New Words

BLOGLOGUE

I see a possibility for layers of dialogue or introductions/invitations to dialogue. There are dialogic encounters, facilitated group dialogues, and so on, leading to Webscope and Co-Laboratories. I see the blog as an invitation to dialogue, because people can post responses to our posts and essays - giving us the possibility of a "BLOGLOGUE." Peter H. Jones, 2006/09/07 Thu PM (as amended by Aleco N. Christakis, 2006/09/08 Fri AM).

OBSOLEDGE

Thinking matters. But many of the facts we think about are false. And much of what we believe is almost certainly stupid.

Today work relevant knowledge changes so rapidly that more and more new knowledge has to be learned both on and off the job. Learning becomes a continuous-flow process. But we can't learn everything fast enough. And that helps explain why, if some of what we think is stupid, there is no need to be embarrassed. We are not alone in believing stupidities.

The reason is that every chunk of knowledge has a limited shelf life. At some point it becomes obsolete knowledge-what might more appropriately be called "obsoledge." Alvin Toffler and Heidi Toffler, Revolutionary Wealth 111 (2006).

Additional references

A People Science
(A.N. Christakis, in LoD ed.)

Psychic Power:
(P. D. Premasiri, in Humanization of Development: A Theravada Buddhist Perspective

Human Development Paradigm

The evolution of human nature, some say, has been shaped by sexual choice, following the insight of Charles Darwin (1809-1882). Geoffrey Miller, The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature 3 (Anchor Books 2001). Others suggest Bronze Age aristocracies of Crete (2000 BC - 1370 BC), may even have held power not by virtue of high birth but through earning their stripes as "specialist mediators" between the people and their deities. Bettany Hughes, Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore 323 (Knopf 2005). Contemporary evolution of the creative intelligence of a person who performs very much like such a "specialist mediator" is evident in, A.N. Christakis with K.C. Bausch, Co-Laboratories Of Democracy: How People Harness Their Collective Wisdom and Power To Construct the Future (Information Age Publishing, Inc. Feb 2006). This concerns the performance of Aleco Christakis whose ancestors in Crete may likely have been among those Bronze Age aristocrats, in his role as lead facilitator of group dialogue, guided by the spectacular architecture of a Structured Design Process (SDP), for realization of "a more perfect Union"!

Picture of Dr. Alexander N. Christakis
Past President (2002) of the International Society
for the Systems Sciences
Click image for the website of the world design headquarters managed by Dr. Christakis)

"The traditions of science that lead to creative intelligence are ingenious ways of harnessing human courtship to produce cumulative progress towards world-models that are abstract, communicable, and true." Geoffrey Miller, infra, at 425. The evolution of creative intelligence guided by science, which has produced SDP, gives hope to the promise of Guided Evolution of Society, as envisioned by the late Bela H. Banathy. This influence of science has not, however, dimminished the influence throughout world history of genetic sexual selection pressures that turn human cognitive faculties into mere "ornamental fitness advertisements rather than disciples of truth." Geoffrey Miller, infra, at 424. Consider the stunning influence of Helen of Troy, the immortal symbol of the sexual powers of women -- Goddess, Princess, Whore -- who evolved out of the Trojan Wars (1275 BC-1180 BC) and died thirty three hundred years ago, but has never lost her relevance. She is depicted below with a Golden Mirror, transfixed by her own beauty.

Evelyn De Morgan, Helen of Troy
Oil on canvas, 1898.
From Bettany Hughes, Helen of Troy, infra, at facing 154.