helping to resolve the meta-crisis through amplifying fundamental wellbeing! AKA how did i get here?
I am fascinated by the possibilities considered in this dialogue between Tristan Harris & Daniel Schmachtenberger, addressing the meta-crisis we are faced with in our modern apocalyptic landscape!
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/36-unedited-a-problem-well-stated-is-half-solved
I do what I can to help make the world a better place, even if it's only a drop on the bucket, compared to the ravages tearing our planet apart. Meanwhile, I have been enjoying contemplating applications of the Fundamental Wellbeing brought about by Persistent Non-Symbolic Experiences (PNSE)...
https://www.nonsymbolic.org/7-myths/thank-you/the-science
--
On the question of how to build dialogue between radically different paradigms/worldviews, I have been encouraged to look towards the Bohm dialogues:
"...dialogue can be considered as a free flow of meaning between people in communication, in the sense of a stream that flows between banks.
These "banks" are understood as representing the various points of view of the participants.
...it may turn out that such a form of free exchange of ideas and information is of fundamental relevance for transforming culture and freeing it of destructive misinformation, so that creativity can be liberated." - David Bohm
(particularly consider the more than 30 Bohm-Krishnamurti dialogues, which took place over almost 25 years)
https://bohmkrishnamurti.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20150209125856/http://dbohm.com/david-bohm-introduction-to-krishnamurti.html
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bohm+krishnamurti
--
I have recently enjoyed this dialogue between Tristan Harris & Daniel Schmachtenberger about the meta-crisis we are faced with currently, which they are attempting to address with strategies such as those described by GameB...
https://medium.com/@memetic007/a-journey-to-gameb-4fb13772bcf3
https://www.gameb.wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
https://www.game-b.org/landing?space_id=3844035
GameB does have its challenges, as does anything even vaguely popular among the denizens of the Intellectual Dark Web. Recently, they have been challenged to address their lack of diversity & failure to address immediate social justice issues. The popularity of the project is mostly among academics & on the IDW. Although I will admit that, on a Venn diagram, my interests overlap with about 20% of the IDW, since I am willing to troll the trolls toe to toe, at the very least (I will freely admit that I appreciate abstract argumentation of dialectics, whether in Socratic or Hegelian form... even in the Cynical & Skeptical extremes of Diogenes of Sinope & Diogenes Laertius... although I tend to prefer the Satire, Existentialism & Absurdity of Voltaire, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Kafka, Sartre, Camus & PKD).
Although folks who are popular on the IDW like Jonathan Haidt, Steven Pinker, Camille Paglia, Jamie Wheal, Joe Rogan, & Daniel Pinchbeck may not have stooped as low as someone like Jordan Peterson...
https://integral-review.org/pdf-template-issue.php?pdfName=vol_16_no_2_rowson_an_epistemic_thunderstorm.pdf
...they still need more women & people of color to keep their egos in check... and all too many of the nerds that are fascinated with GameB have similar challenges... and although i appreciate much of the research that i find in GameB chats, i find that many of my friends outside the ivory tower are turned off by the complexity of GameB discussions (besides the question of diversity & social justice representation, which I hope will soon be addressed properly).
https://medium.com/the-abs-tract-organization/game-b-ullshit-3d9294d75e23
--
However, I believe Tristan Harris & Daniel Schmachtenberger both mean well & this is a rather inspiring conversation... in which they attempt to discuss a simplified epistemology:
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/36-unedited-a-problem-well-stated-is-half-solved
"Daniel argues that we need a third attractor - a force that can manage global existential existential risk without devolving into oppression or chaos. He makes the case that this third attractor must be the people, comprehensively educated and enabled by humane technology."
https://twitter.com/HumaneTech_/status/1415478584571990021?s=20
...this third attractor is described as "Global Coordination" ...and it is broken down into five aspects:
A) Mass education
B) Empowered civic virtue
C) Cultural enlightenment
D) Emergent wisdom
& E) Post-AI economy
Now begins the continuation of the process to translate these theories into discrete achievable action items!
