“I predict that THE HUMAN KNOWLEDGE MINDMAP will become the globally dominant knowledge paradigm by the year 2100.”

The most famous traditional knowledge paradigm resulted from a synthesis of the works of Plato and Aristotle from Ancient Greece. It provided the platform for occidental thinking up until the Renaissance. The modern paradigm that replaced it is probably best represented by a synthesis of Kant and Hegel. This paradigm is often referred to as the Enlightenment, and is justly renowned for the advent of the scientific method.

Technological, scientific and philosophical developments in recent times (after World War Two) have now taken us beyond modernism, and into the Post-Modern Era. We can appreciate what this means by comparing the previous two eras. The traditional era’s zeitgeist was one of profound uncertainty; humanity possessed neither the understanding nor the techniques to ensure a stable or enduring quality of life for any but the few. The modern era’s zeitgeist harnessed science and technology into a promise of certainty; the belief that with enough reliable knowledge, nature and human nature could be conquered and regulated within all reasonable bounds.

With the sciences of chaos and complexity however, the post-modern era is now situation on a continuum with certainty at one end and uncertainty at the other. Depending on the purpose and scale of our projects, the record of experience now compels us to move continuously back and forth on this continuum, with no place we can permanently rest or seek assurance from. We need a new knowledge paradigm which reflects that combination of certainty AND uncertainty that we now live with.

Fortunately, such a post-modern knowledge paradigm has been created. It is called THE HUMAN KNOWLEDGE MINDMAP and it is available in an e-book titled HOW TO THINK LIKE A KNOWLEDGE WORKER that the United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN) has posted online for free viewing and downloading at the following URL: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/unpan/unpan031277.pdf It is an index of the whole of human knowledge. It refers to HOW we think, not what we think. It can encompass all of human knowledge, past, present, and future, which is what an archetypal post-modern knowledge paradigm would have to do. As this paradigm becomes disseminated throughout the global population, is will progressively trump all other alternatives because of its encompassing breadth and succinct systemics.

Hard copies of the above document can also be obtained by contacting William Sheridan, c/o Informetrica Limited, 176 Bronson Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1R 6H4