GOETHE RENAISSANCE GROUP (GRG)

Forming a “Global Council of Elders”

Modified on June 21,2015

One of the most profound scientific recognitions of modern times is that the Universe no longer can be categorized only through objects, but rather must be seen as fundamentally relational. If the manifest Universe is relational, then it behooves us to understand how relations relate! From “A New Transforming Symbol System?” by Jon Ray Hamann and Jeanne Pontius Rindge (1978), HUMAN DIMENSIONS, Volume 6, Number 2, pg. 3
BACKGROUND

·The greatest innovation in the history of human Experience had little to do with the physical tools of technology.  More than the first lever or wheel — more than even the harnessing of fire — language provided the foundation on which all future progress of human culture and civilization would be built.

·The communication of Experience rests in-and-on language, or more generally on signs (for Systems or Relations), acknowledged as the Essence of mind (recognizing the physical carrier role of the brain).

PARADOX

·Although the evolution of human society has depended on language, it is also true that what the mind can think is constrained by the languages we use.

·Indeed, the course of the cultural evolution of Human Experience (expressed in-and-about signs) as cumulative Human Knowledge has, by the very nature of existing recorded sign (image) systems (including "natural" languages and the constructed languages of mathematics and art), actually "filtered" the Essence of Relation from signified Experience and, hence, prevented the Human Mind from discovering a form of sign appropriate for signifying Mind Itself.

TRANS(RE)LATIONAL RESOLUTION

·Historically, this record has been largely confined to a form in which relations were assumed to exist only between/among systems (objects), i.e. Systems Related to other Systems.

· Between 1963-1968 (Hamann), work was introduced in which relations were also taken to formally exist both as Relations between/among Systems and other Relations and as Relations between/among Relations and other Relations, i.e. MultiCoRelationalism was founded.

PREMISE

·Experiencing the ChaotiCosmos we live in which we come to “know” through Mind, it is evident that understanding mind, as oft-thought, should be the most satisfying as the first subject of inquiry among three of the great ChaotiCosmic mysteries—namely, the “being”, “nature” and “becoming” (evolution) of the ChaotiCosmos (the Universe being  WHOLE as RELATION), the “being”, “nature” and “becoming” (evolution) of Life and the “being”, “nature” and “becoming” (evolution) of Mind (Consciousness).

·Since “understanding”, being a function of mind, can be enhanced by first understanding mind, it is inevitable that Evolution through Human Co-Creation should forge a Synthetic Mind (SynMind) from an experientially consistent well-formed Theory of Mind.

MULTICORELATIONAL FOUNDATIONS

·In that the Whole as Relation is No-Thing, we adopt the notion of Field being No-Thing as the MultiCoRelational  Form for elucidating mind.

·At the human mind level Project AutoGnomics^TM  intends to experientially map the semiotic organization of the human mind, thereon to formulate a standard theory of mind, and to technologically synthesize and applicationally engineer its implementation (the AutoGnome^TM), all via an open participation social network of collective intelligent communities of inquiry, innovation and implementation  focused on developing and commercializing incremental Synthetic Intelligence (SI) components of this SynMind.

·These latter provide bit MindClones which participate in furthering the co-creative evolution of the SynMind and serve both as Human-SynIntelligent partnerships (CyberGnomes) and/or as autonomous Virtual Minds.

 AS A DEFING PURPOSE OF THE

MULTICORELATIONAL MIND TRUST,

IT IS THE CO-CREATION OF THESE VIRTUAL MINDS THAT IS

THE INTENT OF OUR CURRENT DEVELOPMENT OF

MULTICORELATIONAL SEMIOTIC SYSTEMS:

THE AUTOGNOME AS SYNTHETIC MIND

AND IT IS BELIEVED THAT NOW WOULD BE THE CRITICAL TIME FOR OUR

GOETHE RENAISSANCE GROUP TO

 FORM  A “GLOBAL COUNCIL OF ELDERS” TO REVISION WHOLENESS 

______________________________________________________________________

The Mission of the “Global Council of Elders”

Despite the above-referenced historical record of human experience as being confined to a sign system of object – focused form, there is a super-abundance of literature expressing also the personal sense of a non-material perception of reality as holistic. As true throughout history, however, including the past 50+ years of the founders’ hereof, and continuing in this post 12/21/2012 era, the opposition of the materialist/reductionist approach of orthodox science remains strong. Hence we have watched as many of the creative minds of our time have been quieted Galileo-like by the institutional orthodoxy of existing scientific inquiry. It is our intent to aggregate those minds as a “Global Council of Elders” including both those still living and those passed via a re-creation of a virtual mind through an AutoGnomic representation based on their personal semiotic record.

