Maya to Maya
Johnny Fargo
You are here for a purpose.
Your life has a deep, yet simple explanation.
You are in control of your life, even when it doesn't feel that way.
You have the tools needed to explore your own creative potential.
Humanity has the opportunity to understand its true nature -- in your lifetime.
Many new age spiritualists, philosophers, futurists, technologists, and cutting-edge scientific thinkers agree: Within the next couple of decades, we are headed for a nexus of ideas, where thoughts about the nature of our world, our very reality, will converge to give us a true understanding of who we are.
It is vital to understand that our knowledge and our self-view are interdependent. Our newfound knowledge will not only change how we view ourselves, but how we view ourselves determines how and when we receive that knowledge, and what we will choose to do with it.
We have a choice to let the future shape us, or we can choose to shape our future.
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How can our worldview converge when there are so many disparate ideas in the world?
Religion and science have been at odds for centuries, and there is no resolution in sight. This is because both aggressively cling to and defend their own dogmas and narrow truths. In doing so, they both deny a wider reality.
Spiritualists say that the world we see is an illusion. They say our true reality can be found within. We should be "in this world, but not of it." To a great extent, this is true. This world does not represent our ultimate reality, and there is so much more to discover beyond what our five senses tell us.
If that's true, then why are we even here? We are here because we want to be here -- because it fulfills a purpose and serves our own personal interests, as well as we in the larger context of our true reality. We should therefore not dismiss the benefits of this existence.
Growth, both individual and collective, is a cornerstone of this purpose. Turning creative potential into actual experience is another. It is also the process through which we achieve growth. It is important to realize that our potential for growth is unlimited.
The tools we have to actualize our potential are both internal and external – in both the spiritual and physical. They must stay in balance. A society where practical matters are neglected would disintegrate. Likewise, a society that focuses only on the outward, practical matters of the physical world eventually loses perspective and purpose.
These two perspectives not only keep us in harmony with ourselves – but they also reinforce one another. For instance, our internal desires drive our technological advancements. At the same time, technology provides tools for us to reach beyond our basic physical needs, and fuel the desire to explore our creative potential.
Not everyone (understandably) has an interest in science and technology; however everyone should understand the implications of where technology is taking us. There are two primary benefits of technology. The first is that as a whole, it improves the ability for us to provide for the basic needs of our world’s people. In doing so, it frees us up to explore our creative potential. Some might say that we have a technology gap between the rich and poor. In fact, we do. The reality, though, is that this gap is getting smaller, not larger over time.
The second benefit of technology may be even more important. It brings us closer together. Just look at the massive changes that cell phones and the internet have brought into our lives. Beyond the effect of enabling an incredible wave of creativity, these technologies connect us together, and allow for us to interact more deeply and more often than ever before.
Deep down, we all have the desire to be connected in meaningful ways. Most conceptions of utopia or bliss involve not the fulfillment of our individual desires, but the realization of a unified consciousness. In fact, that is the nature of our ultimate reality. We can discover this unity by following a spiritual path – but it is not the only way. A balanced diet of the soul should also include a healthy dose of physical reality, and that comes through the application of technology.
In just a couple of decades, our world will be profoundly changed through technology. What’s important to understand is that the pace of technological development over time is accelerating rapidly. As a result, these changes can rapidly sneak up on us – and so we need to be prepared. Today, people already spend hours in front of their computers, interacting with people in social networks or through games in virtual worlds. The ability to create realistic virtual reality will, like all technology, dramatically accelerate over time. The prominent inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil rightly believes that we will spend the majority of the 21st century in virtual reality. The implications are remarkably profound.
Virtual reality will allow us to connect like never before. In fact, in its most advanced form it will allow us to experience the kind of one-ness we have only conceived of in our wildest utopian dreams. In many ways, this is a joyful thought – but let’s face it – it’s also a little on the scary side. We value our independence and individuality. There’s no need to fear --- these will not be lost. Just as each of us currently experiences individuality in the context of the greater reality of oneness, so will it remain in our new world. We will have the ability to experience our own individuality and creativity whenever we so desire.
There is a real danger here, however. Like any tool, technology can be abused. Without the proper context of a mature spiritual identity, we will not have the proper perspective and sense of purpose to use technology in a constructive way. It is inevitable that regardless of what we do, there will be individuals who will try to use technology for their own personal gain or agenda, to the detriment of others. If we are prepared, we will discourage most of these incidents, and when they do occur, we will be able to confront them.
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I welcome your comments on these thoughts and encourage discussion.
Please bookmark this blog, and check back in a few days. We’ll continue to explore these ideas in more depth. I’ll get something out at least once a week, or more often when I can.
