Beyond Knowledge: How Technology Is Driving an Age of Consciousness
The Knowledge Age of the past two decades is passing today as the digital revolution and artificial intelligence replace knowledge work. Dr. William E. Halal’s study of social evolution explains how this marks the passage to a new frontier beyond knowledge that is poorly understood – an “Age of Consciousness” is here. But more pandemics, climate change, gross inequality, gridlock and other threats form a “Crisis of Maturity” that is blocking this historic transformation.
Dr. Halal covers evidence and leading examples of an emerging “global consciousness” now driving the world to grow up, resolve this global crisis and develop a sustainable world order – or perish. With foresight and hard work, we could see the triumph of human spirit, once again.
Title: Beyond Knowledge: How Technology is Driving an Age of Consciousness with Professor William Halal
Bio: William E. Halal is Professor Emeritus of Management, Technology, and Innovation at George Washington University, with degrees from Purdue and UC Berkeley. Professor Halal has published 7 books and hundreds of articles, consults corporations and governments and is a frequent speaker, once substituting for Peter Drucker. He also served as a major in the US Air Force, an aerospace engineer on the Apollo Program, and a Silicon Valley business manager. Professor Halal is the founder of TechCast, a web-based system that pools the knowledge of experts to forecast breakthroughs in technology, social trends, and wild cards to assist decision makers in managing a changing world. He received the 1977 Mitchell Prize for his article “Beyond the Profit-Motive” and another article, "Through the MegaCrisis" was awarded Outstanding Paper of 2013. Halal was also cited by the Encyclopedia of the Future as one of the top 100 futurists in the world.
Summary of event (adapted from the introduction to the book):
The great Jesuit anthropologist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, has long fascinated us with his vision that the world would evolve into a “noosphere,” a great web of consciousness enveloping the Earth. It seemed a lovely but distant ideal, yet the Digital Revolution has now made that dream a reality. Professor Halal will discuss how the "Age of Consciousness" is here today, and it promises to transform our lives, our work, social institutions, the global order, and our very minds and souls.
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