By Robert Gilman on March 11, 2013
The central story of the Foundation Stones is starting to emerge. As I’ve been writing articles and posts for the Foundations Stones, it has become clear that some of these are part of that central story, with each one building on what has gone before. Others play a supporting role. I think of the central articles and posts as the Foundation Stones’ Main Thread.
To make it easier for you to follow this Main Thread, I’ve put in place a system that makes it explicit:
- There is a listing in the sidebar with links to each Main Thread item.
- There is a Foundation Stones’ Main Thread page that provides a graphic table of contents, listing published material and upcoming material — so that you can see where the process is headed.
- Each article or post in the Main Tread is identified as such within it and has previous and next links along the thread.
If you want to get the full benefit from the Foundation Stones project, I encourage you to look at the Foundation Stones’ Main Thread page and then read any of the Main Thread items you haven’t read yet.
Posted in Foundation Stones
By Robert Gilman on March 2, 2013
I’ve posted two additional articles in the Tools For The Journey section:
The Human Operating System (hOS) uses an analogy with smart phones to identify the part of innate human nature that is most important to understand so that we can be effective cultural change agents.
The Burden And The Gift Of Culture goes deeper into what culture is and how it functions — and why it is so essential to what it means to be human.
I invite you to take a look and use the comment form to let me know what you think.
Posted in Tools For The Journey
By Robert Gilman on December 21, 2012
Today I posted a video and an article that introduce a simple, powerful, big-picture framework for understanding how culture fits into its context. The framework is called culture as interface. It’s important groundwork on which the Foundation Stones rest.
The 8-minute animated video, created in Motion, is an experimental first for this site. I’ll be interested in your feedback on it.
I’ve also posted a companion article, Culture-As-Interface In Its Historical Context, that connects the culture-as-interface framework to a rich history of related ideas.
I invite you to take a look and use the comment form to let me know what you think.
Posted in Tools For The Journey
By Robert Gilman on October 16, 2012
(This post follows Who Are The Foundation Stones For? in the FS Main Thread.)
The material on this website is written within the framework of five basic assumptions about humanity and the Earth at this time in history:
- Business-as-usual is not sustainable
- The culture is not changing fast enough
- A thriving sustainable society is possible
- A pathway to get there is possible
- These four are all reflections of the major cultural transition that humanity is in the midst of now, a transition as profound as the shift out of hunting and gathering and into agriculture and cities that happened 5,000 to 10,000 years ago.
In this post I want to make these working hypotheses explicit and provide a brief introduction to each, so that together they can provide a meaningful context for the more detailed material in other posts and articles. Continue reading “Five working hypotheses”
Posted in Foundation Stones
By Robert Gilman on October 16, 2012
(This post follows The Foundation Stones Project in the FS Main Thread.)
Here on this public website, everyone is, of course, welcome. Nevertheless the Foundation Stones material is being developed with a specific audience in mind. Do any of these descriptions fit you?
- Do you feel that something momentous is happening now in human history and do you sense that there are positive opportunities for humanity as well as dangers?
- Do you feel a desire, an inner calling, to play a constructive part in this profound historical process?
- Do you want to deepen your understanding about our times and your possible role in them?
If you do, know that we are creating the Foundation Stones for you.
We hope that, as they develop, the Foundation Stones will offer you three things:
- an empowering understanding of the big picture of our place in history;
- the identification of high-leverage ways for you to engage with the process; and
- tools, techniques and ideas that can help you be a more effective and skillful participant in the process.
If this appeals to you, chances are good that, from an innovation diffusion perspective, you are a change agent or an early adopter relative to these issues — just the people we are doing this for.
If this all feels like it fits you, please look at the material already available as part of the Foundation Stones’ Main Thread and make sure you stay connected. We have a lot of new material coming.
(The next piece in the FS Main Thread is Five Working Hypotheses.)
Posted in Foundation Stones
By Robert Gilman on October 16, 2012
Life often has surprising twists and turns.
I had hoped to post more new material in the last few months, but we ran into major web-server problems (both hardware and software) involving multi-hour and then multi-day outages. By the time the site was hit with the second major outage, I decided to take the time to put a more robust web-server infrastructure in place.
We now have a new server as the main one for the site. We also have a backup server that we can switch to should there be problems on the main server. In the process, I learned a lot more about server administration than I ever thought I would!