Again, the infographic attempts to simplify this path... the suggested strategy to produce this third attractor is "Techno-Realism" which is divided into 3 categories:
A) Personalised Digital Learning
B) Blockchain Accountability
& C) Ethically harnessing AI
Perhaps this third attractor will be a powerful enough antidote to avert this looming meta-crisis? All of my life, I have been fighting against the forces of oppression, in every way that I have been able to conceive of. And although I am comfortable with a certain type of potentially creative chaos, the kind of destructive chaos that they are referencing has been off the charts lately! The forces of oppression, chaos, fear & ignorance are always attempting to drag people back to the unintegrated shadows of the paradigms & archetypes imprinted upon them by their family of origin & earliest fundamental belief systems (those that first promised them security in the face of the the cold terror of the heartless cosmos)... AKA when people are existentially threatened, they have been overwhelmingly shown by a variety of evidence-based experiments to instinctually cling to their deepest cultural values and most basic symbolic belief systems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/196880.html
--
Lately, my methods towards manifesting this third attractor have been coming from strategies that would probably fall into the categories of "cultural enlightenment" & "emergent wisdom". I have been engaging in contemplation of the science based on producing states of fundamental wellbeing, particularly as studied by Dr. Jeffrey Martin, Nichol Bradford & the Transformative Technology Lab
https://www.nonsymbolic.org/7-myths/thank-you/the-science
https://transtechlab.org/our-research/
http://www.nonsymbolic.org/PNSE-Article.pdf
(the categories or locations referred to as producing states of PNSE could also be considered factors in achieving worldviews/paradigms described as stages 6-8 in Spiral Dynamics)
I have even embarked upon the Explorers course, recently... Perhaps you will consider joining me?
http://explorerscourse.com/
"Transformative Technology has a presence in 69 countries and more than 459 cities, and its goal is to support entrepreneurs, innovators, and others to develop technologies that will enhance human well-being and to make these technologies globally accessible. Martin explains: >>> "We hope to permanently move a billion people into a state of well-being and flourishing by 2030." <<<
...
Despite her optimism, Bradford emphasized the fact that technology is just a tool and explained that there needs to be a set of ethics around its development-such as putting in place sturdy measures for data protection-so that it can safely serve the public. She also highlighted the importance that leaders in the field are actively engaged in enhancing their own cognitive abilities, explaining that their own personal development is just as significant as what they build. She asked the audience, who consisted largely of entrepreneurs and innovators, “Are you willing to become the person that you need to be to create what the world needs you to create?”
...
Keeping this in mind, I ask Martin, a leader in the field, about his lived experience when it comes to Fundamental Wellbeing. He explains that for a long time he resisted transitioning, because he was concerned it would impact his ability to carry out his project. However, once the research gathered enough momentum and he felt confident that (if need be) others could continue his work, he allowed himself to transition. “What is it like?” I ask him. “It doesn’t feel like there is a difference between you and me, or me and anything else; it’s all one thing,” he tells me.
...
Martin adds that, for the very first time, we are now at the stage where we can target specific locations of the brain. Just like some forms of meditation enhance certain parts of human consciousness, he envisions that Fundamental Wellbeing will become increasingly customizable. He is currently investigating whether the categories of experiences that have been collated from people in Fundamental Wellbeing are the only ones possible. He explains: “The brain has taught us what it is willing to do and has given us these methods we can use to take it to certain places. But that’s not to say that where it wants us to take it-or where it allows us to take it-are the only places.”
https://www.buddhistdoor.net/features/transformative-technology-as-the-path-forward-for-humanity
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Yesterday, I posted an optimistic perspective on how the privitization of space travel may still benefit the overall population of the Earth in many ways (some predictable & others that are extremely unpredicted by our current conditions).
“We really could go down one of two paths,” Garriott said. “In a few decades we could reach a point where we have to ration birth rates, energy, food, and more in a stark way. Or, we could bring back the bounty of resources in space, and now is the time to start that process.”
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/07/heres-why-richard-bransons-flight-matters-and-yes-it-really-matters/
Seeing the Earth from Space does often produce profound inspiration in human experience... The potentially beneficial transformation of "the overview effect" upon human consciousness is not to be understated... In fact, there are even limits to the extremes forced upon living organisms when they have to survive in zero g, for too long... Those who are willing to take the risks are generally rewarded with a transcendent experience...
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/114684.html
Do not allow Laika's sacrifice to have been made in vain! If I could have gone in her place, I would have... considering how the entire planet has benefitted from the history of our space exploration!
https://interestingengineering.com/is-it-worth-it-the-costs-and-benefits-of-space-exploration
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
After many understandably skeptical comments from my friends about how untrustworthy billionaires are in sharing their wealth, I thought I would do a little retrospective analysis of my goals & principles... when I get a little more time, I will figure out a better way to format their relation to the strategies described in the infographic from Tristan & Daniel's dialogue, mentioned above!
--
In the context of post-scarcity economics... consider the effects of reputation economies, automation & nanotech propelling us towards the singularity! https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/238626.html
"Money is like love; it kills slowly and painfully the one who withholds it, and enlivens the other who turns it on his fellow man." - Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931)
--
transforming vandalism into volunteerism https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/142611.html
Comparatively recent experiments in surviving outside of scarcity-based society in the US has indicated to me that most of these humans have a lot to learn (or unlearn)... whether through natural disaster, or confronting the limits of idealism... life finds a way!
