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Q1. In what stage is Human Wisdom as an enterprise – Is it already operational and publishing material? What kinds of books does Human Wisdom specialize in: novels, essays, fiction, science… or all of them?

A1. Human Wisdom is an up and running enterprise and has already published its first book - Terra City, released in November 2002. Terra City is a typical Human Wisdom book and its last chapter is a charter of sorts describing the mission of Human Wisdom and also the kind of books that Human Wisdom is focusing on. Here is an illustrative excerpt from that chapter:

“There are certain books - such as Terra City - that cannot be written by a single author. Their subjects concern overwhelmingly important aspects of life and are so vast, multifaceted and profound that no person alone can cover them satisfactorily and objectively. By making use of his talent, imagination, intuition and insight on the subject, the author can only express a certain point of view, propose a particular method of analysis, establish a set of premises and initiate the discussion. But he can never claim that he could complete such an analysis. To achieve that, he needs to create the conditions for an open discussion with all the readers and launch an invitation to every thinking being on the planet affected by the subject to reflect on it, to ask questions about it, to come up with comments and their own examples, to address critics and make suggestions that would lead to a more comprehensive image of the subject and ultimately to a viable solution for everyone’s benefit. As much as I would love to see everything I shared in this book proven valuable and influential in our lives, that will never happen until everyone who has something to say about this subject will have the chance to say it. This is the only way that the outcome of this open debate will be indeed the best that we all can think of in this moment in time, while having faith enough to embark with our entire energy and enthusiasm in trying to achieve it.”

Q2. Who is Human Wisdom looking for to contribute literary works? Is it primarily looking for established writers or younger up-and-coming writers looking to make a name for themselves?

A2. Human Wisdom welcomes famous writers, beginning-writers, would be-writers and in general anyone who has a certain passion about writing. But the full answer to this question is much more inclusive. Here is another excerpt from Terra City that addresses this issue and even a bit more:

“…Every time I watch TV and see grassroots people of various ages and backgrounds interviewed on diverse subjects, I am impressed by the profundity of their opinions, their sharpness and remarkable common sense. And every time I see that, I cannot stop myself dreaming of the immense creative and innovative force that all these people and many others like them would become if gathered in a universal human wisdom. And this is what Human Wisdom is striving to create - a global round-table for people worldwide who have positive thoughts, ideas, questions and answers to share with others. Some of these people may have been rejected when they tried that before and have become skeptical of finding a media interested in their ideas, others may be too shy to think of publishing themselves while others may consider that what they have to say would not be enough to write an entire book. Yet, it is only their valuable contribution that could bring us closer to our common goal – a more abundant, enjoyable and fulfilling life for all of us, a society of humans indeed, or as we called it - a Human Era on Earth.
In this sense, this first edition of Terra City is only an opening edition of this book. Human Wisdom invites everyone to read it, think about the various aspects discussed in it, and then send in any constructive input they might have: their thoughts, questions, criticisms, comments, expansions, examples or their personal vision related to any part of the book, be it the way our common problem has been defined, the merits or shortcomings of the data-goal-way model, the essential data selected, the proposed goal and the suggested way, or the Terra City project as it has been rendered, the synergetic groups or the idea of Human Wisdom itself. All this input received at Human Wisdom will be reviewed and everything that brings pertinent developments of the various subjects in discussion will be incorporated into an enhanced edition of this book.
The invitation extends to all those who would like to discuss worldwide other subjects of general interest and publish an opening book at Human Wisdom on those subjects, without any expense from their part.”

Q3. Apart from books, does Human Wisdom have any other product or project?

A3. Yes, Human Wisdom has an original project called... Terra City Project, which is another typical endeavor for this enterprise, in the sense that it concerns, involves and benefits every thinking being on the planet.

Q4. What kind of company is Human Wisdom? - Is it a public company? Does it represent an interest group?

A4. Human Wisdom is not a public company. It does not have any shareholders and does not offer any shares or dividends to anyone. Human Wisdom was founded by one person alone - Dan Bostan - it does not represent the interests of any corporation or other organization and does not have any other agenda than the one presented in the pages of this web site.

Q5. What is the greatest challenge that Human Wisdom faces and what would be the highest achievement that it expects to reach?

A5. The greatest challenge comes from the general mistrust and disillusionment that presently reigns worldwide. If we look around ourselves we will notice that only a few people still hope that there is a way out of this overall dull, for some, and miserable for others, way of life. Most people consider this as “the way things are” in life, while others are so infuriated by this state of affairs that they are ready to do anything desperate to change it. This also leads to the answer to the second question - The greatest achievement that Human Wisdom expects to reach is to prove that a viable enterprise could be indeed based on the principle “Humanity is Humanity” and that despite the current discouraging atmosphere people can find a way to cooperate in a synergetic manner with outstanding results.

