Digital Humans: Thriving in an Online World

10Always Learning

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.

Aristotle (3 BCE/1999)

This chapter is about the future of learning and why digital humans need to commit to continuous learning as a life skill. We ask how organizations can deliver highly personalized, highly effective learning at a huge scale, using the opportunities presented by digital and why this underpins our future digital lives.

The House of Wisdom

In the ninth and tenth centuries, Baghdad grew to be the largest city worldwide and was at the centre of the golden age of Islam. Its founder, Caliph al-Mansur of the Abbasid, is said to have chosen the location for Baghdad because of its mild climate, secure geography, proximity to the Tigris, and its link to the main trade routes of the day. Baghdad became a focal point of culture and learning.

At this time, an incredible library named Khizanat al-Hikma (Library of Wisdom) was created by Caliph Harund Al-Rasheed. The Caliph required somewhere to house the manuscripts and books that had been amassed by his father and grandfather, in many different languages, covering subjects across the arts and sciences. The collection grew so large that his son, Caliph Al-Ma'mun, decided to extend the original building and turn it into an academy. The new building was renamed Bayt al-Hikma (the House of Wisdom) and was home to many different branches of knowledge.

People from all over the world gathered in the House of Wisdom, both male and female, ...