»Innovation«: annotations and endnotes
[1] Luhmann, N.: Sthenographie und Euryalistik
[2] c.f. Glück, T. R.: Das letzte Tabu [Probleme und Lösungen]
[3] And not even the naive striving for »complete« control can change this; moreover: quis custodiet ipsos custodes? What we need is an ethically responsible, constructive handling of this basic restriction.
[4] For the basic problem c.f. http://www.knowledgequality.org/intro.
One – not very promising – approach entails contributing to a further proliferation of terminology and pseudo patent remedies. The following joke is not quite new, but it captures the situation well: »A drunk man is standing in the light of a street lamp constantly looking around on the ground. A policeman walks by and asks him what he has lost. The man answers: ›My keys.‹ Now they are both looking for them. Finally, the policeman asks, if the man is really sure that he lost his keys exactly in this spot, but the man answers: ›No, not right here, but over there – but there it is way too dark.‹« (Watzlawick, P.: Anleitung zum Unglücklichsein).
[5] »Where might be those who would dare to doubt the basis of all their former thoughts and deeds and who would voluntarily bare the shame of having laboured under misapprehension and blindness for a long time? Who is brave enough to defy the accusations, which always await those who dare to deviate from the traditional opinions of their homeland or party? Where can we meet the man, who can calmly prepare to bare the name of an eccentric, a sceptic or an atheist, as it awaits all those who have even minimally questioned one of the general opinions?« (Locke, J.: Über den menschlichen Verstand).
[6] Max Planck overstated this subject in his famous quotation: »A new scientific truth normally does not gain general acceptance by convincing its adversaries, who then admit to having learned their lesson. It rather gains acceptance by the fact that its adversaries are slowly dying out and that the new generation has been familiar with the new truth from the very beginning.« (Planck, M.: Wissenschaftliche Selbstbiographie).
[7] Thus, knowledge-qualitative evaluations can be made available for investment decisions.
