World Views
In 1922, Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit priest and philosopher, introduced the idea of a “Noosphere”, which he described as “a sphere of human thought encircling the earth […] as much part of nature as the […] atmosphere, and biosphere.” In 1962, Marshall McLuhan, philosopher and professor, introduced the concept of a ‘Global Village’, given the “instantaneous movement of information from every quarter to every point at the same time”.[1]
In 1974, Theodor Holm Nelson, an information technology pioneer, philosopher and sociologist, introduced the term ‘Intertwingularity’. “Everything is deeply intertwingled […] Hierarchical and sequential structures, especially popular since Gutenberg, are usually forced and artificial. Intertwingularity is not generally acknowledged —people keep pretending they can make things hierarchical, categorizable and sequential when they can’t.”[2]
According to the latest Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: “Humanity now faces two simultaneous existential threats, either of which would be cause for extreme concern and immediate attention […] These major threats – nuclear weapons and climate change – were exacerbated this past year by the increased use of information warfare to undermine democracy around the world, amplifying risk from these and other threats and putting the future of civilization in extraordinary danger. There is nothing normal about the complex and frightening reality just described.” [3]
It is imperative that educational institutions adapt and evolve if they are to remain responsive and relevant.
“When information was scarce and knowledge acquired only through another human, the value of that stock of knowledge was high and the aggregation of that wisdom in a university degree was proxy for a good job and a stable career. As access to information becomes nearly ubiquitous (70% of the planet will be connected by […] smart phone by 2020) the value of a stock of knowledge drops and related value of that bundled wisdom declines. We must move from transferring existing knowledge and predetermined skills to new sets of professionals and develop agile learning mindsets where we stream knowledge […]We need to become net-generalists focusing on the uniquely human skills of creativity, collaboration, and empathy.” [4]
Connecting Dots
The ability to discern what is salient – the patterns created by the connected dots – within a complex mass of information has become increasingly valuable as a skill.
E.O. Wilson, biologist and philosopher, wrote: “We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.” [5]
It’s worth noting that like the word ‘art’, ‘synapse’, ‘yoga’, ‘algebra’, and ‘conscience’ all share the same basic meaning. Each signifies joining things together to create greater wholes within ever-wider frames of understanding and knowledge. “In 1964, neuropsychologist Roger Sperry drew an analogy between neurons and ideas: Ideas cause ideas and help evolve new ideas. They interact with each other and with other mental forces in the same brain, in neighboring brains, and thanks to global communication, in far distant, foreign brains.” [6]
Global Education & Ethics
The 2008 financial crash cost $19.2 trillion dollars in lost household wealth, according to the US Treasury Department. This altogether avertable tragedy was attributed to the excessive greed of executives in the financial sector. Consider the following 2008 NY Times headline, “Big Three CEOs Flew Private Jets to Plead for Public Funds. Auto industry close to bankruptcy, but they still get pricey perk.” [7]
That same year, an article appeared in the Harvard Business Review: “It’s Time to Make Management a True Profession” by Professors Rakesh Khurana and Nitin Nohria.” [8] Calling for a new ethical paradigm for businesses, the authors wrote that “to regain society’s trust, we believe that business leaders must embrace a way of looking at their role that goes beyond their responsibility to the shareholder to include a civic and personal commitment to their duty as institutional custodians”.[9]
The authors suggested developing a “Hippocratic Oath for Managers.” A group of Harvard M.B.A. students were inspired and produced one. To date, ten years later, more than 10,000 students attending over 100 institutions internationally have taken the MBA Oath.[10]
While this is laudable, the overall impact is limited. Consider that since 2010 in the United States alone, about 200,000 students graduate annually with an MBA. In India alone, there are 5,500 business schools.[11] Where do these programs and students stand in relation to adopting an MBA Oath ethos? The question essentially holds for all Master Degree Programs.
What really has changed in the past decade? Consider the following January 2019 article from the Guardian: “A common thread runs through the world’s modern banking scandals. Greed – unbridled, incentivised, and unchecked by timid regulators – unites them all. You can see it in the worst excesses of the global financial crisis. It’s there in the post-2008 Irish collapse, and more recent revelations about shocking misconduct by Californian banking giant Wells Fargo”.[12]