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    Gerrard Albert
    Gerrard Albert
    Stephon Alexander
    Stephon Alexander
    Alexander Asmolov
    Alexander Asmolov
    Nora Bateson
    Nora Bateson
    Jason Badridze
    Jason Badridze
    Anna Bacchia
    Anna Bacchia
    Jean Becchio
    Jean Becchio
    Lawrence Bloom
    Lawrence Bloom
    Tomas Björkman
    Tomas Björkman
    Tatiana
    Tatiana

    Chernigovskaya

    Patrick Cowden
    Patrick Cowden
    Richard Davidson
    Richard Davidson
    Jean Pierre Dutilleux
    Jean Pierre Dutilleux
    Herbert Girardet
    Herbert Girardet
    Alexey Goryachev
    Alexey Goryachev
    Mikhail Kazinik
    Mikhail Kazinik
    Barry Kerzin
    Barry Kerzin
    Amir Kfir
    Amir Kfir
    Ashok Khosla
    Ashok Khosla
    Julia Kim
    Julia Kim
    Gidon Kremer
    Gidon Kremer
    Kalevi Kull
    Kalevi Kull
    Ervin Laszlo
    Ervin Laszlo
    Jeremy Lent
    Jeremy Lent
    Alan Lim Cai Fu
    Alan Lim Cai Fu
    Pier Luigi Luisi
    Pier Luigi Luisi
    Rama Mani
    Rama Mani
    Julia Marton-Lefevre
    Julia Marton-Lefevre
    Fred Matser
    Fred Matser
    Nina Meyerhof
    Nina Meyerhof
    David Monacchi
    David Monacchi
    Raul Montenegro
    Raul Montenegro
    Roger Nelson
    Roger Nelson
    George Ovashvili
    George Ovashvili
    Gunter Pauli
    Gunter Pauli
    Stuart Pimm
    Stuart Pimm
    Gerald Pollack
    Gerald Pollack
    Slava Polunin
    Slava Polunin
    David Rothenberg
    David Rothenberg
    Jacques Rougerie
    Jacques Rougerie
    Robert Smith
    Robert Smith
    Sergey Solonin
    Sergey Solonin
    Danis Tanovic
    Danis Tanovic
    Brother Paulus
    Brother Paulus
    Daniel Christian
    Daniel Christian

    Wahl

    Steven Wise
    Steven Wise
    Janusz Wisnewski
    Janusz Wisnewski
    Pablo Veron
    Pablo Veron
    Alexander and Nicole
    Alexander and Nicole

    Gratovsky

     
    Richard Davidson.png

    Richard

    Davidson

    Neurobiologist, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, founder and Director of the Center for Healthy Minds  

    We can actually be happier people. We can suffer less if we take responsibility of our own mind.

    Everything we've learned about the brain suggests it's no different than learning the violin... if you practice, you'll get better at it.

    I envision a day when mental exercise will be as much a part of our daily lives as physical exercise and personal hygiene.

    learn more:

    * Dr. Davidson's website
    * Center for Healthy Minds
    * Wikipedia
    * Free The Mind, documentary film profiling Dr. Davidson's work
    * Mindfulness and the contemplative life: pathways to connection, insight, and purpose - an article
    * Social influences on neuroplasticity: stress and interventions to promote well-being - an article
    *The Science of a Happy Mind | Nat Geo Live
    Stuart Pimm

    Stuart

    Pimm

    Biologist specialising in biodiversity and conservation biology  

    I think we must ask ourselves if this is really what we want to do to God’s creation, to drive it to extinction? Because extinction really is irreversible; species that go extinct are lost forever. This is not like Jurassic Park. We can’t bring them back.

     

    Conservation is about the ecosystems that species define and on which they depend. Conservation is about finding alternative, sustainable futures for peoples, for forests, and for wetlands. Molecular gimmickry simply does not address these core problems. … It gives unscrupulous developers a veil to hide their rapaciousness, with promises to fix things later. It distracts us from guaranteeing our planet's biodiversity for future generations.

    learn more:

    * The Pimm Group: Science For A Better Future
    * Saving Spieces - Pimm Global Conseravation project
    * Wikipedia
    * Stuart L. Pimm video
    * 2010 Tyler Prize Laureate Lecture: Stuart L. Pimm
    * Survival: Biodiversity and Extinction | Stuart Pimm talk
    * The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection - an article
    Gerald Pollack

    Gerald

    Pollack

    Professor of Bioengineering, discoverer of 4th state of water  

    Everyone knows that water has three phases: solid, liquid and vapor. But we have recently uncovered a fourth phase. This phase occurs next to water-loving (hydrophilic) surfaces. It is surprisingly extensive, projecting out from the surface by up to millions of molecular layers. And, its properties differ markedly from those of bulk water. Light builds this charged, ordered phase. Thus, water can receive and process electromagnetic energy (light) drawn from the environment in much the same way as plants.

