Technological sophistication, social stagnation

Thousands of years ago, there was a theory saying that rays of light are emitted by the eye and this is how we are able to see. This theory has since been proven wrong. Imagine for a second that it had never been proven wrong, and that we based all subsequent works and studies on this theory. We would have stagnated, we would never have discovered many inventions. But thankfully, science has a built-in mechanism that forces it to examine itself and to confront theories to reality.

We have no such mechanisms in the social sphere. We still have kings, and queens, and princes, and we still want this face or that face as a leader thinking it's the providential prophet. People are still clinging to their country and their borders as tribesmen were clinging to their tribes and their part of the forest. Economy is still a big ideological mess full of beliefs and fears that lead to useless wars. People cling to the concepts of money and property as if they were god-given concepts. In short, there is no progress in the social sphere of our human activities, there is stagnation.

Call it as you wish : spiritual progress, humanistic progress, social progress, etc., but we need that today. We need to re-evaluate our values as a species, otherwise we will destroy ourselves. Currently, we are no more than monkeys armed with nuclear bazookas. That's what we are. Our values are f#@ed up, we suffer from a value disorder. We need to look at how we do it in the hard science sphere and apply some of that magic to the social sphere.

But among all the retarded social concepts, there is one that is really harmful and that encompasses all others : all the ideas that we have about human beings. What is a human being ? Almost everyone has his own idea of what a human being is but no one knows for sure. Is a human being fundamentally good, or fundamentally evil ? Are human beings greedy by nature ? Are we made for cooperation or competition ? Who knows ? Is a human being an animal or a bunch of electrons and atoms, just energy ? Keep in mind that we actually build a society around something... unknown. Why are we even here to begin with ? Are we divine creatures ? The answer to all that is : definitions are a trap for the mind. Definitions are static, they rarely change and they make us believe that reality is static, while in truth reality is ever changing, dynamic, never the same. Today, we can still hear and read people who quote this or that philosopher - who died thousands of years ago - on what he said about human nature. Why is it OK to quote the philosopher on what he said about human nature but it is not OK anymore to quote the guy who said that rays of light are emitted by the eye ?

Definitions have another shortcoming because they do not take into account the potential. Definitions try to describe the past, but it becomes more than just a description, it becomes an identification between the definition and the defined. But potential is by nature a thing of the future, not of the past like definitions. And then definitions become self-fulfilling prophecies, they keep us inside a bubble of static knowledge about things that have happened. And at some point when a new event arises, we look at it but we don't see it as it is, we are just trying to bend the facts to conform them to a static definition.

I realise I have drifted from what I wanted to say initially : we suffer from cultural lag. The fact that our science is a jewel of self-adjustment is proof that not everything is lost and that there is still hope. This difference of sophistication and perfectionism between 2 spheres of activities inside the same human mind is to me astonishing. I think it comes from the fact that we have always separated the body and the mind : the body, which we have in common with other animals, which has always been seen as lowly terrestrial and impure, is in correlation with hard science because hard science is the measure of what is not spiritual, the measure of what is material, terrestrial, and this is why we have no scruples to improve those hard sciences. While the human mind - which we do not have in common with other animals - has always been seen as a divine gift (the soul, the spirit..), and as such is considered a perfect product, something that is in no need of improvement, something that would be blasphemous to even try to improve.

a reply to: gosseyn

Has it fully? qudrahealing.com...

Thousands of years ago, there was a theory saying that rays of light are emitted by the eye and this is how we are able to see. This theory has since been proven wrong.

a reply to: gosseyn

I realise I have drifted from what I wanted to say initially :

Please drift all you want. That was on point all the way through.

originally posted by: machineintelligence
a reply to: gosseyn

Has it fully? qudrahealing.com...

Thousands of years ago, there was a theory saying that rays of light are emitted by the eye and this is how we are able to see. This theory has since been proven wrong.

Yes it has

Set aside everything that makes us human?

definitions evolve over time.

a reply to: gosseyn

Thousands of years ago, there was a theory saying that rays of light are emitted by the eye and this is how we are able to see. This theory has since been proven wrong.

There is this one interpretation of quantum theory that suggests that things do not really exist unless they are being observed. So as we observe things, things come into existence; and while they are not observed they fade out of existence.

originally posted by: FlyingFox
Set aside everything that makes us human?

What is it that makes us human ? That is the question.

And it is not a closed question, but an open one. Everyday, every second of the day, each one of us is creating "what it is to be human".

a reply to: gosseyn

Nice noble post but I disagree that society has stagnated. I think it has simply degenerated.

We have brutes and vile people all around us; enough to make you want to isolate yourself on a mountain peak. For example, I cannot bring myself to read youtube comments anymore.

I understand that you blame technology and so do I. THe difference between you and I is that I have very little faith in people and would rather narrow and consolidate my social circle than open up to the monstrosity that society has become.

May be one day there will be a plague or a great flood that will leave those connected to their hearts to rebuild.

After some thought, I think I'd have to agree with crowded when they say its degeneration more than stagnation.

Regardless, I think the premise is still an important one. I try to bring it up, every once in a while, but I think the reality is that this cycle will just repeat itself until it results in destruction. Perhaps it wouldn't be the first time either.

All we do is claim our own viewpoints as right, and those that disagree as inferior, when the solution may very well be in figuring out how to focus on common goals without conversion.

As a whole though, we might be far too addicted to hypocrisy to successfully perform any meaningful introspection.

I think we suffer too from a disconnect between what is communicated as real and what is ACTUALLY real.

The internet and modern media is making this worse.

Someone says a thing and, true or not, it is repeated. Suddenly, many people say a thing and it becomes a meme, an idea unleashed on the collective - even if not true. There are many controversial examples of this, but that is not the point of this thread.

To your point, the internet exists in the mind. It is not real. But it feels very real and so it is a force multiplier for spreading information, even untruths. Ironically, the internet stems from the sciences.

So, now what?

a reply to: HoldMyBeer

I think we could approach it (the net) with all of that in mind, rather than living with it almost as a symptom of a disease. I also observe that while social interaction on the internet is done much differently than in person, the lines between the two are blurring. And not necessarily for the better..

Instead of us always looking at how these new technologies can be used to do what we have always done more easily, we could focus on them as stepping stones to achieve things we haven't even imagined yet. If this was our cultural story, we would have a platform to evolve alongside our ever-advancing tools.

As an H&SS student, I know that technology is inherently neutral. That is, you make it what it is, as far as good and evil.