“The empires of the future will be the empires of the mind.

”
Recalling the Churchill quotation, the well known developmental psychologist Howard Gardner
of the multiple intelligence theory, wrote in his book “Five Minds for the Future” (2006) that the
world of the future “with its ubiquitous search engines, robots and other computational devices”
will demand new capacities or “minds” that will equip a person to deal with the expected, the
unexpected and what cannot be anticipated.
Gardner says: “Without these minds, a person will be at the mercy of forces that he or she can’t
understand, let alone control.” These five are the disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind, the
creating mind, the respectful mind and the critical mind. Here is a brief descriptive summary of
each type of mind.
The disciplined mind has mastered at least one way of thinking. It has a mastery of major schools
of thought including the arts, history, mathematics and science. It also has mastery of one
professional craft like management, writing, medicine, music and law.
Much research confirms that it takes up to ten years to master a discipline. It is interesting that
this is normally the amount of time it takes to finish a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree and a
doctoral degree.
The disciplined mind also knows how to work steadily over time to improve skill and
understanding. He says, “Without at least one discipline under his belt, the individual is doomed
to march to someone else’s tune.”
The synthesizing mind has the “ability to integrate ideas from different disciplines or spheres
into a coherent whole and to communicate that integration to others.” It achieves this by taking
information from different sources, understands and evaluates the information objectively and
puts it together in ways that make sense to the synthesizer and also to other persons.
The work of synthesizing has always been valuable in the past. Among the greatest works of
synthesizers are the Bible and the books of Aristotle – and Physics, Metaphysics, Poetics,
Rhetoric and many others.
But this capacity to synthesize becomes even more critical as voluminous information mounts at
dizzying rates.
“The creating mind has the capacity to uncover and clarify new problems, questions and
phenomena.” Its foundation must be discipline and synthesis. However, it breaks new ground by
putting forth new ideas, posing unfamiliar questions, conjuring up fresh ways of thinking and
arriving at unexpected answers.
The creating mind “seeks to remain at least one step ahead of even the most sophisticated
computers and robots.”
One of the most fascinating theories of Gardner is that a critical mass of persons engaged in
creative activity constitutes the optimal formula for ensuring continuing innovation. He points to
different examples in history. “Athens in the 5th century BC; Florence during the Renaissance;
Vienna and Paris in 1900 and Silicon Valley in the 1990s.”
Albert Einstein was an unknown patent officer until his scientific papers were recognized by
journal editors and knowledgeable colleagues. Gardner says: “The same story can be told about
the writings of James Joyce; the paintings of Pablo Picasso; the managerial strategies developed
by Peter Drucker and Michael Porter; the musical compositions of Richard Wagner, Duke
Ellington and John Lennon; the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes and Milton
Friedman.”
This emphasizes the importance of awards and recognition like the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer
Prize and the National Book Awards in the Philippines.
The respectful mind is aware of and appreciates differences among human beings. It recognizes
that today one can no longer remain within one’s shell or home territory and therefore must “note
and welcome differences between human individuals and between human groups, try to
understand these ‘others’ and seek to work effectively with them. In a world where we are all
interlinked, intolerance or disrespect is no longer an option.
“Humans exhibit a deep-seated tendency to create groups, to provide distinctive marks for these
collectivities and to adopt clearly positive or clearly hostile attitude toward neighboring and
more distant cohorts.”
Gardner’s proposal: “In a world composed of a few hundred nations, thousands of groups
speaking, thousands of languages and more than six billion inhabitants, we can no longer simply
draw a curtain or build a wall that isolates groups from one another indefinitely.
“We homo sapiens must somehow learn how to inhabit neighboring places – and the same planet
–without hating one another, without lusting to injure or kill one another, without acting on
xenophobic inclinations even if our own group might emerge triumphant in the short run.
“The ethical mind ponders the nature of one’s work and the needs and desires of the society in
which one lives. This mind conceptualizes how workers can serve purposes beyond self-interest
and how citizens can work unselfishly to improve the lot of all. The ethical mind then acts on the
basis of these analyses.”
The key, therefore, is to determine the metric for identifying what a “good worker” is. Gardner
describes the worker with an ethical mind.
“A good worker has a set of principles and values that she can state explicitly or at least
acknowledge upon questioning. The principles are consistent with one another… The worker
keeps these principles in mind constantly; asks whether she is abiding by them and takes
corrective action when she does not. The worker is transparent – to the extent possible, she
operates out in the open and does not hide what she is doing… Most important, the worker
passes the hypocrisy test; she abides by the principles even when they go against her own self-
interest.” These five minds are particularly at a premium today and are vital for these challenging
and uncertain times.
 For the billions of people on this planet, each mind has its own distinct personality and
body of work. It could be different according to its wants and habits. Just like how the
psychologist determines its differences, Gardner says: "Without these minds, a person will be at
the mercy of forces that he or she can't understand, let alone control." Gardner gives a brief
descriptive summary of each type of mind. These five are the disciplined mind, the synthesizing
mind, the creating mind, the respectful mind, and the critical mind.
These five minds are especially scarce now and are critical in these difficult and
unpredictable times. Youth in our day must have this sort of thinking. To be socially active and
critical thinkers in this day in order to tackle issues in new ways. With this in mind, it is not
difficult to argue that youth must be the hope of the future. This thing may help them to be a
good worker someday.
"A good employee has a set of beliefs and values that she can express directly or at the
very least admit when questioned” Employee must take place of these qualities. It is not just
being an employee but being a worker with ethics.
“The principles are compatible with one another. The worker keeps these principles in
mind at all times, asks if she is following them, and takes remedial action if she is not.” Being
compatible is being compassionate, with the things done accurately and actively.
“The worker is transparent she acts in the open and does not disguise what she is doing...
Most importantly, the worker passes the hypocrisy test; she adheres to the ideals even when they
are contrary to her personal self-interest." This is able to know if the work values are
considerable and or not. All things must have transparency.
Our minds are the transmitters of the behaviors we perform on a daily basis. These
thoughts pondered our reaction and purpose in this world. Our thoughts are the first to function
before our bodies receive the signal.