    ​

    Not only does this phase provide an understanding of how water processes solar energies, but also it may provide a foundation for simpler understanding natural phenomena ranging from weather and green energy all the way to issues such as the origin of life, transport, osmosis, and health.

    learn more:

    * Pollack Laboratory
    * Discovering the Fourth Phase - Discovery channel
    * The Fourth Phase of Water: Dr. Gerald Pollack at TEDxGuelphU
    * Dr. Gerald Pollack and Structured Water Science (an article)
    * Can Humans Harvest The Sun's Energy Directly Like Plants? (an article)
    * Fourth Phase of Water: A Central Role in Health - a lecture at House of Lords
    * Gerald Pollack: Weather and EZ Water -- An Intimate Role of Separated Charge | EU2017
    Ashok Khosla

    Ashok

    Khosla

    Environmentalist, President of the Development Alternatives Group, ex-President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 

    The reductionism and materialism of the Cartesian method are also, directly and indirectly, at the root of many of our environmental and social breakdowns.  The one-dimensional and progressively narrowing focus of scientific investigation, social action and policy making have increasingly led us away from the holistic perspective needed to manage ourselves and our resources in a sustainable manner.  Hence the backlash:  the growing recognition of the need to bring back multi-disciplinary, trans-sectoral, integral approaches into research, action and policy.

    learn more:

    * Dr. Khosla’s website
    * Development Alternatives Group - eco-solutions for people and the planet
    * Wikipedia
    * Speeding Up Human Development to Minimize Climate Change | TEDxNirmaUniversity
    * To Prevent Harm Or To Do Good? (an article)
    * What Makes Us Modern? (an article)
    * Managing our Natural Resources for the Benefit of All (an article)
    Alexander Asmolov.jpg

    Alexander
    Asmolov

    Psychologist, Head of the Department of the Psychology of Personality at the Moscow State University, full member of the Russian Academy of Education 

    From now on there will be no other epoch besides the epoch of change.

    The habitual adaptation strategies no longer work and only contribute to the simplification of reality and the raising of the ideal of security onto a pedestal.

    The ideal of security results in various kinds of technologies aimed at creating depersonalisation coming to the fore.

    Any models based on extrapolation stop working in a situation of rapid change.

    The winner is he who chooses a strategy of pre-adaptation – willingness to change.

    You cannot build models of the future based solely on the options of the past.

    There is a whole layer of pre-adaptation phenomena that do not fit into rational patterns of understanding behaviour. These pre-adaptations, as “the anticipation of change”, are paradoxical –in the present there are always forms of the future that we stifle or do not notice, but which appear before something occurs.

    learn more:

    * Prof. Asmolov's website
    * Wikipedia
    * Cognitive Psychology of Activity: Attention as a Constructive Process - an article
    * Challenges of Uncertainty, Complexity and Diversity - an article
    * Prerequisites of Sociality: Historical and Evolutionary Analysis - an article
    * From We-Media to I-Media: Identity Transformations in the Virtual World - an article
    * Why It Is Important for Negotiate and See the Future - an interview for Forbes Russia
    Ervin Laszlo

    Ervin

    Laszlo

    Systems theorist, founder of the Club of Budapest and the Institute of New Paradigm Research 

    As we have already glimpsed and will continue to discover, we are able to expand our awareness beyond the perceived limitations of our own person and access the dimensions of a transpersonal consciousness. As we open ourselves to the realization of the in-formed universe, this shift in our collective awareness heralds a resolution of the schisms that have divided us for so long—both among and within us.

    learn more:

    * Ervin Laszlo's web page
    * The Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research
    * Wikipedia
    * Ervin Laszlo’s talk at the United Nations NEXUS Summit
    * A New Concept of Consciousness - an article
    * Ervin Laszlo talking with Generation Y
    * A New Concept of Consciousness - an article
    Barry Kerzin

    Barry

    Kerzin

    Buddhist monk and personal physician to the 14th Dalai Lama, founder of the Altruism in Medicine Institute (AIMI) and the Human Values Institute (HVI) 

    As Like an expert chess player, clarity of vision in your present moment will allow you to make better plans for the future.

     

    It seems counter-intuitive, but the more we care for others the better we care for our self.

    Love is our default state. Education reinforces and protects against the opposite tendencies in society.