Concretely, Human Wisdom wants to prove that:

there is an immense potential of creativity in the world whose surface was not even scratched, and the best way to reach our full creative potential is through our synergic interaction;
people together have all the necessary knowledge and expertise to develop, produce, distribute, retail and implement everything they need and desire;
the over-reigning greed can be kept under control by these "greedy-by-nature" creatures that we are, and the profit of our common strive can be shared fairly among all those who produced it;
reaching the Human Wisdom’s goals does not require struggle or sacrifices, as some may tent to believe, but can be instead an especially fulfilling and enjoyable process;
not long after demonstrating that all this is possible, many other similar enterprises will be created by our common ‘human wisdom’ and that will gradually change the background color of people’s lives all over the world from the present dark gray to all the colors of the rainbow. This is what Human Wisdom aims for.

Q6. In concrete terms, how does Human Wisdom intend to overcome the general mistrust and disillusionment that presently reigns worldwide and facilitate the exposure of positive ideas given that this way is off the beaten path?

A6. First off, to succeed in this mission Human Wisdom can only rely on that part of ourselves that still believes there is a chance and a solution. We all have to avoid any possible pitfalls in this undertaking and we all have to manifest as much understanding, generosity and spirit of cooperation as we possibly can. On one side, Human Wisdom takes the chance and exposes itself to virtually unlimited risks related to financing the projects, copyright provisions worldwide, various cross-cultural particularities, as well as a wide variety of individual interests. On the other side, all participants in this venture will have to manifest an outstanding comprehension, generosity and trust in order to make it happen. In plain words, each person willing to share their thoughts, comments, ideas and possibly innovations with the rest of the world through the open forum offered by Human Wisdom is actually accepting to offer all these valuables without expecting anything in return from Human Wisdom or anybody else, and only trusting that others will appreciate their giving and will do the same on their turn.

Q7. How does Human Wisdom intend to cope with the potentially overwhelming task of legal claims of all kind?

A7. Human Wisdom has no legal department and has no intention of ever creating one, even though it is indeed potentially vulnerable to any claim or liability imaginable. Therefore, in order to avoid any misunderstanding or harm to anyone involved or related to its operation, Human Wisdom launches a sincere and humble invitation to every human being on this planet to consider all Human Wisdom comments, acts and propositions exactly in the spirit that they are made – that is in all honesty, openness and completely disinterested financially or otherwise. Anyone who might sense that Human Wisdom or anyone associated with it makes or is about to make a mistake or to harm anyone, is kindly invited to make Human Wisdom aware of that situation and Human Wisdom will do its very best to verify and address it. Human Wisdom apologizes in advance for any such possible mistakes and trusts that nothing is done intentionally but only by human error, and will do its very best to limit these embarrassing situations. Similarly, Human Wisdom will make public any attempt from anyone - individual or organization - to harm in any way the Human Wisdom name, mission or anyone associated with it, and will let the public opinion judge and defend the right cause. In other words, the last thing Human Wisdom wants to do is to be harmful to anyone even without intention, and the last thing Human Wisdom wishes is to be harmed, even without intention.
As it often happens in life, it will be possible that various rumors and speculations regarding Human Wisdom or people related to it might be circulated by individuals or organizations with diverse intentions. Human Wisdom advises everyone not to give consideration to any of these unless confirmed directly by Human Wisdom. For any questions that you may have about any subject related to Human Wisdom or its projects, the surest way to go is to address them directly to Human Wisdom for clarification.

Q8. OK, so Human Wisdom bases its entire operation on the new precept - Humanity is Humanity, as compared to almost all other companies that function on the old adage - Business is Business, and still asserts that it is a viable enterprise. Given this unconventional attitude, how does Human Wisdom plan to finance its operation?

A8. First off, one thing should be clearly specified - Human Wisdom is not a charitable organization and it is not asking for people's donations. Indeed, Human Wisdom focuses on the human side of its activity, on the trust and emulation that are to be created among people who participate in writing the books that it publishes or in developing various other products that it will distribute worldwide, on all possible benefits beside money that will result from its activity such as spreading the knowledge, know-how, mutual trust, abundance and the joy of living. Furthermore, Human Wisdom also trusts to prove that the financial reward will come as well, but not as its main purpose but as a… by-product. That’s why Business is Business did not fit as a precept.

