The Ominous Table #1
The question they dare not ask
With Miroslaw Manicki
Elvis covered the famous Neapolitan song, “O Sole Mio” under the stark rubric “It’s Now or Never”. Listen to it if you wish.
This is both beautiful and ominous. It is reflective of our times.
We live in a time of great promise, but that promise is largely masked by obvious risk. Peoples’ rights are in flux; some question the ongoing viability of civilization itself. No, that would be the tragic end of a love affair.
There are efforts at stemming the tide. We were fortunate to be sponsored in 2022 by G20 Indonesia in the publication of key concepts in support of cooperation where science and society meet up. The associated policy brief “Capacity Development in Enhanced Multilevel Governance Based on a ‘Head (Cognitive), Hand (Digital), Heart (Music Performance)’ Model” can be found from the G20 Indonesia site here:
Page 9 of the document includes “Table 1: The Knowledge Breakthrough Providing an Integrated Process for Experts and Authorities” from my doctoral dissertation that no one in governance has asked about, but they should. Here is the table (Knowledge Continuity/Transfer Options for Experts):
The point of Table #1 is that knowledge “in the heads” of people and “in documents that they create” is blocked from meaningful use — and certainly from meaningful computerization. As a result, many key efforts by people on their own and in organizational and networked settings are skewed, truncated, and marginalized. This opens the door to ineffectual outcomes and corruption, which is expressed in many ways, not the least of which is in the planning process itself.
That is a big deal, don’t you think? It deserves consideration. It would be of great concern if it applied to certain forms of knowledge, but that it applies to all forms of knowledge, all kinds of processes, it is catastrophically bad.
First of all, given the huge callup of artificial intelligence artifacts and systems that we see of late, Table #1 lays bare the fundamental but never stated assertion behind artificial intelligence efforts: That people are incapable of making use of their knowledge on their own. What is expressed far and wide is the false teaching of technologists that non-technical experts cannot define and deploy their knowledge. Many of the leading, famous technologists barely went to college. Perhaps this contributes to their fabulist effort to nullify the knowledge academy carte blanche.
If all of that is true, it is “now or never” time. “Hasta la vista, Mr. Civilization. Adios.” The epitaph would say, “Humans could ‘think’, but they could not ‘do’.” Sad.
There are funds lined up to bridge the gaps in the EU, USA, and elsewhere — those laid bare by the Covid pandemic and others. There is a good deal of head-scratching as to what needs to be done. Recent statements by technologists is that solutions will take a long, long time — certainly to be counted in decades or fractions of these. It is quite possible that they are thus engaged in “wallet biopsy” analysis as is commonly observed within medical circles.
In the face of this, nobody calls. Nobody asks about Table #1 and its joys and perspectives. No one asks, “How is this done?”
The closest we noted in the G20 sessions was a call from “some kind of forum” for problem-solving — itself a question and not an answer. In G20 the sessions and thereafter, we raised the point represented by Table #1, assuming that there would at least be some discussion on the topic of empowering experts and authorities to create workable digital functionality based on their knowledge and legitimized policymaking.
A couple of students made furtive attempts to educate themselves, not not for long. Otherwise, there was silence.
Where do you stand in this? Do you want to know? Do you recognize the challenges and the risks of no action on the knowledge front? Can you see that the fabulists and the populists and the authoritarians are going after knowledge above all?
We can already see the sticks and stones and whatever else they have saved up for the chaos.
All you need to do is ask. Its now or never.
O Sole Mio.