     

    Happiness does not come from wealth, but from setting limits to one’s desires, and living within those limits with satisfaction.

     

    There is never a better time than NOW. Winnie the Pooh realized this.  His favorite day was today!

    learn more:

    * Altruism in Medicine Institute
    * Human Values Institute
    * Wikipedia
    * Compassionate Living - a lecture at Stanford University
    * Dalai Lama’s American doctor wants more compassion in medicine (PBS NewsHour)
    * Happiness | TEDxPhoenixvilleSalon
    * Mind the Gap - an interview (Caduceus)
    Tatiana Chernigovskaya

    Tatiana Chernigovskaya

    Philologist, biologist specialising in psycholinguistics and theory of mind, Professor of the Saint Petersburg State University 

    I believe most things about us cannot be explained in chemical or physical terms, and this is where I disagree with most of my colleagues who study the human brain. They believe that at some point in the future, we will have studied every single neuron in the brain, and then we’ll be able to explain everything. My take on it is - no, we won’t. … Because there are things that cannot be explained through physiology or neural networks. To name a few, it’s anything that has to do with feelings, anything related to art, and other subtle matters.

    learn more:

    * Tatiana Chernigovskaya's personal page
    * Wikipedia
    * Artificial Intelligence is a Challenge for Humanity (video in Russian)
    * The whole universe in a human brain| TEDxVorobyovy-Gory
    Gunter Pauli

    Gunter

    Pauli

    Entrepreneur, writer, author of The Blue Economy, founder of the ZERI Foundation. 

    Focus on creating more than has ever been considered possible. Search for inspiration in Nature and inspire others by being the change. Make a difference in communities and ecosystems.

     

    Work with what you have to respond to the basic needs of all – that is all living species on Earth, including the invisible and yet to be discovered.

     

    Never accept compromise: doing less bad is still bad. Protecting is losing. All actions should lead to doing more good, enhancing life, allowing everyone to discover their innate capabilities

     

    Go beyond your dreams. Accept that crises, chaos and change are the norm – thrive on it!

    learn more:

    * Gunter Pauli's web site
    * ZERI Foundation (Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives)
    * Gunter’s Fables
    * Going Beyond my Own Dreams: Gunter Pauli at TEDxTokyo
    * The Third Dimension - Public lecture at Global University for Sustainability
    * Can The Blue Economy Make The World More Sustainable? - an article
    Bloom sml.jpg

    Lawrence

    Bloom

    Environmentalist, businessman and thinker, Secretary General of the Be Earth Foundation,  former Chairman of the UN Environmental Programme, first Chairman of the World Economic Forum at Davos 

    Somehow we seem to have decided that unless our limited view of seeing and hearing is satisfied, nothing beyond that is of value. And that is sheer nonsense. We know there’s a whole range of sounds that are beyond our ability to hear. And cosmologists know that there are stars and planets we cannot see. We know that there are intelligences beyond our deepest understandings. And if you recognize that, you ultimately have to speak about love. You have to speak about connectedness.

    learn more:

    * Lawrence Bloom's web site
    * Be Earth Foundation
    * Intelligence test for humanity (an interview at the Institute for Mythology of Humanity)
    * Water Quality and Access (a talk at Sustainability Literacy Institute)
    * Perspectives of Moral Political Economy (a talk at the Global Vision)
    * The Noosphere and the nature of evolution (an article)
    * Compassion (an article)
    Jacques Rougerie

    Jacques Rougerie

    Architect-oceanographer specialising in bionic architecture 

    The ocean is the most important resource of our planet thanks to its multiple capacities. It is able to feed the entire planet with energy, thanks to its swell, its tides, its differences of temperatures and its marine currents. On all the coastlines, one can capture endless energy and use it for the common needs of humanity. … However, we are just beginning to explore these resources. We do not know enough about this underwater world. But beware, they should not be exploited in the same way as in the last century. We will have to find other economic paradigms.

    learn more:

    * Jacques Rougerie's web site
    * Jacques Rougerie Foundation
    * Wikipedia
    * Humanity and life underwater: what's next? | Jacques Rougerie | TEDxCannes
    * Living on the Sea - a talk at the Seasteading Institute
    * L'architecte "de la mer" Jacques Rougerie reçu à l'Académie (AFP)
    Jean Becchio

    Jean

    Becchio

    General physician and clinical psychologist, founder of the French Association for Medical Hypnosis and the International College of Therapies for Activation of Consciousness (CITAC), President of Hypnodyssey 

