Systems and Technology: or SysTech

I am good at looking at data, for the lack of a better term, and am able to see the causes, patterns of cause, and the systems that support them. When I look at the modern world it used to drive me insane with its chaotic and incoherent mess. I had to turn off this aspect of my being in order to be able to walk through this life without going mad. I think that many of us do this, that we turn off our cognitive abilities because the static from the massive amount of seemingly chaotic data, is deafening. When we look rationally, or try to look at it rationally, we can only squint our eyes at this mess and shrug our shoulders, "nothing to be done here" because it is unsolveable this..mess.

I have tried in the last few years to stare at it and try to make sense of it if only because the angst that ignoring arose in me was unbearable. I always knew it was there and the more that I meditated and tried to be good, it became more apparent, more insistent of my attention so I gave it. What I have been able to withdraw from it is stunning to me, in it simplicity, and that is that our entire model of society is based off of an age old paradigm of selfishness. That our systems that are in place have been influenced by a Humanistic Value which gave rise to the systems that in turn supported this foundational value.

It is arrogant sounding to say, "aha, I found it" on some large scale and I apologize for it. I am embarassed, really, to say it. It is not in my nature, or, it is not in the nature that I want to achieve-and I would never assume that I have the requisite understanding or intellectual heft to say so, but I think I have touched on something. All of human endeavors are value based. All of them. Aristotle struggled with this idea: we cannot do something we truly think is wrong. It is not possible, I think, to do so. On some level there has to be the Gatekeeper nodding his acceptance to the proposed action. And what happens on a larger social level?

We know that Science is really a group inquiry, a field of statistic which delves into averages. Jung points this out in Undisvoered Self that, "when you take a bucketfull of pebbles an find an average of 146 grams-this is science, but if you were to weigh each pebble seperately it is highly possible that you never find one that is 146 grams." So that for the individuals, this may or may not be true of their value systems. Thus we have someone like the Dalai Lama, but, if we look at the Whole in a scientific lens we see that there is a singular value system root: selfishness.

Selfishness is not bad, inherently, it is not. When we take into account the arising of 'modern' civiliation much of the evidence is that we became agriculturists because of a weather change. That we were drive toward this lifestyle because of the dearth caused by this change. We were worried about feeding our children, our selves, our small communities. Thus the systems that arose out of this had a root in selfishness.

When I use the term technologies I am not just talking about wheels and microchips, I am talking about also, systems. Technology in my definitive is meaning that extension of Man's physical and mental (including sensory) capabilities. And as we progressed past this node of history, the 'acclerating' era of technology, we see that we move at an alarming pace driven by this value system based on dearth. Until we have reached another node. Our Systech capablities have reached a point where our reach is almost limitless in its abilities to exploit nature, environments, etc. It has even created 'alternate space' e.g. cyberspace in order to be able to exploit 'real space' more efficiently and holistically. I think almost anyone with any honesty can see where an unchecked primitive selfish paradigm with a cutting edge exponentially growign systech ability will end.

But, I think here is the Out, is that with these Systech capabilities we have also reached a point where we have the capabilities to change the underlying value sytems that Systech is extending. Never before has it been possible to connect with so many people instantaneously, nor to move information, or collaborate action. Never before could there be so much 'change' in so little time. The idea of a Global Village is, and has been, rather inane and fruitless in the lens of the Old Paradigm. It is still silly even in a newer Selfless paradigm if we mean it to be a unique manifestation across the board. However, if we think of Global Village in the terms of a universal value system and allow for culture, environment, and individual to define how that looks then I agree.

This sounds absurd, I know, especially as we are so inundated in an old Paradigm, but I point out that we already have a universal value system. It is no more absurd than the current state which I believe is no more 'natural' than the opposite. With technology and its current exponential growth we can change it rather rapidly-with the right motivation, and I know of no better motivation than annhilation via an outdated value system.

Guru D.

Idea Giant Prelude

What happens when we become aware of our technologies and use them to our higher purposes? In a world that kurzweil forsees, the man that Bill Gates said is, "the best in the world at predicting the future", where technology is following the Law of Accelerating Returns (moore's law etc) http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0134.html?printable=1

I have stood aside and watched in alarm at this arising of a 'technopoly' and have felt left behind in many ways-in my heart, I am a man of print. My mind works that way. However, the medium has changed, and it is changing exponentially, and this allows for change to be also exponential

What happens, I wonder, when we change our archaic selfish paradigms of thought which our systems are stuck in and evolve it into one that is selfless (selfless also serves the self if it serves all beings etc.)

We shall see.