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Articles
Institute
Purpose and Structure
Here, and in several other venues, we explore The Transformation
and the rise of a polymathic knowledge class.
Unlike the
predicted Singularity, the Transformation is certain and it is
imminent. Furthermore, entrepreneurial
career opportunities start right now, not at some vague future date. The purpose of the Fellowship of the
Polymathica Institute is to provide refined and erudite individuals of
intelligence, drive and vision with a success prone environment within which
they may craft fulfilling and affluent lifestyles. Fellows, if committed to significant
results, can expect to earn $250K+ within three years and $500K+ within five
years. As Polymaths, just as
importantly, you will be able select from a number of highly satisfying
professional, intellectual and social venues and activities. In other words, Fellowship is the most
efficient route by which a Polymath can achieve a personal transformation to
an affluent and finely crafted life.
Understanding the structure and benefits of Fellowship in
Polymathica is a non-trivial task.
Industrial Age assumptions will cloud the reality of what, in fact, is
an Information Age organization. Unlike
Industrial Age organizations, the Polymathica Institute is a multi-faceted,
yet integrated, entity. It, through
the Academy and The Future 101, is an educational enterprise. Through the Salons, it is also a social
network. Through the Entrepreneurs’
Network and Investors’ Lounge it is a professional organization. While of diverse components, the successful
Fellow will integrate all of the facets of the Polymathica Institute to
create a facilitating tool for a finely crafted life. Before you continue reading the public
articles, we will first discuss the philosophy and structure of the
Fellowship, itself.
The Academy
In order to achieve a finely crafted polymathic life and
knowledge career, the first thing you must acquire is an understanding of the
Transformation, Polymathy and the knowledge and skill sets of the practicing
Polymath. Essentially a Polymath finds
a question or problem, determines the knowledge and skill sets required to
effectively address it, then acquires them through autodidactic learning,
directed learning or collaboration with a specialist and, finally, solves the
problem or answers the question. Since
the first step in the process is to identify a problem or question, a
Polymath, in essence, can dive right into a career.
The Polymath designs a unique and ad hoc educational program for
each question or problem addressed.
Consequently, the notion of an educational institution may seem
peculiar. What does an autodidact need
with an Academy? However, most will
find benefit in interaction with academic mentors, Senior Fellows, either to
design educational strategies, take prepackaged courses or to receive
tutoring when autodidactism needs a helping hand. Additionally, the Academy will provide a
venue in which proprietary information can be disseminated. A clear example is the Future 101. We expect that Senior Fellows will develop
many others. Lastly, it will represent
a talent pool for the Polymath when project collaborators appear to be most
efficient.
As you develop your new polymathic project, understandably, some
potential stakeholders may wish independent assessment of your polymathic
capabilities. To this end, some of our
more Senior Fellows will be creating a Polymath certification process within
the Polymathica Institute’s Academy.
There may be a rather standardized Enterprise Polymath certification
that will entail little more than accumulating evidence of proficiency within
the various business functions. Or, in
the case of a Venture or Research Polymath, may require a thesis that
demonstrates competency in knowledge and skill acquisition and
utilization. The Polymathica Institute
provides, through the Academy, a venue for interaction between teacher and
student or candidate and certifier.
Additionally, in conjunction with Senior Fellows, the Institute will
establish and monitor criteria for certification.
The Transformation, as it unfolds over the next twenty years,
will completely change the social, cultural and economic landscape of
civilization. It will be virtually
impossible to craft any kind of lifestyle and career strategy without
understanding at least the fundamentals of what the world will look like on
the other side. Through The Future
101, The Fellows of Polymathica will obtain proprietary information about the
various forces that will shape our near (the next 20 years) future. This is an ongoing, graduate level course
of study that will provide the Fellow with a prohibitive advantage in the
Information Age. It will be presented
in print and through audio presentations.
Discussion formats and audio call-ins will also be developed. Because this knowledge is so central to the
Fellowship, it is included in the cost of Fellowship and is not, in its
entirety, available to non-Fellows.
