evo</em>lution of the revolutionary processes that began in science a century ago. We shall see it as a way to <em>both</em> overcome the epistemological or fundamental incongruences that resulted from from that disruption – <em>and</em> develop an academic praxis that will give us the information we need! </p></div>
 
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Revision as of 22:00, 14 August 2018

Roots of an emerging paradigm

What distinguishes academic knowledge

No rational person will claim that knowledge should not be useful. And yet there are good reasons why instructions in practical skills such as cooking and automobile repair – and sometimes even design and architecture – are not admitted to the university. Academic knowledge is the knowledge of principles; it is knowledge that is rigorously founded in time-tested academic methods and procedures.

We here look at the paradigm modeled by knowledge federation from its fundamental side. Although it may at first glance appear as a disruption or a revolution – we shall see that it is indeed a natural continuation or evolution of the revolutionary processes that began in science a century ago. We shall see it as a way to both overcome the epistemological or fundamental incongruences that resulted from from that disruption – and develop an academic praxis that will give us the information we need!


Ideograms

Not all images are worth one thousand words

But the ideograms are! They play a similar role in knowledge federation as mathematical formulas do in traditional science. An ideogram can condense a wealth of insights and many pages of text into an image whose message can be recognized at a glance. Recall the Newton's formula, or Einstein's ubiquitous E=mc² – those too are ideograms! But the possibilities behind the ideographic approach are endless, and they vastly surpass the conventional maths.

The creative possibilities of ideograms also surpass our illustrations – and are yet to be developed through creative use of new media.

The ideogram we are about to see next renders the essential ideas behind our initiative in a nutshell.


Toward well-directed creativity

Modernity ideogram

The Modernity ideogram provides a visual definition of knowledge federation as a paradigm.

Modernity.jpg
Modernity ideogram

Imagine us riding in a bus with candle headlights, through obscure and uncharted terrain, and at an accelerating speed. By representing our civilization as a bus, and our handling of information as its candle headlights, the Modernity ideogram points to a relationship between information or knowledge, and knowledge work, and our civilization. It also points to an incongruence. Strangely (aren't we living in the Age of Information?), information is the one centrally important thing that we've forgotten to modernize! To be meaningfully directed and sustainable, posits the Modernity ideogram, our movement into the future must be suitably informed. The knowledge work we have inherited will not fulfill that role. It has evolved based on an old principle of operation and technology, and for an entirely different purpose. A new approach to knowledge is needed, which combines the new purpose with new technology.

The Modernity ideogram is also a visual definition of some of our core keywords.

Design epistemology

The Design epistemology is a set of values that orient knowledge work, where information and knowledge are seen as a system within a system, and created and prioritized accordingly. This epistemological stance naturally leads to different set of academic priorities and values, where the most esteemed "basic research" is considered to be the kind of creative work whose goal is to create or update the creative work itself.

Knowledge federation

You may now easily understand knowledge federation as a prototype of a socio-technical 'light bulb'. You may understand our project as an initiative to create new 'headlights', and to put them to practical use. You may understand what's being presented here as a complete prototype of a socio-technical light bulb, and a proof of concept.

No sequence of improvements of the candle will produce the light bulb. Hence we created this prototype as a proof of concept. And we are now raising a banner within the academic tradition, where the 'light bulb' can continue to be developed and improved.

Systemic innovation

The headlights are just a tiny part of the bus. Their monetary value is negligible in comparison. And yet they will determine the actual value of the whole big thing! The design of the headlights will ultimately decide whether the bus ends up being a mass-suicide machine, or a vehicle of taking us safely to any place or condition where we may reasonably want to be.

We define systemic innovation as "innovation toward wholeness". Systemic innovation is the innovation whose goal is to secure the wholeness or the proper function of the system or systems in which what is being changed has a role.

Notice that systemic innovation points to a quite profound change of our values and priorities. It is a radical alternative to treating information, or anything else, as a commodity; to allowing our creative efforts to be steered by "shareholder value", or "market needs"; and to relying on "the invisible hand" to turn our narrowly conceived self-interest into common good

Guided evolution of society

The Modernity ideogram gives the now household term "sustainable development" a more pointed meaning – for which we have adopted Bela H. Banathy's keyword guided evolution of society. The ideogram points to the natural way to begin this new evolutionary course – namely by tailoring our information and knowledge work to this new evolutionary need.


How to transform a candle into a light bulb

Philosophy in pictures

"And what is the use of a book, thought Alice, without pictures or conversations." Here we'll turn the philosophical ideas that knowledge federation is based on into pictures. And in Federation through Conversations we'll also begin a conversation about this matter.

Click on the name of the ideogram to open the document where the reversal or the practice is justified and explained by pointing to core insights of giants.

Reversing the power source

The Mirror ideogram points to the possibility of reversing the conventional ideas about the purpose of knowledge work – and the fundamental assumptions and values that follow from it. The technical keyword for our theme is epistemology.

"On every university campus there is a mirror – although, busy with our article deadlines and courses, we do not normally see it," reads the explanation of this ideogram. "When we see ourselves in the mirror, we see the same world that we see around us. But we also see ourselves in the world." The mirror here symbolizes the insights reached in 20th century's science and philosophy, which challenged the age-old belief that our purpose in knowledge work is to describe the reality "objectively", i.e. as it truly is.

