“A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.” — MLK
KNIGHTS OF CYDONIA, by Muse
Come ride with me through the veins of history
I’ll show you a God who falls asleep on the job
How can we win when fools can be kings?
Don’t waste your time or time will waste you
No one’s going to take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
No one’s going to take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
No one’s going to take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
What is the Nöosphere? Pierre Teilhard de Chardin described it as ‘a collective consciousness created by the deepening interaction of human minds’. In other words, it is a hive mind, one which we can say is developing through the internet and connectivity-enhancing technologies. This is not new news, but where it may take us is very exciting indeed.
When we consider the number of scientists in the world, estimated at 10 million, and the possibility, not only of more entering the field, but of greater and greater networking between them, plus certain cognitive augmentation which would allow them to work more effectively as individuals, their increased potential productivity is staggering. If through nootropics (cognitive enhancement drugs, i.e. ritalin, ritalin 2.0, etc.) their average productivity could be increased even by 1%, the net effect would be the same as adding 100,000 more scientists to Team Civilization.
I’m all in favor of whatever measures we have to take to make it through the purportedly tumultuous times ahead of us in this next century. The usual fears about losing our humanity in the process of augmenting it notwithstanding, I am seeing a lot of agreement amongst futurists and future-minded scientists, and they all seem to be saying that if we can make it another 50 or 60 years without blowing ourselves up, then we might have powerful enough thinkers and ‘intelligences’ rallying us together for the common cause of civility that we would be able to avoid wrecking our planet or opting into any kind of oppressive global governance.
One key in this equation seems to be educating ourselves to the tune of long-term risk assessment and long-term planning. Humans are acutely inept at grasping what lies beyond a 10 or 20 year future timeline or what exponential growth really amounts to. If we are going to make it as a race, it behooves us and our children to keep reading and learning and directing our species.
Here is an article that really helped me get started: Do us all a favor and enter the Nöosphere (article by The Atlantic). This will help you understand how nootropics, accelerated-scientists, and knowledge-filtering tools could lead to the creation of greater-than-human intelligences which may very well be our saving grace. Check it out!
unrecognized labor, it’s like
diplomacy failing to reconcile greedy ego speed
and compassion filled wishing well deeds,
or one too many attempts at subtlety wrapped comically
big in philosophical arrangements, tenacious.
wishing it would all just
coalesce and acquiesce
in other words, gel
jam,
god damn,
it must be done just
work together,
recognize the dissolution of words
brought on by your reading me bland
like you puff away unwanted feathers above,
too lazy to use your hand.
maybe you know it but read on ever blindly, thus,
recognize the fact that i can’t help you all that much
you will mostly have to do it by yourself it seems
but you will do it,
and well, nonetheless,
for you are you, and i am me,
and we are together humanity, said so sardonically,
strained by scarcity propped up with patronizing animosity.
what makes it so hard to snap off the
clingy tendrils of dogma destined to
destroy those of us who look bleak?
let decaying vines crumble earthwise,
back down to base materialism not,
don’t let the wasted possibilities melt
in with our spent passion hot,
that which was meant
to be recovered, remade.
don’t back down to the base materialism we hate.
don’t back down at all.
answer the call – it’s for you…
i don’t want to hear you moan.
climb out of your fuzzy notions of hope of far-too-self-delimiting a scope.
let the curtains rest aside and the sunlight attest
to the fact that
we’re all doomed to
wear our best vest
on the day that we feel the worst,
but it’s no curse,
it’s just the first day we rehearse.
everyday should be this tangibly bitterly incomplete,
but not so much to
deplete that which keeps us up to
hear tales of grand folk
who smiled wide walking down empty wet streets.
Knowledge of the truth I may perhaps have attained to; happiness, certainly not. What shall I do? Accomplish something in the world, men tell me. Shall I then publish my grief to the world, contribute one more proof for the wretchedness and misery of existence, perhaps discover a new flaw in human life, hitherto unnoticed? I might then reap the rare reward of becoming famous, like the man who discovered the spots on Jupiter. I prefer, however, to keep silent.
Seemingly filled with anguish, this character actually expresses the dead end that is science and logical empiricism. While they open new pathways to innovation, technology, and more, the net gain for humanity in terms of enabling happiness is minimal, Author A finds. What joy comes to the individual is the short-lived pleasure of fame as a problem-solver and perhaps a kind of moral superiority. What I take from this passage is not that scientific pursuits are insolvent, but that we need to follow our hearts and intuition at times, let ourselves be animals at times, find joy in new and random adventures, spontaneity and silliness. There is a qualitative difference between discovering the truth of life and living it – although, some have argued that the good life is the examined life… I leave it open for debate as I present something entirely different:
The disproportion in my build is that my forelegs are too short. Like the kangaroo, I have very short forelegs, and tremendously long hind legs. Ordinarily I sit quite still; but if I move, the tremendous leap that follows strikes terror in all to whom I am bound by the tender ties of kinship and friendship.
Author A is an aesthetic type. He tends to enjoy chaos, ego-trips, and a dark, witty humor. At other times, however, a slapstick feel emerges, like in imagining a kangaroo jumping forward and simultaneously yanking all the many strings connected to himself, knocking over a whole gang of oblivious kangaroo buddies nearby. Basically, the author is creating chaos and displaying wit through the actions of this kangaroo written into your imagination. In the next quote, we see more of his propensity for existential depth.