- Johnny
1 comment:
I received the following comment via email (posted here with permission of the sender):
I agree w/most of what you're stating, although I still have reservations about what this virtual reality is doing to our inter-personal relationships. While the internet does connect so many people worldwide and enables the sharing of info at an incredible rate (and blogs like this definitely create food for thought and connect like-minded people together), the virtual reality that it does create lacks the vis-a-vis and tactile connections...and I’m not so sure that that’s a good thing. Some people are better able to relate to others via the internet and their personal relationships (if they have any) can suffer. Virtual relationships may be of benefit to a shy/awkward person, but could potentially hold them back from learning how to develop in-person relationships.
I saw a show on TV (maybe on PBS or Science Channel) a few years back - I think it was hosted by John Cleese, but so far haven't found it on IMDB.com - that talked about the importance of the human face and how we even act differently when talking with someone face-to-face rather than as a faceless entity. For example, drivers tend to be more rude to each other because they don't see each others faces (this was an example they used). But when pedestrians would accidentally bump into each other they were much more likely to apologize and be polite. Sorry I can't expound more on show, but it's been awhile.
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Here is my response:
Thanks for your comments. It really benefits everyone to get a discussion going.
Your concern is warranted. As we go through periods of transition and change (and aren’t we always?), individuals and societies try new experiences to find out what works, and what doesn’t. Some people take these experiences to further extremes than others, and we learn to draw a boundary between beneficial and detrimental. That boundary, by the way, isn’t the same for any individual or society. How each of us deals with new situations in an evolving world should continue to be a personal choice (for children, that clearly involves a choice made by a family).
So much depends on context. In this day and age, face-to-face communication is a necessary part of our existence, and those that lack interpersonal skills will be at a disadvantage. Virtual reality as it exists today is woefully primitive compared to what is possible. It’s like comparing cave art to Rembrandt. It is not very reality-like at all, and is certainly no substitute for direct interaction.
But technology evolves quickly. Since compute power doubles every 18 months (and that itself has been accelerating, but we’ll ignore that for now), then 30 years from now, computers will be more than 1,000,000 times more powerful than today. Advances in nanotechnology and neuroscience will advance at a similar pace. Kurzweil envisions “nanobots” in our bloodstream that park themselves in the brain. They could cut off stimulus we normally receive through our senses, and instead, provide an interface to a sophisticated virtual reality program. Think “The Matrix” and you’ll get the idea. To my knowledge, there hasn’t been much of a debate as to if this will be possible – the debate has focused only a matter of when. (Or if, for instance, we will destroy ourselves first).
If you could perform any function in virtual reality with the same precision as “real” reality, could you really distinguish between the two? You could have personal interaction just as real and convincingly as always. It’s likely, however, that we’ll go far beyond the interactions we consider normal today. There will be entirely new societal “rules of engagement” in this environment. It’s hard to imagine when the sky’s the limit what those might be. Since you could take on a new appearance or even a new body in this environment, there have to some checks in the system to prevent complete confusion.
But anyway, my intention was not to turn this into a science fiction story. I only wanted to point out that changes will come faster than most people realize, and we need to be prepared to deal with it. Also, when you consider that we may move to a “world of illusion” – a Maya clearly of our own making – it gives one pause as to the implications to our current reality, and what may constitute ultimate reality.
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After I completed this response, I came across a new, pertinent article. If this study is correct, then perhaps we should be less concerned about people spending much of their social time interacting via the computer. That doesn't mean that there won't be some individuals who push that interaction beyond what we would consider reasonable limits.
From cnet news:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9973558-36.html
Study: Social networks may subvert 'digital divide'
Posted by Caroline McCarthy 11 comments
Social networks like Facebook and MySpace have reputations as time-sucking procrastination tools, but a new study from the University of Minnesota says au contraire.
Social networks build beneficial technological, creative, and communication skills, the study says, leading the researchers to actually describe social networks with the adjective "educational." Who knew?
"What we found was that students using social networking sites are actually practicing the kinds of 21st century skills we want them to develop to be successful today," Christine Greenhow, a learning technologies researcher from the school's College of Education and Human Development, said in a release Friday.
Data from the study came from teenagers ages 16 to 18 in about a dozen urban high schools in the Midwest.
"Students are developing a positive attitude towards using technology systems, editing and customizing content and thinking about online design and layout," Greenhow continued. "They're also sharing creative original work like poetry and film and practicing safe and responsible use of information and technology."
As an added bonus, social networks may be part of the reason that low-income students are largely just as technologically proficient as their peers, contradicting parts of a 2005 Pew study that detailed an economic "digital divide." According to the new study, a full 94 percent of students use the Internet, 82 percent use it at home, and 77 percent have social-networking profiles.
The "digital divide," obviously, goes far beyond Facebook profiles, and social networks come with a whole host of new problems like cyberbullying, but at least there are signs that it could be leveling the playing field a bit.
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