--
separatist ideologies & violence
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/238542.htm
i recognize that violence is always an option for the predator hominids that dominate this planet, but i will always champion the alternative solutions, whenever possible.
--
AR, art & activism brain dump
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/238122.html
it certainly seems like it's a rigged game... the only remaining peaceful groups of human culture or nations can only hope that they can find protected from the violent monsters in the world through maintaining agreements with ostensibly benevolent inter-national military forces, which ensures military protection against aggressive powers? just make sure you pay your taxes, or protection money, or fealty... pay up to the company store!
--
tyranny may be able to slow our progress, but the will of the people cannot be stopped
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/185384.html
a mature society offers its constituents a forum in which they are permitted to question the established order.
--
ragamoffyn ramblin'
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/13777.html
is it actually that the essential function of gov't is to assess the value of human life, like any other resource (animals, plants, fossil fuels, the environment, etc.)?
or is that really just some kind of end result of the way that gov't operates?
...
considering _The Jungle_ by Upton Sinclair - in which the animal's journey through the slaughterhouse is presented as an allegorical analog to the life of a citizen in a modern industrial state - we can give thanks that the working and living conditions in chicago have changed since that time; but we can also safely assume that such horrors have actually just been relocated to maquiladoras, or other sweatshops around the world.
...
my gov't textbook gives this definition of Government:
individuals and institutions in a society that make up its rules, and possess the power and authority to enforce those rules.
& the four basic functions of gov't
1. resolve conflicts
2. provide public services
3. set goals for public policies
4. preserve culture
...
according to John Locke, it is the responsibility of gov't to protect our 'Natural Rights' to life, liberty, and property.
...
And according to Harold Lasswell, politics is the process of determining "who gets what, when, & how" in a society.
...
Tracing back to the magna carta... further back to Athens... and even as far back as the Code of Hammurabi... but even more so since the 17th century - gov't has been a social contract between the people and their representatives, where the citizens agree to abide by certain rules (perhaps sacrifice some freedoms?), in exchange for some benefits (security?): the gov't is given adequate power to secure the mutual protection and welfare of all individuals.
--
pleasure production & harm reduction...
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/116892.html
isn't it funny how questions of ethics so often return to the question of what we eat?
(as long as you consider our use of resources & how we treat others, in this context as well)
--
"math is hard!"
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/34334.html
` ` The Prisoner's Dilemma is a very simple game. Real life is considerably more complex. But its central lessons are striking: Be friendly at first meetings. Do not envy. Be generous; forgive your enemy if he forgives you. Be neither a tyrant or a patsy. Retaliate proportionately to an intentional injury (within the constraints of the rule of law). And make your behavior fairly (although not perfectly) clear and consistent. What would the world be like if more of us, individuals as well as nations, lived by these rules?" - Carl Sagan, _A New Way To Think About Rules To Live By_
...
reciprocal altruism is a particular strategy of evolutionary cooperation that can be useful when analyzing human behaviour in terms of game theory, or any number of other sociological models (again, the map is not the territory...)
--
can't we all just... get along?
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/40094.html
_Altruistic punishment in humans,_ by Ernst Fehr & Simon Gächter, Nature 415, 137-140 (10 January 2002), doi:10.1038/415137a),
...
the upper limit on size of societies which are capable of working cooperatively in general is certainly a valid question (Dunbar's number)... the impact of modern human society has in many cases outpaced our response to the indicators of sustainable communities
--
reciprocal altruism as a holarchy of love
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/20929.html
Ultimately, the economy of reciprocal altruism has been proven effective in theory - whether demonstrated in an abstract sense through the prisoner's dilemma, or in the applied methodology of Bucky Fuller's Critical Path - communities can be structured cooperatively so that people's motivations for self-preservation and personal profit are mutually beneficial to each other.
So, where is the evidence of the implementation of this kind of strategy in actual human society?
Perhaps I might point to the productivity in the Israeli Kibbutz, or through anarcho-syndicalism/collectivist-anarchism in Spain during the civil war 1936-39, or even in Norway after 1994 (social individualist anarchism, the third alternative and social form)...
And recently, I have been greatly inspired by the structure of hunter-gatherer cultures in Peninsular Malaysia, referred to as the Orang Asli, who may have the longest track record of success of any culture on the planet:
--
nature is not mute, but reductionism has made us deaf
(In the Paradiso, Dante used Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus as an example of an ethical citizen.)
"His immediate resignation of his absolute authority with the end of the crisis has often been cited as an example of outstanding leadership, service to the greater good, civic virtue, and modesty..."
