Wisdom and the Future
The Center for Future Consciousness &
The Wisdom Page
 
In This Issue
Editorial: A Plethora of Articles from Future Consciousness
The Wisdom Curriculum
What Matters: Flourishing
Singularity Hub Articles and Videos
University of Chicago - HERO Model and new Center
Donald Trump and Wisdom
Leadership Resources
Accelerating Times and Foresight University
Education for All or Education for Wisdom
New Wisdom Sonnets
Teaching the Future
Interview on Consciousness
No Place to Hide - Musings on Fromm
Millennials Need Confucius
Conversation Articles
Archive Pages for CFC and TWP
Director of
The Wisdom Page & The Center for Future Consciousness

 


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Editions

Tom Lombardo's Books on the Future, Wisdom, and Future Consciousness 






Wisdom, Consciousness, and the Future
 



 

This Month's Highlights
July, 2016

  

 
Wisdom and the Future is an "All Star Award" journal within Constant Contact for excellence, a honor only given to the top 10% of Constant Contact customers. 
 
*  *  *  *  *

Quote for the Month

"For everywhere the self receives a blow, consciousness grows and when the self has no external anchor other than itself having received a fatal blow by reality, in its aloneness in the universe, the self then rises in sublime levels of consciousness. It is alone, so it must self-determine and this is only successful when it has a truly broadened awareness that is universal in its dimensions and aspirations. The future of humanity will depend on humans that have found the courage to find an anchor in being; the self. Finding an anchor in being demands facing risk that is extremely staggering, so much so, that it is like jumping into a black hole. Individually, to attain true liberty we must all jump into this black hole of our deepest fear of being alone in the universe. For only then will we truly grow and know the deepest meaning of responsibility and claiming ownership of the future of our planet".

Stephen Awoyemi - Reflections from Abuja

*  *  *  *  * 

Included in this month's issue of Wisdom and the Future:         
  • Editorial: A Plethora of New Articles - Tom Lombardo
  • Future Consciousness and Changemakers Books Publication
  • The Wisdom Curriculum - Leland Beaumont
  • "What Matters: Flourishing" - Leland Beaumont 
  • Singularity Hub: Articles and Hyper-Reality Videos
  • University of Chicago: H.E.R.O.(E.) Model of Wisdom and new Center for Practical Wisdom
  • Walter Moss on Donald Trump and Wisdom
  • Leadership Resources: "Civic Leadership Fellows Curriculum"
  • Accelerating Times and Foresight University
  • "Education for All or Education for Wisdom" - Jennifer Gidley
  • New Wisdom Sonnets: "Our Mission" and "Cosmic Consciousness" - Alan Nordstrom
  • "Teaching the Future" - Peter Bishop
  • Interview of Consciousness - Tom Lombardo and Marcus Anthony
  • "No Place to Hide" and Philosophical Musings on Eric Fromm - Debbie Aliya
  • "What Do Millennial Students Really Need? More Confucius" - Michael Puett
  • The Conversation "Chinese Philosophy" and "Personal Beliefs versus Scientific Innovation"
  • Archive Pages for Center for Future Consciousness and The Wisdom Page 
 

Editorial:
A Plethora of New Articles
 Tom Lombardo



 

Instead of the usual custom of a single editorial for a magazine or journal, in this month's issue of Wisdom and the Future the reader gets the magical number of seven, to pick and choose from.

To explain: In the process of editing my new book Future Consciousness, I significantly streamlined and/or cut various sections of the book. Instead of simply tossing the sections I streamlined or cut (the reasons for editing them did not have to do with quality), I posted them all as stand alone articles on the CFC site. The articles will all be online supplemental articles referenced in the book.

So here are the articles--all reasonably short--on a set of general philosophical and futurist topics, including mind and consciousness, thinking and understanding, and ethics and the "Age of Wisdom":
   




 Future Consciousness: The Path to Purposeful Evolution and
Changemakers Books Publication
Tom Lombardo



 

Good news on the publication of my new book. I have received a book contract offer from Changemakers Books, and if all goes well the book should be published early next year. Thus far I have received twenty endorsements on the book and the editorial review staff at Changemakers also had a number of very good things to say about the book as well. Timothy Ward, the head publisher and an accomplished writer himself, has been particularly enthusiastic and helpful through the process leading to this contract. 

In essence, the book pulls together evolution, future consciousness, ethics, and wisdom into what I believe is a new vision of humanity and the conscious mind. To quote from the book proposal:

"Creating a good future is the central challenge of human life. In order to best meet this challenge we need to heighten our future consciousness. Future consciousness, which includes such normal human abilities as goal setting, planning, foresight, and purposeful behavior, is the most distinctive and empowering ability of the human mind.