    Médecin généraliste Praticien Consultant des Hôpitaux de Paris (soins palliatifs – psychiatrie) Directeur du Diplôme Universitaire d’Hypnose Clinique Paris XI Formé à l’hypnose clinique par le Dr Jean Godin, il est un des fondateurs de l’Association Française d’hypnose Médicale dont il est maintenant Président d’Honneur. Il exerce une activité de formateur dans le nouveau champ des Thérapies d’Activation de Conscience. Membre Fondateur du Collège International de Thérapies d’activation de Conscience (CITAC). Jean Becchio enseigne en France et à l’étranger. Il est responsable de l’enseignement clinique du CITAC. Il est auteur de livres sur l’hypnose, la médecine chinoise, le qi gong.

    learn more:

    * International College of Therapies for Activation of Consciousness
    * Hypnodyssey
    * French Association for Medical Hypnosis
    * Jean Becchio - La journée de la compassion (in French)
    * L'hypnose Contre Douleur (an article at FemininBio)
    * Thérapie d’Activation de Conscience (video)
    * Jean Becchio. Congres de CITAC
    Roger sml.jpg

    Roger

    Nelson

    Psychologist, founder of the Global Consciousness Project 

    Ultimately, indications of a global consciousness motivate us to ask deeper questions about our relations to the world and each other. The experimental results show that subtle linkages may connect widely separated people.

    Subtle structuring of random data by human engagement and emotion broadens our view of what consciousness means. It implies that our attention matters in a way we may not have imagined possible, and that cooperative intent can have subtle but real consequences. This is cause for reflection on our responsibilities in an increasingly connected world. Our future holds challenges of planetary scope that will demand both scientific clarity and intentional cooperation.

    learn more:

    * The Global Consciousness Project
    * Wikipedia
    * The Science of Collective Consciousness - interview by Adrian Nelson
    * Roger Nelson on global consciousness
    * Connected: The Emergence of Global Consciousness
    * Der Welt-Geist: Wie wir alle mineinander verbunden sind (book)
    * CBS News segment on the Global Consciousness Project
    Tomas Bjorkman.jpg

    Tomas

    Björkman

    Former banker, now social entrepreneur and author, founder of the Ekskäret Foundation and the Perspectiva Institute 

    My philosophical take on the world is that it is not enough to simply try to ‘solve problems’. Given the complexity of inter-related problems that all have elements relating to human thought and emotion, we need to evolve and adapt – that’s the challenge within the challenge. I believe we need to cultivate human capacities – for instance mental complexity, systems thinking, empathy - through which we can honour ecological constraints while also creating societies that enable us to thrive and live a meaningful and prosperous lives.

    learn more:

    * Tomas Björkman's web site
    * Ekskäret Foundation
    * Tomas Björkman | Peaceful Change | SingularityU Greece Summit 2018
    * The Market Myth
    * Leading from the Edge of the Unknown - an article
    * The Nordic secret: How to Use Inner Development to Build Strong Democracies
    * Emerge media platform
    Nora Bateson

    Nora

    Bateson

    Filmmaker, writer, founder and President of the International Bateson Institute 

    While change is a constant in living systems, the rate of change now is unprecedented.

    Who are we in this changing world? As families, as professionals, as cultures, how is our perception of ourselves changing… and what if it doesn’t?

    learn more:

    * Nora Bateson's web site
    * International Bateson Institute
    * Nora Bateson - An Ecology of Mind - 7th CPH Open Dialogue Meeting
    * How nature works and how people think - a talk at the Psykologisk psykiatriske perspektiver
    * Nora Bateson on Warm Data
    * An Ecology of Mind. A daughter’s portrait of Gregory Bateson - documentary
    Herbert Girardet

    Herbert Girardet

    Author, filmmaker and international consultant specializing in ‘regenerative development’. He is co-founder, former program director and honorary member of the World Future Council, and an executive committee member of the Club of Rome.  

    In this age of the Anthropocene, human power has reached unprecedented proportions. The issue is not just human numbers, but the unprecedented global impacts of our lifestyles and our technologies. We have become the ‘amplified man’, with machine power defining our existence as never before. But the time has come for us to enjoy our freedoms with a new, appropriate sense of responsibility – for those less fortunate than us, for the tens of millions of our fellow living species, and or future generations.

    learn more:

    * World Future Council
    * Wikipedia
    * Interview of Herbert Girardet on Regenerative Cities (by Sirkka Heinonen)
    * Herbert Girardet: Interview with CLC (waste recycling)
    * Creating Regenerative Cities (a talk at the Academy of Urbanism Congress)
    * Books
    Julia Kim.jpg

    Julia

    Kim

    Researcher, global health and sustainable development specialist, Programme Director at the Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan 