"...George Washington was often compared to Cincinnatus for his willingness to give up near-absolute power once the crisis of the American Revolution had passed and victory had been won"
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/193102.html
...obviously, one cannot conduct "just war" without an ethical authority... and especially not against an underdog who is using Sun Tzu's Art of War as their handbook, and who is also willing to live in an underground civilization until they triumph!
...
“If McNamara had come out against the war in 1968, it would have had an impact,” Sheehan said. “But his ego was so large he could never apologize. He was haunted by those who died in the rice paddies and long grass but could never say he was sorry.”
Greenway recalls a meeting he witnessed between a much older McNamara and John Kenneth Galbraith, the Harvard University economist who had been an outspoken critic of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
The two adversaries met in Vermont at Galbraith’s home. “McNamara walked up to Galbraith, who was standing, all of 6-foot-7 whatever, and said, ‘Ken, you were right and I was wrong,’” Greenway said. “It was an extraordinary kind of event.”
--
"The Great Correction"
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/108834.html
"We may be decent people, acting compassionately in our daily lives, but when we live in unjust hierarchical systems, being decent day to day isn't enough. No matter what the specific topic of any Last Sunday, we tried to keep this in the foreground: We live in an imperial society structured by a predatory corporate capitalism, with identities shaped by white supremacy and patriarchy, in a technological fundamentalist society dominated by the faith that we can invent our way out of an ecological crisis."
--
"People just liked it better that way..."
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/129219.html
"Their personal valour remained, but they no longer possessed that public courage which is nourished by the love of independence, the sense of national honour, the presence of danger, and the habit of command. They received laws and governors from the will of their sovereign, and trusted for their defence to a mercenary army." - Edward Gibbon
--
transcending (R)eductionism through (r)elativity
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/212624.html
my arch-enemy is (R)eductionism!
perhaps you may have noticed that i tend to avoid using capital letters, unless i want to create a particular emphasis?
although i still love E.E. Cummings, perhaps Frank Herbert said it best, in the Sign of Profound Accord:
"We are here to remove a primary weapon from the hands of disputant (R)eligions. That weapon--the claim to possession of the one and only (R)evelation." (...my capitalization, to emphasize the point...)
...
i do appreciate that western science provides (r)easonable, peer-reviewed methods by which to evolve... although sometimes the crusaders of the citadel (& the moguls of the bazaar) can become tyrannical in their insistence on a particular "(R)eality-tunnel vision" ...and sometimes i think it takes someone like Nietzsche to come along and yank the proverbial rug out from under the feet of the people who have been staring at it so long that they can't see anything else... it reminds me of the old adage about the blind men & the elephant
--
embodying the change we wish to see in the world!
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/208502.html
come for the party... stay for the humanitarian work!
--
LOVE: suspension of disbelief... within reason?
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/169847.html
"My theory about why 'The Call of Cthulhu' and Lovecraft's fiction resonate so strongly with people," (Greg) Stafford says, "is that despite being set in an arbitrary, impersonal, cruel universe, they show that small, individual acts of dignity and goodness are possible."
--
"contextual normalcy:" mental health in review... now with life-affirming processes!
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/566754.html
What possibilities can we think of for us to work towards contextualizing a diversity of cultural norms so that we can stand together on a more stable & mutually respectful socio-economic foundation in the modern intersectional space?
--
How shall we dismantle and reverse the entire system of colonization?
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/582187.html
check your privilege and listen to BIPOC & other intersectional voices... they are sick & tired of having their bodies controlled, their cultures raped & their resources stolen!
--
health safety protocols for public & private events world-wide 2021: a brief survey from the perspective of the charnel grounds
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/578018.html
i welcome anyone's feedback, public or private, concerning rituals from absolutely any literary, oral and intangible cultural heritage concerning boundary negotiation, particularly regarding disease & death... the first that comes to my mind is something that I think Gurdjieff explains well (YMMV):
...an open system of symbiosis or reciprocal maintenance, (in Gurdjieff's terminology, referred to as the) *Trogoautoegocrat* <'Eating myself, I am maintained'>...
--
2021 - Year of the Metal Ox: "Keep your fingers & toes inside the vehicle, while in motion!"
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/573772.html
In order to process what got us to this point, I think that it is also important to consider accelerationism from a Deleuzo-Guattarian perspective...
"a particular reading of Marx that emphasizes both Marx’s own dissatisfaction with the inherently exploitative and violent nature of Capital, while remaining convinced that the socially beneficial aspects produced by capitalism serve as productive grounds for Capital’s future dissolution."
...
"... for decades longer than more orthodox contemporary thinkers, accelerationists have been focused on many of the central questions of the late 20th and early 21st centuries: the rise of China; the rise of artificial intelligence; what it means to be human in an era of addictive, intrusive electronic devices; the seemingly uncontrollable flows of global markets; the power of capitalism as a network of desires; the increasingly blurred boundary between the imaginary and the factual; the resetting of our minds and bodies by ever-faster music and films; and the complicity, revulsion and excitement so many of us feel about the speed of modern life."
