Truth as Work. Franz Nahrada's Life and Mind. Part 1.
Channel: Math 4 Wisdom
Date: 18/02/2024

Franz Nahrada is a visionary of the global villages movement.  Andrius Kulikauskas, host of wisdom, interviews Franz about his life with the intent of collecting and systematizing the ways that Franz figures things out about global villages.  This is the first in a series of interviews to sketch out an epistemological portrait of Franz Nahrada.  This video includes a preliminary sketch by Andrius.

This is also part of a series about the relationships that Math 4 Wisdom participants have with truth.  For Franz, truth is a work of thought, linking perceptions to concepts, yielding a transmittable image.

00:45 Franz Nahrada introduces himself. He was the hotel director of their family hotel, Hotel Karolinenhof.  He also studied the world, philosophy, sociology, political science trying to understand why society is not working in the optimal way, why people clash and block each other rather than supporting each other.
2:00 Why don't we support each other's happiness?  The necessity of cooperation. Influence of technocratic thought. Read Walden Two by Skinner. 
3:20 Collecting people's aspirations. Studying sociology. How can scientists contribute to optimal interconnection? Academia was not interested. 
5:20 Became politically active. Studying thinkers like Marx. But was more concerned, where should we go? Read science fiction. Understand the possibilities.
6:45 Travel to other countries: US, Greece. Learning from social movements. Discovered the alternatives movement, mini-models of society, realizing utopian visions in a laboratory situation.
7:35 Participating in technological environments. Working for Apple Computer doing HyperCard support. Computer as a mediator of knowledge and communication.
8:20 Asking What would happen... if the computer becomes more important than the automobile, the transport of ideas instead of persons. This led to the idea of global villages. Seeing the possibility of technology.
8:55 Living in Greek villages, the island of Samos.  Village squares with three or four coffee houses. Rituals for finding people to talk to. Interacting with people.
10:15 Almost adopted by a Greek family. Getting involved in people's lives.  Access to people.
10:55 Micropolis. Aesthetic sense of the blending of intense human culture and nature. Seeking optimality for the environment for life. Combining this with the computer for a new type of village that is a miniaturized city.
12:10 Visting Arcosanti, Arizona. Appreciating and distilling concepts such as architect Paolo Soleri's miniaturization of the city, density, complexity, saving time and space. 
14:00 Appreciating, collecting and absorbing social solutions. Learning from Douglas Engelbart in 1990 about bootstrap communities with people of different backgrounds adopting technologies such as computerized learning. Institute for Research on Learning. Acting as a mini-model for society in adopting technological solutions. Appreciating visionary thinkers and being appreciated by them: "We need sociologists" and "What is your vision?"
17:30 Seeking human comfort, a nourishing environment. Uncomfortable with the city, pollution, anonymity. Vision of autonomous, creative cultural villages functioning as a global brain held together by communications. Blessing, "knighting" from Doug Engelbart.
19:00 GIVE: Globally Integrated Village Environment. 1990. A laboratory for global villages. Reaching out to different specialties. Finding a new environment for research.
20:35 Franz's deepest value in life: Optimal interconnection: finding a way of valuing and rewarding people's good intentions so they contribute uniquely to the progress of others, the interplay of aspirations and actions.
22:55 Franz's relationship with truth: Truth is a work of thought, linking perceptions to concepts, yielding a transmittable image.
34:35 Andrius overviews the examples he noted of Franz's ways of figuring things out.
44:10 We conclude with Franz's prayer.

Thank you for leaving comments, for liking this video and for subscribing to the Math 4 Wisdom YouTube channel!

Join the Math 4 Wisdom email group. https://www.freelists.org/list/math4wisdom

Thank you John Harland, Bill Pahl and all for your support through Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/math4wisdom

Visit http://www.math4wisdom.com to contact me, Andrius Kulikauskas, and learn more about Math4Wisdom!