    Dr. Julia Kim is a physician and public health researcher with program, policy and advocacy experience in the areas of international health and sustainable development, MDGs, and the post-2015 agenda. While based in New York at the Bureau for Development Policy, UNDP, her interests focused on addressing HIV, socio-economic inequalities, and other cross-cutting development challenges, as well as leveraging private-public partnerships, leadership development and community capacity-building programs.

    learn more:

    * Gross National Happiness Centre
    * The Gross National Happiness of Bhutan - a talk at Wisdom conference
    * Leadership for a Good Life - an article
    * Doing business with compassion - by Julia Kim at Wisdom Together Oslo 2017
    Steven Wise

    Steven

    Wise

    Lawyer, writer, professor, founder and president of the Nonhuman Rights Project, which litigates for the fundamental legal rights of nonhuman animals 

    For more than 2000 years all nonhuman animals have been viewed as legal things, entities that lack the capacity for any legal right. As a result they are routinely killed, otherwise exploited, and continually driven to extinction in their tens of billions each year. It is personhood alone that gives an entity the capacity for legal rights; personhood alone allows one's most fundamental interests to be protected. Without legal personhood an entity has no legal rights, while every thing is naked to the power of persons. In short, persons count in law, things don't. Persons are visible to civil law. Things aren't. Persons are the masters of things, things are the slaves of masters. My work and the work of the Nonhuman Rights Project is, and has been, through litigation and legislation, to require humankind to greatly expand the number of entities recognized as legal persons and to include as many species of nonhuman animals and to recognize as many of their legal rights as justice demands.

    learn more:

    * Nonhuman Rights Project
    * Wikipedia
    * How the Nonhuman Rights Project Fights for The Rights of Nonhuman Animals – [IARC2017]
    * Beyond the Cage - Steven Wise’s talk at the Voiceless 2015
    * Introduction to Animal Law Book - an article
    * Toward Animal Personhood - an article
    * Books
    Raul Montenegro sml.jpg

    Raul

    Montenegro

    Biologist and environmentalist, founder of FUNAM (The Foundation for the Defence of the Environment), 

    The problems of human survival can no longer be approached by separate segments and pieces, but by systems that connect all branches of human knowledge, the participation of citizens, the crisis of the environment and above all the crisis of society, where sensitive topics such as science, the role of religions, consumerism, corruption, slavery, human trafficking, education, prostitution, violence, organized crime, arms and war, among others, are indissolubly connected with the destruction of the environment, the retraction of natural ecosystems and the existence of a planet with limits. A planet for which there is no substitute planet.

    learn more:

    * The Foundation for the Defense of the Environment (FUNAM)
    * Wikipedia
    * Transmission, co-construction and participatory governance - conference paper
    * How to survive as Homo sapiens to avoid being a future fossil species - an article
    * Interview for Semanario TV
    * Córdoba sin desmontes
    * Bouwer sin basura
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    Paulus

    Terwitte

    Capuchin monk, Catholic priest and moderator of TV programs about spirituality 

    The spirituality of the dialogue makes one curious about the unplanned new and takes away the fear of oneself. It is encouraging oneself to carry forward one's own - measured against the wealth of ideas of all - poor ideas to be carried forward powerful and not withheld.

     

    The spirituality of dialogue encourages us to ask more questions and not to be ashamed to know less answers.

    learn more:

    * Brother Paulus's personal web site
    * Wikipedia
    * Brother Paulus being interviewed by Rolf van Dick
    * Brother Paulus Terwitte at TEDGlobal
    Janusz sml.jpg

    Janusz Leon

    Wiśniewski 

    Writer best known for his novel Loneliness on the Net, chemist and computer scientist 

    What makes us humans? Definitely not our chemical foundations. More then 99% of our DNA is identical with that of bonobos and 84% with dogs. A few simple manipulations (such techniques are not so far ahead) and our DNA would be a one to one identical with that of bananas. 

    Even though we - humans - dramatically differ from our animal peers. We are one and only species who can use imagination, is capable of abstract thinking, can introduce inovations, write books, compose symphonies so sad, that other humans cry listening to them. But also invent bombs who can destroy the whole cities within a few seconds. As the only known species capable of all these we are also able to understand how important is to realize that we and we only are responsible for the world. I venture to claim that exactly the awarness of this responsibility make us humans. More than any chemistry ever invented...

    learn more:

    * Janusz Wisniewski's personal web site
    * Wikipedia
    * Loneliness On The Net - a book
    * Nine Months Earlier… (a fragment of the book)
    * Czy miłość to tylko (neuro) peptyd?: Janusz L. Wiśniewski at TEDxPoznań
    Patrick Cowden

    Patrick

    Cowden

    Corporate Activator, founder of The Beyond Company  

    There is a passion deep inside of me about the power of that central theme (question). A way that would allow teams in any organization to freely articulate who they are, why they are here, where they want to go ​together,​ and what they are willing to give for one another for that better future to come true.