As the case is in Louis Carroll's familiar story, it is possible to walk right through the mirror! And when one does, one finds himself in an entirely different academic reality. As in the story, this new reality is in a number of ways a reverse image of the reality we've grown accustomed to.

Magical Mirror.jpg
Mirror ideogram

Reversing the principle of operation

The reversal pointed to by the Polyscopy ideogram is of the supposition that to be "academic" or "scientific", we must adhere to the hereditary terminology and methods of an established academic discipline.

Our design team simplified this ideogram by deleting the eye that was originally on the left-hand side of each of the conic tubes, to suggest that they represent "ways of looking" or scopes. The message is that when we've understood that any language and method are our own, human creation, and that they limit what we are able to see and communicate, it becomes natural to adjust them so that we may see more, and see what needs to be seen.

We show how in the creative space on other side of the mirror it is possible to create a general-purpose methodology – which allows us "to direct the mind so that it brings solid and true judgments about everything that presents itself to it", as already Descartes observed that we should.

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Polyscopy.jpg
Polyscopy ideogram

Reversing the outreach

The Science on a Crossroads ideogram points to the possibility to reverse the narrow and technical focus in the sciences – and create general insights and principles about any theme that matters.

The Science on a Crossroads ideogram depicts the point in the evolution of science when it was understood that the Newton's concepts and "laws" were not parts of the nature's inner machinery that he discovered – but Newton's own creation, and an approximation. Two directions of growth opened up to science. One direction was "downward" – to fix the "Newton's Laws" by making the concepts and the formulas less intuitive but more correct. The other direction, "upward", was to do in all walks of life what Newton did in physics – create approximate but precise-enough concepts and models, which can vastly improve our understanding of the most relevant issues, and suitably redirect our action. The sequence of scientists "converging to zero" in the ideogram suggests that only the "downward" option was followed.

Crossroads.jpg
Science on a Crossroads ideogram

Reversing the structure

The Information ideogram points to the kind of information that knowledge federation aims to produce. Or metaphorically, to what 'light' of the 'light bulb' should be like.

The “i” in this image, composed of a circle on top of a square, points to the "pieces of information" that are the aim of knowledge federation. The square stands for the technical and detailed low-level information. It stands for examining a theme or an issue from every angle. The circle stands for the general and immediately accessible high-level information. To be complete, information must have both. Without the 'dot on the i', without the high-level view, suggests this ideogram, the information is incomplete and ultimately pointless!

Information.jpg
Information ideogram

Reversing the function

The Holarchy ideogram points to the knowledge federation as a process – and to the kind of knowledge that this process aims to produce.

It follows from the fundamentals we've just outlined that (when our goal is to inform the people) knowledge federation will do its best to federate knowledge according to relevance – and adapt its choice of scope to that task. The rationale is that "the best available" knowledge is better than no knowledge. And so knowledge, and information, are envisioned to exist as a holarchy – where the low-level "pieces of information" or holons serve as side views for creating high-level insights. Where multiple and even contradictory views are allowed to co-exist. And where – through the process of federation – the messages and the relative values of those pieces are continuously negotiated.

Knowledge federation as an approach to IT innovation

It is worth emphasizing that this approach – where we begin from underlying principles and goals and societal needs to determine what information needs to be like – is an interesting alternative to conventional IT innovation, which tends to be confined to implementing in new technology what the people are already doing.

Holarchy.jpg
Holarchy ideogram

See also

A way to change course

The Modernity ideogram is suggesting that when proper 'headlights' are put in place, 'the bus' will naturally change its course. Is this really the case? And if it is – in what way may this realistically be expected to happen? This of course is the key question, to which much of our knowledge federation prototype is meant to be an answer. By redirecting knowledge work, and innovation, the Modernity ideogram is of course itself part of the answer. But there are also quite a few others. Examining the Convenience Paradox ideogram (which points to a redirection of our pursuit of happiness) and the Power Structure ideogram (which points to a redirection of our pursuit of social justice or democracy) might already provide a sufficient clue.

A broader yet more solid foundation for truth and meaning

A good place to begin might be the blog post Return to Reason. This blog post is an explanation of the historicity of our conventional academic standards and practices (that they are not eternal ways to truth, but a product of specific circumstances and historical incidents that gave them their present shape) – which builds upon an expert opinion (Stephen Toulmin, whose book "Return to Reason" is surveyed and commented in the blog post, was a reputed philosopher of science). The book manuscript Informing Must be Designed (whose introduction is open but whose chapters need to be unlocked with the password "Dubrovnik") introduces the methods and techniques of polyscopy, and then applies them to justify the claim made in its title (which is the same as the main message of the Modernity ideogram). Chapter 4 introduces a novel way of understanding the power and politics – and shows why the new approach to knowledge is a necessary part of our "societal immune system". A more recent presentation of the foundations and method of polyscopy titled "What might play the role of Copernicus" (hear this recording while viewing these slides) is a play on the theme of another metaphor, Archimedes claim that he could "move the world" if he'd be given a lever and "a firm place to stand". An approach to knowledge is described that is capable of 'moving' our social and cultural world (a task to which we must give priority, now that we've acquired to "move" our physical world, albeit not always in the best possible way...).