About Me 2015 — phoebe tickell

The internet is an amazing place - especially when it allows you to discover past versions of yourself stored away and hidden in unexpected corners.

It’s been fascinating to start being able to compare past versions of myself, my thinking and the way I described what I was doing, and see the links and growth from that version to who I am now.

Today I went to About Me to make a biography to include in my email signature. And I discovered I already had such a page, 7 years old! I wanted to capture the words like a snapshot so they wouldn’t be lost, and I could compare again in 7 years. Here is my 2015 biography (it is expectedly cringe given I was in my early 20s):

Phoebe is a learner, educator, change-maker, explorer and futurist.

Trained as a scientist in Neuroscience, DNA and synthetic biology, she started life on an interesting footing. Science gives a lens through which to view the world: one which detects patterns, interconnection, and seeks truth.

On exiting our society’s rigid education system, she sought out an upgrade in consciousness. A combination of solitude, intense physical training, and meditative practice made her realise she would be spending her life serving the world using her specific combination of gifts - and that others can do the same.

At first this was in the confines of the old system. Reprogramming life (by genetic engineering) to build living solutions to the world’s energy crisis and organising climate activism seemed like a good place to start. Communicating science and spreading wonder through workshops, exhibitions and articles have allowed her to inspire and excite others and develop into a full-blown wonder junkie.

However, what dawns on her is that we currently already have all of the technology, scientific knowledge, materials, and time to build an astonishing and abundant world capable of meeting all of our needs. In fact, the most valuable, untapped resource today is human ingenuity, creativity, or ‘magic'.

How do we unlock human magic? One place to start is the way we do education and build communities. Give people the tools to continue learning and exploring for the rest of their lives. Re-imagining what and how we learn is one crucial part of transitioning into a new era. Experimenting with content and learning techniques in Brainiac Club (www.brianaic.clun) 225 Academy (www.225academy.com) and bringing together co-ordinated action via Born Limitless (www.bornlimitless.org) are the ways she is currently doing this.

The really fascinating part is how much has stayed consistent, though the language I use to describe it is very different and the audiences and communities I am part of have also changed. I was starting to formalise the meta-curriculum I had created for age 11-18 year olds based on what I had learned from the biological sciences and applied to social systems and “thinking”. I taught this as “Magical Thinking” at 225 Academy, which has now been upgraded to be called “Systems Thinking” and “Complexity”.

You can find hints of Moral Imaginations in there, especially on science as a lens through which to view the world: one which detects patterns, interconnection, and seeks truth, and being what I called a “wonder-junkie”. In fact, I may actually just keep these sentences for the sake of continuity:

Communicating science and spreading wonder through workshops, exhibitions and articles have allowed her to inspire and excite others and develop into a full-blown wonder junkie.

How do we unlock human magic?

Ok, maybe not the sentence about the wonder junkie.

But the rest perfectly sets up what I am about to be doing again - watch this space!