The future world

Bodo Scheumann

In a world of rising complexity, one has to search for new ways to express information and knowledge.

The serial way by words lacks the expression of multi-dimensional correlations, and, if you want to describe it, leads to and immense effort.

Human beings, from their roots, are hunters and collectors, so the analysis of a situation is based on quick decisions or long-term knowledge.

The thinking about the impact of our immediate acting on the future is only taken into account if it is directly obvious and certain harmful. If there is a slight doubt in danger or if the effect would not harm the actor, it is not taken into account. Thinking of the results of action in generations is not basically inherited in our culture, and ended in the most complete elimination of those cultures, who tried to live by these rules.

If you look into our present economy, ecological rules are not part of the system. And if there are some, they are only used to an extent of preventing direct disaster. Long-term aspects have to step back on quick business. IT starts that ecological taxes are used for everything, but not for the sane of nature.

Like on the new market, where everybody was running behind the golden cow, because it was sparkling and nice at the moment. Nobody tried to sit back and think on real possibilities, long-term aspects and a realistic placement. Like to by skateboards for the season. And like the skates, people did throw away the new market, after everybody was there and the first glamour vanished and the ‘real’ business emerged.

The disaster followed was not only the crash of the stock market, but the frustration of those who really had the ideas and visions and tried to make them work. They were killed, together with those who used the boom for their own sake (well, those did run away already, leaving a big hole).

This shows how business is driven by current aspects. One cause is the structure of the companies: Lead by managers, who’s current income is based on the current situation of the company. This leads to the management by the minute, and if the company runs into a disaster, they just jump of the train.

If a manager would be paid five years behind, including the results of his work, it might give a change of thinking and acting in long-term measures.

The type of family-lead company is out, companies are only numbers on a paper, they are bough and sold like an apple. And if there is no change in thinking, economy will end up in a disastrous state.

I think, you cannot blame special people or groups for this situation.

For most people, it is not easy to look into the future, or even make a rough prediction. Past events showed up that the unlikely is likely to happen, also because distance is not a factor anymore so you have to deal with strange cultures you never heard of. The problem Germany had in the nineteenth century to become one state out of 150, the same problem arises now as the ‘global’ economy emerges. If you look at the long way the European union took to get to the current state, where it still is not a ‘country’, but tries to get near to it, you can imagine, how long the way will be for the world. Imagine.

So, now the bad thing is that the current world is driven by the economy.

And the good thing is that the current world is driven by the economy.

It is bad that everybody is in today’s business, nobody (wants to) look at the future. Social aspects are further down the line. Economy damn care.

The good thing is, that economy needs a big market. So if people and politics don’t wont one world, the economy does. Economy damn care.

But is economy really the leader? Yes and no. It is, because by advertising, it tells us what to eat, where to go and what to do. Better than Big Brother can.

But as the power of economy rises, the more the power is in the hand of the people. Just by their habits, they can steer the economy. They have to buy to make the economy work. If they don’t buy, business has to die. And this works much faster then the elections in politics.

But how can the man on the street know, what is right or wrong. OK, he can read the media, try to think on his own. But media can create a golden cow in the air, just for its own sake, without any reason. So you have to create a more independent tool, which gives everybody the possibility to judge on his own.

Words have been the media to transport messages for a long time. Spoken from mouth to ear, carved into stone, painted on papyrus, printed in books. But they were and are still a very exclusive media. Because a lot of people cannot read. And, furthermore, don’t speak the same language. And even: If they can read, if they speak the language, will they understand?

The bible says, in the beginning there was the word. Is that really true? If you look into the caves from the stone age, you won’t see words on the walls, but pictures. The picture of a cow is a cow is a cow, in every culture, in every language.

The Chinese use pictures for words. S at least the ‘written’ word is understandable in many (Chinese) languages.

People try to express things, where they don’t have words for.

Books are fascinating, because they leave room to imagine. To think about how the castle of Harry Potter might look like, or the Cyclope Odysseus had to face.

So, are words the right thing for business? Where everybody can think on something else, based on the same words?

If you want to bribe somebody: yes. If you want to create a big, empty bubble: yes.

But to give somebody an insight, you need a picture.

You should leave as less imagination to the observer as possible. The partner has to know where and how he is going to, otherwise he will jump of the train in the middle.

If you want to build up a long-lasting, solid strategy, you need people who share the same vision and follow the same rules.

We have to learn a new way of communication, one that combines all the old channels, and the experiences from the past. If ‘Mein Kampf’ would have been put into pictures and schematics, nobody would have followed Hitler or at least, he would have been stopped much earlier.