Paradigm shift
Jan van Til
At YouTube you can find a short but very
helpful video of Dr
Quantum in Flatland [1]. Dr Quantum first impresses and later on
successfully persuades a two dimensional (she-)circle to shift her paradigm;
her world view. He persuades her to step out of her very, very familiar two
dimensional habitat and – in one-and-the-same move – to step into an unknown
three dimensional world. “What will happen to me? What will I become?”, is her
final, but already weak(ened) opposition to Dr
Quantum.
There is really only one way to find out:
“You’d have to become it to know”, Dr Quantum friendly replies [2]. She has to
entirely let go of her old and familiar flat-world civilization in order to
find herself newborn into the round-world reality.
And from the very moment she enters three
dimensional reality… she becomes aware again of her two dimensional habitat –
but now from the broadened perspective of three dimensions. Furthermore a
totally new and greatly enlarged world – amply encompassing her old world –
opens up for her. Two dimensions will soon not be enough for her anymore. And
very soon she will even have trouble imagining her former, two dimensional
life.
How will she explain her paradigm shift to her
fellow Flatland citizens? And how will she persuade and convince them to shift as
well – in order to develop current societal life to new, unimagined and
unexplored heights….
February 2011, 2011 © Jan van Til
Previous text is also published at my blog “Informatiekundig bekeken”.
Notes:
[1] “Flatland” refers
to the book Flatland: A Romance of Many
Dimensions. You may also want
to consult Wiki.
[2] In the movie “The
Matrix” something similar is said. Neo wants to know what the matrix is.
Morpheus replies: “[u]nfortunately no one can be told
what the matrix is. You
have to see it for yourself.”