This book provides a scientifically informed and psychologically holistic approach to understanding and enhancing our future consciousness, serving as a guide for creating a realistic, constructive, and ethical future. Through future consciousness humans have realized an "evolution in evolution," bringing evolution under informed, thoughtful, and purposeful control. We are self-evolutionary beings, and our preferable future should be to further strengthen our capacity for purposeful evolution through the heightening of future consciousness.

The book's central hypothesis is: We create a good future-defined as flourishing in the flow of evolution-through the heightening of future consciousness, which is achieved by developing a core set of character virtues, most notably and centrally wisdom. Offering a new evolutionary, future-oriented vision of wisdom, understood as synonymous with heightened future consciousness, this capacity is the key to happiness and flourishing in life and optimum self-development; it is the preferable direction for education in the future, the further evolution of individual minds, and the collective future evolution of human society."

Here's the Table of Contents:
  • Wisdom and Creating a Good Future
  • Reality and Cosmic Evolution
  • Human Evolution and Consciousness
  • Reciprocity    
  • Well Being and the Good
  • Flourishing through Virtue
  • Heightened Future Consciousness
  • Self-Control and Self-Responsibility
  • The Ecology of Future Consciousness
  • Emotions about the Future
  • Motivation, Growth, and Optimism
  • Purposeful Behavior
  • Learning, Memory, and Habit
  • Consciousness and Understanding
  • Thinking, Imagination, and Foresight
  • Creativity for the Future
  • The Self and the Personal Narrative
  • Wisdom for the Future
More updates to follow in later issues of the journal.
 
  

The "Wisdom Curriculum"  
Leland Beaumont

  
"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"
T. S. Eliot  

  

      
Leland Beaumont, one of the Wisdom Page Advisory Board members and a frequent contributor to Wisdom and the Future, has been developing an extensive "Applied Wisdom Curriculum" on Wikiversity, providing an informative, thoughtful, and rich interactive learning experience. This online curriculum is now featured on the home page of the Wisdom Page.   
 
As Lee states on the opening page for his curriculum,

"This Applied Wisdom Curriculum is being designed by asking how we can best prepare ourselves to solve the great universal problems that prevent us from realizing and enjoying all that is most important in life. Knowledge has not been enough; we need the broad scope, human perspective, and good judgment of wisdom.

Shih-Ying Yang writes: 'In the last analysis, individual actualization of conceptions of wisdom in real life, and the positive impact of these wise decisions and actions, may be the vehicle of the advance of human civilizations.'

This curriculum is based on the simple premise: If folly brings us problems, then perhaps wisdom can bring us solutions. The goal of the curriculum is to help you develop a tough mind and a tender heart.

Pursuit of well-being is the unifying theme for these courses."

New courses in the curriculum include:

Transcending Conflict

"We face conflict often as we encounter contradictory goals....Conflict is unavoidable; fortunately we can learn to transcend conflict as we avoid false dichotomies."

Doing Good

"You have decided you want to do some good in the world! Excellent, how can you best get started? How do you ensure your efforts are doing real good, rather than causing more problems? What are the most effective actions you can take to make progress toward what ought to be? Will doing good feel good?" 
 
   
 

     

"What Matters"
Flourishing 
Leland Beaumont


  
     

"What Matters" Series 

"Wise people seek a life well lived. The recent series on the virtue of the month provides moral guidance, but we must also focus our efforts on what matters most. While the virtues guide us in doing things right, focusing on what matters guides us in doing the right things. Therefore, we have begun a monthly exploration of What Matters.

Each month explore one topic that suggests how you should spend your time to attain fulfillment and live a meaningful life. What is most significant to you, your family, your community, nation and the world? How does what matters most change as your needs are met, as you gain experience, and as you grow and mature? Series topics will address surviving, thriving, recreation, success, significance, transcendence, and avoiding distractions and dead ends."
 
*  *  *  *  * 

     Flourishing   
  

    
This month we focus on why flourishing is what matters. Professor Martin Seligman makes his case for flourishing as perhaps the wisest goal for humanity. "Being in a state of mental health is not merely being disorder free; rather it is the presence of flourishing." He equates flourishing with well-being and describes five key elements that characterize it.               
Leland Beaumont
Instructor



Singularity Hub:
Articles and Hyper-Reality Videos




The Singularity Hub and Newsletter published by the Singularity University is an excellent resource on contemporary developments and futurist projections within the areas of science and technology and their impact on humanity.

