Asking the Right Question(s):
Ask and it shall be given!
Modern global culture seems to be
based
on the principle of commercial companies providing clients with
the
goods and services they ask for (generally as quickly and
efficiently
as possible) -provided of course that these can be paid for. It's
a
world where beggars can't be choosers -but those with enough money
can
get whatever they wish for.
Underlying all this is the computer -a magic "ghost in a box" that
will
answer all our questions, satisfy all our immaterial needs and
fulfill
all our our requests for information and entertainment.
However, i am old enough to remember charming children's stories
where
people discovered a magic genie living in a bottle who would grant
them
three wishes. Somehow, the genie (the genius?) knew how to
interpret
the wishes in ways that were completely at variance with that
which the
person asking truly desired.
So perhaps we should be very careful
about
what exactly we are asking for. Defining the question can be a
problem,
if one wishes to get what one truly wants -without being given
something that one doesn't want.
Effective problem solving often seems
to involve spending as much (or perhaps even more) time on
examining the
question as it does in discovering the answer.
So What's the question?
This site is intended as an
exploration
of these (and perhaps other)
problems. It is not intended to preach solutions -but to try and
define
the complex, interlocking set of questions that we seem to need to
answer if we wish the human race to keep living on the planet
Earth.
IF questions and answers define each other -then we may need to
try
better to understand the way problems, questions and answers
interact
with each other. Hopefully, the better we understand the problems
-the
easier it will be
to ask the "right" questions in ways that will encourage us to
look for
solutions in more creative (and hopefully more successful ways).
In this sense, it may sometimes be difficult to know whether
something
is an answer, a question -or a problem.....
....but Where can the Answers (and
questions) be Found?
- In our physical existence in the world around us?
- In the things (we think) we know (or have been told)?
- In the things we discover for ourselves?
- In the way we do things?
- In the way we think?
.......and Can we Trust them?
- Do culturally formed belief systems affect the way we
experience
and think about the world?
- Do we only find what we look for?
- Do we only know what we are told?
Is
there
Medium, Method
and Meaning in our Madness?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The World Around Us
Think Tank
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Trevor Batten
<
trevor at tebatt dot net>
Baclayon 2012
home