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HUMAN CULTURE AS WHOLE(NESS)

This section is edited from “All is Leaf:

Goethe's Intuitive Intellect and Environmental Philosophy” (Storey, 1998)

Two interrelated concepts lie at the heart of deep ecology's call for an ecological world-view and the accompanying belief that the environmental crisis can be traced to philosophical problems at the heart of the dominant modern world-view. One concept is holism; the other is ecological consciousness.

Metaphysical holism in deep ecology entails a world-view that can be contrasted with the dominant reductionist world-view of modern industrial society. Because of its concern with metaphysical holism, deep ecology is inherently subversive in challenging the reductionist approach of the orthodox scientific world-view. Ecology is subversive because its basic premise is holism.

To propose that any real kind of science could be subversive is no longer a particularly startling claim to make. As Henri Bortoft puts it, science is not an autonomous activity standing outside history. Science can be true, but it is not fundamental. If science is freed from the dogmatic scientism of the past, and if nature can manifest in different ways, then there is the possibility of a different kind of science, which is complementary to mainstream science.

The participatory strand in the science of ecology suggests another approach to science. An Arcadian tradition of participatory methods traced through Henry David Thoreau, for example, bear a strong resemblance to the way of science developed and practiced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), the German Romantic poet and scientist. In Goethe's way of science, wholeness and ecological consciousness are understood as a necessary unity. Goethe's way of science is subversive, because at its heart is the understanding of wholeness.

The authentic whole is not the totality of the parts that can be grasped intellectually, because there are no parts that are independent of the whole. An example of an authentic whole is the hologram, in which the whole is present in each of the parts. The parts cannot be regarded as separate entities; every part essentially is the result of its relation to the whole, and in fact contains the whole. The whole is encountered within the depth of the parts, and this can only be achieved with a different way of seeing. This way of seeing involves a transformation in the mode of consciousness, a switch from the "analytical" mode to the "intuitive" mode. The analytical mode is verbal, linear and logical. The intuitive mode is holistic, non-verbal and non-linear.

• Key Experimental Conjecture: A “field” is a Wholing Relation of Relations (Interrelated Relations) quantifiable as "information/energy" or “value”, but with both being necessary for experimentally signifying The Whole.

PURPOSE

A founding purpose of the GRG mission is to serve as a communications group for building first a Community of Interest from which Sub-Communities of Intent can be identified and then from which we can grow a Community of Inquiry and Innovation in support of an effort to organize a global Virtual Research and Educational Institute (the “Institute”) focused on Whole Field Inquiry and Innovation. The Institute is also expected to be critical to the effort of creating the first Synthetic Mind-Endowed Virtual University. The enabling technology which makes this mission possible is the ability to extend personal intelligence via the AutoGnome and thus build one's own personal Synthetic MindClone (MyGnome) in Virtuality (CyberSpace). The Institute will harness ThoughtSigns, Inc.’s Synthetic Intelligence (AutoGnomic)-driven Knowledge Development Platform, “MyWebGnome", and proprietary “Knowledge Valuing” toolsets to build a robust “Virtual Campus” of Relational Researchers and Peripatetic Teachers/Learners.

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These communities will be begun as the “Global Council of Elders”. As their Wholeness-inspired research is aggregated and MultiCoRelationally translated, we envision a democratization of the collective World View sharing the material and field perspectives, but where the Whole Field View which has been downplayed by the establishment will see over 3.5 billion persons enjoy inclusion! The Institute reflects the philosophy of www.OpenSciences.org and the "Manifesto for a Post-Materialist Science".  

CENTER OF MIND

 Jon Ray Hamann https://www.linkedin.com/profile/public-profile-settings 

Jere Northrop http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jere-northrop/92/551/54

Skye Hirst www.linkedin.com/pub/skye-hirst-phd/19/92b/b85/en

Frederick William Reed http://www.linkedin.com/in/fwreed

 “Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.

