Societal Reimagination: Contextual Intelligence
In a network, your practices and options, increasingly moving beyond tether: Intelligence Augmentation, Resilience and Value Evolution.
Identity, Connectivity, Scarcity: Context
In a network, the formal, horizontal aspect of a working network — meaningful connectivity, story and data, data and story — is guided by an underlying informal aspect, that in China is understood as guanxi.
story and data; data and story
Informal Conversations; Knowledge Co-creation
Engaging in a conversation is such a common pattern we often overlook its importance and treat it as a given. It is not at all a “natural” thing to do even in a f2f context and in a digital environment it remains only partially the same, while acquiring whole new dimensions.
the media is the assemblage
Card: Practical Wisdom
Holding generative space,
cultivating and stewarding
a requisite variety of paths
between situational awareness
and preferable outcomes.
“The technique of invention was the discovery of the nineteenth [century], brought on by the adoption of fixed points of view and perspective by typography, while the technique of the suspended judgment is the discovery of the twentieth century, brought on by the bard abilities of radio, movies and television.”
— Marshall McLuhan
The Five Hundred Year Cycle
18C
The technique of civilized warfare, enabled by nation-states in a context of imagined sovereignty. The Rational Mind. Information and its injunctions—aka the square borders, the rule of the dominant frame. The go, West, with impunity.
19C
The technique of invention, enabled by perspectives and viewpoints in a context of industry. The Western Mind. Information and its missives — aka the cognitive conquest. The progress.
20C
The technique of the suspended judgement, enabled by (mass, massage) media in a context of divestment from fixed points. The no longer all that Western Mind. Information and its miscreants. The cognitive flux. The process.
21C
The technique of unfoldment of systems intelligence, enabled by practical wisdom in a context of existential confusion. The local *and* planetary plenitude mind. Information and its modular building blocks. The cognitive leaps of movement and trust; trust and movement. The emergent, unfolding, evolving structures, in service to one trillion trees, one million villages and one thousand eco-cities.
22C
The techniques of anticipatory intelligence and autopoietic ability, co-evolving, enabled by attention turned situational awareness. The mindful, cultivating, stewarding, mattering networked minds. Information and its contextual intelligence and relevance. The cognitive wherewithal. The thriving, local and planetwide, no longer all that unevenly distributed, flows.
intelligence and currencies, co-evolving
Amy Webb, founder of the Future Today Institute and professor of strategic foresight at New York University, commented,
“In 2018, there are nine companies (which I call the Big 9) that control the future of humanity, because they are building the future of artificial intelligence. Over the next five decades, we will see widespread consolidation in the fields of AI and digital platforms.
trade convenience for choice
We’ll trade convenience for choice and find that we have far fewer options for everything, from how fast to drive in our cars to which restaurants we’ll choose for dinner.
Our professional and personal lives will be tethered to a provider — likely Amazon or Google — which will maintain and run our smart homes, hospitals, schools, city infrastructure and offices.
speed at the expense of wise
We will probably see a vast new digital divide: The wealthiest among us will have the privilege to remain anonymous if they choose, while everyone else will submit to continual surveillance for marketing and business intelligence.
Importantly, during the next five decades, America will have fallen far behind China, primarily because of China’s long-term, comprehensive AI strategy and its integration into other state-level initiatives. In the U.S. commercial interests are what propel AI, platforms and digital media.
no room for critical questions, nor democracy
The interests of for-profit companies don’t necessarily align with the best interests of democracy, our country or humanity. With significant investment in these fields, there is tremendous pressure to generate commercial products and services, and the speed required doesn’t leave room to ask critical questions about a technology’s impact on individuals, communities or our society.
If we do not change the developmental track of AI in the present, the probability of negative scenarios will increase during the next 50 years. Collectively, we fetishize the future. Few are actively mapping longer-term outcomes, and that is a big mistake.”
