The Perfection of Nothing

For centuries, humans have used the sign of the circle to represent perfection. We also use it to indicate zero – “the nothing that is”, according to Robert Kaplan. And it stands for Omega, last letter of the Greek alphabet which also signifies the end -- Teilhard de Chardin's Omega point. This workshop will explore some of the trails of change in human affairs and ask if they are leading us to a shared circle, a noosphere of we-know-not-what. With the contributions of participants from diverse traditions, we will speculate about the nature of this space, and how it might manifest itself to human experience in the future.

Of course, our planet is a sphere. We have not been the same since we first saw it from the outside, in awesome images beamed back from the 1969 moon landing. Suddenly we saw our physical unity. Technology and its communication revolution has given us a sense of shared experience. From the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the death of Princess Diana, global society has begun to experience shared emotions. On 28 December 2004 the Asian tsunami shocked the world and triggered, perhaps, a fleeting glimpse of global soul.

There are many maps and signposts to aid our exploration. From stage development theory to Spiral Dynamics; from Csikszentmihalyi to Wilber; from complex adaptive systems and emergent behaviour to intelligent bacteria; from Sarkar to string theory; from industrial agriculture to biodynamics; from litigation to love; this workshop will tap the shared knowledge of global futurists to speculate about the mystery of our shared not-knowing.

On the way, we'll look at what leaders in local and global spheres of influence can do now to make better choices about human futures.

Bio: Jan Lee Martin is Founding Chair of the Futures Foundation in Australia, a non- profit centre for learning about the future which won a special award of merit from the World Futures Studies Federation in 1998. For the past ten years she has been editor of Future News . She is a regular contributor to www.futuresfoundation.org.au and has written for other futures publications including New Renaissance and the Journal of Futures Studies Her most recent publication was an article in the Australian Financial Review's BOSS magazine (March 2005).

In a career that has been focused on business and community engagement rather than academia, Jan Lee Martin has consistently been a pioneer. Born and educated in New

Zealand , she left high school at the age of 15 and began her working life as a stenographer.

In 1959 she joined IBM as a secretary and was soon promoted to the position of public relations manager for the company. Thus by 1962 she found herself:

- in the heart of the computer industry

at the birth of the digital age;

- in the emerging field of public relations at the beginning of the communication age;

- as a 21-year-old manager at the beginning of the age of youth;

- as a female executive, very early in the movement towards gender equality.

During this period she also travelled extensively, visiting Australia , Sri Lanka , Egypt and France , working for IBM in London and travelling in Europe and North Africa . On her return to New Zealand , she studied psychology and political science at the University of Auckland before moving to Australia in 1970.

For the next 16 years, Jan Lee Martin was principal of her own public relations and corporate communication consultancy. Her clients included a wide range of companies, local and foreign governments, industry organisations (including employers and unions) and other organisations. With growing experience she moved beyond the media and information focus of public relations to a broader engagement with the changing relationships between organisations and their host communities.

In 1986 she sold the business of her company and largely retired from business to study futures and related topics. Special areas of interest included new learnings in health and healing; sustainability; consciousness and spirituality; the new sciences; and new approaches to leadership and management. She is now exploring the future of communication; the nature of relationships within and between holons in holarchy; the future of happiness; and changing perceptions of what we see as success.

Jan Lee Martin has for many years been a member of the World Future Society, the World Futures Studies Federation and the Public Relations Institute of Australia , and is active in a number of community groups in a pro bono capacity. She is a regular speaker, especially on the topics of futures and communication, and is listed in the WFS directory of people who speak and write about the future.

Her international links include being an Executive Member of the Integral Education Center at Integral University , Boulder Colorado , and being affiliated with the Community for Integrative Learning and Action in Massachusetts , USA . She has presented at numerous National and International conferences, including several keynotes. Her main research interests are educational transformation, spiritual psychology, evolution of culture and consciousness and youth visions of the future for empowerment. She has researched and published widely in the past decade, including co-editing two books: The University in Transformation: Global Perspectives on the Futures of the University (Bergin and Garvey, 2000) and Youth Futures: Comparative Research and Transformative Visions (Praeger, 2002). She is currently co-editing the book: Integral Education: The Good, the Beautiful and the True.