A different way to see

Having proposed knowledge federation as an approach to knowledge that answers to contemporary needs of people and society – or metaphorically, as a 'pair of lightbulbs' that can replace our outdated 'candles' – we are now developing the Holotopia prototype as a proof of concept application.

So imagine that you have in your hand a strong electrical searchlight, which you may point at any issue or theme in order to see it in a new light, see it as a whole, see its correct shape and proportions. What issue would you point it to? What new insight would you expect to reach as result?

Owning the way we see the world

We say "no thanks" to yet another report about Donald Trump's latest mischief. The knowledge federation begins with a conscious and creative choice of the theme; and of the way in which we look at that theme. That's what this keyword, scope, stands for.

The scope of Holotopia

The scope of Holotopia is the nature of our contemporary condition as a whole. We want to grasp what's going on in our time – in a way that empowers us to set our priorities and to act in accordance with the situation we are in.

The task to federate whatever data might be relevant for making us functionally informed might seem daunting. But we use knowledge federation to make that work, and its results, extremely simple: We identify five insights in five pivotal areas of interest, which are alone sufficient to show us our situation in a completely new light.

But seeing and comprehending our situation is not the Holotopia's final end, but only its beginning. An insight is not federated before it has become part of our collective awareness. Before it's reflected in the way we act. And most importantly – before it is reflected in the social-systemic structures that organize us in action. Which socialize us to see and act in a certain way.

It is that change that is the Holotopia's final end. Holotopia is a co-creative strategy game, in which artists, scientists, collective intelligence activists, educational innovators... collaborate to change our collective mind.

There is an elephant in the room

There is an elephant in the room, which we have, incredibly, failed to notice!

The elephant becomes visible as soon as we begin to connect the dots.

Before we see the elephant, we might hear our visionary thinkers talk about "the fan", the "hose" and the "rope" – and ignore what they say and the relevance of it completely. But when we catch a glimpse of this fascinating large whole – then suddenly all the specific ideas begin to make a whole new sense. The knowledge we already own acquires a whole new meaning; and the power to make a difference.

In this way we also change what the "news" means; and what being "informed" is all about. We change it all the way from a myriad spectacular daily events – which are seen and then forgotten – to a slow yet substantial development; which invites us to become engaged, and make a difference.

A new social order is ready to manifest

Our situation is – as we suggested in our website's opening – closely similar as the one four centuries ago, when Galilei was in house arrest. A new way to think and speak is ready to emerge, and lead to comprehensive change. What will the new order of things be like? That's what the hologopia as keyword really stands for.

Beyond the utopia

As a vision of a societal new order of things, the holotopia differs from the common utopias by being far more congenial, and at the same time practically perfectly realizable. Even easily realizable! It is more congenial, because the authors of common utopias lacked the data to see what was really possible, or conceived their visions when the possibilities we have today did not yet exist. And it is readily realizable because we already own all the knowledge that is required for making it real.

The mission of the Holotopia prototype is to explicate the holotopia vision, and to orchestrate its fulfillment.

Making a difference

What difference will this make?

It will redirect our efforts. Make them incomparably more effective. Instead of struggling to solve problems within the existing order of things, or "by thinking as we did when we created them" – we change our very thinking; and we change the order of things by which the problems are being created. Changing the paradigm involves rebuilding, from the foundations up, not fixing.

What makes the holotopia particularly attractive is a paradox:

Comprehensive change can be easy – even when smaller and obviously necessary changes may seem impossible.

Living in the Renaissance

Perhaps even more importantly, this changes by 180^o the tone of our engagement with the future. And also with our present: from avoiding risks, to fulfilling opportunities. It is the Renaissance time we are living in! And although most of us may not live experience its final results – it is now, it is before the fulfillment, that the creative opportunities are the largest.

We federate a giant

To make the federation of each of our insights concrete and engaging, we conceive it as a federation of a vision of a leading 20^th century thinker.

To emphasize that the holotopia is evidence-based, that we are only federating knowledge, we show how each of our main insights, including the overall insight that holotopia stands for, results by federating an insight of a leading 20th century thinker or giant. From the dazzling array of spectacular events, composing our broken worldview, an assortment of a handful of core insights emerges, arranged together harmoniously into a big-picture view.

Holotopia's icon is Aurelio Peccei

We consider the giant that corresponds to an insight to be the icon for the insight. The icon for holotopia is Aurelio Peccei.

Based on a decade of The Club of Rome's research into the future prospects of mankind, Peccei was led to conclude

It is absolutely necessary to find a way to change course.

Peccei also left us the following more detailed instruction, how the course is to be changed:

Let me recapitulate what seems to me the crucial question at this point of the human venture. Man has acquired such decisive power that his future depends essentially on how he will use it. However, the business of human life has become so complicated that he is culturally unprepared even to understand his new position clearly. As a consequence, his current predicament is not only worsening but, with the accelerated tempo of events, may become decidedly catastrophic in a not too distant future. The downward trend of human fortunes can be countered and reversed only by the advent of a new humanism essentially based on and aiming at man’s cultural development, that is, a substantial improvement in human quality throughout the world.

We are still only warming up. In its developed form, the Holotopia will have five transformative spaces – implemented both online and offline, as virtual spaces and as transformative situations involving with concrete people and in real places – through which its mission will be fulfilled.

The fireplace

The fireplace is the dialog space. We engage everyone's collective intelligence. The fire is always burning. May just drop in. Or schedule regular meetings, to deepen the understanding of a theme, or to co-create a project.

The library

Our dialogs will be knowledge-based. The library will provide the access to underlying insights. Venues to explore them further.

The workshop

We co-create prototypes.

The gallery

We exhibit earlier developed prototypes.

The stage

We stage events. Transformative. Informative. Interventions.

A single principle

We show how the entire hologopia vision follows from a single, obvious principle or axiom: That knowledge must be federated. That we cannot just ignore what we don't understand. That what we think and do must reflect the knowledge we own.

We can say now, simply, that holoscope leads to holotopia. That when we begin to see things as wholes – we become ready to also make them whole!.

A single value

We show that aall of hologopia follows also from applying a single value – the value of wholeness. And it's an obvious value, anyhow!

A single insight

So a single insight emerges straight away, and serves as the guiding light for all the rest: We get to see our own time in a similar light as we may now see the zeitgeist in Galilei's time. At the twilight of the Middle Ages, and the dawn of the Enlightenment. ...

Holotopia and knowledge federation

In the spirit of knowledge federation, we offer holotopia as "the point of it all" – or technically as the circle in the information holon in which the knowledge federation prototype is the square.

We show that holotopia follows as soon as we begin to federate knowledge. And we show that knowledge federation is the core action that follows from the holotopia insight – and each of the specific five insights that lead to this large and basic one.