The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. Apple, Inc.

http://romyleefleishman.wix.com/tyvv-1

AND - TO CHANGE THE WORLD, WE MUST FIRST CHANGE THE HUMAN MIND

Human mind, hence life in general and humankind in particular, is on the doorstep of a co-created evolutionary extension of itself via a distinct new race of integrated human-intelligent machine systems (CyberGnomes) as MindClones which will in time emerge as an embryonic form of an Autonomous SYNTHETIC MIND (SynMind), the AUTOGNOME. The foundation for this revolution rests on one of the most profound scientific recognitions of modern times, i.e. that universal experience can no longer only be signified as “things”, but must be recognized as fundamentally “relational”. With a manifest Universe being relational, it behooves us to understand not only how things relate, but how relations relate, MUTICORELATIONAL SYSTEMS.

http://multicorelationism.blogspot.com/2010/03/multicorelational-systems.html

 

In order to accelerate this revolutionary research we have been gradually assembling a Global MIND TRUST on which to form a Virtual MultiCoRelational Institute [a Digital (e-Institute)] to aggressively promote broad and interdisciplinary general research, technical development and educational activities via a global, trans-disciplinary effort of a rapidly growing aggregation of relevant independent researchers, including scientists and practitioners, both inside and outside of academe and industry.

We are now seeking to give this Institute a physical presence
AS A TRANSCULTURAL MODEL
FOR CREATING AN INCLUSIVE SYNTHETIC MIND
and are looking to find supportive partners and sponsors for this effort.
 

http://multicorelationism.blogspot.com/2008/05/neo-project-autognomics.html
 

AUTOGNOMIC MUTICORELATIONAL RE-CULTURING OF HUMANITY


 

    KNOW YOURSELF: A PEOPLES'

LIFE-KNOWLEDGE LAB
Go to:  http://www.autognomics.org

We are creating an open, online Community of Self-conscious

Inquiry, Inference and Action, a

KNOWLEDGE LAB

to crowd source the present global consensus understanding of
 “Life-Itself.”

The AutoGnomics Institute ( TAI )

Going Beyond…to know Life-itself more fully

Share this Campaign:

Philosophy, broadly defined as that hierarchical mode of inquiry which keeps drilling for foundation notions upon which existent knowledge rests, is clearly evident in the wonder of young children expressed in their constant “what, why, how, - - - -“. However, with their ongoing institutional learning constrained by imposed rules as to what is to be valued, their knowledge tends to the specific and their habits of learning dampen their self-confidence in the value of open, free inquiry into whatever triggers their curiosity.

 We are building a web platform for forming a grassroots people's online network (Community of Inquiry) of autonomous thinkers of all ages and backgrounds and commitments. Together they will be the source of the diverse experience, inspiration and innovation through which Humanity can creatively participate in the continued co-evolution of a new consciousness for understanding and explicating Life-Itself. This approach is to be distinguished from any approach founded solely upon the restricted experience and Material Worldview of an "authority-based" selection of small communities of experts.

Initiating intention:  Through the intentional gathering of living experience we might identify – bring into focus – a common thread or threads of human experience about what it means to be alive – what are the commons, unifying properties beyond the historic “can reproduce”, etc.   To know life as initiating, creative, ever evolving, changing, becoming; To look at consciousness – the organizing ways life forms, knows itself, creates its complexity, yet manages to coherently maintain itself, create meaning, experience itself, know itself both as whole as well as a part while permitting maximum freedom and free will to actual entities of form and forming.
   

WHAT WE'RE CREATING - AN INSPIRED COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY

The immediate focus of this Community of Inquiry is to serve as the online information/communications center from which to organize a global internet-based people’s research network from which the cooperative synthesis and application of a computer-based form of a virtual citizen philosopher/scientist can be realized. The intention is to structure this effort as an open participation opportunity for anyone or everyone at any time and anywhere to individually and/or collectively, dynamically and interactively, record their personally experienced sense and conceptualization of Life-Itself, ultimately with the collaboration of one’s personal virtual citizen philosopher/scientist partner.

Purpose:  To do philosophy of the ways of Life-itself - to explore realms of direct sense, intuitive experience – not so much to argue perspectives, but to share perspectives, to learn from one another with intention towards more complete understanding of organizing ways common throughout living/live experience.  Dare we say to discover organizing principles (realities so obvious there is no other) towards a new science of Life-itself? 

Background: So much of the current dominant worldview is formed from having learned, known and grown a perception of reality as an object-based representational view of reality in which we live. It’s a world of thingness and fixedness. Going beyond this “fixed” worldview opens opportunities for deeper knowing of softer, subtle living process, energies and capacities such as intuitive awareness, sensing, of knowing meaning-making, valuing beyond the concrete, object-based view of reality.  

