A belief later espoused by the Unabomber.
From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> On Behalf Of steve smith Sent: Friday, October 4, 2024 11:53 AM To: friam@redfish.com Subject: Re: [FRIAM] nice quote "The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. And it is terrifically dangerous." Edward O. Wilson. davew This is a favorite quote for me of late... the challenge, methinks is "what am I going to do about it?" I try to resolve these questions for myself before I get too carried away trying to prescribe anything for anyone else (especially large scale/global solutions), yet it is useful to keep this in mind whilst considering what I think is 'best for the collective'. Maturing and Aging have offered me some perspective and relief from the emotional component (especially the fight/flight reproduce-at-all cost hormone driven ones). Similarly I've now seen (and studied) a variety of socio-economic-political systems enough to have at least vaguely informed opinions about them (unlike the totally mis-informed ones I had leading me to vote Reagan in over Carter as my first vote). The technological question is more near and dear to my heart having been simultaneously (or alternately?) a technophile and a luddite. I have dabbled in 19th century (and earlier) technology to help ground my grounding in the mid-late 20th century I grew up as part of the background. I've been lucky enough to engage some with 21st century tech early by virtue of working at an over-funded scientific laboratory which often either had access to or was developing for it's own ideosyncratic reasons, things which the public wouldn't see or maybe even hear about for decades. It was heady. But also disturbing. Yuval Harari's latest book Nexus, touches on the implications of our "information technology" development over millenia but especially the last few decades with a very *liberal* view of what means information technology (and networks in particular). Continuing his other cautionary tales about the power of our "storytelling", I feel like he lays the groundwork for the most likely way we might recalibrate emotions to institutions to technology. Our technology has been pulling hard against the drag of our institutions which are faithfully trying to drag our emotions (e.g. religious/political/cultural moral frameworks) and the impedance mismatch seems to be the source of most of our worst behaviours/outcomes? The stories our modern MAGA/FauxRepublican/FauxConservative political party in the US is telling is rooted deeply in the emotional with only the barest nod to the institutional (support LawNorder!!!!) and a jealous greedy eye for the godlike tech (e.g. Trump cozying up to Musk/TechBros and NFTs and Crypto as if he understands ANY of it?). The Progressive/Liberal "institutions" of the DNC seem to be a little less regressive/reactionary but do in fact suffer some of the same problems albeit not as acutely superficially obvious. Without bashing the specifics of what "the Dems" might be getting wrong, if we don't notice the impedance mismach EO Wilson called out for us there, we are destined to have raucous "ringing" in our systems? I think the promise of a "Green New Deal" juxtaposed with some of the biggest obvious fallacies and inadequacies are a good example... by the time we actually settle on what a GND might really look like the challenges and opportunities may have moved on by a decade or more (is GND a whole decade old as a term yet?) while MAGA keeps trying to claim "we believe in clean air and water but sea level rise will be fractions of an inch in centuries at worst and will yield more beachfront property in any case"? How do we move our collective storytelling to be both coherent and aligned with the physics/chemistry/bio/ecology of Gaia quickly enough to quit driving the various components past their limits (drill baby drill!)? Maybe we cannot. Maybe we will have to crash and burn and hope something can rise from the ashes (cockroaches and the Rolling Stones? NeoLibertarian TechBros in their high-tech Bitcoin Bunkers raising their own clones?) Atlas Shrugs, Gaia Shrugs more Bigly.... (Rand, Margulis, Dilbert, Trump references convolved?)
smime.p7s
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