TEDiscovery: Why We Are TEDizens
Thus far has TED brought us, but any farther?
From the 4th to the 7th of this month you and I and a thousand others sat under the feet of 5 dozen masters, and took in the effusions of genius. On the first day, every gasp of wonderment was followed by a whisper - <i>wherefore?</i>
Yet we knew before we got there - before we got to Long Beach - that TED represents an assault on all Dogma. It is a place where no prejudice, no convention, no reverent concept can be spared the creative destruction of open-minded interrogation. Still we queried: what then?
Could we have known that not only <i>being</i> but more so <i>becoming</i> is the preoccupation of TEDizens? Even if we had heard the fabulous story of ShopAfrica53.com, launched by Herman Chinery-Hesse on the very neon-lit pedestal of TEDGlobal 2007 to the hails of TEDizens, and with their concrete support, or been told of the redemptive tale of William Kwakwamba and his blessed windmill of Kasangu, could we have have <i>engaged</i> from afar?
We had to go to Long Beach. We had to swim the watersheds of awareness; cheer to the miraculous swings of Zander's fingers; consume the <i>poms</i> of Google's largesse (and may Lynn Resnick be ever blest); submit our cynicism to the electrifying epiphanies of the siftable chorus; and relapse, O Clansfolk, relapse like the intellectually lobotomised before their saving dose of electrotherapy. Then ponder the last of the Oliver Sacks visions. But wherefore?
Now that we have believed, whither the action that issues forth from contemplation?
Three nights ago I heard a vision, and my mind's eye imprinted it so severely upon my coarsened psyche that a refinement of understanding impressed upon my will the necessity of writing this screed.
I was told with certain others that in the summer of this year, an eruption will manifest in Mofett Field, California, such as in the years to come will alter the nexus between contemplation and action - forever.
The Singularity University (www.singularityu.org) will be born, midwifed by a doyen of the TED Brain Trust and his profound-minded partner.
Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis will engender a revolution of practical contemplation that will "assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges." It will be TED transposed from the stage into the breathing fields and fens of a dedicated campus, and nurtured in the minds of the inspired for eventual eruption across an expectant earth. Says Ray Kurzweil himself: "With its strong focus on interdisciplinary learning, Singularity University is poised to foster the leaders who will create a uniquely creative and productive future world.” "Interdisciplinary learning" carries the emphasis elegantly, and, for beloved TEDizens, frames all the fundamental issues concerning the future of ideas in an increasingly parochial world. Says Peter Diamandis: "We are reaching out across the globe to gather the smartest and most passionate future leaders and arm them with the tools and network they need to wrestle with the Grand Challenges of our day." The goal then is action. But not just any action, rather informed action, which requires a certain calibre of contemplation above and beyond the processing of assembly-line facts and figures. Because the course of contemplation must traverse what Judy Estrin calls the "Innovation Ecosystem", the metaphor must be genomic rather than hydraulic, indicating a "networked" view of knowledge in which the interrelationships between disciplines have an organic rather than mechanical quality. The interdisciplinarity identified by the founders of Singularity University should therefore not be confused with the one frequently bandied about by the traditional universities, those tiresome species of learning that mix and mismatch prefixes and suffixes from odd and even subject matters with little respect for the structure of ideational thinking. For, if truth be told, the true nature of interdisciplinarity is outward-looking not inward-oriented. The point is not to search for pointless boundaries between domains conventionally pre-defined for the sake of bridging such observable contrivances, but to refocus on the world of interdependent objects and see in it, implicit and implied, the spectra of intermeshed wisdom; and recognise in this continuum: the fluidity of the human condition. Learning on the wings of this reawakened consciousness thus becomes a parabolic journey across ever-emerging spheres of unfurling wisdom and new knowledge – a prolonged and chronic TED experience, so to speak. Says Will Wright, a member of Singularity U's upcoming faculty: "I normally build extraordinary virtual environments that EVOLVE with surprising results. Singularity University is going to be an extraordinary birthplace for ideas and breakthrough thinking." A vision at once subtle and poignant. A notion of a post-industrial educational system suited to the innovation needs of the 21st Century. A veritable call to pedagogical revolution across all national frontiers, academic disciplines and ideological persuasions. A new Liberal Arts warm to science and embracing of technology. A consolidation of the Age’s most powerful latent trends in thought and action. The Singularity reveals itself incrementally, like a mist-shrouded tower on a distant but approaching peak, or, a better metaphor yet, like the orchestral unfolding of the TED2009 Grand Vignette as the Twelfth Theme enfolded the preceding eleven: Engage! Engage! Engage! Wherewith Contemplation conjured Action. And so therefore, O clansfolk, may we never ask 'wherefore' again.
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