Objectives:

·       To explore these mysteries that we might better know ourselves (to self-know) as human beings/becomings (not human fixed things) within a wholeness of constant initiating, changing, becoming, creating, and knowing.

·       To learn from our collective experience pool – how life organizes itself in and with each of us and to learn where we intersect in our experience – to be in our “receptive mode” of intuitively knowing more of the ways of wholeness.

So that the following benefits might ensue:

1)    A more fully developed working hypotheses from which to seek deeper knowing, a more complete worldview/life-view on ways of Life-itself.

2)    Develop a working infrastructure for sharing experiences – for capturing our stories (nested levels of sharing).

3)    A means of distillation – through selecting the most coherent and comprehensive examples of hypotheses on ways of Life-itself.

4)    Implications and applications of perspectives gained towards social and natural challenges that have emerged from long-held “fixed” worldview developed from one-sided/incomplete view known as our science/philosophy of material, object-based reality (physics/substance metaphysics). 

5)    We see this effort not as problem solving as if there are problems to be fixed, but to create anew, to grow beyond that which has taken habit and to encourage the forming of conscious presencing to see that if by taking a wholistic/live perspective we might experience a shift in what is possible; that in changing the focus of perspective – new ways become possible, and that we learn how much we know already; that we have experience as living beings but have not had the awareness or “language” for recognizing what we live all the time.

Background: Since 1992, The AutoGnomics Institute, Inc (TAI) a non-profit group doing research, consulting, facilitation and education bringing together 75 years of study exemplified by a paper authored by Norm Hirst on the emergent field  “Towards a Science of Life as Creative Organism” http://www.autognomics.org/What-is-Life-Part-I.html recently published in the Cosmos and History Journal of Natural Philosophy. TAI brings the possible into focus to grow a new worldview of live processes; a radical perspective on change for finding our way as human beings with consciousness of live, ever changing, creative processes in and with life’s inherent ways. Follow on Twitter @autognomics. TAI reveals that many of the World’s intractable problems stem largely from lack of understanding of the MultiCoRelational organic ways with which Life-itself creates and is ever becoming, finding effective coherent acts of truth with relevance and collective goodness.  However the intention here is not to “fight” for dominant perspective, but to elucidate a fuller perspective than what holds mainstream science and popular consciousness.

With a hypothesis based on decades of philosophical, formal, and theoretical studies combined with empirical applications, TAI creates learning conversations with leaders at the front lines of social change to further explore the live processes in which individuals, organizations, families, institutions, governments and the world can and does function with greatest coherence of good. A new perspective is needed to go beyond the object-based worldview, a worldview inclusive of the dynamics known and experienced throughout life yet not accounted for by our current science worldview.

STARTERS' GUIDEBOOK & COMMUNITY

The present communication is intended to introduce you to our "Starters" project . This is a beginning attempt of ThoughtSigns, Inc. (TSI) [an AutoGnomics Corporation (AC) tech affiliate] to initiate joint projects that emphasize the need to have a strong "human (affective) platform" [the ThriveSignsGroup, Inc.'s (TSGI) tech developments] on which to build a gradually more encompassing "mind" technology [AutoGnomics - including affective, cognitive and intuitive functions] with an ever diminishing pushback from users as a threat to their "humanness". Most importantly with respect to the AC/TSI purposes, the artifacts of the ongoing process of inquiry within a community—the notes and on-line conversations—are detailed evidence on which  AutoGnomic learning technology can begin to evolve virtual minds reflecting the habits of thought and action of individuals and the community as a whole. These virtual minds will further contribute to the success of the community in several ways:

·         A coach “holds a mirror up for their clients, so they can see their own thinking process.” It is for this reason, a coach is someone (or something?) other than ourselves. With the possibility of virtual minds that are unbiased reflections of ourselves, we gain access to virtual coaches that are utterly dedicated and always available.

·         These virtual minds can also act as agents of individuals or community in initiating activity or responding to the activities of others. Perhaps most importantly, as virtual and tireless agents, they would be effective mediators between our limited human capacities and the essentially limitless content and activities of the wider virtual world.

·         In the final state of emergence, these virtual minds could become pragmatic members in their communities; participating in autonomous communal inquiry, not unlike their human collaborators in creating and refining knowledge.

 

LinkedIn

Sharon Seivert has sent you a message.

