response to the paper - thanks M!

This just in on email - I think that the first issue is absolutely fascinating - challenging and set off a whole rack of thoughts so many thanks M.
Physical mobility has created a tendency for us to group around similarities as opposed to contrasting characteristics. We choose to be safe with people we can predict rather than be challenged by diversity in skills and thought of those who are very different from ourselves. With mobility now seriously threatened we are unlikely to be able to group physically into clusters made up of people we are comfortable with and place will return to being a more dominant influence on who we group with. Although electronic based communications will widen opportunity for interaction in the new world, we will be forced to interact with a greater diversity within place based communities....might be more productive. I am thinking now of vast number of conferences we attend and contribute to where we are preaching to the converted and despite the huge expended resources there is little productive outcome....there are many other examples.

How right you are about education, there is so much behind what you say. The one thing that dominates today is the collective (state education) forced system that removes the rich diversity of individualistic approach to teaching, justified on the basis that we trust no-one to get it right. When you remove discretion you remove ownership and responsibility. Regurgitated fact and a restricted teaching system is bound to be a lifeless experience for our young people.

Action that plans for the future is constrained by the short term political cycle.

At what scale should we be operating? Do we need state regulation because a regulatory framework will be the only thing to stimulate investment into new technologies? Can communities operate true sustainability without national or international influence? For individuals should we not place a different set of values to the parallel development of mind and body for everyone, assuming that we can no longer rely on total mechanisation and that harnessing human effort must become a norm!