Worried by climate doom and other global threats? The out-of-control power of social media? Autocrats and post-factual nonsense? This seminar draws on historic data to show that these threats mark the passage to the next phase in social evolution. The Knowledge Age is passing as smartphones, social media, and artificial intelligence automate knowledge. Knowledge is still crucial, but the digital revolution is driving the world beyond knowledge into a new frontier governed by emotions, values, beliefs, and higher-order thought. An Age of Consciousness is here, though it’s dominated by conflict, disinformation, gridlock, and other threats that pose an existential crisis.

Business, government, education, and other social institutions are being transformed to meet this challenge, and large corporations are positioned to lead the way. Halal’s recent article in Fortune, “The democratic enterprise will redefine our society,” describes the changing role of Big Business to a quasi-democratic institution. The very fact that Fortune would publish such a revolutionary idea tells us that the time for this historic change is near. We also use Halal’s latest book, Beyond Knowledge; How Technology Is Driving an Age of Consciousness, to show how the democratic corporation will represent a form of global consciousness needed to create a sustainable civilization.