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/36-unedited-a-problem-well-stated-is-half-solved
I do what I can to help make the world a better place, even if it's only a drop on the bucket, compared to the ravages tearing our planet apart. Meanwhile, I have been enjoying contemplating applications of the Fundamental Wellbeing brought about by Persistent Non-Symbolic Experiences (PNSE)...
https://www.nonsymbolic.org/7-myths/thank-you/the-science
--
On the question of how to build dialogue between radically different paradigms/worldviews, I have been encouraged to look towards the Bohm dialogues:
"...dialogue can be considered as a free flow of meaning between people in communication, in the sense of a stream that flows between banks.
These "banks" are understood as representing the various points of view of the participants.
...it may turn out that such a form of free exchange of ideas and information is of fundamental relevance for transforming culture and freeing it of destructive misinformation, so that creativity can be liberated." - David Bohm
(particularly consider the more than 30 Bohm-Krishnamurti dialogues, which took place over almost 25 years)
https://bohmkrishnamurti.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20150209125856/http://dbohm.com/david-bohm-introduction-to-krishnamurti.html
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bohm+krishnamurti
--
I have recently enjoyed this dialogue between Tristan Harris & Daniel Schmachtenberger about the meta-crisis we are faced with currently, which they are attempting to address with strategies such as those described by GameB...
https://medium.com/@memetic007/a-journey-to-gameb-4fb13772bcf3
https://www.gameb.wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
https://www.game-b.org/landing?space_id=3844035
GameB does have its challenges, as does anything even vaguely popular among the denizens of the Intellectual Dark Web. Recently, they have been challenged to address their lack of diversity & failure to address immediate social justice issues. The popularity of the project is mostly among academics & on the IDW. Although I will admit that, on a Venn diagram, my interests overlap with about 20% of the IDW, since I am willing to troll the trolls toe to toe, at the very least (I will freely admit that I appreciate abstract argumentation of dialectics, whether in Socratic or Hegelian form... even in the Cynical & Skeptical extremes of Diogenes of Sinope & Diogenes Laertius... although I tend to prefer the Satire, Existentialism & Absurdity of Voltaire, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Kafka, Sartre, Camus & PKD).
Although folks who are popular on the IDW like Jonathan Haidt, Steven Pinker, Camille Paglia, Jamie Wheal, Joe Rogan, & Daniel Pinchbeck may not have stooped as low as someone like Jordan Peterson...
https://integral-review.org/pdf-template-issue.php?pdfName=vol_16_no_2_rowson_an_epistemic_thunderstorm.pdf
...they still need more women & people of color to keep their egos in check... and all too many of the nerds that are fascinated with GameB have similar challenges... and although i appreciate much of the research that i find in GameB chats, i find that many of my friends outside the ivory tower are turned off by the complexity of GameB discussions (besides the question of diversity & social justice representation, which I hope will soon be addressed properly).
https://medium.com/the-abs-tract-organization/game-b-ullshit-3d9294d75e23
--
However, I believe Tristan Harris & Daniel Schmachtenberger both mean well & this is a rather inspiring conversation... in which they attempt to discuss a simplified epistemology:
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/36-unedited-a-problem-well-stated-is-half-solved
"Daniel argues that we need a third attractor - a force that can manage global existential existential risk without devolving into oppression or chaos. He makes the case that this third attractor must be the people, comprehensively educated and enabled by humane technology."
https://twitter.com/HumaneTech_/status/1415478584571990021?s=20
...this third attractor is described as "Global Coordination" ...and it is broken down into five aspects:
A) Mass education
B) Empowered civic virtue
C) Cultural enlightenment
D) Emergent wisdom
& E) Post-AI economy
Now begins the continuation of the process to translate these theories into discrete achievable action items!