I won’t tempt fate by claiming those issues are now all in the past, but I’m feeling good enough about the new setup that I’m happily turning my attention back to generating new content for the site.
Posted in Site News
By Robert Gilman on July 3, 2012
“The significant problems we face can not be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” Albert Einstein
I have posted a couple of new articles – Working Memory and The Dynamic Life of Long-Term Memory – as part of the “Tools For The Journey” section of the site. This is the start of what I expect will be a series of articles on how our minds work and how we communicate. (I am using “mind” in the broad sense that includes thought, perception, emotion, will, memory and imagination, and encompasses subconscious levels as well as conscious.)
What does this focus on cognitive psychology have to do with whole-system pathways to a thriving sustainable planetary future?
In The Core Challenge Of Our Times, I make the case that the unprecedented growth in population and the economy, both helped by major changes in technology, has taken humanity into a territory where our existing cultures are no longer in sync with the on-the-ground reality of our daily lives. With the momentum in population, the economy and technology moving us even further away from the roots of our existing cultures, we need our cultures to change and adapt more effectively and quickly than they have so far.
Here’s the connection to our minds:
- Cultural change is based in learning
- Learning depends on our how our minds work and how we communicate
- A deeper understanding of mind and communications can lead to more effective learning and the necessary new “level of thinking.”
Here’s the same story in a bit more detail as a flow chart, showing how a fresh understanding about mind and communications fits into the bigger picture:
Do take a look at Working Memory and The Dynamic Life of Long-Term Memory. The ideas in these articles are part of the foundational understanding we need to move gracefully towards a thriving sustainable planetary future.
Posted in Tools For The Journey | Tagged Psychology
By Robert Gilman on June 3, 2012
What is the core challenge of our times? I have posted my take on this in a new article in the “What Time Is It?” section. This article serves as a starting point for the whole Foundation Stones project.
I invite you to take a look and give me your feedback via the comment form link at the bottom of that page. Let me know what parts of the article work for you, which ones don’t, topics you would like to see expanded on in the future and anything you feel is factually incorrect.
Thanks!
Posted in What Time Is It?
By Robert Gilman on May 11, 2012
Thirty-three years ago today, the State of Washington accepted and certified our Articles of Incorporation as a nonprofit organization. It’s been a long, wonderful, surprising journey. I encourage you to take a look at Context Institute’s History and the In Context Back Issue Descriptions to get a good sense of what’s been accomplished. I’m deeply grateful to all of the people who have shared this journey and made it possible.
Yet as wonderful as it’s been, I’m feeling that the best is yet to come. As I’ve been telling friends of late, I’ve never been as encouraged about the human future as I am today. I’m convinced that a thriving sustainable planetary future is possible. The major questions in my mind are less about “whether?” than about “when?” and “how gracefully?” and simply “how?”
The answers to those questions depend on all of us. I honor what you’re already doing to provide positive answers — and I hope that our work will make your work easier, more joyful and encourage you further.
Our next big step in that direction is the Foundation Stones project — a means for us to share what we have learned about realistic pathways to a thriving sustainable planetary future. Do stay in touch as we build this resource.
It’s all part of doing what we can to build a future that coming generations will thank us for. Are you up for it?
Posted in Institute News
By Robert Gilman on May 11, 2012
We are delighted to bring you this new version of www.context.org. Context Institute has had an internet presence for a long time. We got the context.org domain in 1994, we did our first website in 1996, and we upgraded the site in 2000. The old version of the site served us well for many years, steadily hosting over 20,000 visitors a month, but as we started in late 2011 to plan for Context Institute’s next phase, it was clear that we needed to bring the website fully into the 21st century.
The new site has all of the essential material from the old site — especially all of the 900 articles from In Context. What is new is that the site is now a dynamic content management system (based on WordPress and the Hybrid theme framework) that will allow us to add all kinds of features that the old static-page site couldn’t handle.
We expect to be adding substantial content to the site over the coming months and years as we develop the Foundation Stones project. Please sign up for our email newsletter, CI News, using the form in the upper right column. In addition to updates about new articles on the website, CI News will have behind-the-scenes info and questions well before that material reaches the website.
We invite you to explore this new site. If you are not familiar with our work, the About Us section is a great resource. We would love to get your feedback both on what you like and where you feel there is room for improvement.
Thanks!
Posted in Site News
