ABSTRACT
For the last three centuries, mankind has been moving at an unprecedented pace in creating the world of the future. Many would agree that this unprecedented rate of change was initiated by the innovation of a simple device called the Gutenberg press. For the first time, this simple device allowed mankind to register, share, and communalize tacit and explicit knowledge while igniting the generation of new knowledge over a wide spectrum of the world’s population. The proliferation of books, manuscripts, and other printed material became not only the nexus for sharing and learning at its origin but also for the sharing of knowledge beyond the geographical
boundaries that separated diverse populations, cultures, and nations. The introduction of this simple but revolutionary innovation and change in technology also ushered in a new era of learning in which an increasing number of inquisitive minds across the world’s populations would not only share their creative ideas but also, more importantly, build on the innovations and creations created by others. This allowed for the breaking of existing paradigms in the movement out of millenniums of imagination and innovation stagnation. In his book titled The Structure of Scientific Revolution (1962), Thomas Kuhn introduced the term paradigm shift. Kuhn’s premise was that paradigms act as patterns, which we use to control the way we view the world and new information coming in. In effect, paradigms create a box in which we are comfortable in thinking, acting, and controlling. However, there is a downside to paradigms in that they also restrict our ability to see new and innovative ways that can improve our lives and change the future. Joel Barker elaborated on Kuhn’s work in his 1989 video The Business of Paradigms. Barker demonstrated one of Kuhn’s examples of how paradigms can physically prevent people seeing new information or innovative ways. He did this by using a simple deck of cards and rapidly showing a series of seven cards to groups of individuals. However, within the set of cards, which contained the normal red diamonds, red hearts, black spades, and black clubs, a few of the cards were changed so that there were red spades and red clubs along with black diamonds and black hearts. As the audience viewed the cards flashed rapidly before their eyes, they were aptly able to discern the legitimate cards (i.e., red hearts and diamonds, black spades and clubs) very rapidly, but those cards that did not match their paradigm of what a normal card deck should look like (i.e., black diamonds and hearts and red clubs and spades) were not readily identifiable by the individuals. These people physically could not see those cards because they didn’t match the paradigm that they had in their head. Barker’s comment was that in some cases, as Kuhn stated, paradigms block new information and innovation from taking place.
