DOI
ISBN 978-88-909189-7-1

Summary
The hypertechnological civilization, with its continual innovations (instruments, devices, environments, ecosystems) and its extraordinary scientific discoveries, brings the social actors, the new subjectivities (1996) to the brink – to the possibility -- of making a further, irreversible quantum leap. A phase of radical global mutation, ever more subject to entropic and chaotic driving forces that, beyond the undeniable accelerations and advances in every field of human and social praxis, should have defined and determined ideal conditions in terms of control and predictability of behavior, processes and systems. The current global ecosystem of communication, albeit fed by incessant flows of data and information, appears, on the contrary, to be more and more characterized by a “limited rationality” (Simon) that cannot avoid amplifying the perception of facing a complexity that is not only expanding, but unpredictable and scarcely controllable as well.

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
A new phase of radical global mutation forces us to reformulate our thoughts on categories, codes, languages, instruments, identity, subjectivity, cultural norms and models, (open) communities, relational and communicative areas, environment and ecosystems. Our extraordinary scientific discoveries and technological innovations not only open dizzily onto as yet unimaginable horizons and scenarios, but show, ever more clearly, the urgency of radically rethinking education, teaching and training, underlining the substantial inadequacy of our schools and universities in dealing
with this hypercomplexity, in dealing with the indeterminateness and ambivalence of the ongoing metamorphosis, in dealing with the radical interdependence and interconnection of all processes and dynamics; in dealing with the global extension of all political, social and cultural processes. Along these lines, undoubtedly, the experience of art is an important element of this new idea of education and culture; because art is the only form of symbolic mediation capable of representing the hypercomplexity of human and social reality.

Point of Strength
the urgency of radically rethinking education, teaching and training, underlining the substantial inadequacy of our schools and universities in dealing with this hypercomplexity, in dealing with the indeterminateness and ambivalence of the ongoing metamorphosis, in dealing with the radical interdependence and interconnection of all processes and dynamics