Much of what you say rings true, especially about our most natural selves, what I call our DNA-dictated instincts, which have been all but completely buried under both the dominant narrative and the products of Industrial Civilization, especially during the last few decades. Now, AI may just finish the job?
There is, however, one aspect of your vision that I believe to be blurry. While you mention the finite nature of Earth's resources, you then ignore that objective truth and tell us that the evolution beyond civilization you envision will be based on a 'post-scarcity' world.
While I have a reasonable understanding of how 'contradictions' resolve themselves, I cannot see the process in this case. In fact, the quantitative changes will be decreases, not increases, so the qualitative changes will have to reflect those deprivations.
As usual, it's impossible to deliver a complete response without writing far more than you or anyone wants to read (LOL), so I'll end with: thoughts?
I read your comment. I would like to note something I believe would interest you. The economic growth that has been the obsession of humanity has also led us to overpopulate the planet. For some reason, when I envision a planet inhabited by humans with a higher awareness, I can see the coherence in humanity not being forced to tick the boxes of consumption and production and REproduction (procreation), and actually are aware of the finite resources and how our blind spots have made us extract to no end that we’ve theoretically reached the end of, ironically, I think we would be better able to organise ourselves to coexist with the planet that we were so egocentric to have the illusion that we’re separate from it and that we shall prevail and [….throw any random arse ideology and you’ll have the same logic…]. We would live in coherence, I believe, with more homosexual people than right now we are allowed, directly and indirectly through systemic oppression, and by definition, this Syntopia sounds very plausible to me.
What do you think?
Caveat: I am a homosexual man who has been struggling to reconcile with my own sexuality even after I’d left my previous religion of Islam. And so this “envisioning”, mind you, is in part a biased view in an attempt to give myself hope to feel that I will reconcile by envisioning a world that is post systemic trauma and where I would live in peace with myself. I had to give you this note for purposes of being transparent with you and out of respect for you and myself and my awareness of my subjective experience of this article and the issue of artificial scarcity slash over population, created by systems such as organised religion, capitalism, etc.
First, thanks for your forthright comment. In that same spirit, let me say that, for a variety of reasons, I would have probably lived as a bisexual if I had processed some of my earliest experiences more coherently. In fact, I believe bisexuality is our species’ most natural, instinctive orientation. But for me, at 76 and with an almost non-existent libido? Yeah, not gonna happen.
As for the rest, short of some kind of miracle, I believe Industrial Civilization will continue to crumble until it is forced to collapse entirely. Billions (All?) of us will die in the violent chaos that will follow. The Uncontacted tribal peoples scattered around the globe have the best chance of surviving. You can’t miss what you never had.
When the dust settles, hopefully we will be within the carrying capacity of the planet, numbers that are sustainable over the long-term. If memory serves, that number used to be around 1.5 billion.
Of course, there is no crystal ball, so none of us can accurately predict how it will all fall out. How ‘primitive’ will life become? Will any ‘technology’ survive or be viable?
The basic foundation of all societies has always been their economic systems. All the rest - religion, culture, etc. - are based on and reflect how we have met our fundamental physical needs.
We have gone from hunting/gathering to farming/animal husbandry to feudalism → mercantilism → industrialism → some (USA) are now in post-industrialism. Scarcity has always been with us, but only during the last two stages has it been ‘artificial,’ reflecting the relations of ownership of production.
I agree now upon reflection: the availability of resources is the basic need for surviving, and it does shape how we live, think, feel, the things we believe in, etc. It is environmental, based on the opportunities available and the hierarchy of needs obviously starts with food to just be alive
Pause here, please:
As I was writing this, I stopped at “environmental”, and was going to replace it with “circumstantial”. Another person might say “situational”, “cultural”…
All valid.
Pick up here, please:
I will try to formulate something I have in mind and might get back to you later.
However, in a nutshell, what I am aiming at discussing would be the awareness that we have by virtue of our “evolution”, or simply our “transformation”
We had an unspoken awareness for thousands of generations, before the infamous Dawn of Civilization. Since then, those steps I mentioned have covered up that understanding of our most primal, DNA-dictated instincts, especially in the past several decades.
Just like all other forms of life (flora and fauna) we didn't have to talk about any of it. We just did what 'worked,' the ways of living that established the deep connections to each other and our surroundings. We even had 'understandings with other animals that posed a threat to us, just as lions or camels or seals or.....do with the creatures with whom they share a biome or environment.
The irony is that the social animals we were for the past 400,000 years, when we first starting living in groups larger than our immediate families, have had our most primal instincts buried under an ocean of alienating developments that we brought upon ourselves due to a combination of 'intelligence' and opposable thumbs.
A great example is today's technology, especially the internet and social media, which claim to bring us together but have clearly done the exact opposite.