    It is about having the courage to go Beyond all that has come before us, which in itself is the baseline of what has defined progress for all humankind since the dawn of time. And in so doing, most importantly, when we answer that core question we will come to realize that it takes us beyond the old paradigm that has brought us to where we are today. The modern reality of the digital age and the truth of the state of our planet has put us in a spot where that old paradigm has finally met its match. And the new paradigm, and those of us that embrace it, will free us to go places we never even imagined possible.

    So have the courage to go Beyond. 

    learn more:

    * Patrick Cowden's personal web site
    * The Beyond Company
    * Beyond leadership: Patrick Cowden at TEDxRWTHAachen
    * AmCham Interview Slovenia 2018
    * Books
    Gidon Kremer

    Gidon

    Kremer

    Violinist, artistic director, founder of Kremerata Baltica 

    As a musician you can do very little. It is a drop in an ocean. And still everyone should stick to one’s beliefs and one’s own sense of justice.

     

    This is what I think is the most important: not to sell something, not to entertain people but to touch them. To reach them through the language of art, to reach them through not clever words ... but to reach them with the language everyone understands: emotions. This I see as my obligation, my commitment, my calling ...

    learn more:

    * Gidon Kremer's web site
    * Kremerata Baltica
    * Records
    * Violinist  Gidon  Kremer (A Conversation with Bruce Duffie)
    * Perfect isn't good enough (an article in Guardian)
    * Writings
    * Enigma. Gidon Kremer (TV program in Russian)
    Kalevi Kull

    Kalevi

    Kull

    Biologist, Professor in Biosemiotics, evolution scientist specialising in mechanisms of species coexistence in species-rich communities and developed mathematical modelling in ecophysiology, President of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies 

    The field of semiotics is described as a general study of knowing. Knowing in a broad sense as a process that assumes (and includes) at least memory (together with heredity), anticipation, communication, meaningful information, and needs, is a distinctive feature of living systems. 

     

    What makes the living and the non-living very different from each other is their different relation to what is not, to what is absent. That which is alive has expectancies. Once dead, one does not expect. 

    Expectancy, or anticipation, means that something is not only itself but also stands for something else – for that which is expected. This is exactly the general feature of the sign, according to Peirce’s widely repeated definition. 

    learn more:

    * Kalevi Kull's page at the University of Tartu
    * International Society for Biosemiotic Studies
    * Wikipedia
    * Semiotic Paradigm In Theoretical Biology (an article)
    * Biosemiotics: To Know, What Life Knows (an article)
    * Other articles
    * Semiotic Theory of Life in Seven Key Principles - a talk at the University of Oregon
    David Rothenberg

    David

    Rothenberg

    Professor of Philosophy and Music, ECM musician with a special interest in animal sounds as music, author of several books, founder of Terra Nova Music 

    You learn that there is music in nature; it's not just a human imposition. It's this aspect of evolution that Charles Darwin was well aware of, but today it's hard to find a biology textbook that admits that evolution creates a lot of weird, cool, beautiful stuff.

    Evolution produces all this beauty, which is amazing, but you can't always explain it away with some practical purpose. And I think this has profound implications for how we understand nature.

    learn more:

    * David Rothenberg's web site
    * Terra Nova Music
    * Thousand Mile Song (a book and CD)
    * Nightingales In Berlin project
    * Why Birds Sing (BBC documentary)
    * How to Make Music With a Whale (an article)
    * A Man, His Clarinet and Nature’s Singers (an interview for Living on Earth)
    Jason Badridze

    Jason

    Badridze

    Biologist, ethologist,  who has studied wolfs behaviour for 20 years and spent 2 years with a pack of wolves 

    When it comes to the existence of higher mammals in a system, especially social ones, it is impossible to avoid the question of not only the understanding of the system itself, but also the question of the understanding of a phenomenon, a notion of the result of one’s own actions in resolving an arisen task, intra- and inter-species altruism. All this and more are impossible without the capability for thought. Without this, the formation of semantic meanings in sound communication is also not possible. All of this will be discussed.

    learn more:

    * The Man Who Lived with Wolves (an article)
    * Human as a Part Of the Wolf Pack
    * The Book of Wolf (fragment of the Eyes of the Wild book by Eleanor O'Hanlon)
    * Jason Badridze - a Wolf Man (an article in Russian)
    * Wolfs Taught Me Sincerity (an interview in Russian)
    Slava Polunin

