Suggested Speakers 2014
Suggestion: Dino Karabeg on Thrivability
Dino Karabeg is an associate professor at Institute of Informatics at the University of Oslo.
Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2014 14:17:30 +0200
From: Dino Karabeg <dino@ifi.uio.no>
To: Thomas Gramstad <thomas@ifi.uio.no>
Subject: Re: FSCONS 2014 Call For Participation
Hi Thomas,
As I just mentioned, I am working on several related themes:
How to use (information) technology to make the world work for all? I have just taught the Ph.D. seminar on Doug Engelbart's work, whose key idea was to use IT to 'augment human capabilities', individual and (especially) collective. Last December at Google we have launched the Program for the Future Challenge to revive and fulfill this vision.
How to change key societal systems (governance, finance, informing, education…), alias 'systemic innovation'. Through collaboration between systems scientists and IT (knowledge media) researchers and developers, we are creating the Systems Lab. (Returned last month from meetings in Vienna and Linz where the foundations have been laid.)
I am writing a book with tentative title "Thrivability Strategy" that puts it all into a perspective, by relating historical and contemporary developments. The whole thing is still in the sketching phase, here's a sketch of the beginning:
Prolog
For many of us who want to be part of a positive change, ‘sustainability’ fails to be a battle cry that inspires.
‘Thrivability’ has recently emerged to replace it.
We are in the midst of a great breakdown. [...] We are also in the midst of great breakthroughs. [...] As part of the breakdown we are coming to recognize that the way things have been cannot continue. At the same time, ‘edge riders’ are beginning to see the breakthroughs that are happening: breakthroughs to a human culture that won’t just sustain life but will give rise to more abundant life[.] (Jean Russell, 2014)
But some serious and strong voices are telling us that even sustainability can no longer be reached.
At the entrance of the Austrian Airlines plane, which will take me from Oslo to a conference in Vienna titled “Civilization on a Crossroads — Response and Responsibility of the Systems Sciences”, I pick up a copy of International New York Times, whose featured article is about a British man who spent 20 years as an environmentalist / activist; and then, having concluded “We don’t realistically have a chance”, created an organization that helps people reconcile themselves with this fact(...).
Is universal thriving still possible?
And if it is, can we get there by relying on the breakthroughs that are already happening? Or do we need to see our situation in a new way and consciously make a turn?
And if conscious intervention is needed, what should this be? And how can we — practically and realistically — do that?
In this book I will attempt to tease out a clear and reliable answer.
And indeed a bit more than that […]
Dino Karabeg Chief Evangelist, Knowledge Federation Associate Professor, University of Oslo
http://folk.uio.no/dino/ http://www.mn.uio.no/ifi/personer/vit/dino/
http://www.knowledgefederation.org/
Dino's blog: http://polyscopy.wordpress.com/
dino@ifi.uio.no
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