Again, the infographic attempts to simplify this path... the suggested strategy to produce this third attractor is "Techno-Realism" which is divided into 3 categories:
A) Personalised Digital Learning
B) Blockchain Accountability
& C) Ethically harnessing AI
Perhaps this third attractor will be a powerful enough antidote to avert this looming meta-crisis? All of my life, I have been fighting against the forces of oppression, in every way that I have been able to conceive of. And although I am comfortable with a certain type of potentially creative chaos, the kind of destructive chaos that they are referencing has been off the charts lately! The forces of oppression, chaos, fear & ignorance are always attempting to drag people back to the unintegrated shadows of the paradigms & archetypes imprinted upon them by their family of origin & earliest fundamental belief systems (those that first promised them security in the face of the the cold terror of the heartless cosmos)... AKA when people are existentially threatened, they have been overwhelmingly shown by a variety of evidence-based experiments to instinctually cling to their deepest cultural values and most basic symbolic belief systems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/196880.html
--
Lately, my methods towards manifesting this third attractor have been coming from strategies that would probably fall into the categories of "cultural enlightenment" & "emergent wisdom". I have been engaging in contemplation of the science based on producing states of fundamental wellbeing, particularly as studied by Dr. Jeffrey Martin, Nichol Bradford & the Transformative Technology Lab
https://www.nonsymbolic.org/7-myths/thank-you/the-science
https://transtechlab.org/our-research/
http://www.nonsymbolic.org/PNSE-Article.pdf
(the categories or locations referred to as producing states of PNSE could also be considered factors in achieving worldviews/paradigms described as stages 6-8 in Spiral Dynamics)
I have even embarked upon the Explorers course, recently... Perhaps you will consider joining me?
http://explorerscourse.com/
"Transformative Technology has a presence in 69 countries and more than 459 cities, and its goal is to support entrepreneurs, innovators, and others to develop technologies that will enhance human well-being and to make these technologies globally accessible. Martin explains: >>> "We hope to permanently move a billion people into a state of well-being and flourishing by 2030." <<<
...
Despite her optimism, Bradford emphasized the fact that technology is just a tool and explained that there needs to be a set of ethics around its development-such as putting in place sturdy measures for data protection-so that it can safely serve the public. She also highlighted the importance that leaders in the field are actively engaged in enhancing their own cognitive abilities, explaining that their own personal development is just as significant as what they build. She asked the audience, who consisted largely of entrepreneurs and innovators, “Are you willing to become the person that you need to be to create what the world needs you to create?”
...
Keeping this in mind, I ask Martin, a leader in the field, about his lived experience when it comes to Fundamental Wellbeing. He explains that for a long time he resisted transitioning, because he was concerned it would impact his ability to carry out his project. However, once the research gathered enough momentum and he felt confident that (if need be) others could continue his work, he allowed himself to transition. “What is it like?” I ask him. “It doesn’t feel like there is a difference between you and me, or me and anything else; it’s all one thing,” he tells me.
...
Martin adds that, for the very first time, we are now at the stage where we can target specific locations of the brain. Just like some forms of meditation enhance certain parts of human consciousness, he envisions that Fundamental Wellbeing will become increasingly customizable. He is currently investigating whether the categories of experiences that have been collated from people in Fundamental Wellbeing are the only ones possible. He explains: “The brain has taught us what it is willing to do and has given us these methods we can use to take it to certain places. But that’s not to say that where it wants us to take it-or where it allows us to take it-are the only places.”
https://www.buddhistdoor.net/features/transformative-technology-as-the-path-forward-for-humanity
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Yesterday, I posted an optimistic perspective on how the privitization of space travel may still benefit the overall population of the Earth in many ways (some predictable & others that are extremely unpredicted by our current conditions).
“We really could go down one of two paths,” Garriott said. “In a few decades we could reach a point where we have to ration birth rates, energy, food, and more in a stark way. Or, we could bring back the bounty of resources in space, and now is the time to start that process.”
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/07/heres-why-richard-bransons-flight-matters-and-yes-it-really-matters/
Seeing the Earth from Space does often produce profound inspiration in human experience... The potentially beneficial transformation of "the overview effect" upon human consciousness is not to be understated... In fact, there are even limits to the extremes forced upon living organisms when they have to survive in zero g, for too long... Those who are willing to take the risks are generally rewarded with a transcendent experience...
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/114684.html
Do not allow Laika's sacrifice to have been made in vain! If I could have gone in her place, I would have... considering how the entire planet has benefitted from the history of our space exploration!
https://interestingengineering.com/is-it-worth-it-the-costs-and-benefits-of-space-exploration
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After many understandably skeptical comments from my friends about how untrustworthy billionaires are in sharing their wealth, I thought I would do a little retrospective analysis of my goals & principles... when I get a little more time, I will figure out a better way to format their relation to the strategies described in the infographic from Tristan & Daniel's dialogue, mentioned above!
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In the context of post-scarcity economics... consider the effects of reputation economies, automation & nanotech propelling us towards the singularity! https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/238626.html
"Money is like love; it kills slowly and painfully the one who withholds it, and enlivens the other who turns it on his fellow man." - Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931)
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transforming vandalism into volunteerism https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/142611.html
Comparatively recent experiments in surviving outside of scarcity-based society in the US has indicated to me that most of these humans have a lot to learn (or unlearn)... whether through natural disaster, or confronting the limits of idealism... life finds a way!
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separatist ideologies & violence
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/238542.htm
i recognize that violence is always an option for the predator hominids that dominate this planet, but i will always champion the alternative solutions, whenever possible.
