University of Unlearning

Al-Qarawayyin University 

Universities are institutions of higher learning and research. They are often the repository of centuries worth of accumulated knowledge. In fact, the world’s first University was established more than 1,100 years ago in Morocco. Al-Qarawayyin University was founded in 859 A.D. in the city of Fez, by a Tunisian-born woman, Fatima al-Fihri. The University exists to this day.

Fatima’s concept and vision was adopted later in Bologna, Italy where Catholic monks established the University of Bologna in 1088. Eight years later (in 1096) Oxford University was founded in England.

Over the following 1,000 years universities spread throughout the world with more than 25,000 now established.

Unsurprisingly, the pace of education has rapidly expanded during this time.

So too has the pace of technology, a direct result of accumulated knowledge. Similarly, the pace of the accumulation of knowledge has expanded, so much so that we can claim that “pace” itself has expanded. With that has come an accelerating pace of change – something that Alvin Toffler wrote of and warned of in 1970¹. Toffler and his co-author (his wife, Adelaide Farrell) defined Future Shock as a perception of ‘too much change in too short a period of time.’  Toffler died in 2016, and most likely was shocked by the acceleration of change that he had seen in the forty plus years of his life following the publication of Future Shock.

In such a world how can universities respond?

That question can be answered in a variety of ways. We could say that the vocational education (training) provided by many universities is out-of-date within just a few years. For example, one of my degrees conferred in the mid-1970s was in a vocational discipline. Before the turn of the century, technology had transformed that industry so much that my learning was no longer relevant.

The question can also be answered by noting that the research carried out in universities is instrumental in introducing new technologies to the world. Ironically, this research makes the previous knowledge obsolete, as my own example above alludes to.

We could also answer the question by noting that the process of learning itself helps to equip students with knowledge and skills that prepare them for the future.

Yet, the future is looking more and more bleak the more knowledge we gain of the workings of the world: its ecosystems, the dynamics of carbon, water, and other life cycles.

Humans have interfered in these ecosystems and cycles without fully understanding how they work and interact. Our universities have abetted this lack of knowledge through a number of means: e.g. by compartmentalising (and silo-ing) aspects of knowledge, by viewing the world in mechanical terms and analysing its parts, rather than the whole, by side-lining, and invalidating indigenous knowledge, by valuing some subjects (such as science, economics, commerce, medicine, law) over others (such as the arts and humanities.)

Yet today, some university subjects are discovering the knowledge of systems, inter-connections, and wholeness – e.g. ecology, systems analysis, quantum physics, meteorology, anthropology.

Yet, even these subjects are still bound to one of modernity’s projects – the accumulation of knowledge and learning.

We are still being future shocked, we are still exploiting and polluting the earth, we are still battling each other, we are still exterminating other-than-human species.

Perhaps it is time for a new University to be established.

We need an University of Unlearning.

Such a university won’t be able to guide us to un-know all the accumulated knowledge of centuries. Such a university won’t be able to help us un-learn skills.

Such a university may, however, assist us in unlearning the ways of being that we have learnt over many centuries.

I wonder what courses could be offered at a University of Unlearning? What would the introductory course of Unlearning 101 consist of?

Do you, dear reader, have any thoughts?

Notes:

1. Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, Random House, New York, 1970

Delusional or Disillusioned

We live today in a world in turmoil. It is difficult to understand what is going on. Then, when we do try to understand, how do we recognise information from misinformation or disinformation? What is real, what is fake?

Depending upon which camp we fit into, fingers get pointed at other camp followers declaring them to be delusional.

Yet, isn’t that contributing to the turmoil? One person, or one camp, accuses another person, or another camp, of being delusional. A wall gets erected. On one side – the illuminated. On the other side – the deluded.

One definition of delusional is a belief that, though false, is accepted by the mind as being the truth.

However, what if the other camp followers are not delusional but are illusioned. That is, have a belief that, though false, is tentatively held by the mind, awaiting confirmation or refutation. Being illusioned is like watching a magician who uses sleight of hand to temporarily play with our mind so that we believe what the magician wants us to believe. Following the magician’s trick our minds usually returns to a realisation that we have witnessed an illusion even if we don’t know how the illusion was carried out. We might say then, that we are now disillusioned – that is, we are free from the illusion.