On the other hand, although Human Wisdom may sound to some as a utopian idea, it is in fact a very down-to-earth enterprise. It sure had to start with an initial investment, and that has been provided by its founder. But from there on, like any other viable endeavor, it has to rely on the worth of its books, products and projects, otherwise it will just eat off all the money that people would keep investing in it. Therefore, much more important than what money is funding this enterprise is the question of what value has its products.

As already mentioned, the first product of Human Wisdom as a publishing house is the opening edition of Terra City book, which is expected to return enough funds to expand the Human Wisdom operation. Then, Human Wisdom projects to publish the enhanced edition of Terra City, which will be the offspring of people worldwide on the theme of how to change this world into a much better place for all through a pacific, harmonious and enjoyable process. Human Wisdom also generated the Terra City Project, which, modesty aside, is an amazingly beautiful, uplifting and constructive human endeavor. – So what more value than that would we hope to have? And then, there is the perspective of other opening editions for books of large interest and circulation that we have in project for publication, and even more importantly many other books that Human Wisdom expects people from around the world to come forward and suggest for publication.

Apart from this on going self-financing process, Human Wisdom expects that more and more individuals, corporations and organizations will be interested in linking their names to the Human Wisdom enterprise and will come with proposals for advertising their products, services and ideas on the covers and a few designated pages inside the Human Wisdom books, as well as on its web site, and that will provide additional financial support. It is worth mentioning at this point that while Human Wisdom will always welcome and praise these sponsors for their moral and financial support, that should not be interpreted as a representation for their products, services, ideas or policies.

Q9. How does Human Wisdom distribute its books and products?

A9. This is one of the crucial points of the entire Human Wisdom endeavor - and here too Human Wisdom decided to choose a less beaten path, which offers a more rewarding perspective for everyone involved. In order to increase the chance of reaching a larger audience at a more personal level, Human Wisdom promotes the distribution of its books by word-of-mouth. The principle is very simple: each person who reads a Human Wisdom book and considers its subject worthwhile is invited to talk to their friends, relatives, colleagues and acquaintances about it or simply forward them the address of the Human Wisdom web site, thus contributing to the development of an entire worldwide structure, which we called the Human Wisdom Promotion & Distribution System. This will not only contribute to an increasing audience for Human Wisdom books but will also create a spirit of emulation and debate among the readers, which will ultimately result into a more abundant and valuable feedback and input sent in for the enhanced editions of those books. Moreover, by choosing this network method of distribution, Human Wisdom assures that almost the entire cost involved in the promotion, distribution and retail of the books (which generally amounts to about 50% of the retail price of a book) will become a source of income for the readers themselves.

Q10. What other books is Human Wisdom presently preparing for publication?

A10. As a matter of principle, any book on a subject of general interest or concern, which would debate interesting and enlightening aspects that could make our lives better, are the kind of books that we welcome at Human Wisdom. Right now, apart from the intensive efforts to expand the entire Human Wisdom operation worldwide, there are two themes that are pretty well defined:

A Guide to Cross-Cultural Communication published obviously with the unlimited participation of people from all countries in the world, and
A Method of Learning Foreign Languages easier, faster and more enjoyable than most methods in usage.

There is also another special publication mentioned in Terra City book:

“Human Wisdom also intends to publish an annual edition of a Humanity Honoring Book […], which will inscribe and keep for posterity all the initiatives from everywhere in the world to our common effort for a better life on Earth for all. In there we will also include the names and contributions of all those who generously offered their best thoughts and gestures of support to the cause and development of Human Wisdom as a pilot project in this effort.”

Q11. What other products does Human Wisdom foresee producing and distributing?

A11. As already mentioned, at the origin Human Wisdom is a publishing company, so books are its main products. However, there are a series of somehow related products such as paintings, greeting cards, posters and illustrations of all kinds for example, as well as many other art objects produced by artists worldwide, which need international exposure and Human Wisdom will do everything it can in this respect. Then, there is a much larger horizon that we can all contemplate. Just think about it - Human Wisdom by its nature is a structure that seeks contact with as many people as possible in the entire world – people of all ages, professions, experiences etc. In other words, Human Wisdom will potentially have access to almost any expertise, know-how, new ideas and innovations imaginable. On the other hand, once our own communication and distribution system - the Human Wisdom Network - will be fully in place and operational, we will be able to put in contact and match demands and offers, requests and solutions from around the globe. At that stage, the situation will be best summarized by that beautiful expression - The sky is the limit. For anything that people may have a need for somewhere on the planet, somebody else from some other part of the world will already have a solution or the knowledge to search for one, or even more, people from various parts of the world could participate in finding a solution together. Human Wisdom’s mere task at that stage will be to facilitate this match and see that the benefits of this universal interaction are shared in a simple fair manner.