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AR, art & activism brain dump
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/238122.html
it certainly seems like it's a rigged game... the only remaining peaceful groups of human culture or nations can only hope that they can find protected from the violent monsters in the world through maintaining agreements with ostensibly benevolent inter-national military forces, which ensures military protection against aggressive powers? just make sure you pay your taxes, or protection money, or fealty... pay up to the company store!
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tyranny may be able to slow our progress, but the will of the people cannot be stopped
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/185384.html
a mature society offers its constituents a forum in which they are permitted to question the established order.
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ragamoffyn ramblin'
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/13777.html
is it actually that the essential function of gov't is to assess the value of human life, like any other resource (animals, plants, fossil fuels, the environment, etc.)?
or is that really just some kind of end result of the way that gov't operates?
...
considering _The Jungle_ by Upton Sinclair - in which the animal's journey through the slaughterhouse is presented as an allegorical analog to the life of a citizen in a modern industrial state - we can give thanks that the working and living conditions in chicago have changed since that time; but we can also safely assume that such horrors have actually just been relocated to maquiladoras, or other sweatshops around the world.
...
my gov't textbook gives this definition of Government:
individuals and institutions in a society that make up its rules, and possess the power and authority to enforce those rules.
& the four basic functions of gov't
1. resolve conflicts
2. provide public services
3. set goals for public policies
4. preserve culture
...
according to John Locke, it is the responsibility of gov't to protect our 'Natural Rights' to life, liberty, and property.
...
And according to Harold Lasswell, politics is the process of determining "who gets what, when, & how" in a society.
...
Tracing back to the magna carta... further back to Athens... and even as far back as the Code of Hammurabi... but even more so since the 17th century - gov't has been a social contract between the people and their representatives, where the citizens agree to abide by certain rules (perhaps sacrifice some freedoms?), in exchange for some benefits (security?): the gov't is given adequate power to secure the mutual protection and welfare of all individuals.
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pleasure production & harm reduction...
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/116892.html
isn't it funny how questions of ethics so often return to the question of what we eat?
(as long as you consider our use of resources & how we treat others, in this context as well)
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"math is hard!"
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/34334.html
` ` The Prisoner's Dilemma is a very simple game. Real life is considerably more complex. But its central lessons are striking: Be friendly at first meetings. Do not envy. Be generous; forgive your enemy if he forgives you. Be neither a tyrant or a patsy. Retaliate proportionately to an intentional injury (within the constraints of the rule of law). And make your behavior fairly (although not perfectly) clear and consistent. What would the world be like if more of us, individuals as well as nations, lived by these rules?" - Carl Sagan, _A New Way To Think About Rules To Live By_
...
reciprocal altruism is a particular strategy of evolutionary cooperation that can be useful when analyzing human behaviour in terms of game theory, or any number of other sociological models (again, the map is not the territory...)
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can't we all just... get along?
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/40094.html
_Altruistic punishment in humans,_ by Ernst Fehr & Simon Gächter, Nature 415, 137-140 (10 January 2002), doi:10.1038/415137a),
...
the upper limit on size of societies which are capable of working cooperatively in general is certainly a valid question (Dunbar's number)... the impact of modern human society has in many cases outpaced our response to the indicators of sustainable communities
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reciprocal altruism as a holarchy of love
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/20929.html
Ultimately, the economy of reciprocal altruism has been proven effective in theory - whether demonstrated in an abstract sense through the prisoner's dilemma, or in the applied methodology of Bucky Fuller's Critical Path - communities can be structured cooperatively so that people's motivations for self-preservation and personal profit are mutually beneficial to each other.
So, where is the evidence of the implementation of this kind of strategy in actual human society?
Perhaps I might point to the productivity in the Israeli Kibbutz, or through anarcho-syndicalism/collectivist-anarchism in Spain during the civil war 1936-39, or even in Norway after 1994 (social individualist anarchism, the third alternative and social form)...
And recently, I have been greatly inspired by the structure of hunter-gatherer cultures in Peninsular Malaysia, referred to as the Orang Asli, who may have the longest track record of success of any culture on the planet:
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nature is not mute, but reductionism has made us deaf
(In the Paradiso, Dante used Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus as an example of an ethical citizen.)
"His immediate resignation of his absolute authority with the end of the crisis has often been cited as an example of outstanding leadership, service to the greater good, civic virtue, and modesty..."
"...George Washington was often compared to Cincinnatus for his willingness to give up near-absolute power once the crisis of the American Revolution had passed and victory had been won"
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/193102.html
...obviously, one cannot conduct "just war" without an ethical authority... and especially not against an underdog who is using Sun Tzu's Art of War as their handbook, and who is also willing to live in an underground civilization until they triumph!