The Salons
Polymathica.com will have social networks similar in design
Facebook.com, MySpace.com. LinkedIn.com, et al. Like their counterparts, they will be open
and supported through advertising.
They will be provided for the interaction of the general Polymathica
population and will be primarily intended to provide social contexts. While the Salons of the Polymathica
Institute do represent a somewhat more private social outlet for the Fellows,
they are also, and most importantly, intended to provide venues for
professional and intellectual interactions.
They are so named precisely to harken back to the Salons of the
Enlightenment.
During
the Enlightenment, there emerged a ‘Republic of Letters.’ This, literally, was a web of written
correspondence of rather formal nature among a transnational aggregation of
extraordinary intellectuals.
Simultaneously, primarily in Paris, but
also in the U.K. and
the U.S.,
there arose Salons. These were
social/intellectual affairs moderated by ladies of refinement who would
attract one or more intellectuals of renoun and build around them a community
characterized by intensely intellectual and polite discourse. Some, such as Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein, were impressive intellectuals in their own
right. One of the important
characteristics of the Salons is that these Salonnières,
through their power to invite or not, maintained control over not only the
scope of the discourse but also the tone of the gatherings.
While some historians attempt to trace these two primarily social
manifestations back to Plato and forward to many of the intellectual
societies of today, the interaction of the Republic of Letters and the Salons
during the Enlightenment created a unique and admirable social millieu that
has not really existed at any other time in Western history and certainly
does not exist today. So, one of the
stated intentions of The Polymathica Institute, through its Academy and The
Salons is to recreate and, hopefully, exceed, in intellectual excellence, these
venues of the Enlightenment.
An
additional concept that informs us as to the Polymathica Salons is the idea
that there exists, through published scholarly works,
a continuity of Western thought, often referred to as the Great
Conversation. Each generation
contributes to the march of human knowledge, as considered through a European
cultural tradition, fully conversant in the contributions of all previous
generations. In our estimation, the
quality of the Great Conversation began to deteriorate in the 19th
Century. By the late 20th
Century it had become hopelessly mired in cultural relativism, post-modernism
and existentialism to the extent that nothing useful can be stated. It has somehow come to pass that the Great
Conversation is ‘owned’ by formalized Academia. Because Academia has become monolithic,
there is a benefit in a well developed counterpuntal voice. The Polyamthica Salons represent one
opportunity for such a voice.
At their inception, The Salons of The Polymathica Institute will not
be structurally dissimilar to the Groups of the various social networks
already in existence today. Fellows
will ‘log in’ and go to a group page.
The differences will reside in the details. A greater degree of intellectual rigor and
urbanity will expected of its participants.
It is assumed that most Salons will be moderated and retain a
distinctive essence characteristic of its moderator and primary
participants. They will more formally
connect with prepared essays, peer reviewed in many
cases through a sub rosa network of private e-mail discussions. These differences, in aggregate, that will
apply an invisible hand to the quality and timbre of the discourse. So, in this way, The Salons will
complement, rather than replace, Polymathica’s open and less structured
conversations of blog commentaries and unmoderated discussion groups.
The
Enlightenment Salons were ‘bricks and mortar’ establishments, augmented by
the Republic of Letters. At their inception The Salons of
Polymathica will be virtual. However, as we approach our projected
population of 2.5 million, many localities will develop Polymathica
populations of sufficient size to support actual Salons. Certainly, the Polymathica Villages that we
discuss in a separate article will support one, probably more. While the Parisian Salons generally resided
in the homes of affluent ladies, The Salons of Polymathica will be more akin
to dinner clubs with ‘drawing rooms.’
In other words, the main dining room, after meals are complete may
continue with music, while small groups will congregate for discussion,
talks, small musical performances, etc. in smaller rooms. We anticipate that
these will be franchised and owned individually by Fellows of the Institute.
