This Friday, Shima Beigi, CEO and Co-founder of TAI/T, goes through the Conference of the Birds story’s structure and describes how we at TAI/T use the underlying philosophical message of this ancient work as a guiding light that informs our smart city therapeutic solutions.
The Peacock-Man: The Peacock, as one of the characters of the Conference of the Bird, is proud of her beauty to the extent that any other possibility of beauty challenges her image of reality. She represents the illusion of ego. Today’s leadership is blinded to its traditional ways of doing things. The previous scientific and technological developments have created an ego structure and politically misinformed social image that is hard to break. Attar is calling us to change. It is time to undergo a healing, transformative journey and liberate ourselves, our cities and our world from this illusion.
Text Credit: TAI/T Inc. 2022. Shima Beigi, PhD.
TAI/T’s approach to smart cities is guided by the Triple AI model, which includes the followings:
Awakened Individuals (AI.01)
Ancient Intelligence (AI.02)
Artificial Intelligence (AI.03)
Each of these forms of intelligence brings something unique to the Smart City conversation. Without awakened individuals, cities cannot become smart. Societies are lost without a solid appreciation of the universal body of ancient wisdom and intelligence. Without a resilient and meaningful application of artificial intelligence, the best technology cannot be realised. Thus, all these forms of intelligence are necessary building blocks of a truly smart city and civilisation.
What kind of cities do we want to live in?
The process of smart city design is a practice of rebuilding democracy from the bottom-up. In this process, everyone has a role to play: to become aware of the internal addictions and attachments to the old ways, to the business as usual. Humanity needs to wake up to the importance of personal transformation for the emergence of a better world.
Text Credit: TAI/T Inc. 2022. Shima Beigi, PhD.
Indeed, the process by which cities become smarter is complex, and often, the real purpose of change which is the evolution of humans and state of consciousness is forgotten. As a result, most smart city initiatives are technology-centric, soul-less and lack emotional connection with the human side of this transformation.
The Triple AI model aims to ensure cities remain authentic and humane during these testing and transition times.
The Ancient Intelligence (AI.02) of The Conference of the Birds: System, Universal, Accessible, Timeless
The Conference of the Birds is allegorical mystical poetry by the 12th Century Persian Mystic Farid-du-Din Attar, commonly known as Attar. The name Attar refers to the profession of Farid-du-Din, a perfume master and a chemist. The name Attar could be equated to the medicine person in indigenous cultures.
Attar: The 12th Century Persian Perfume Master
Attar means a person selling herbal medicinal plants or organic perfumes or having a deep knowledge of the impact of organic and wildflowers for healing purposes.
Text Credit: TAI/T Inc. 2022. Shima Beigi, PhD.
While Attar’s Conference of the Birds is commonly known as the tale of groups of birds seeking a kind, this masterpiece acts as a social mirror. Birds are used to represent the spirit, the mind, and the mental model each person poses. The hoopoe is the wise figure that guides the birds along the path of awakening. The Simorgh is the inner truth, and the valleys are stages of psycho-spiritual transformation. The stories shared by the hoopoe aimed to be therapeutic, similar to Attar’s perfumery shop.
Each tale is a perfume that is supposed to heal the identification of the birds with their conditions.
Attar’s work is unique amongst other mystical and spiritual teachings in that it truly captures the real struggles of change in a multidisciplinary medium that touches all human faculties. It also remains open-ended, a quality that matches the nature of today’s information age. The work is translated into multiple languages worldwide and interpreted by religious scholars and scientists, yet it does not stop remaining inspirational and mind-expanding.
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