    Slava

    Polunin

    Performance artist and clown, creator of the Snow Show and founder of the Academy of Fools 

    The world that surrounds us is more magical than it seems at first sight. We do not want to talk about the very heavy, very sad and very conspicuous truths of our reality. Our goal is to urge people to look at the miracle that is our planet, the miracle that is a human being and all that the universe has given us - love and creativity. 

    learn more:

    * Academy of Fools
    * Slava's Snow Show
    * Wikipedia
    * Slava Polunin - A Monologue of the Clown (An interview by Natalia Kazmina)
    * Happiness of a Fool | Slava Polunin | TEDxSadovoeRing
    * White Studio: Slava Polunin. (TV programm - in Russian)
    Daniel Christian Wahl sml.jpg

    Daniel

    Wahl

    Consultant in biologically-inspired whole systems design, regenerative development and transformative innovation 

    Merely being sustainable is no longer enough, we need to learn to design as nature, engage in regenerative design and development, and create diverse regenerative cultures elegantly adapted to the bio-cultural uniqueness of place. Such cultures would design as nature understanding themselves as healers of local ecosystems and humble caretakers of the community of life — biodiversity — that shares a unique place with us.

    learn more:

    * Daniel Wahl's web site
    * What if? — Scaling-out regenerative development glocally (an article)
    * Why sustainability is no longer enough, yet still very important on the road to regeneration (an article)
    * Designing Regenerative Cultures (a book)
    * Daniel Wahl's blog
    * Human and Planetary Health - a talk at the Findhorn Foundation
    * Designing for Regeneration & Planetary Health (a webinar for Gaia Education)
    Danis Tanovic

    Danis

    Tanovic

    Film director and screenwriter, best known for No Man’s Land movie that received 2001 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film  

    We are sending machines to Mars but also still stuck arguing what happened 100 years ago. … This isn’t just old historians, this is the young generation too, which is the greatest shame because they are the most affected by a lack of thinking of the future.

     

    I think what’s missing today in Europe, and I know how corny this sounds, is love. When we start giving love to each other we can start to build real bridges. … 

    learn more:

    * Imbd page
    * Wikipedia
    * No Man’s Land - trailer
    * Death in Sarajevo - trailer
    * Tigers - trailer
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    Sergey

    Solonin

    Entrepreneur and financier,  

    whose investment activity centres on blockchain technology, education, artificial intelligence and neural networks, co-Founder of QIWI Plc 

    On the one hand, philanthropic projects can be successful as businesses, and on the other, they can bring substantial social benefits. Due to the emergence of a new generation of entrepreneurs, there are more and more projects like this. “Ys” and “Zs” think much more about meanings and about the environment.

     

    I had a certain image form in my mind: here you are, chasing the money, you are in a competitive sporting mood, and at some point, it’s transformed allowing philanthropic initiatives to emerge. This is a rethinking of the run and business goals. ... Previously, what was the classic model like? You are working for many years, accomplishing something, and then you realize that it’s about time to do some philanthropic work. I want to change this model. I generally like changing conventional models.

     

    You can learn most things in the process if you are passionate about the idea and the process.

    learn more:

    * QIWI
    * Wikipedia
    * Serguey Solonin at the Evolutionary Leaders
    * Business of Tomorrow (an interview, in Russian)
    * Spiral Dynamics in Action: Humanity's Master Code (a book)
    George Ovashvili

    George

    Ovashvili

    Cinematographer, the 2015 Oscars Best Foreign Language Film shortlist nominee 

    Art is more powerful than politics. I am strictly convinced of it. We— humans, due to our nature— are governed more by feelings than by reason. In my thinking, recovering trust between people depends on feelings.

     

    War is the external expression of our internal states. For me, and I think for the audience as well, it is more interesting to investigate our internal states than watch people shoot and kill each other.

    learn more:

    * George Ovashvili 's page at Imdb
    * Wikipedia
    * Corn Island - trailer
    * Khibula - trailer
    * Interview with George Ovashvili (Abudhabi Film Festival)
    Amir Kfir.jpg

    Amir

    Kfir

    Psychologist, organisational consultant and management change leader, specialising in conflict resolution, co-developer a conflict development methodology called "Nonflict", founder of Amirror Group Organisational Development 

    If you want someone to open up to you, lead by example and open your own heart first. Don't just talk the talk, walk the walk.

     

    Conflicts are neither good or bad but opportunities for change in a relationship.

