(Forward and backward navigation buttons only work on 4.0 browsers) Copyright © 1997, Jay Ligda.  All rights reserved.  Published by Humans in the Universe and Jay Ligda. Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts       While paradigms are an every day part of our lives, problems can occur when paradigms shift, and often they do.      The rapid expanse of computer technology is an example of a paradigm shift.  This shift will have a profound affect on the rest of society.  Young people today are growing up with instantaneous access to more information than older generations could gather in a lifetime.  Our educational structures as well as our work structure will be drastically altered to make way for this new paradigm.      As paradigms shift, the new ones are usually met with a great deal of resistance.  As pointed out earlier, our sanity is often riding on our paradigms.  We are not going to give them up easily (until the new paradigm can be somehow incorporated into our picture of reality.)       When paradigms shift, they almost inevitably are met with the same kind of resistance: We are literally unable to "see" the evidence of the new paradigm even though it is right in front of our "eyes."  (The evidence does not fit into the old framework so it is psychologically denied.) We see the evidence but rationalize it away. We see the evidence and distort it to fit our paradigm. We see the evidence but declare that it is inaccurate.  Perhaps something is wrong with the tools of measurement or the person presenting the new information.       Why is there so much resistance?  Aside from challenging the concepts of reality which support our sanity, it is pointed out by Joel Barker (a futurist who has studied paradigms and paradigm shifts for over twenty years) that, "when a paradigm shifts, everyone goes back to zero."      He gives the example of the Swiss watch industry.  For 60 years they dominated the world in watch manufacturing.  They were first in this industry by far with no one in close second.  They had more than 65% of the world watch market and their watches were reputed to be the finest in the world.  Then, something happened.  A paradigm shifted.  There market share dropped from 65% to less than 10%.  What happened was called the digital watch.      Fifty thousand of the sixty-two thousand watch makers lost their jobs.  The nation was in catastrophe.  "They made the most accurate gears in the world.  It was irrelevant.  They made the best bearings.  Who cared.  They manufactured the finest mainsprings.  Unneeded.  All the advantages they had accrued in the old paradigm were worthless in the new."  (Barker, p 144)      The ironic part of this story is that the digital watch was invented by the Swiss themselves.  However, the manufacturers rejected the new invention.  The new invention was picked up by Seiko of Japan and it’s a good probability you are wearing one, or one of its descendants, on your wrist right now! by Jay Ligda (This work is a all or part of an original work first published/written for Setting Ideas in Motion newsletter. (Forward and backward navigation buttons only work on 4.0 browsers) References Barker, Joel.  (1992).  The Future Edge:  Discovering the New Paradigms of Success.  New York, NY:  William Morrow and Company. Capra, F. (1982).  The Turning Point:  Science, Society, and the Rising Culture.  New York, NY:  Bantam., Mar1997.) E-mail Comments and Suggestions (Forward and backward navigation buttons only work on 4.0 browsers)