I came across
The Human Projecton kickstarter recently, and am very eager to see how it develops. Their mission is to build a global discussion app to ask the really big questions about the future of our species and develop an integrated vision of what that looks like.It seems to be very aligned with my own thinking – that a fresh narrative needs to emerge and a more interconnected “thought architecture” about how we perceive ourselves in relation to each other and the planet. That sentiment and the exploration of how humanity and our technologies are co-evolving have been the driving force behind much of the writing on this blog over the past few years, from
my ‘a-ha moment’ about the power of networks, the conceptualization of a
tool for intelligent global public discourse, to my current project to develop an ‘
Open Foresight’ framework for engaging more people in forward-thinking thought and action.I like that the project founders have announced this as a 40 year project – meaning they’re well aware that making an app doesn’t mean the world is going to change overnight. I’ve found myself frustrated often when I try to even conceive of the idea that any significant portion of humanity could unite around a common vision…. there are so many entrenched ideologies, contexts, agendas, and egos… how could we ever agree?
Might as well get that conversation started now.
I see Us being in the Alignment Phase, and fast approaching the Coordination Phase. As our communication technologies get faster, cheaper, and smaller, more of humanity gets access to each other. As our environments (physical, social, behavioral, psychological) become more quantified, it makes sense to me that we are finding better ways to understand our needs and resources, common goals and aspirations, and then acting with some degree of collective intelligence.
We don’t know what the future holds, but our thoughts and actions now will determine it. I think it’s important to get the dialogue going to discuss the risks and opportunities of a connected global species.
The Human Project has a $50K funding goal in order to be able to build the app for iPad/iPhone/Android + HTML5 optimized versions for web, tablet and mobile. They are less than $9K from that goal, with 12 days to go. If you’d like to back the project, check out their kickstarter page.
emergent by design 
I agree with your sense of “being in the Alignment Phase, and fast approaching the Coordination Phase.” Many data points in the education space which I follow.
hey michael!
i’m curious to know what you’re seeing in the education space. are you seeing the fringes starting to fold in yet with p2p learning and mentorship? i keep feeling like the future of ed will have to be a lot more experientially based, with real world hands on experiences and apprenticeships, prototyping and experimenting, local community involvement, and not just sitting in a room and being told what to think or remember.
I’m seeing higher ed as the only path meme starting to ebb in many places. The thing to watch are articles that emerge in the New York Times. To my way of thinking the NYT is the common wisdom of the power class.
The other thing is to watch as Common Core plays out on the ground. If one looks below the radar, common core is a serious move from the feds to get Every – Yes Every – kid to read and understand math to a reasonable level of literacy.
The stresses of states being bankrupt are forcing them to make choices they have avoided for a long time.
Combine that with the maturity of the technology to enable anytime anywhere learning. The London B School on facebook is just one of a number of initiatives that are being adopted by top tier highered. There is a open course from Stanford that has I think about 60,000 people in a “class.”
I have a pretty strong feeling that the badge initiative which I watch through the lens at @Hastac could well be the trigger that goes from alignment to co-ordination.
The inflection point is going to be elections 2012. My bet is that the petty right that has been riding the wave of populism infused by fear and hatred of the poor has run it’s course. If as I expect, the Republican party is reinvented in the crucible of the elections, coordination in American education goes mainstream.
Love it,
yes, we do. Thank you for caring to share.
nice to see you 🙂
Backing this… Let’s get it done and in use.
How about you, reader of the comment thread?
Want to be in on the action? Try this: http://kck.st/qxEwOk
“And there are plenty of visions too (like a space-faring civilization, transhumanism, zero carbon world, general artificial intelligence, the end of poverty, universal human rights, designing life and matter, zero nuclear weapons, the end of aging)”
Human Project suggests transhumanism is a positive (based on the rest of this list being quite aspirational). I wonder what the humans think about that 😉
Cool project—thanks for sharing it.
Here is one human thinking:
interesting point. i don’t know if i’ve seen them put a stake in the ground to suggest transhumanism as a positive, but maybe just trying to point out that these are all different fragmented conversations that are underway and we should know they exist to give more context to the bigger picture meta-conversation.
either way, curious to see what comes of it.
Hello Erica, it’s me, Anna Stillwell Co-Founder of The Human Project. Like your comment. What we mean by positive vision is that rather than reacting to challenges, these tribes of people are placing stakes in the ground about what we should accomplish. Additionally, transhumanism has many definitions. Given that we humans have about roughly one billion years on this planet before our aging sun drives runaway greenhouse gases on this planet making it uninhabitable for complex life (if we act intelligently enough to make it that long), we find it difficult to imagine that we will not find ways to continually augment our capabilities and intelligence as so far that has been a defining characteristic of our species. How to do it intelligently is another debate entirely.
Agree: we will. With imagination, our renewable resource, conversation, our trust-builder, and with collaboration, our currency.
Disagree:
Here is why:
a) logically, the only way to augment our capabilities and intelligence is to do it capably and intelligently. In other words, we build on what we have, hone and improve our facilities. Learning all the way.
b) leaving aside an unexamined assumption that there might be less intelligent ways to go about learning… wait, this is actually proven, we have industrial-age schooling.
b) start over: indeed, how to do learning as a species intelligently IS another debate entirely. Or rather a co-creative process, near The Next Edge and emergent by design. 😉
Is an iPad app the best way to do this? The Web is used by a far, far greater range of people.
definitely not. probably the most limited. which is why they’re shooting for the $50K goal, where they’d create the app for web, tablet and mobile.
