Open Secret, II

The Open Secret Project, II


By John Taylor; 6 July, 2004



Last month I started a series of essays foreshadowing what I hinted would be an "open secret project," but I was called away before I could explain what I was talking about.

The open secret project will be the first step to implementing the open systems proposals that I have been working out over the past year. The open secret project is a dynamic web document based upon the Master's masterwork, "The Secret of Divine Civilization." This work was commissioned by Baha'u'llah Himself and it is, I believe, the gift of everything Baha'i to the world, particularly to the secular, public world. We know that the Faith is essentially mystical, concerned with God and spirit but the Secret of Divine Civilization is a proposal for systematic application of the fruits of that in the material world. The Master is emphatic from the start about the disinterestedness of the book's purpose,


"God is our witness that we have no ulterior motive in developing this theme ... We speak only as one earnestly desiring the good pleasure of God." (SDC, 13)


The hypertext commentary on this web site would mediate a group writing process intended to encourage broader discussion about the Master's ideas and proposals, and new ideas and projects based upon these. Commentary would begin with the text of the book, word by word, sentence by sentence, and proceed from there.

Of course the book "Secret of Divine Civilization" itself is copyrighted by Baha'i institutions, but I envision all other content in this dynamically updated hypertext document as "open." That is, the material would be contracted from the start under "copyleft," which is a new form of communal copyright that allows and even encourages free copying and reproduction. All contributions are given and taken on the condition that any changes or improvements will be re-submitted so that the group can modify and improve the original.

In essence, I do not see the Open Secret process as beginning and ending with words. Commentary on scripture has been going on for millennia without much benefit other than ever more sterile verbiage. The more words written, the more obscured and constipated society has become. Edifying as a limited amount of exegesis can be for some, especially those of literary bent, here all would be designed as a first step in a creative process culminating in specific inventions, systematic plans and practical socio-economic projects.

The web site would be designed to be an alter where individual inventors can meet, court and marry institutional implementers. It would also (eventually) take in hand the core development of the mother of all personal websites, the personal improvement portal for each person, each family, in the world. The textual analysis of the book, Secret of Divine Civilization, would abide on the site only if it fosters this new kind of creativity that is both personal and collective.

Let me pick out a few sentences from Secret of Divine Civilization and try to imagine how discussion and invention based upon it might play out.


"God has given us eyes, that we may look about us at the world, and lay hold of whatsoever will further civilization and the arts of living." (SDC, 3)


I expect that there would be a great deal of discussion about what the "arts of living" might be. How might we integrate the social sciences, psychology, sociology, etc., into a scientific "art of living?" How might faith, prayer, reflection, enter into that more systematically and creatively? Out of discussion of this sentence might arise a huge idea database collecting together ideas and suggestions to do with whatever might "further civilization."

Inventions implementing this could include simple adjustments, like allowing everybody to contribute an idea or suggestion easily to the right authority by putting a "suggestion box" button on their personal web portal. This could even be solved "in-house" at the "Open Secret" site, if it produced standards for open personal website portals. Pushing a button on my web portal would allow each thinker to quickly contribute a suggestion to improve just about anything.

The tremendous problem of directing all the ideas and proposals of just about anybody to the right ears would actually now be a relatively simple problem for computer science to solve. We already have a foreshadowing in Google, a huge question database service that accommodates all questioners. You can ask anything of this single supercomputer oracle plugged in to the web, which includes the collective, interconnected knowledge of humanity. As news events break, it is possible to watch on a display at Google headquarters the upsurge of new questions and enquiry based upon it. I think they even allow you to see the questions being asked on their website.

The difference with this is that the suggestion button would act as a reverse Google, the single supercomputer oracle would become a dynamic poll dealing in answers rather than just queries. The ideas and suggestions to every conceivable sort of problem that human beings are encountering would then be brokered to all appropriate "powers that be." Not only opinions but the demand for solution would go instantly to the servants of humanity, academe, government and private industry.


"He has given us ears, that we may hear and profit by the wisdom of scholars and philosophers and arise to promote and practice it."


God has given us ears to enable us to think for ourselves, and that can be reflected in our personal website as well. Backed up by their own personal computer, every individual is now capable of building a machine that, like our physical ear, will collect information, process it, and feed back our original contribution to the web, and thereby to the benefit of the whole human race.

Discussion based on this sentence, therefore, would be concerned with how to increase benefits of the "wisdom of scholars and philosophers." Inventions arising here might be the institution of new discussion areas on the web, and eventually perhaps even connected discussion sites in real, physical places, notably ones situated in the gardens and auxiliary institutions of the Mashriqs.

"Arising to promote and practice" the wisdom of the best minds is terribly neglected in philosophical discussion. We are used to ivory towers. When we talk, we have no concern or even expectation for implementation of the ideas that come up. Clearly, we need change this by circuiting back our every discussion to the dynamic suggestion feed of the "reverse Google" we talked about above. That means directing all problem solving, and all verbal discussions of theory to this supercomputer oracle, which tells right away what most people consider most urgent.

I know, we Baha’is call this discipline “consultation,” but it is a new thing to most of the world and it needs to be packaged in a non-threatening, secular way; as Baha’is we concentrate upon the spiritual pre-requisites. The discussions of the Open Secret would concentrate upon how to take advantage of the many exiting technical tools being invented every day to foster this consultative process.

Tomorrow we will go on to the next sentence in Secret of Divine Civilization.