     

    Only difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is the way in which we use them.

    learn more:

    * Amirror Group Organisational Development
    * How Conflict can become Nonflict | Amir Kfir | TEDxMünchen
    * Nonflict: The Art of Everyday Peacemaking book
    Fred Matser.jpg

    Fred

    Matser

    Leading humanitarian and businessman, founder and co- founder of a wide range of charitable foundations 

    The development of our consciousness will allow us to experience, in our finite world, the unconditional love inherent to the Infinite. This, in turn, will help us act according to universal principles and values, so to lead our lives in ever greater harmony with the interest of the whole and all.

    learn more:

    * Fred Foundation
    * Love is the absence of fear. Filter your thoughts through your heart. | Fred Matser | TEDxHaarlem
    * Rediscover Your Heart (book)
    * How can we compare with care, in order to share (an article, NL)
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    Stephon

    Alexander

    Professor of Physics at Brown University, jazz musician and author 

    Stephon Alexander explores resonances between music and physics in Pythagoras’ “music of the spheres,” Albert Einstein’s love of music, Coltrane’s love of Einstein, and his own ideas as a theoretical physicist and jazz saxophonist. It’s a vast, cosmic theme that includes quantum mechanics, superstring theory, the Big Bang, the evolution of galaxies, and the process of scientific theorizing itself. Alexander mines music for analogies to physical reality and credits jam sessions as a method of opening his mind to scientific insights. The comparison between music and physics rests on the fact that sound is a wave with similarities to the wave phenomena that underlie modern physics.

    learn more:

    * Stephon Alexander's web page
    * Jazz of Physics
    * The Jazz of Physics | Stephon Alexander | TEDxSanDiego
    * Dr. Stephon Alexander — The Jazz of Physics (Science Salon # 6)
    * Stephon Alexander's talk at Google
    * Creativity, Notes and Numbers (an interview at the Agenda)
    * As Goes Music So Goes The Universe (a New York Times review)
    Rama Mani

    Rama

    Mani

    Transformative leader, poet and performance artist, founder of the Theatre of Transformation Academy, Senior Research Associate at the University of Oxford’s Centre for International Studies 

    Spirituality can be related to religion but it doesn’t have to be. It is about asking oneself the fundamental questions of life, as prophets, saints, and ordinary seekers have asked since the beginning of time: who am I, what is my purpose, how am I related to everything else in the universe? And starting to live in accord with the insights one receives: with compassion for all life, with a knowing of our fundamental interconnectedness with all creation, and a sense of responsibility to oneself and to everyone.

    learn more:

    * Rama Mani's web page
    * Theatre of Transformation
    * Time for a Paradigm Change (an article)
    * The Poetry of Resistance (a video)
    * Redefining Power to Build Peace (a video)
    * OURTopia: co-creating tomorrow together today | Rama Mani | TEDxCoventGardenWomen
    Alexey Goryachev

    Alexey

    Goryachev

    Entrepreneur, investment banker, Managing Partner of RB Partners, Head of YPO Moscow 

    You might think it’s about money but it’s always about people. It’s people who nail it or screw it. The human factor is the most important.

     

    Build trust first, then build the business.

    learn more:

    * Alexey Goryachev at YPO Russia
    * Venture Capital - an interview at the Mediametrics (video in Russian)
    Jeremy Lent

    Jeremy

    Lent

    Author whose writings investigate the patterns of thought that have led civilisation to its current crisis of sustainability, founder of the Liology Institute 

    Liology sees the meaning of our lives arising intrinsically from our embedded existence in the natural world.  While rejecting reductionist claims, liology embraces rigorous science and sees the findings of systems theory and complexity science as a key to understanding our place in the cosmos.  While rejecting the imaginings of dualistic thinkers, liology embraces the deep connection with meaning arising from a recognition of ourultimate connectivity with everything in the universe.

    learn more:

    * Jeremy Lent's web page
    * Liology Institute
    * Wikipedia
    * Patterns of Meaning (Jeremy Lent's blog)
    * Cultural Mindfulness - presentatiom at the Contemplation By Design Summit, Stanford University
    * Culture Shift: Redirecting Humanity’s Path to a Flourishing Future (an article)
    * Books
    Mikhail Kazinik

    Mikhail

    Kazinik

    Musician, culture expert, writer and educator 

    In progress...

    learn more:

    * Mikhail Kazinik's web site
    * Wikipedia
    * A talk at the Federation Council
    * Kazinik on the golden ratio in arts and music
    * Lifeline. Mikhail Kazinik (TV program )
    * Michail Kazinik - Adagio from Sonat F-dur
    * Films