(Alt. “Jantsch meets Engelbart”; or #1 + #2 = #3.) Innovation saves time and reduces effort by making things more effective or efficient. Having in #1 perceived our professions and institutions as large ‘socio-technical machines’ or ‘trans-technical systems’, whose purpose is to turn our daily work into socially useful effects; but which have all too often remained in their basic overall design as they were two centuries ago, or sometimes two millennia ago—created to answer to the needs of a completely different society; by using the sort of technology that was then available; based on the ideas that people then had about the nature of information, and about the purpose of knowledge work... And having in #2 perceived that the natural purpose of information technology is to enable systemic change, or rather, that systemic change is the natural way to take advantage of information technology...

We arrive at #3, where we realize that vast opportunities for progress, achievement and contribution (to human well-being, future prospects, knowledge, culture...) are now possible within a paradigm within which progress has normally been made and perceived—namely innovation.

This systemic innovation turns the most vital societal needs into vast invention- and entrepreneurial opportunities—as innovation is indeed expected to! (In the context of global issues we may rather talk about ‘systemic re-evolution.’ Watch the “Why poverty” documentaries.

The fact that the rich have taken a lion’s share of the cake is of course a large problem; but it is a minor problem compared to this one: Our systems have been evolving based on ‘local optimization’ driven by competition; they now need to re-evolve, in a way that brings them ever closer to their function.)