Brian Swimme, Don Beck, and Peter Senge What Future May Come?

What happens when the editor-in-chief of EnlightenNext mediates a conference call cum roundtable discussion between three guys—all of whom happen to be brilliant, preeminent voices in their respective fields of cosmology, cultural evolution, and organizational development—and the topic is the successful continuing evolution of the human race? You get one outrageous conversation, that's what! Each man raises the bar another notch as he brings his unique point of view and depth of experience to bear on the four questions posed by the moderator. The first two questions focus on the world in crisis: What is the nature of this crisis and what new capacities and responses will be required to meet it? The second two questions explore whether the established traditions and religions practiced by the vast majority of humankind will be able to provide adequate support and guidance as 21st century complexities begin to really hit home. Three critical minds tackle crucial issues with insights ranging from the economic to the cultural to the cosmic, all in the service of finding the highest byway that we can—and hopefully will—take toward a positive and ever-evolving future.

BIO

Brian Swimme is a mathematical cosmologist on the graduate faculty of the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He brings a unique perspective to the understanding of the 13.7-billion-year trajectory of cosmic genesis, viewing humanity as having evolved out of, and being an integral part of, the universe as a whole.

Swimme's academic research focuses on the evolutionary dynamics of the universe, the relationship between scientific cosmology and more traditional religious visions, the cultural implications of the new evolutionary epic, and the role of humanity in the unfolding story of Earth and cosmos. Toward this goal, in 1989 he founded the Center for the Story of the Universe, a production and distribution affiliate of the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Swimme is the author of The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos (Orbis, 1996), Manifesto for a Global Civilization (with Matthew Fox) (Bear and Company, 1983), The Universe is a Green Dragon (Bear and Company, 1984), and The Universe Story (Harper, 1992), which is the culmination of a ten-year collaboration with renowned cultural historian Thomas Berry.

Swimme was featured in the three-part television series Soul of the Universe (The BBC, 1991). He is the producer of a twelve-part video series, Canticle to the Cosmos (Tides Center, 1990), in which he tells the scientific story of the evolution of the universe. Swimme has also created and produced The Earth's Imagination (Center for the Story of the Universe, 1998), a video series about the evolutionary development of the human psyche.

Swimme received his Ph.D. (1978) from the University of Oregon specializing in gravitational dynamics, mathematical cosmology, and singularity theory. He was a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington from 1978 to 1981. Prior to that, he was a member of the faculty at the Institute for Culture and Creation Spirituality at Holy Names College in Oakland, California. He lectures worldwide and has presented at conferences sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, The World Bank, UNESCO, The United Nations Millennium Peace Summit, and the American Natural History Museum. He resides in northern California.

Don Beck has been developing, implementing, and teaching the evolutionary theory of Spiral Dynamics for more than three decades. Beck has elaborated upon the work of his mentor, Clare Graves, to develop a multidimensional model for understanding the evolutionary transformation of human values and cultures. As cofounder of the National Values Center in Denton, Texas, and CEO of the Spiral Dynamics Group, Inc., Beck is employing the Spiral Dynamics model to effect large-scale systems change in and among various sectors and societies of the world. He is the author of Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership & Change, written with Christopher Cowan in 1996.

Beck's long consulting career has taken him to such diverse settings as 10 Downing Street to consult with Tony Blair's Policy Unit; the south side of Chicago to address the problems faced by inner-city schools; the World Bank to consider the future of Afghanistan; and the boardrooms of major banks, energy companies, airlines, and government agencies. In his 63 trips to South Africa between 1981 and 1988, he had significant impact on political leaders, the business sector, religious leadership, and the general public in order to help bring about the peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy. Out of his experiences there, Beck wrote The Crucible: Forging South Africa's Future (1991) with Graham Linscott.

Before his work in South Africa, Beck taught for twenty years at the University of North Texas. There he was named Outstanding Professor in 1978, named Honor Professor in 1979, and listed as an “Outstanding Educator in America” in 1980. Beck has also been the team psychologist for The South African Springboks, winners of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, and has been associated with the Dallas Cowboys, New Orleans Saints, the Texas Rangers (baseball), and the U.S. Olympic Committee for Men's Track and Field. He writes a “sports values” column for the Dallas Morning News. He makes his home in Denton, Texas.

Peter Senge is a Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also Founding Chair of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL), a global community of corporations, researchers, and consultants committed “to increase our capacity to collectively realize our highest aspirations and productively resolve our differences” through the mutual development of people and institutions. The Journal of Business Strategy named him a “Strategist of the Century,” one of twenty-four men and women who have “had the greatest impact on the way we conduct business today” (September/October 1999). His special interest is on decentralizing the role of leadership in organizations so as to enhance the capacity of all people to work productively toward common goals. Senge's work places human values at the cornerstone of the workplace, proposing that vision, purpose, reflectiveness, and systems thinking are essential for organizations to realize their potentials.

Senge is the author of several books, including the widely acclaimed, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (1990). This book, which provides the knowledge for organizations to transform rigid hierarchies into more fluid and responsive systems, is widely credited with creating a revolution in the business world. Since its publication, more than a million copies have been sold, and in 1997, Harvard Business Review identified it as one of the seminal management books of the past 75 years. His most recent book, Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future (SoL 2004), co-authored with C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers, documents the authors' development of a new theory about change and learning. Their journey of discovery articulates a new way of seeing the world and of understanding our part in creating it—as it is and as it might be.

Senge has lectured extensively throughout the world, translating the abstract ideas of systems theory into tools to create economic and organizational change. He has worked with leaders in business, education, health care and government. He lives with his wife and children in eastern Massachusetts.