Perhaps this is closer to what is happening within the minds (albeit at an unconscious or subconscious level) of many within the world.

For years, decades, even centuries, we have been fed the American Dream (even those of us who do not live in the US) and the promises of modernity. These dreams and promises have assured us that the goal of humanity, and our individual lives within it, is an ever increasing upward, higher, and wealthier future. Modernity promises progress, certainty, safety, and predictability.

However, modernity’s promises are illusionary. They fit neither with the individual’s personal journey nor with the whole planet. But, just as the magician can keep us mesmerised temporarily, so we have been able to go along with and live within modernity’s framework. Many of us have been able to live the American Dream.

But, no more.

The Dream is turning out to be a Nightmare. On an individual level, wages are not keeping up with higher prices. Furthermore, for many the dream of a wage is just that – a dream. On a social level lives are being shattered by warfare, incursions onto territory, and tensions between differing groups. At a planetary level, the ecosphere is breaking down, the climate is awry, species are going extinct at an alarming rate.

Even if we do not recognise these in a cognitive sense, our bodies can feel it. It is as if the magician has completed the illusion, and we are left feeling unnerved yet have no idea how the trick was done.

So, here we are – unnerved and disillusioned.

When a magician does this, our usual response is to applaud.

However, when the illusion of modernity is undone (albeit unconsciously,) our response is more likely to be to look for someone or something to blame. After all, the Dream surely cannot be a Nightmare.

Nightmares are frightening, they leave us insecure.

If the Dream of increasing prosperity, social mobility, and greater satisfaction does not deliver then where are the scapegoats? Who is to blame for this? At this point, anyone offering to alleviate the Nightmare, and promise to fix-it, is likely to be embraced.

It is here where disillusion and delusion merge. Disillusion may be the basis for the dissatisfaction with the way the dreams and promises have turned out, but delusion is what compels the search for a saviour, or a leader who will get us out of this mess and back to normalcy. Delusion tells us that such leaders offer the truth and the way forward again. And, of course, leaders will play on this. They will say, ‘Follow me, I know what is wrong, and I can fix it.’

Sadly, the fixes offered, and the saviours offering them, turn out to be illusory themselves.

If this is the case, then pointing fingers at one camp and calling them delusional does not help. More likely it is that they, and we, are disillusioned.

And that is a systemic issue.

The first step in tackling this systemic issue is to see through the illusion. How many of us are prepared to do that? How many of us even know where to start?

I’m not sure that I do.

Next Shiny Thing

Popular myth tells us that magpies are attracted to shiny objects. Research, however, tells us that this is largely an urban myth.

Humans, on the other hand, do seem attracted to the next shiny object. Let’s briefly look at a few examples:

·       Late 19^th century: Oh look, a horseless carriage. I’ve got to have one.

·       1950s: Oh look, a television. We have to have one in our house.

·       Late 1970s/early 1980s: Oh look, colour TV. We have to get rid of the black and white and get a colour TV.

·       1990s: Oh look, a mobile phone. I have to have one.

·       Early 2000s: Oh look, a smartphone. I’ve gotta get one.

·       2020s: Oh look, someone’s driving an EV. I’ve got to have one.

All these shiny objects have mesmerised us, gained our attention, stimulated our dopamine pathways, and satisfied (for a short while) our desire for the next best thing.

Yet, all the shiny objects illustrated above could arguably be said to have created more problems than they have solved. Each, in their turn, have been discarded for the next shiny object. We asked few, if any, questions about what the consequences of each shiny thing might be.

We are addicted to the next shiny thing. This addiction even has a psychological name (although a pop-culture one, not a clinical one) – Shiny Object Syndrome. Appropriately, the acronym for this is SOS!

What is the next shiny thing?

What shiny thing has had the quickest uptake in recent years? When ChatGPT was released in November 2022 it reached its first one million in just 5 days. In comparison, it took Facebook 10 months to gain its first one million subscribers, and Netflix even longer – 3 ½ years.

It looks as though Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the next shiny thing.

Not only is the progression of AI something to be wary of, but already AI datacentres emit around 2.5% - 3.7% of global Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs.) That is greater than the whole aviation industry. AI’s carbon footprint will only increase.

ChatGPT is an example of the fourth level (Reasoning AI) of AI progression. Those who develop and think about AI postulate 10 levels of AI. As each level is attained humans lose more and more control over its development.