Entrepreneurs’ Network and
Investors’ Lounge
One of your primary tools in achieving your polymathic career
goals is the shared resource of a growing membership in Polymathica. Our development strategy can be succinctly
stated that, ‘Appropriate content attracts appropriate members and vice
versa.’ In a recursive process,
Fellows will provide refined and erudite content, products and services which
will attract members which will enable more refined and erudite content,
products and services. If the growth
in the organization proceeds at its current rate and, as we suspect, along a
Gompertz curve, Polymathica will reach its flexation point in mid-2011. At that time, membership will be
approximately 800K. We estimate that market
saturation will be approximately 2.5 million visitors and subscribers.
To gain perspective on the magnitude of this resource, Yahoo!
has a net worth equal to approximately $314
per unique visitor and receives $22.16
in annual revenue, per unique visitor.
Extrapolating from this, we estimate that Polymathica.com, as a
provider of content and social networks, will have a value of $785 million
and create advertising revenue of $55.8 million. Additionally, the advertising on
Polymathica.com will support more than $1.0 billion of product and service
revenue for Polymaths so engaged.
Clearly, there is a significant income opportunity in the area of
traffic acquisition for Polymathica.com, with an estimated value per
subscriber of $47. We actually
believe, as Internet radio and television emerges, that these numbers will
prove to be very conservative.
The Entrepreneurs’ Network is, in essence, a series of private
Work Groups. It will be, however,
about much more than the construction and utilization of
Polymathica.com. Our superior
knowledge of futurity, gained through The Future 101, allows
our Fellows to capitalize upon a broad spectrum of opportunities that will
present themselves as the global Information Age Civilization emerges. Some of these may be executed individually,
outside the structure of the Institute.
These may include consultancy or investment on one’s own behalf. However, most opportunities will require
extensive collaboration and/or funding efforts that will benefit from the
dramatic synergies created within the Fellowship. In this sense, The Polymathica Institute
will function in a manner similar to an expanded LinkedIn.com. However, all participants will be
Polymaths, well versed in the future and its opportunities. Unlike LinkedIn.com, however, there are no
‘levels’ of participation. Every
Fellow will have complete and unfettered access to all other Fellows.
While the detailed consideration of The Future 101 is
proprietary and available only to Fellows, a certain amount of information
about the Transformation is made available to candidates for the purpose of
assessing the approrpiateness of Fellowship.
It will also be used to educate the risk tolerant investment
community. Some of the equity and debt
funding made available through this educational process can be used to
finance the various enterprises of Fellows.
This is the purpose of the Investors’ Lounge, which will allow
individual knowledgeable investors to consider ground floor opportunities
presented by entrepreneurial Fellows.
These will most often be in the form of Private Placements or Direct
Public Offerings.
Other funding will be through a seires of Venture Funds created
by Fellows engaged as Venture Polymaths and their stakeholders.
For example, at the very center of the Transformation is the
Information Age income explosion caused by an acceleration
in the implementation of robotics and AI.
This event will effectively decouple labor from GDP and lead
to a geometric increase in standards of living across the developed and
developing world. At its very core will be the ability to finance robotics
and AI R&D and provide access to debt and equity funding for enterprises
intending to enter the market with automated products and services. Consequently, it is vital that some Fellows
establish Venture Fund directed at enabling this portion of The Transformation.
We will aggressively recruit Polymaths to create Venture
Funds. A carefully crafted story will
be created and communicated risk tolerant, accredited or equivalent,
investors. It will be marketed a Reg D style Hedge Fund. Other Venture Funds will be created to fund
Life Extension technologies, real estate development, educational services,
etc. They will all capitalize upon the story of
The Transformation told to investors.
Within this structure, groups of Fellows will create enterprises,
often funded through SCOR Reg D
direct public offerings.
Lastly, of course, the Entrepreneurs’ Network will allow Fellows
to find other Fellows for the purpose of collaboration and affiliation.
Conclusion
In total, Fellowship is intended to be a significant commitment
that leads to a comprehensive and positive life transformation for most of
its participants. Since Fellows
who fail to attain their life goals benefit neither themselves nor the
reputation of the Polymathica Institute, we encourage you to read the Public
Articles in their entirety and visit the Institute’s site prior to making a
preliminary determination as to whether Polymathica Fellowship is appropriate
for you. It will also benefit you in
your decision making to read the Public Articles of The Future 101.
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