McLUHAN: Individual talents and perspectives don’t have to shrivel within a retribalized society; they merely interact within a group consciousness that has the potential for releasing far more creativity than the old atomized culture. Literate man is alienated, impoverished man; retribalized man can lead a far richer and more fulfilling life — not the life of a mindless drone but of the participant in a seamless web of interdependence and harmony. The implosion of electric technology is transmogrifying literate, fragmented man into a complex and depth-structured human being with a deep emotional awareness of his complete interdependence with all of humanity. The old “individualistic” print society was one where the individual was “free” only to be alienated and dissociated, a rootless outsider bereft of tribal dreams; our new electronic environment compels commitment and participation, and fulfills man’s psychic and social needs at profound levels.

And I don’t really think its that evil, to not want to be really really interconnected to people you don’t like. I mean its not even really elitist, where the tendency comes from.

I mean, you read Ran Prieur right? That
’s the whole idea of “dropping out”

You are in a way saying that dropping out is not an option. And I think you are right, its just that its kind of a bummer.

What I can hope for is that if everyone is conscious of being totally interconnected there will be more impetus not for things to suck so bad. More motivation for elegant and socially responsible solutions for things.More love and more beauty in the world. More harmony.

Because in an open system you can just move on when you foul everything up.

So, what you write about on those topics really resonates with me. Because that is my approach to the world also. Its interesting that you only really approached this in relation to technology. Its a pretty novel take on it.

I think that is a very unique thing you do. It kind of caught me by surprise that through this novel approach to technology you revealed just how much of a shaman you really are.

But what excites me about this stuff, is making the closed system “open” through creating doorways to the “unmanifest” the “prima materia” or whatever you want to call it.

The ancient alchemists wrote about this stuff and it was hard to write about. It think it was harder then than it is now, because through technology we have the lingo to better describe it, we have more analogies also, because of technology. For example VR and holograms.

So don’t think I am just trying to be negative. But getting really anxious and sick to my stomach in light of a lot of the implications of this is just part of my reality right now even as I try to embrace aspects of it i like.

Its a common reaction, the world over.

I also think you are really onto something, really seriously. Like cutting edge thought. I do support you.

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20090123-NEWS-90123025

Quantum information has been successfully teleported between two single atoms a metre apart – a significant step towards long distance quantum communication and quantum computing, researchers say. [...]

The teleportation of quantum information in this way could form the basis of a new type of quantum internet that could outperform any conventional type of classical network for certain tasks,” said Christopher Monroe, study author with the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland in College Park.

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/249...-trick-step-towards-quantum-computing

Insofar as Ambient Intelligence systems take overt, natural behaviour as input, they are likely to suffer from many of the same problems that have fuelled the widespread criticism of behaviourist explanations of human behaviour. If these limitations of the technology are not sufficiently recognized, the technology is likely to be insufficiently successful in supporting the needs and desires of human users.

http://www.i-r-i-e.net/inhalt/008/008_2

http://uroboros.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/some-thoughts-in-progress/

McLuhan said that one of the side effects of super-accelerated electronic media was to return consciousness to a state of mythic resonance. Things move too fast and change too much and are too interconnected and self reflective to have a full conscious awareness of them. The only way to interface with such a world is through an intuitive subconscious pattern recognition. Either that or a super-consciousness orders of magnitude beyond anything that has been seen on earth to date, a fusion of the frontal, and lower primordial minds, in a way that very few can pull off without becoming a process schizophrenic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darknet_(file_sharing)

It’s like experience sharing instead of file-sharing, where you are united first of all by a common technology (#usersunion, technology unions), and second you add into the mix only things which you’re willing to make public. Building in technological failsafes to protect privacy and individual cores is the only way to combat the threat to it. Sitting back, doing nothing and wishing away technological changes is the fastest route to total slavery.

Its like the less you choose to participate in it, the less control you have, so even if you don’t really want to get involved the best strategic move would be to jump right in head first and start making things happen, otherwise you will be a victim.

I think that this is, in general, an excellent summation of how life works - with or without technology!

What if you were in one of these collective identies with a bunch of jerks, with bad taste?

Yeah its called America. It’s called ordinary life. I’m not describing anything that doesn’t already exist. I’m just science-fictionizing it to make the ordinary more exciting.

Its really hard for me though. Its hard for me to have empathy for things I find really unpleasant. Entrain myself to energies I feel are bad for me. What about a ubiquitous stench? Or a ubiquitous ear splitting noise?

What if you were in one of these collective identies with a bunch of jerks, with bad taste? Wouldn’t it be like being siamese twins with a person that liked watching reruns on TVland all day? Wouldn’t that suck?

I think the Borg is scary because its by force, as far as doing it by choice, I guess it would be like having permanent sex with a buunch of people. So if you were really really into all of them, I guess it would be OK. So they would have to all be good looking and smart and interesting, hopefully more so that you, because otherwise you would be their food.

The idea that gives me anxiety is that you have to join this collective ubiquitous environment and that you will only have a limited degree of control. Its like the less you choose to participate in it, the less control you have, so even if you don’t really want to get involved the best strategic move would be to jump right in head first and start making things happen, otherwise you will be a victim.

I’m uneasy about everything being a closed system now, So now the only thing left to do is make more and more inter connections, until everything is totally wired to everything else accessible instantaneously. So that would be great if I was King of the Universe and could totally control it and not let anyone else control it. But since I am not chances are it will keep changing in ways I don’t like and I’ll be forced to be dragged along with it. Because I am not real impressed with technology so far.

I think what it is is that a lot of it is a crude attempt at control that ends up brutalizing nature and alienating people. And its ugly. I think most people know how ugly most built environments are so they dull their senses.

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2009/01/keep-on-chooglin-.html

http://vimeo.com/2809991?pg=embed&sec=2809991

“For a long time now there has been too much secrecy in this city. The old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing something to the American people, then it should not be disclosed. That era is now over. Starting today, every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known.

http://www.theagitator.com/2009/01/22/yes-he-did/