Level 6, for instance, is identified as Super-Intelligent AI and is claimed will eclipse the intellectual capacity of all human beings combined.

The speed at which AI is developing and the closer we get to self-aware AI (Level 7) the closer we come to humans becoming unnecessary.

There is every likelihood that AI will be our final shiny thing.

Seeking the next shiny thing may be the undoing of humanity.

Too Late! ... But Wait

Climate change is coming. The Earth is warming, now about 1.3 degrees C above late 19^th century average. It is getting closer to 2 degrees higher.

Scientists tell us we have to contain this warming, preferably below 1.5 degrees, certainly below 2 degrees.

Social and environmental collapse is predicted for later this century.

We have to do something.

The bad news is: It’s Too Late!

It all has to do with tipping points. A tipping point has been defined as when change in part of a system becomes self-perpetuating beyond a threshold, leading to substantial, widespread, frequently abrupt and often irreversible impacts.’

There are some keywords in that definition.

·       Self-perpetuating tells us that the process has become runaway, and runs now under its own steam, without need for external force.

·       Threshold tells us that there is a point at which a system changes from one state to another state.

·       Substantial, widespread tells us that the new system that follows the threshold is nothing like the system that preceded it.

·       Frequently Abrupt tells us that the change will be catastrophic and will happen very quickly.

·       Often Irreversible tells us that we cannot go back to the previous state, no matter how much we would wish that were possible.

The Earth systems that control, moderate, and form our climate have been studied for many years. Meteorologists, Earth and Climate Scientists now have a very good understanding of how these systems work, and how they interact. At least 25 tipping points in Earth systems have been identified, with 9 of these being especially crucial.

A recent report (December 2023) identifies a number of these tipping points as likely to tip within the near future. At high risk of tipping the report identifies the Greenland Ice Sheet, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the Amazon rainforest, low latitude coral reefs, Boreal permafrost, and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). All of these are likely to tip soon.

What makes things worse though, is that the Earth’s systems are inter-linked, so that if one point is tipped it is highly likely to trigger the tipping of other points – much like a row of dominoes.

However, climate it just one of Earth’s systems. The Stockholm Resilience Centre has been mapping what it has called “Planetary Boundaries” since 2009 (1). The Centre has identified nine of these – climate change being just one of them. In 2009 the Centre had assessed seven boundaries and found that three of them had been exceeded. Last year, the Centre released its latest report in which all nine boundaries had been assessed and found that six of the nine boundaries had been crossed.

None of this is good news.

It is too late to avert serious climate change. It is too late to pull back from social and environmental collapse.

The systems are now self-perpetuating (with or without human intervention), have exceeded some of the thresholds, and have become irreversible.

Too late, too late, too late!!!

But wait

It is not too late to act. Yes, it is too late to act to stop climate chaos and collapse. But it not too late to act in other ways. There is good news.

There is an old saying (it goes back to at least the early 1800s) and has been attributed to a variety of sources – Indian gurus, Chinese sages, the Roman poet Statius, and the French theologian Hyacinthe Loyson. No matter the sayings precise source, the sentiment expressed in it is of value to us at this time. The saying is often quoted thus:

‘Blessed is the person who plants trees under whose shade they will never sit.’

The nature of chaotic systems, tipping points, and social/environmental collapse is that we have no way of predicting the outcome ahead of time.

The best we can do going into the collapse is to plant the seeds for the trees that may be of use to any (if any) humans that get through to the other side of the collapse. Even though, we – acting today – will never experience the benefit of those trees.

We must be careful what trees we plant though. That means looking back over our history to identify the poisonous trees from which we have eaten, and not planning them. Rather we need to plant those trees that are healthy and provide good shelter.

Let me name some of these trees: kindness, compassion, love, sense of beauty, care, empathy, respect, connection, equity. These trees need to be made available to all humans. and to all the other creatures and plants that share this planet with us.

We must not plant the trees of: exploitation, hatred, narcissism, selfishness, hubris. Most of all we must not plant the tree of human exceptionalism.

Otherwise, any human society that does manage to get through to the other side of the collapse is doomed to simply repeat the same mistakes we made that have brought us to the point of social/environmental collapse.

Notes:

1. https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html  accessed 6 November 2024