THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700


Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 22:25:45 -0800

03 00050 61 01102901



Unfinished Revolution
unrev-II@yahoogroups.com
OHS DKR Project
SRI International
333 Ravenswood Avenue
Menlo Park, CA 94025
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Subject:   Future of Learning Power of Microcosm

George Gilder, mentioned in Jack Park's letter today, makes a larger point, perhaps unintentionally, that gaining control over lower levels of organic structure yields great power, see NWO.
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The corollary is that having created powerful technology that compresses time and distance, the human mind has created a world for which it is not well suited, with the result that enterprise will implode into a morass of bumbling, if we fail to heed Gilder's incite in time, by strengthening basic literacy for a future of continual learning. This means reversing powerful social pressures that suppress literacy following formal education, as explained on November 8, 1999.
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Applying Gilder's rule on the power of the microcosm to "learning" is accomplished by continually overlaying organic structure on daily working information that organizes the context of cause and effect relative to objectives, requirements and commitments.
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Inability to maintain alignment in a world of accelerated information vastly increases the rate of error due to complexity, as noticed by Doug Engelbart in his many writings, see for example on December 22, 1999.
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Doug recognized long ago, Jack's point today about the need for continual improvement to raise competency for handling expanding complexity, as noted in the citation of Doug's award last year for the National Medal of Technology.
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We have seen in recent months the fruits of laxity as the ravages of war and recession ensue when a critical mass of too many people having too many problems explodes across the land.
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Jack has thoughtfully brought into focus the huge opportunity for reversing this trend. His letter on September 8, 2001 disclosed how so many of us, as I have today, succumb to the illusion of power pressing the Reply button, because it seems so fast and easy to perform cursory, spontaneous work in email
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that causes continual mistakes, loss, conflict, crisis and calamity, rather than follow Eugene Kim's lead and make a little extra effort to add intelligence that creates useful knowledge, as reported by Eric Armstrong in his letter on September 16, 2001.
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Adding organization planned by Eugene and the OHS Launch Community goes a long way toward implementing Doug Engelbart's call for a whole new way of working and thinking.
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Starting out on a new way of working is not always a bed of roses. Eric reminded in his letter on January 25, 2000 that connections Eugene will be adding through dialog mapping at first boggle the mind, because people are not used to seeing that many details.
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The architecture of human thought inherently hides the many connections that convert information into knowledge, so when made explicit in order to yield more power, the image at first is frightening. We worry about user interface, which link to click, color coding for priority and a host of extraneous issues that hamper judicious review and timely action, until we get used to a more powerful form of literacy, as explained on January 25, 2000.
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Those who witnessed the first atomic bomb go off were overwhelmed by the power from controlling lower levels of detail in the building blocks of existence. So too, when I first saw the detail in Eugene's dialog map that was pretty eye opening.
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There is a tendency to feel that good work practice takes too much time, expressed by the feeling....

Boy, I would never be able to get all that done using the
methods and technology I like.

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So, since intelligence seems beyond reach, it is fast and easy to rationalize and say....

Hey, analysis is amazing, it's gold plated; it's overkill.
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Nobody will pay for working intelligently!
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....then press the Reply button in email, as Jack worried on September 8, 2001.
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Perhaps though events on September 11, 2001 have helped crystallize the new reality that, if Eugene, or somebody, doesn't do the work that enables a future of continual learning by growing new knowledge from connecting the bits and pieces of information in the microcosm of daily life, then we will all have a much greater task solving recession and war due to lack of intelligence,, as explained in an article on August 15, 1998.
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Many wonder why must intelligence be a special effort now, when before it was good enough to just press the Reply button, just show up for a meeting, or pick up the phone and start talking. Why do we need all this planning, organizing, alignment, summary and feedback in order to get things done? Who cares, as long as money is coming in?
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Clearly, our friends in education have a great contribution to make by advancing Doug Engelbart's call for educating young and old alike about new realities that require a new role, new tools and a new way of thinking about continual learning to meet the exigencies of a new world order. Our only choice is to harness the power of the microcosm or be weighed down. As in the fable, having unleashed the power of the genie, we must not shrink from the challenge of using it wisely. Fortunately, experience over many years shows that with a few simple steps, we can grow a garden of knowledge that makes learning to use intelligence for keeping up in the 21st century fast , easy and fun .
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Sincerely,

THE WELCH COMPANY



Rod Welch
rowelch@attglobal.net



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