Interesting strategy. Appeal to a small, affluent group, first?
Hello Brian,
We’re shooting to make this content available for free for anyone with an internet connection. This is our strategy to reach the most people.
Cocreatr, Thank you for your contribution. You are quick! It means the world to us.
Aww, thanks. I know how you mean this, but taken literally, (I like to play, tell) I hope I mean only part of the world to you. Small one at that, and thus we leave space in this world of meaning for others to contribute as well. If you feel like backing, sit down and check out this: http://kck.st/qxEwOk
keep cooking, and consider that you need some mystics on your board of directors .. much more is know about the “future” than you assume ..
A bold and palatable program; hope it does blossom and evolve through many channels of in/out as a grand venue for rich conversation and consensus. I’m much more in favor of the ‘snapshotting’ versus the forecasting element, I think we undermine discussion quickly when we start leaning towards and justifying predilections for what is not palpably real. Open Foresight in narrow sectors is one thing for a tasked and informed group, but humankind, projecting 40 years? Pretty psi-fi. I am enjoying a similar, less participatory, project @earth2hub earth2hub.com (site under const.) however.
Challenge that jumps out: how do you broaden inclusivity while maintaining or even refining focus? I mean, the Internet in toto is already pretty much the meta-‘human project’ of this transitional prognostic era, and things are sorta cacaphonic in there lately. But that’s a leading question I’ve got a bit of plug on: devise a topography of ‘common good’ themes that we 99% agree as valuable enhancement to life as humans, release a web browser plugin for people to classify and rate (a few subjective axes) documentary content they find with basic who/what/when/where/why/how metadata, and map the results as a navigable evaluated encyclopedia of what we want to see, do, be lots more of… Kind of a deeply interactive visual manifesto?
Here’s my start at a topic/theme map, for the what/why/how facets: http://browsearth.drupalgardens.com/content/regenerative-design-tree
Developing a universal open iconography for each item right now too, which I’d love to share/codev! Posting soon via gplus.to/bneb
Hello Benjamin,
Thanks for your comment.
Just to clarify, we are not forecasting 40 years into the future about the species. We have a vision for The Human Project for the next 40 years.
There is certainly no shortage of scenario planners, futurists, futurologists and sci-fi writers offering their predictions. We find their perspectives—even the most speculative ones—very helpful in stretching our minds. Yet the natural response to a prediction is passive, “yeah, time will tell if you are right.” What we found to be in scandalously short supply are the visionaries, people who dare to answer the question “what should happen in the future?” and either trigger the discussion over the desirability of their vision or mobilize people to make it happen. There are certainly visionaries within different fields, but few stretch their vision across multiple domains and to the level of the species.
I think there are some very interesting applications in what you are proposing and would like to connect and understand after we release our content (we are a bit overloaded right now). The trouble with ‘common good’ themes (according to my limited understanding of what you propose), is that first I believe we need the very big picture. What are all the issues that threaten our survival and development as a species and how do we prioritize them? Currently, for example, few pay attention to asteroids and comets (a 10km rock impact would likely put an end to us nearly instantaneously). Because the probability of that happening in any given year is low, people tend to postpone and ignore. But if it means the end of the species, it is our contention that it makes no sense to think of these issues in terms of probability. So I think a very clear framework with explicit, transparent assumptions is the first step. At least it is our first step, but there are more ways than one…
Best,
Anna
Thanks Anna, that does give more sense of useful result from the effort, and I’m sure there’s quite a lot of thinking and planning that’s gone on in your years of run-up to this point. I’m still pretty curious how the bridge can be built between the lofty few ‘big-pic’ people/programs and all the divergent threads of conversation that inevitably occur when any such model is released to a motley crowd for inspection and review–and/or reconciling any simultaneous bottom-up common-denomination approach to resolving distance views. But I’ll fully endorse the valor and imminence of reaching out there to open a portal…and yes I do hope there’s invitation for a range of collaborative ideas as the program evolves!
btw, the category system I’m tinkering with is somewhat a mashup of Maslow, Max-Neef, Fuller, triple-bottom-line, permaculture ect. and should be fairly comprehensive. E.g. comet, supervolcano and such would fall under the theme of Planet > Equilibrium. Although I’ll add that my map was designed specifically to organize definitive action cases, as opposed to speculative discussion threads, so maybe more applicable as a partial resource/reference base to the kinds of conversation you’d like to engender.
Congrats on the fundraising, no doubt you’ve got a great and growing booster base, I’ll keep spreading word~
there are visionaries on this planet, it is just that the status quo is deaf to what they see and say, and they remain deaf in order to maintain their status quo ..
which is fine .. the energy field within which the earth nests is doing quite nicely in evolving the planet and its consciousness.
Hello…
Hello Anna,
Impatient to see where your app will lead us to.
In 2008 I gave a presentation “Back from the Future” (http://ow.ly/6ETyd) starting in 2050 and moving back in time. It contains some of my ideas about what might happen in the next decades.
Regards Ronald