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Polymathica Refined.. Erudite.. Visionary © 2010 The Institute for Advanced
Social and Technological Analysis, LLC |
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The Polymathica Institute The Fellows of Polymathica Here,
and in several other venues, we explore The Transformation and the rise of a
polymathic knowledge class. Unlike the predicted
Singularity, the Transformation is certain and it is imminent. Furthermore, entrepreneurial career
opportunities start right now, not at some vague future date. The purpose of the Fellowship of the
Polymathica Institute is to provide refined and erudite individuals of
intelligence, drive and vision with a success prone environment within which
they may craft fulfilling and affluent lifestyles. Fellows, if committed to significant
results, can expect to earn $250K+ within three years and $500K+ within five
years. As Polymaths, just as
importantly, you will be able select from a number of highly satisfying
professional, intellectual and social venues and activities. In other words, Fellowship is the most
efficient route by which a Polymath can achieve a personal transformation to
an affluent and finely crafted life. {read more} A Finely Crafted Life
The
Transformation, as discussed in The Future 101, will create a global
Information Age civilization that will span most, if not all, of the
world. Prevailing incomes within the
industrialized nations will, at least, quadruple over the next twenty years
with most of the rest of the world ‘catching up.’ We also expect that the typical work week
for the knowledge class may fall from its current 40+ hours to between 25 and
30 hours. The combination of affluence
and ample leisure time can encourage several different life patterns. Certainly we have ample historical examples
of this combination leading to chronic indolence and even decadence. However, we also have many examples, such
as Thomas Jefferson, where it liberated the individual and allowed him to
strive for extraordinary levels of refinement, erudition and achievement. The former will likely significantly
outnumber the latter. However, the
latter will congregate in Polymathica and, for them,
we introduce the concept of A Finely Crafted Life. {read more}
Capitalizing the Information Age A great
Transformation is upon us. Future
historians will identify the period from 2010 to 2030 as the Information
Revolution. During this time, nearly
all institutions, that heretofore have undergone
moderate change, will be eradicated and replaced by Information Age
institutions. The geopolitical and socioeconomic
structures of civilization twenty years from now will be essentially
unrecognizable. Those who understand
the likely outcomes stand to profit economically, politically, professionally
and socially. Here we consider the
implications of the Transformation as it applies to the capitalization of the
many enterprises it will spawn. {read more} Educating the Polymath
A Polymath finds a question or problem, determines the knowledge and
skill sets required to effectively address it, then acquires them through
autodidactic learning, directed learning or collaboration with a specialist
and, finally, solves the problem or answers the question. Consequently, at first blush, the
concept of educating a Polymath may seem oxymoronic. After all, as stated,. Polymaths must first and foremost be autodidacts. While
they may engage in directed learning for specific skill acquisition the
choice is inherently subject specific rather than polymathic. In other words,
there really isn’t any significant difference between “Web Page Design for
Polymaths” and “Web Page Design for Everyone Else.”
For the most part,
polymathy is resident in the synthesis, not in the individual courses of
study. Consequently, everything we know about higher education is, at best,
tangentially applicable to our needs. In our article, The Research Polymath,
we state that Research Polymathy should take place outside of traditional
Academia due to the hostility that the various institutions have toward its
practice. Additionally, because we are going to need to start from scratch
with a pedagogical design, the actual structure of an Academy of a Polymathic
Institute will undoubtedly be incompatible in its structure with the
traditional colleges and universities. {read
more}
You are cordially invited to
Fellowship… |
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The Future 101 An Introduction The
Future 101 is a continuing, graduate level course of study for people of intelligence,
drive and vision who wish, through education, enterprise and/or investment,
to capitalize upon the opportunities presented by the emerging, global
Information Age civilization. It is
proprietary and available, in its entirety, only to the Fellows of
Polymathica. However, we include a few
introductory articles in order to assist you in determining your interest in
Polymathica Fellowship.
A Most of us know
the story of the two men who are walking through the woods and come upon a
bear. They both take off running and
the bear, naturally, chases them. One
man says to the other, ‘What are we doing?
We can’t outrun a bear.’ The
other man replies, ‘I don’t need to outrun the bear. I only need to outrun you!’ The same is true about predicting the
future. You don’t need to get it
exactly right. You only need to get it
better than the other guys. The Future
101 presents a superior knowledge of futurity. In other words, Polylmathica Fellows can
get it more correct than the other guys.
And that is, obviously, quite valuable. Because it is so critical to the value of
Polymathica Fellowship, before going any further, we will briefly discuss the
three basic rules that we use to develop what we believe to be the best
understanding of the future currently available. {read more} The Transformation
The world is
undergoing a transformation from an Industrial Age to an Information Age
civilization. The period of greatest change will be from 2010 to 2030. Its primary components are: 2) The global Information Age
civilization will see an end to manufacturing and clerical jobs and the
emergence of a profoundly affluent knowledge class and a ‘semi-automated
services’ class. 3) A significant increase in robust
life spans to an average of at least 100 by 2030. 4) The emergence of transnational
communities that, through Internet delivered audio and video programning and
international congregations, will increase in
cultural cohesiveness. This community identification will have supplanted
national identity for a significant percentage of the population by 2030. 5) The Industrial Age was dominated by
large, hierarchical manufacturing corporations. Over the next twenty years,
these will be replaced by less structured enterprise networks with common
economic interests. The Polymathica Fellowship is an example. 6) Global population will stabilize as
the inverse correlation between income and fertility rates takes hold. Large
urban areas will begin to depopulate as the ‘live anywhere’ option leads to
significant demographic shifts. Many
will move to comprehensively designed lifestyle and values based
communities. {read more} The Cultural Calculus The Cultural
Calculus gives us a common pattern language with which to discuss issues of
culture. Polymathica is creating an attractor at one end of the refinement
and erudition dimensions of concept space that will begin to grow through
accretion and become more clearly defined through shared cultural
literacy. As this Polymathica
transnational culture emerges, it will do so within the context of many other
new cultures that will also be forming.
