>Only the scientists can save us now. But I believe our future is writtenDear JAy and Thomas,ONLY the ONLY !? I think it is dangerous this "in the box" thinking of what can safe us. It is neither THE sceintist nor the artist. I struggeled with both communities and even see them fighting for the truth and the turf (salvation through their dogma).
>in our past -- written in our genes. I expect "chaos and cannibalism".
>How could it be otherwise?Thomas: One of the best minds in my opinion, Marshal McLuhan would have
said the opposite. It is the artists rather than the scientists who have
predicted the future and provided us with the directions that have led our
evolution. It is not the counter of beans or the labelers of "facts", but
the dreamer of dreams that is humans greatest achievement and that is not
necessarily an attribute of intelligence as it is the ability to translate
feelings and intuitions into mediums that move other humans.
>
Thomas: It's good to engage you again Heiner. First, I would like to think we on FutureWork don't have much interest in truth, our interest, it seems to me is more on dialog spaced over time in which each writer gets a chance to observe the thinking of another and engage in argument and rebuttal. In that sense, I find this list a very creative debating society. fighting implies winners and losers and I would like to think we create a third category called "growers" for lack of a better term.Maybe I have a news for you, as you seem to admire Marshall McLuhan:
I recently wrote a press Announcement: "The Lady behind the Gutenberg Galaxis" is is about marshalls wife and son comming to open the EUROPEAN McLuhan Center and being at CultH in Vienna http://www.culth.org/.Thomas: I would very much like to read your press Announcement, however my server, for whatever reason cannot connect to the site you have listed. Could you copy it and post it to the List or me as an E Mail?
The friend of Marshal who started with him the PERSPECTIVE UNIT at the McLuhan Toronto is nor openting MMI in Mastrich. if you are intersted what we mean by cross-culture "out of the BOX" thinking have a look here:
http://www.ceptualinstitute.com/genre/benking/visual/visualization.htmThomas: Well I have spent the last hour at this site and I have been reading the participants comments. I really regret that I don't have the vocabulary to totally follow these ideas easily and after reading 4 or 5 of them, I find myself reading words and losing meanings which leads to confusion and disorientation. You have pointed me in this direction before and I am aware of a very rich and challenging academic, primarily European investigation going on that is at a higher level of abstraction or definition than I feel comfortable in. So my choices seem to be to stay at my comfort level or to involve myself in an intensive reading program to get up to speed in the areas your references indicate. Of course there is the real world of obligations and responsibilites acting as a physical limit to balance against the possible gain I might get. Somehow I have a gut feeling that if we can't talk at the level of general readibility, we get into ego tripping with trendy inside vocabulary which has limited meaning to those who are working at the Phd level ie knowing more and more about less and less.
the final exam might be the thinking beyond the categories, the imaginative lateral and diagonal embodied immersive and shared apprach to issues and their realtion andf context, not just WORDS...
I know from previous conversations that you have a bais towards the possiblity of a visual learning process that does not require language as much as immersion in sight, diagrams, pictures, movement through spaces, pathways that lead to other pathways and I would assume a sort of gestalt understanding that might accrue from such journey's.
I am not necessarily convinced. As I drive down the freeway, and view many things, I find I remember only what I have put into words, ie the red barn is before the bridge, all the rest of the varied data is seen and could be identified by me but there is so much that the sheer volume prevents understanding. Perhaps that is because I am a product of my times or perhaps I just have never had the experiences you talk about. I would suggest that you convince us on this list of the benefits of knowing everything about anything. It often seems to me the knowledge and data restrict wisdom by injecting to much noise. Debating on the other hand has a tendency to increase focus and lessen noise.
Chores to do, we'll discuss more later.
Respectfully,
Thomas Lunde
By4now