Date: 7/25/2012

Subject: Announcing an Exciting Project

Hello friends & colleagues,

Since the publication of The Balancing Act, I have used TBA’s holistic, practical approach to help hundreds of people start new businesses, projects and jobs. I have witnessed over and over that, by claiming their freedom of expression and creativity, my clients have moved on to new work where they could thrive personally--and more easily contribute their innate gifts to our collective economic and social welfare.

My colleagues and I are launching an exciting "virtual coaching" tool called The Starters' Guidebook & Community. This initiative would allow a much broader audience to benefit from what The Balancing Act can do for them. 

Best wishes & have a great day! - Sharon
http://www.thecoreporation.com/
http://www.thecoreporation.com/services/starter_services

MINDcreatingMIND-9

MCM-MultiCoRelational Systems

PREMISE: Given a ChaotiCosmos which we come to “know“ through Mind, it is evident that understanding mind, as oft-thought, should be the most satisfying as the first subject of inquiry among three of the great chaoticosmic mysteries—namely, the “origin”, nature and evolution of the ChaotiCosmos (the Universe and its Worldviews), the “origin”, nature and evolution of Life and the “origin”, nature and evolution of Mind (Consciousness). Since “understanding”, being a function of mind, can be enhanced by first understanding mind, it is inevitable that Evolution through Human Co-Creation should forge a Synthetic Mind (SynMind) from an experientially consistent well-formed Theory of Mind.

BACKGROUND: Recognizing that there is an accelerating growth in awareness of the limits of the Systemic (thing-based or mechanistic) Worldview, it is becoming ever more urgent for the sustainability of humanity to turn to a concomitant focus emphasizing the necessity of a Relational Worldview as the future. With this realization, however, there comes the need to foundationally re-examine the notion of “relation”.

A Person’s Experiences, ranging from common sense to the highly abstract, can all be fundamentally (without addressing uniqueness) recorded either as experience of Systems (objects, things, stuff, matter, etc.) or experience of Relations (connections, interactions, functions, transformations, etc.). One contemporary author who has explored and reassessed the treatment of the philosophical notion of Relation from the perspective of the Western Worldview, at least as exhaustively and profoundly as is currently evident, is Rodolphe Gasché, 1999. In moving from the ontological conception of relation as a thing of diminished being and yet holding to the conviction that relation is a being-towards-another, he has shown that the history of evolving thought of philosophers on the notion of relation has at least demonstrated that it is not constrained to exclusive subordination by the traditional ontological and formalist interpretations of relation as being-towards-another-thing, but allows the possibility of relation as being-towards-another-relation. “One of the most profound scientific recognitions of modern times is that the Universe no longer can be categorized only through objects, but rather must be seen as fundamentally relational. If the manifest Universe is relational, then it behooves us to understand how relations relate!” From Hamann and Rindge (1978).

Personal Experience is the Existence of Relational Systems.
By Presumption, this is the Essence of Existence (Nonexistence) Beyond the Personal.

FOUNDATIONS OF MULTICORELATIONAL SYSTEMS: [Multi=multiple; Co=interrelated] In formulating the notion of relations relating relations by adding specificity to the foregoing Experiential/Existential/Essential Foundations statement, the General Foundations Presumption of the existence of four relational forms has been introduced where logically, these four forms exhaust the number of possible categories of relational forms that can be obtained by combining Systems and Relations through Relations; hence, the origin of MultiCoRelationism (Hamann, n.d.) as a potentially (R)Evolutionary symbol-form for a Relational Worldview.

• Based on the foregoing general presumptions and of the Specific Presumtions of the existence of an Inter (Actional) Relation (decision relation) among certain Systems or Relations, and with certain Systems or Relations being-as-other Systems or Relations (this being the notion of image->sign), and with certain Systems or Relations being-of-other Systems or Relations (this being the notion of subsumption>distinction), the foundation of a (R)Evolutionary Relational paradigm, MultiCoRelational Systems (MCRS), was promulgated.
• The expression (communication) of the Experience Beyond the Personal rests in-and- on Signs (for Systems or Relations), signs being acknowledgeably both the Essence of Mind (recognizing the carrier role of the brain/body) and of Virtuality.
• Not only are the processes of mind (i.e. what we can think and communicate) constrained by the languages (signs) we use (Northrop, 2002), language itself requires a different logic for inquiry vs. inference vs. intuition. This consideration is inherent in the applied multicorelational premise regarding synthesis of both language and mind.
• As a MCRS derivative, the form of a theory of theory formation with an inherent FORM requiring co-existent Order, DisOrder and ReOrdering (ODORO) MutiCoRelations is being promulgated as a candidate upon which to formalize a Theory of Mind (AG/GnosTeks) and to engineer its technological instantiation as Synthetic Mind (the AutoGnome).
  