Much of what you say rings true, especially about our most natural selves, what I call our DNA-dictated instincts, which have been all but completely buried under both the dominant narrative and the products of Industrial Civilization, especially during the last few decades. Now, AI may just finish the job?
There is, however, one aspect of your vision that I believe to be blurry. While you mention the finite nature of Earth's resources, you then ignore that objective truth and tell us that the evolution beyond civilization you envision will be based on a 'post-scarcity' world.
While I have a reasonable understanding of how 'contradictions' resolve themselves, I cannot see the process in this case. In fact, the quantitative changes will be decreases, not increases, so the qualitative changes will have to reflect those deprivations.
As usual, it's impossible to deliver a complete response without writing far more than you or anyone wants to read (LOL), so I'll end with: thoughts?
Hey John,
I read your comment. I would like to note something I believe would interest you. The economic growth that has been the obsession of humanity has also led us to overpopulate the planet. For some reason, when I envision a planet inhabited by humans with a higher awareness, I can see the coherence in humanity not being forced to tick the boxes of consumption and production and REproduction (procreation), and actually are aware of the finite resources and how our blind spots have made us extract to no end that we’ve theoretically reached the end of, ironically, I think we would be better able to organise ourselves to coexist with the planet that we were so egocentric to have the illusion that we’re separate from it and that we shall prevail and [….throw any random arse ideology and you’ll have the same logic…]. We would live in coherence, I believe, with more homosexual people than right now we are allowed, directly and indirectly through systemic oppression, and by definition, this Syntopia sounds very plausible to me.
What do you think?
Caveat: I am a homosexual man who has been struggling to reconcile with my own sexuality even after I’d left my previous religion of Islam. And so this “envisioning”, mind you, is in part a biased view in an attempt to give myself hope to feel that I will reconcile by envisioning a world that is post systemic trauma and where I would live in peace with myself. I had to give you this note for purposes of being transparent with you and out of respect for you and myself and my awareness of my subjective experience of this article and the issue of artificial scarcity slash over population, created by systems such as organised religion, capitalism, etc.
Cheers
First, thanks for your forthright comment. In that same spirit, let me say that, for a variety of reasons, I would have probably lived as a bisexual if I had processed some of my earliest experiences more coherently. In fact, I believe bisexuality is our species’ most natural, instinctive orientation. But for me, at 76 and with an almost non-existent libido? Yeah, not gonna happen.
As for the rest, short of some kind of miracle, I believe Industrial Civilization will continue to crumble until it is forced to collapse entirely. Billions (All?) of us will die in the violent chaos that will follow. The Uncontacted tribal peoples scattered around the globe have the best chance of surviving. You can’t miss what you never had.
When the dust settles, hopefully we will be within the carrying capacity of the planet, numbers that are sustainable over the long-term. If memory serves, that number used to be around 1.5 billion.
Of course, there is no crystal ball, so none of us can accurately predict how it will all fall out. How ‘primitive’ will life become? Will any ‘technology’ survive or be viable?
The basic foundation of all societies has always been their economic systems. All the rest - religion, culture, etc. - are based on and reflect how we have met our fundamental physical needs.
We have gone from hunting/gathering to farming/animal husbandry to feudalism → mercantilism → industrialism → some (USA) are now in post-industrialism. Scarcity has always been with us, but only during the last two stages has it been ‘artificial,’ reflecting the relations of ownership of production.
OK, I am starting to ramble.
Peace.
Beautiful. Thank you very much for this insight
I agree now upon reflection: the availability of resources is the basic need for surviving, and it does shape how we live, think, feel, the things we believe in, etc. It is environmental, based on the opportunities available and the hierarchy of needs obviously starts with food to just be alive
Pause here, please:
As I was writing this, I stopped at “environmental”, and was going to replace it with “circumstantial”. Another person might say “situational”, “cultural”…
All valid.
Pick up here, please:
I will try to formulate something I have in mind and might get back to you later.
However, in a nutshell, what I am aiming at discussing would be the awareness that we have by virtue of our “evolution”, or simply our “transformation”
Regards
Tarek
We had an unspoken awareness for thousands of generations, before the infamous Dawn of Civilization. Since then, those steps I mentioned have covered up that understanding of our most primal, DNA-dictated instincts, especially in the past several decades.
Just like all other forms of life (flora and fauna) we didn't have to talk about any of it. We just did what 'worked,' the ways of living that established the deep connections to each other and our surroundings. We even had 'understandings with other animals that posed a threat to us, just as lions or camels or seals or.....do with the creatures with whom they share a biome or environment.
The irony is that the social animals we were for the past 400,000 years, when we first starting living in groups larger than our immediate families, have had our most primal instincts buried under an ocean of alienating developments that we brought upon ourselves due to a combination of 'intelligence' and opposable thumbs.
A great example is today's technology, especially the internet and social media, which claim to bring us together but have clearly done the exact opposite.
OK, more rambling.
Peace.