Some recent entertaining and/or thought-provoking articles and videos within the Newsletter include:


University of Chicago:
H.E.R.O.(E.) Model of Wisdom and
the new Center for Practical Wisdom

 
 
 

Announcement on the new
Center for Practical Wisdom

'While people search for wisdom throughout their lives, it long has been overlooked as a topic for rigorous scholarship and scientific investigation.

That's changing at UChicago, which recently launched the Center for Practical Wisdom. The first-of-its-kind center is being started with $2 million from the John Templeton Foundation.

"Wisdom is not a myth or something lost in classical times, but rather a real aspect of human psychology," said Howard Nusbaum, professor of psychology, who will serve as the center's first director. "It is not a property of a certain rare few people, but rather a skill that can be acquired through experience.

The center will be housed in the Department of Psychology and be internationally focused and interdisciplinary in its approach -- incorporating neuroscience, economics and philosophy."

By Greg Borzo, UChicago News

Read about the new center

*  *  *  *  *


The H.E.R.O.(E). Model of Wisdom
By Jeffrey Webster

"I define wisdom as the competence in, intention to, and
application of, critical life experiences to facilitate optimal development in self and others (Webster, 2010). Wisdom is necessitated by those challenging, stressful, and morally ambiguous situations in which there may be no absolute correct answer."

Read the entire discussion on the Practical Wisdom Site.

Watch the Video Presentation

 

Walter Moss on
Donald Trump and Wisdom


 

Walter Moss, a Wisdom Advisory Board member, wrote the following article on Donald Trump in History News Network, providing a "wisdom analysis" of the Presidential candidate.

"The Main Problem with Donald Trump: He's a Fool"

"By calling Donald Trump a fool, I do not wish to engage in mindless name-calling. Borrowing from the Oxford Dictionary, which defines a fool as "a person who acts unwisely or imprudently," I merely wish to say that Mr. Trump often demonstrates unwise behavior."

Walter Moss

Read the entire article.


Leadership Resources:
"Civic Leadership Fellows Curriculum"  
 



An educational program for "Civic Leadership" that integrates wisdom into the curriculum created by Tom Pollak.

Civic Leadership Fellows Seminar:
The Art of Building a Better World

"The future is not a gift: it is an achievement. Every generation helps make its own future. This is the essential challenge of the present." - Robert F. Kennedy, 1962

"The future is uncertain but we can see its outline: If we continue down our current path of divisive politics, looming climate change, persistent poverty, and growing inequality, our prospects for a thriving future are dim. Yet we have the capacity to change the future, just as the Civil Rights Movement did before us with wisdom, courage, creativity, compassion, and hard work. In the process, we can create good lives for ourselves and connect to a community of people working together to make a better world.
 
Our approach is different. Most people working to make a better world think in terms of changing specific laws, policies, structures or government funding streams. We are trying to do something harder by taking an approach that builds the civic culture, the foundation for real and lasting change, while at the same time solving the immediate challenge of transforming urban education by getting a tutor or mentor for every student who needs one."





Accelerating Times
and Foresight University
 

   
John Smart, who founded the Acceleration Studies Foundation, recently announced the publication of a new book and the creation of a new educational institution dedicated to foresight education. From John's announcement,

"While our social and political worlds improve at a snail's pace, our scientific and technical worlds are beginning to sound like science fiction, and a technological singularity in this century now seems quite likely to many observers. It's a truly amazing time to be alive, and every year forward from here just gets crazier. Dealing intelligently with all this accelerating change has never been more important.

This is a reboot of ASF's [Acceleration Studies Foundation] monthly newsletter, Accelerating Times. ASF is changing it's name to the Foresight Foundation, and this newsletter will be produced in conjunction with my new startup, Foresight University, as my career focus in recent years has shifted to foresight development in a world of accelerating change."

His description of his new book is: "The Foresight Guide seeks to be the world's best overview of general futures thinking and professional foresight practice. It explores three processes, four domains, eight skills, and twenty specialties that professionals can use to create better universal, personal, global, and organizational futures. It has 15 chapters, and roughly 500 pages. It is written from an acceleration-aware, evo devo, and evidence-based perspective."


        

 
"Education for All or Education for Wisdom" - Jennifer Gidley

 
 
Jennifer Gidley, President of the World Futures Studies Federation, recently posted a provocative article on wisdom education on Academia.Edu.

The title is "Education for All or Education for Wisdom."

Read the article.

New Wisdom Sonnets: "Our Mission" and "Cosmic Consciousness"
Alan Nordstrom

 
 
Alan Nordstrom, our resident poet and literary visionary for the Wisdom Page, a "licensed verse practitioner" as he refers to himself, sent in the following two sonnets this last month. Access and read Alan's website/blog.


