Comments on: What can we learn from Asimov’s Foundation trilogy? http://www.futuramb.se/blog/2009-05/what-can-we-learn-from-asimovs-foundation-trilogy/ A blog about the future and our struggle getting there Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:52:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Martin Börjesson http://www.futuramb.se/blog/2009-05/what-can-we-learn-from-asimovs-foundation-trilogy/comment-page-1/#comment-32271 Martin Börjesson Mon, 11 May 2009 16:57:13 +0000 http://www.futuramb.se/blog/?p=199#comment-32271 It was my first reflection as well that a globally wired world would have a different mechanics than a non-wired world. In both Rome and Seldon's Empire scientific knowledge, communication and trade were closely connected. When trade stopped, so did the cultural and scientific communication. That doesn't seem to be the case now... Or? I think I see an emerging different view on truth and scientific knowledge which is much more relative and situated. I use to describe this kind of consistency and underdetermined truths for "truthiness" - a knowledge which you check by the gut feeling and not in a book. Could it be so that scientific knowledge and know-how will decline again, but this time for another reason? It is also true we are not talking about a single empire, which makes things at least a bit different.... It was my first reflection as well that a globally wired world would have a different mechanics than a non-wired world. In both Rome and Seldon’s Empire scientific knowledge, communication and trade were closely connected. When trade stopped, so did the cultural and scientific communication. That doesn’t seem to be the case now… Or? I think I see an emerging different view on truth and scientific knowledge which is much more relative and situated. I use to describe this kind of consistency and underdetermined truths for “truthiness” – a knowledge which you check by the gut feeling and not in a book. Could it be so that scientific knowledge and know-how will decline again, but this time for another reason?

It is also true we are not talking about a single empire, which makes things at least a bit different….

]]> By: Larry Dunbar http://www.futuramb.se/blog/2009-05/what-can-we-learn-from-asimovs-foundation-trilogy/comment-page-1/#comment-32270 Larry Dunbar Mon, 11 May 2009 06:02:41 +0000 http://www.futuramb.se/blog/?p=199#comment-32270 According to Parag Khanna in his book "The Second Word" there are three empires competing to lead. He says, "The United States, the EU and China represent three distinct diplomatic styles--American coalition, Europe's consensus, China's consultation--competing to lead the twenty-first century." While there might have been competing empires during Dr. Seldon’s time and during the Roman Empire, I am not sure the mechanics was the same. For one thing they are now connected to the same "wire" around the world and form, in my opinion, one global brain, to borrow from the title of Howard Bloom's book. While they are all trying to lead, they seem to be also trying to maintain the system of empire. They are sort of validating each other's worth in and by their competition. I am not even sure they are declining, but the leader of growth is just moving around a lot more. If you are at the center of this world growth, you would not even understand the question, “what decline?” According to Parag Khanna in his book “The Second Word” there are three empires competing to lead.

He says, “The United States, the EU and China represent three distinct diplomatic styles–American coalition, Europe’s consensus, China’s consultation–competing to lead the twenty-first century.”

While there might have been competing empires during Dr. Seldon’s time and during the Roman Empire, I am not sure the mechanics was the same. For one thing they are now connected to the same “wire” around the world and form, in my opinion, one global brain, to borrow from the title of Howard Bloom’s book.

While they are all trying to lead, they seem to be also trying to maintain the system of empire. They are sort of validating each other’s worth in and by their competition. I am not even sure they are declining, but the leader of growth is just moving around a lot more. If you are at the center of this world growth, you would not even understand the question, “what decline?”

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