Q12. Let’s say that I have an idea for a new product. What should I do and what can I expect as support from Human Wisdom?

A12. If you have an idea for a product or a project, what would you normally need, and usually lack? First, you would need to know how good your idea really is. In ideal terms, you would need the review of a Focus Group formed of people of various ages, backgrounds and activities that would listen to your idea, analyze it from all perspectives and then give you their feedback. That would save you a substantial amount of time, effort and money, and if your idea proves to be good indeed, the focus group could also give you valuable suggestions of how to go about it. Second, depending of the nature of your product or project, you may need the collaboration of some other people of various professions: engineers, technicians, designers, financial planners, marketing specialists etc. Human Wisdom could present your idea through our communication network to all these specialists and many others, and those interested in it will approach you, and then it will be up to you to form a team with the ones that you feel you want to work with. At that point, you will have to establish a detailed way of operation, as well as a clear and fair way of sharing the profits with your collaborators. Third, you will possibly need financing support for your project, and Human Wisdom could assist you in this aspect in the same way as to the previous point. And finally, when your product will be ready to hit the market, Human Wisdom can provide you with the most important and the scarcest element that most entrepreneurs as well as small and medium-sized companies lack – the worldwide promotion and distribution power of our own network. From there on, it will be only the value of your product that will talk…

Q13. How much would that service cost?

A13. Why should it cost anything? This is one of the reasons to be for Human Wisdom – to stimulate and support the creativity and synergy of people worldwide in any constructive project they may have. The only cost that anyone should consider, is the commission that the members of the Human Wisdom Network will receive for each product they will actually sell, which will be clearly established beforehand for each product, and which is just an appropriate way to thank them for their invaluable contribution to your success.

Q14. What about the need an entrepreneur has to protect his new product?

A14. This is an aspect with which most entrepreneurs are obsessed from the moment they have the initial idea of a new product – how to protect it. The reality of our time shows that practically no one – be it an individual entrepreneur, a medium-sized enterprise or a multinational corporation – no one can fully protect the idea of a new product anymore. Competitors can spin off one way or another, any idea, backed with all the legal patents in existence. The edge that big corporations have in this situation comes from their immense technological, financial, marketing and distribution resources, which allow them to come first on the market with the new product, reach all the targeted markets at once, establish a brand name for that product and rip the benefits for as along as possible. This is the edge that, in today’s reality, is absolutely out of reach for any individual entrepreneur and small and medium-sized companies regardless of how innovative and hardworking they are. - And this is the edge that our own Human Wisdom Communication and Distribution Network allows everyone to access.

Q15. What chances for success does Human Wisdom truly stand as a publishing house and as an enterprise of its kind within the global economy and the whole rest of our reality?

A15. Here is Terra City’s answer to this question:

“Although some people may find the Human Wisdom venture somehow unusual, a few years from now this will most probably become the common way to write about a subject of general interest and concern. Obviously the concept has its weaknesses and inevitably there might be cases when some people may try to discredit or to take advantage of the special relationship that we are trying to develop amongst ourselves and the implicit vulnerability of Human Wisdom. But this risk is worth taking. […] And we should not be too surprised to see that, sometimes in the future, some of the initial opponents of Human Wisdom turned into its most passionate supporters.
To all those having doubts about the chance of success of an open, participative and profit sharing enterprise such as Human Wisdom, we will say this: There will come a stage in our evolution when each new idea will be instantaneously transmitted around the world and any organization capable of implementing it will do so and return the benefits of that idea to people everywhere on the planet. The innovator, or most probably the innovating group, will not fear for the ownership of their idea, since that too became public knowledge the moment it was announced worldwide. The companies that implemented that idea will not fear competition either, since the supreme common goal will be to help as many people benefit from the new solution and as soon as possible. Any individual or organization will feel ashamed to even think of keeping a valuable information secret or trying to take advantage of it in a selfish manner.
This may be achieved within the next ten years or fifty years. The length of the process is not essential as long as we get started, do our very best in our course and enjoy every step of it and every tiny sign that we are on the good track. The most difficult part for any of us is in this very moment to admit it as a possibility. Those who refuse to do so, although it is in their rights, are acting as most people would have done in the 19th century should they have been told about computers, rockets or the Internet.”