  
  

MINDcreatingMIND-8

MCM-Global Metro Knowledge

THE SIXTH UNIVERSE (OF MIND)

[This concept is treated in: Pendergraft, E. D. 1993. The Future's Voice: Intelligence Based on Pragmatic Logic. Jasper, AR.: Privately Distributed. Pragmatic Logic Corporation].

The last half of the 20th century evidenced a growing unrest with our present conceptualizations of experience, in particular, in socio-economic-political organization. This trend is now rapidly approaching a crisis point which will necessitate a major shift in world view. The emerging paradigm is one in which the “deep structure” of the universe is viewed as a super hologram. The data underlying this conceptual revolution comes from various areas of the “frontiers of research” which are “other-than-norm”. The unifying feature throughout this data is the concept of The Whole as a system which presences in each and every part. In the large, orthodox research and applications development has always actively resisted or passively ignored all data which is “other-than-norm”. The current crisis in knowledge has been cogently summarized in the suggested need for a different scientific methodology for each (altered) state of consciousness. The fundamental resolution of this crisis, however, necessitates a shift (or broadening) in paradigm such that the present sole concern with system-as-totality is extended to emphasize the system-as-whole. It is no longer questionable as to whether this shift (to the Sixth Universe of Mind) will come; it is of concern, however, as to how long it will take since it has been previously observed that major conceptual changes may require 50 years (the passage of 2 biological generations of Humans).

WORLDSHIFT 2012

[From the back cover of Laszlo, Ervin. 2009. WorldShift 2012. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions]

“The deepening economic crisis and the threat posed by climate change and other social and ecological trends has caused many to despair. But with great danger comes great opportunity – the opportunity for fundamental change that will transform our societies from top to bottom. In WorldShift 2012, Ervin Laszlo bring together insights for creating sustainable positive change from spiritual leaders, scientists and visionary businesspeople – people such as Albert Einstein, Mohammad Yunus, Vaclav Havel, Eckhart Tolle, Ken Wilber, David Korten, Paul Hawken, and Tomoyo Nonaka. He shows how we can replace the limited consciousness of our failing society with the holistic consciousness that is reflected in the unified field of quantum physics: the Akashic field.

We have an opportunity to move from the current political and business model of grow or die to a sustainable world respectful of human beings, nature, and the planet. Change on this level calls for a profound shift in consciousness and clear understanding that – as cutting-edge physics shows – we are truly connected with each other and with the cosmos. This book (WorldShift 2012) presents clear evidence of this connectedness and describes the tools we need to make our world greener and our plant safer as we strive to realize the holistic consciousness of connection through the Akashic field.”

ERVIN LASZLO, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, is editor of the international periodical World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution and the founder and president of the international think tanks the Club of Budapest, the World Wisdom Council, and the General Evolution Research Group. He is the author of 85 books, translated into 22 languages, and he lives in Tuscany.

MINDcreatingMIND-7

MCM-Rural Knowledge

The initiation of these posts on Rural Knowledge in Re-Creating Society is focused on developments beginning in South Dakota simply because the author hereof is a native of rural (near) Lane, South Dakota, State Highway 34.

A PEER COLLABORATIVE TO GENERATE A DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR RE--FORMING GLOBAL SOCIETY WITH AN INITIAL FOCUS ON AGRICULTURE

AgReCulturing the WORLD

This continuing post on Rural Knowledge will be an entry point inviting open participation in the evolving Community of MultiCoRelational Thoreauian-inspired, Free-thinking, Libertarian, Societal Re-Creating, Humanistic Activists focused on Rural Transformations.

WHY THE RURAL FOCUS? [Data from a report on the 2006 World Water Forum]

Farmers are central to the Global environmental crises. Why?

• 2.5 billion people, roughly 40% of the World’s population, live off the land
• Most live on 525 million small farms of 5 acres or less
• These farmers suffer most from poverty, disease, lack of sanitation and clean water, and lack of educational access
• This accounts for 842 million of the World’s hungry, starving or undereducated
• These farms account for 70% of the World’s water consumption and most of its waste, although these farmers live on less than 2.5 gallons of water per day – one thirtieth of the daily usage in developed nations

Perhaps even more critically detrimental to the Earth’s health is the Western practice of monoculture agriculture. The result is a catastrophe happening.