In the Future 101, we explore how this will fundamentally transform
the structure of civilization. It is
one of the six primary components of the profound and imminent event that we
refer to as The Transformation. {read
more} The Singularity is Not Near
If you kick
around the intellectual community for any time at all, you will undoubtedly
encounter the Transhumanists and Singularitiarians. On any list of suggested
reading for the Polymath, Ray Kurzweil’s book, ‘The Singularity is Near’
should be prominent. That is because the book is influential, not because it
is particularly accurate. Kurzweil
accepts that technologies develop and mature along a path known as an
S-curve. He then makes the claim that, in cases such as computing capacity,
S-curves follow one another sequentially to form a geometric curve. (page 43)
In this, he is mistaken. The same forces that cause an individual technology
to follow an S-curve applies to the overall function, such as computing
capacity per constant dollar, itself. Consequently, it will follow a super
S-Curve. There is strong evidence that
we currently are at
or near the point of inflection for computing
technologies. {read
more} The Information Age Income Explosion
From 1875 to
2010 U.S. You are cordially invited to
Fellowship… |
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Polymathic Careers The Information Age Knowledge Class IQ
correlates well with the likelihood of entering and remaining in an
intellectually elite profession with the probability increasing to a 133
IQ. However, beyond that level, the
probability begins to decrease. By 140
IQ it has fallen by 1/3. By 150 IQ it
has fallen by 97%! This means that
over a quarter million English speakers are being excluded from participating
in those professions that could most use their intelligence. Their exclusion appears to be directly
related to inappropriate educational and productive environments. Furthermore, we conclude that this is an
Industrial Age phenomenon.
Consequently, as the global Information Age civilization emerges, we
assert that a profoundly affluent and polymathic Knowledge Class, comprised
primarily of the previously excluded high IQ population will concurrently
emerge. Polymathica, through its
Polymathica Institute’s Fellowship, intends to play a critical, facilitating
role in that process. {read more} The Ventures Polymath A Polymath does
not gain expertise in a field and then search for a question or problem that
is susceptible to that skill set and knowledge base. Rather, the Polymath
finds an interesting question or problem, determines what skills and
knowledge are required to address it effectively and then either
autodidactically or through collaboration gains those skills and knowledge.
In other articles, we discuss how this difference can be productively applied
in the research and enterprise environments. However, there is another class
of questions that are amenable to the Polymathic Method, specifically those
questions related to considerations of futurity. By stepping outside of the
range of usual methodologies for analyzing any specific area of forecasting,
future studies or risk assessment, the Polymath may gain a superior knowledge
of futurity and, so armed, more productively deploy
resources to promising projects. This will confer a prohibitive advantage in
the activities of early round venture financing. In a way, this represents
the opportunity to become a highly compensated applied Futurist. {read more} The
Polymathic Pundit: Bloggers,
Talkers, etc. Polymaths,
over a lifetime, develop a skills and knowledge base that uniquely prepares
them to advise others. Some of these
will engage in consultancy to leaders of institutions of enterprise and
governance. Here, however, we consider
the superposition of a population of pundits engaged in the processes of
news, analysis and commentary, via print, radio and television. The emergence of Internet radio and
television will enable these activities to be profitable, even for widely
dispersed, relatively small groups, such as Polymathica. Polymathica is a global community of
refinement and erudition. However, it
is also intended to evolve into a web presence designed to deliver content to
its subscribers. News, analysis and
comentary for Polymathicans will necessarily be marketedly more sophisticated
than other news sources. {read
more} Polymathica TV Production
Soon, radio
and television will move to the Internet. Actually, to a limited degree, it
already has. This will be good news for most people, but really great news
for Polymathica Members. It means that refined, erudite television
programming will become economically viable and, therefore, available in
large doses, 24/7. It also means that a whole new community of producers of
refined, erudite television will emerge.
Internet television will dramatically modify the economic dynamics of
the industry. Today, television programming requires massive audiences in order
to survive. USA Network’s The Starter Wife was canceled due to poor ratings
despite routinely attracting audiences of 2.5 million. Consequently, when new
show concepts are considered, appeal to large audiences is never far from the
producers’ thoughts. Internet
television, however, can survive on 100,000 viewers or less. It never competes for a time slot. It only competes against
profitability. {read
more} The Community Design Polymath As the
Information Age Income Explosion and ‘live anywhere’ capability emerge,
people will begin to consider whether a traditional urban setting is most
facilitative for their values and lifestyle preferences. For many, a comprehensively designed and
culturally friendly community will become a` superior choice. We emphasize the concept of comprehensive
community design. By this we mean that
not only will the physical and architectural structure be tailored to the
resident but also, commercial, economic, retail and public spaces, cultural,
public and educational servuces, etc. will be carefully blended to create a
sense of proper place. In order to be
the primary visionary who drives the design and implementation of the
community to its completeion, a person must be a
analytical and creative Polymath of the first order. Reward will be commensurate with the required
qualifications. {read more} The
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