One must be very naïve to believe that it will do any good to cry out and shout in the world, as if that would change one’s fate. Better take things as they come, and make no fuss. When I was young and went into a restaurant, I would say to the waiter, “A good cut, a very good cut, from the loin, and not too fat.” Perhaps the waiter did not even hear me, to say nothing of paying any attention to my request, and still less was it likely that my voice should reach the kitchen and influence the cook, and even if it did, there was perhaps not a good cut on the entire roast. Now I never shout any more.
More than futility, this statement seems to address the necessity of shouting, namely, that there is none; the author has no need to shout, nor does he find it helpful. Symbolically, we can take this as advocating a lassie-fare attitude towards life. Certainly not an option for all people in the world, for some find the majority of actions in life set by necessity, the need to survive, to support a family. While I would not intend to maintain the privileged minority at the expense of an impoverished majority (I prefer meritocracy ideally), nor would I push guilt on those with privileges like that of an almost-guaranteed survival. Merely I wish to convey to you, those capable of reading and ingesting this thrivenote, that you are fortunate – so fortunate that you can choose your way of relating to reality. Choose well and enjoy!
My life situations and identities – most of them afford me power and privilege, increasing my sense of agency, or self-efficacy, and also my perceived moral integrity or moral superiority. So I have to be honest and critical and humble with myself, when I say such things as: “In any situation or experience there is an element of choice”. This implies that freedom is available at all times.
Obviously I am inclined to feel more sense of freedom and choice in my situations, because of all of the seemingly-good fortune I have been given. But, as the wise one, Dr. Cornel West said, ‘The most respectable and valuable and honorable position is that of the marginalized, oppressed, and silenced people who choose to have mercy, compassion, and love through all hardships, despite feeling isolated, undervalued, and under-respected.’ (Powerful Dr. West videos: Success vs. Greatness (below) or @ Brown University)
These models of our time show love, value and respect to others, including those both currently committing and those capable of various forms of oppression.
Oppression, based on perceived superiority = Aggression.
Aggression dehumanizes both others and the self.
Aggression increases the violence in our world.
To refrain from increasing aggression is revolutionary.
This type of aggression is learned somehow. It is counterproductive to believe that humans are born with so much hate based on arbitrary social constructs and categories such as race, class, gender, ability, sexuality, etc. As children we learn it, as empowered, critical thinking adults we can begin to unlearn the prejudice set deep in the crevices of our brains. We can unlearn the hate that darkens our vision.
Why not head off the problem where it starts, in the “education” or “miseducation” of children? It seems all children are capable, indeed, of thriving in any culture, thriving in any language environment, especially multilingual environments. As a language educator, I want to help young people maintain their natural curiosities about the world. I want to facilitate the use of all of their inborn capacities for language learning, for respect, for compassion and empathy, before the current hegemony of our world ingrains itself too deep into the minds of our future and current young leaders. (See Manufacturing Consent, by Noam Chomsky)
In this world, dominated by so many unaccountable leaders and obfuscated beauracracies, it is easy to feel powerless. The systems of control and the institutions of our world that maintain the status quo so effectively seem so permanent and impenetrable, yet we need not give up or give in. If anything, we live in the generation of change. If anything, it is our responsibility to get the ’social justice ball’ rolling for the next generation. With enough inertia, multiple universal and personal revolutions will surely ensue. The biggest challenge is building inertia.
If we don’t start to stand up for humankind and justice and equality right now, we risk losing our freedoms and our sense of agency in the world. The first step is to keep learning; we must educate ourselves to become more passionate and get fired up. The second step is to share our passions, and to care more and more about the state of the world. Finally, community-building and activism begin, with constant reflection and commitment to our values of course.
We must swear to fight injustice, no matter who it is directed at. We all need allies and we all need supportive communities; no man is an island. But what can we change as pacifists, you may ask? To be compassionate and merciful is not to act as a door mat and get kicked around. We can both reduce aggression and maintain our own human rights and human dignities simultaneously. With our non-violent and enlightened activism, we will model to others, and especially to young people, how to create positive, lasting change.
The young have great potential and energy, and many forms of passion, many ways of being exceptional. In valuing the exceptionalities of all young people, in learning to value all ways of being, we model to them how to be good role models and accountable leaders. We are all leaders and we are all educators just as soon as we realize it.
Education, compassion, and accountable leadership are all vocations, callings that we can choose to take on for our entire lives. This is what all of us should strive for if we want to create change. We must be the change we wish to see in the world.
I have heard it said that only when the love of power is overtaken by the power of love will we all be free, but even with the injustice and the severely restricted freedom that we may now be experiencing, we always seem to have the choice to show compassion, mercy, and love.
Let’s empower each other to struggle with love. Empower the youth. Get the ball rolling — sustainability, compassionately, and courageously.
The systems of control and the institutions of our world that maintain the status quo so effectively seem so permanent and impenetrable, yet we need not give up or give in. If anything, we live in the generation of change. If anything, it is our responsibility to get the ’social justice ball’ rolling for the next generation. With enough inertia, multiple universal and personal revolutions will surely ensue. The biggest challenge is building inertia.