  OUR MISSION



for Tom Lombardo and Nicholas Maxwell
wisdomeers

                   How did it come to be life happened here-
                   That this great globe in space could generate
                   From primal elements an atmosphere
                   That breathed into an inorganic state
                   What animated it and bid it breed
                   So over eons it grew more complex
                   As if by plan, eventually to succeed
                   In making something with immense prospects:
                   That would be us.  Now, what are we to do?
                   Grow wise and exercise that sapience
                   For which we've doubly named ourselves, but who
                   Alas, for all our progress, remain dense.
                        Still, wisdom is implicit in our race,
                        And it's our mission to express that grace.

 *  *  *  *  *  *
COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS



"Integration with the infinite is the task
of the mature individual." -Carl Jung

                    The chief task of our sapience is to grow
                    Into a state of mind rightly aligned
                    With what all who are wise have come to know,
                    The noblest potential of our kind:

                    A Cosmic Consciousness-a mystic view
                    Of the invisible matrix from which
                    Is born the multiverse, with much ado,
                    Where all creation finds its proper niche,

                   And so it is with us, tasked to find out
                   With our expanding consciousness our aim
                   And what this multiverse is all about:
                   What it is headed for and whence it came.

                       When we have rightly read the Cosmos' mind
                       We'll have done that for which we are designed.

 
"Teaching the Future"  Peter Bishop

 

Dr. Peter Bishop, of Teach the Future, recently posted an informative slide presentation introduction to Teach the Future from his talk at the First International Conference on Anticipation. The Teach the Future Initiative was highlighted in a previous Wisdom and the Future issue. Peter Bishop is the retired Director of the graduate program in Futures Studies at the University of Houston. 

 

Interview of Consciousness Tom Lombardo and Marcus Anthony


 
 

Futurist Marcus Anthony of Mind Futures and the  Consciousness Files recently interviewed me. We discussed a host of different topics, including consciousness, science fiction, future consciousness, the mind-body problem, transhumanism and cyborgs, evolution, cosmic ecology, free will, and American culture.

Listen to the podcast (Scroll down to Episode 2).

 

 
"No Place to Hide" and Philosophical Musings on Eric Fromm
Debbie Aliya




 

Science fiction writer and follower of both the Center for Future Consciousness and Wisdom Page websites, Debbie Aliya, writes "wisdom stories in sci-fi garb." This month she sent me a very, very short story "No Place to Hide," with some supplemental commentary on Eric Fromm and the issues of freedom and willpower.  

"What Do Millennial Students Really Need? More Confucius" 
Michael Puett

 



     
From the Chronicle of Higher Education (June 5, 2016):

"Stop trying to find yourself. You're a big bundle of contradictions. Instead, embrace rituals that will make you a better person.

That's a taste of the contrarian wisdom found in The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life (Simon & Schuster, 2016). The book grew out of a very popular course taught by Michael Puett, a professor of Chinese history at Harvard University, where it routinely attracts more than 700 students. The book is enjoying similar acclaim - it's already made best-seller lists in the United States and elsewhere."

Tom Bartlett
 
Read the article



 
The Conversation
"Why the Internet isn't Making Us Smarter and How to Fight Back" and "Is the American Dream Dead?"






The Conversation is an interesting online journal, combining current events, integrative and holistic issues pertaining to the human condition, and philosophical discussion, that I have highlighted in earlier issues of Wisdom and the Future. Below are two new articles, relevant to wisdom, the future, and the state of education and scientific knowledge in the modern world.


"Chinese philosophy is missing from U.S. philosophy departments. Should we care?"

*  *  *  *  *

"Personal beliefs versus scientific innovation: getting past a flat Earth mentality"




 
Read the article.

 

Archive Pages for Center for Future Consciousness and Wisdom Page


From the fall of 2012 to the spring of 2014, I published two newsletters: the revitalized and redesigned Wisdom Page Updates and Futurodyssey (the monthly publication of the
Center for Future Consciousness).  Readers
can view  issues of both
these newsletters; each  newsletter has an Archive Page. View the View the Futurodyssey Archive Page.

Beginning in June, 2014, the newsletters were combined into one electronic journal that serves both
The Wisdom Page and The Center for Future Consciousness. The Archive Page for this one publication can be accessed at Wisdom and the Future Archive Page.

The reader can subscribe to Wisdom and the Future either on The Wisdom Page or the Center for Future Consciousness Page. See
The Wisdom Page Contact Page
or the Home Page of the Center for Future Consciousness.