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Transcription

Technology always fails. When we need it the most. I will talk about something we all experience, yet very few of us really think about it. That's just the way it is. I experienced it in my youth when I returned from a long stay in Africa. I hear about it from my students and other people, especially from those who have undergone education systems abroad. What are we going to talk about then? Changes, and how come they take such a long time to happen. We know that natural sciences have made great progress since the industrial revolution. We see the effects all around us - these monitors, for example, gadgets and phones in your pockets, and so on. Social sciences, on the other hand, have always been one or two steps behind. Not changing fast enough. What is more, I dare say our educational system has been trapped within the same concepts for 250 years now. Remember what Heraclitus claimed a long time ago? The only constant is change, he said. Indeed, if we are careful listeners we can hear about change on TV, on the radio or in the newspapers; when environmental changes are mentioned, or changes in political systems, changes in business; and of course the changes brought along by the Internet. Some changes happen extremely slowly. They can take billions of years. Other changes can take thousands of years, but they appear fast because we look at them from the standpoint of geology. Humans are the only creatures, capable of adapting our natural environment to our own needs. We started about 2 million years ago, in the Stone Age. Then about 500 thousand years ago we discovered fire, and then 10 thousand years ago, we learned how to light it. These steps might seem tiny to you, and these innovations might appear time-consuming. But look where we are now! All these changes enabled social systems to change as well. Is humanity developing at an equal pace everywhere? No, of course not. Let's compare the USA, with Somalia or India - - why is this happening? When I was reading Einstein's theory of relativity, - don't get me wrong, I didn't understand much of it - but I discovered a fantastic quote in there that I just can't forget. It was a thought of a man who had to change the concepts of his time when the planet and the Universe were perceived in an entirely different way than today. He said: "Social concepts - when based on empirical evidence - are manageable." We can adjust and improve them. As soon as we set them into a priori foundations, they block scientific thought and innovations. They block change. And we cannot control them any more. A fine example of this principle is Galileo. Nevertheless, believe it or not, we are all captives of our own a priori concepts. Let's take a look at two examples. Number 13. We see it as an unlucky number. Why is that? Because according to the Christian theology, there were 13 guests at the last supper, and Christ was betrayed. Chinese see number 4 as unlucky as it is pronounced very similarly as the word for 'death'. But what if we are atheists? Do we still believe that 13 is an unlucky number? If so, why? Another example is this: Here, the color of mourning is black. In Japan, people wear white for funerals. Muslims chose silver color for it. In Latin America it is green. Imagine wearing red at a funeral here in Slovenia. It's not right, right? Our own deeply rooted concepts will prevent such behaviour. Say we want to eliminate all these concepts - how are we going to unblock our view, in order to see things the way they really are? We all know cosmic background noise. [cosmic microwave background radiation] It is the noise left behind from times when our space occurred in the Big Bang. You mostly see it zapping through radio or TV channels, where there is no broadcasting. It appears as a rattling sound and crackling in the image. What has that got to do with change and concepts? Well, it does. Quite a lot, actually. We are all creatures of this Universe. And the laws of the Universe are mostly valid for people as well. We all possess our own background noise, too. This background noise is our culture. Culture in the widest sense of the word. Containing all the a priori concepts. Culture is different in each village, in each nation and in each region. And that is why culture sometimes stands in the way so that we can't see things the way they actually are. How are we to overcome this situation, and see things the way they really are, if we are unable to change our own paradigms and concepts that govern us? First, we have to be aware of two things. People don't like change. We like stability, as stability is interpreted as security. And we get frustrated at our inability to change the conditions in periods of financial crises that we cannot manage. Furthermore, one individual cannot see their own deeply rooted concepts without the help of others. And that is most likely why our educational system hasn't changed in 250 years. I enter the classroom, step on the conveyor belt, and graduate the next day. Well, I do a bit of cheating along the way, too. We must realize three things if we want to proceed. We are all creatures of one Universe and no one can be above nature. All people are equal. Others are not always wrong, just like we are not always wrong. We are all just captives of our own beliefs, hidden in our cultures. Only then we can start fighting our own background noises. By listening and hearing, even if things we hear won't always be to our liking. Let's think about what we hear. And let's learn new stuff, even if something in the back of our heads crackles and buzzes, and we don't know exactly what it might be. I fully realize these steps are not simple, but with time they get easier. I followed this path a long time ago. Once in Central Africa, I was trying to explain to a native that Slovenia gets as cold as the inside of a refrigerator, and he calmly replied: "Oh no, it can't be, that is just impossible!" Many years later, someone in Slovenia said to me: "You know, Jaro, what's wrong with you? You've traveled a lot and taken in patterns from other cultures." Is that really wrong? Well, I certainly don't think so. Because ... How can man discover new oceans if he hasn't got the courage to leave the shore? Thank you. (Applause)