...
“If McNamara had come out against the war in 1968, it would have had an impact,” Sheehan said. “But his ego was so large he could never apologize. He was haunted by those who died in the rice paddies and long grass but could never say he was sorry.”
Greenway recalls a meeting he witnessed between a much older McNamara and John Kenneth Galbraith, the Harvard University economist who had been an outspoken critic of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
The two adversaries met in Vermont at Galbraith’s home. “McNamara walked up to Galbraith, who was standing, all of 6-foot-7 whatever, and said, ‘Ken, you were right and I was wrong,’” Greenway said. “It was an extraordinary kind of event.”
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"The Great Correction"
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/108834.html
"We may be decent people, acting compassionately in our daily lives, but when we live in unjust hierarchical systems, being decent day to day isn't enough. No matter what the specific topic of any Last Sunday, we tried to keep this in the foreground: We live in an imperial society structured by a predatory corporate capitalism, with identities shaped by white supremacy and patriarchy, in a technological fundamentalist society dominated by the faith that we can invent our way out of an ecological crisis."
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"People just liked it better that way..."
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/129219.html
"Their personal valour remained, but they no longer possessed that public courage which is nourished by the love of independence, the sense of national honour, the presence of danger, and the habit of command. They received laws and governors from the will of their sovereign, and trusted for their defence to a mercenary army." - Edward Gibbon
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transcending (R)eductionism through (r)elativity
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/212624.html
my arch-enemy is (R)eductionism!
perhaps you may have noticed that i tend to avoid using capital letters, unless i want to create a particular emphasis?
although i still love E.E. Cummings, perhaps Frank Herbert said it best, in the Sign of Profound Accord:
"We are here to remove a primary weapon from the hands of disputant (R)eligions. That weapon--the claim to possession of the one and only (R)evelation." (...my capitalization, to emphasize the point...)
...
i do appreciate that western science provides (r)easonable, peer-reviewed methods by which to evolve... although sometimes the crusaders of the citadel (& the moguls of the bazaar) can become tyrannical in their insistence on a particular "(R)eality-tunnel vision" ...and sometimes i think it takes someone like Nietzsche to come along and yank the proverbial rug out from under the feet of the people who have been staring at it so long that they can't see anything else... it reminds me of the old adage about the blind men & the elephant
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embodying the change we wish to see in the world!
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/208502.html
come for the party... stay for the humanitarian work!
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LOVE: suspension of disbelief... within reason?
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/169847.html
"My theory about why 'The Call of Cthulhu' and Lovecraft's fiction resonate so strongly with people," (Greg) Stafford says, "is that despite being set in an arbitrary, impersonal, cruel universe, they show that small, individual acts of dignity and goodness are possible."
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"contextual normalcy:" mental health in review... now with life-affirming processes!
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/566754.html
What possibilities can we think of for us to work towards contextualizing a diversity of cultural norms so that we can stand together on a more stable & mutually respectful socio-economic foundation in the modern intersectional space?
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How shall we dismantle and reverse the entire system of colonization?
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/582187.html
check your privilege and listen to BIPOC & other intersectional voices... they are sick & tired of having their bodies controlled, their cultures raped & their resources stolen!
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health safety protocols for public & private events world-wide 2021: a brief survey from the perspective of the charnel grounds
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/578018.html
i welcome anyone's feedback, public or private, concerning rituals from absolutely any literary, oral and intangible cultural heritage concerning boundary negotiation, particularly regarding disease & death... the first that comes to my mind is something that I think Gurdjieff explains well (YMMV):
...an open system of symbiosis or reciprocal maintenance, (in Gurdjieff's terminology, referred to as the) *Trogoautoegocrat* <'Eating myself, I am maintained'>...
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2021 - Year of the Metal Ox: "Keep your fingers & toes inside the vehicle, while in motion!"
https://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/573772.html
In order to process what got us to this point, I think that it is also important to consider accelerationism from a Deleuzo-Guattarian perspective...
"a particular reading of Marx that emphasizes both Marx’s own dissatisfaction with the inherently exploitative and violent nature of Capital, while remaining convinced that the socially beneficial aspects produced by capitalism serve as productive grounds for Capital’s future dissolution."
...
"... for decades longer than more orthodox contemporary thinkers, accelerationists have been focused on many of the central questions of the late 20th and early 21st centuries: the rise of China; the rise of artificial intelligence; what it means to be human in an era of addictive, intrusive electronic devices; the seemingly uncontrollable flows of global markets; the power of capitalism as a network of desires; the increasingly blurred boundary between the imaginary and the factual; the resetting of our minds and bodies by ever-faster music and films; and the complicity, revulsion and excitement so many of us feel about the speed of modern life."