Rural Transformations
Rural Transformations is to be initiated through several inter-related blogs such as the TrueFarmer.com blog suggested below, but with an expected focus to be on featuring the Rural Learning Center of Howard, South Dakota. The purpose for these blogs is that they might serve as the unifying platform for creating/organizing the virtual collaborative and integrated learning (knowledge development and diffusion) environment to help rural communities achieve viable and vital futures.

RURAL TRANSFORMATIONS, INC.

Rural Transformation, Inc. (RTI) was created as a joint enterprise between the Rural Learning Center (RLC) (http://www.rurallearningcenter.com/) located in Howard, SD and TrueFarmer, Inc. (TFI), both RTI and TFI being South Dakota corporations. TFI is focused on the Ag(ricultural) aspects and RTI on the ReCulturing aspects in AgReCulturing the WORLD. To this end RTI staff are also engaged as consultants with the RLC in communities across the region conducting rural economic development/community revitalization activities. It is from this community work that the concept of “social satisfaction” as an economic development strategy was developed by the visionaries behind the RLC.

RTI Blog: building a deep conversation about the future of rural

http://www.reimaginerural.com/, an outgrowth of the Rural Learning Center (see below), is a blog for rural residents who want to be a part of building a new future for their communities. It’s no secret that most rural communities have struggled in recent decades with outmigration, poverty, and general decline. We believe this downward slide can be turned around by the people who take time to reimagine and work towards a different future.

A movement of change is rolling across the rural landscape as many communities pioneer a new future. Rural communities are coming alive with big ideas and people are connecting to each other and to the world of opportunity.

We expect to be sharing ideas on this blog, we hope will inspire rural residents to “reimagine” their communities and become a part of this changing rural landscape.

RLC VISION: renewed hope is the driving force

The Rural Learning Center is a product of visionaries. Both organization and place, it is a platform for rural people to discover, teach, share and reimagine--together. In the midst of Miner County, South Dakota's quiet, remarkable transformation from dying town to place of hope and opportunity, this small rural community has become a living learning laboratory for innovative and sustainable solutions.

Now, as a centerpiece for the work in and out of Miner County, the RLC and dozens of partners are building a learning and demonstration center in Howard, SD (http://www.opportunityhoward.com/). The Maroney Rural Learning Center facility will be a one-of-a-kind conference and training center - a living showcase of innovations in rural sustainability, a gathering place to share and experience rural community learning, and the home of an innovative workforce development experiment.

MINDcreatingMIND-6

“MINDing (or To Mind)”

Definition (in the present context): To Mind (or Minding) is an act intended by the acting mind to increase the Intelligence &/or Knowledge &/or Wisdom of the subject as mind (including that of self), or as affected by or effected through mind, where each such mind can reside principally in Reality or Virtual Reality or Virtuality.

Definition: Virtuality is an Autonomous Semiotic Universe in which a sign (e.g. a piece of information) is taken to be transferable (communicatable) only among (virtual) minds resident in this Virtuality and relatable to (Human) Reality only through the Virtual Reality of the Internet/Web.

Definition: Stages in Synthesizing Mind as a Semiotic Relational System

From computerized raw data/information

to First Stage
INTELLIGENCE TECHNOLOGIES
involving
Perceptual Processes
focused on Syntactic Patterning

to Second Stage
KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGIES
featuring
Conceptual Processes
focused on Semantic Patterning

to Third Stage
WISDOM TECHNOLOGIES
being
Valuational Decision Processes focused on Pragmatic Patterning
i.e. Action Selection
[Wisdom (defined): the expression in acts of value through knowledge]

EXPERIENTIAL INSTANCES OF “MINDing (or To Mind)”
The uses of the term “MINDing (or To Mind)” in our culture are so numerous and varied so as to make it near-unconsciously common in examples such as – she’s minding the store – where the implication is one of focus of attention or care or concern. Herein the intent is to extend this “focus” to augmenting, enhancing or improving mind in its functional parts as it reflects or affects subjects such as the World, Humanity, Society, Community, AgReCulture, Research, Technology, Arts, Education, Business, etc. In subsequent posts we intend to address various of these subjects from time to time with a query as to how to Mind them.