Comments on: We Are On the Verge of a Shift to Biosphere Consciousness

We Are On the Verge of a Shift to Biosphere Consciousness

kliuless — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:41:57 -0800

Towards the empathic civilisation
The human race is in a twilight zone between a dying civilisation on life support and an emerging one trying to find its legs. Old identities are fracturing while new identities are too fragile to grasp. To understand our situation, we need to step back and ask: what constitutes a fundamental change in the nature of civilisation? The great turning points occur when new, more complex energy regimes converge with communications revolutions, fundamentally altering human consciousness in the process.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:48:52 -0800

Notable, the Motto Of the city of Detroit : Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus

By: Baby_Balrog

Baby_Balrog — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:55:28 -0800

That show is painfully difficult to watch. I wish, when Zizek was talking, they'd turn off the giant crazy-making televisions all around him for a second. As it is, the stupid part of my brain (oooh look giant flashy tv!) is drowning out the analytical part of my brain (oooh look a communist!) It's incredibly annoying.

By: The Confessor

The Confessor — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:13:36 -0800

In twenty years, we will all be pacifistic cyborgs.

By: mhoye

mhoye — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:16:05 -0800

Between this post and the last one, it's clear that the tl;dr crowd have doomed us all.

By: A189Nut

A189Nut — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:41:34 -0800

I hate these broad strokes big picture prognostications. Especially when I am tele-commuting to work using my IBM picturephone.

By: KokuRyu

KokuRyu — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:01:39 -0800

The ~~human race~~United States is in a twilight zone between a ~~dying~~declining civilisation on life support and an emerging ~~one~~group of vibrant emerging economies trying to find its legs. We have to try not to be too US-centric on MetaFilter

By: kneecapped

kneecapped — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:01:55 -0800

from "The Marriage of Heaven & Hell - The Proverbs of Hell" (Wm Blake) No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings. A dead body revenges not injuries. The most sublime act is to set another before you. If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise. Folly is the cloak of knavery. Shame is Pride's cloke. Prisons are built with stones of law, brothels with bricks of religion. The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God. The nakedness of woman is the work of God. Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps. in "Fearful Symmetry" Northrope Frye comments on Blake's long poem: ... the apocalypse could occur at any time in history if men wanted it badly enough to stop playing their silly game of hide-and-seek with nature. Visionaries, artists, prophets and martyrs all live as though an apocalypse were around the corner, and without this sense of potentially imminent crisis imagination loses most of its driving power (195). I appreciate the optimism (and tension) of the pieces in this post. I'm just trying to sort out that positivity from my sense of dread that we might not be using our "own wings". Blake's "Marriage" is a satire reacting to the rising sense, during his time (and ours), that we can divorce the mind/soul from the body. Some of our optimism and belief in the methods and means that the technologies can and will afford us, makes me wonder whether we've yet acknowledged the problem of that divorce. Now the sneaking serpent walks In mild humility, And the just man rages in the wilds Where the lions roam. (ll 16 - 20, "Marriage," "The Argument," - Blake (again, of course))

By: cenoxo

cenoxo — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:11:37 -0800

...what constitutes a fundamental change in the nature of civilisation? Civilization's existing nuclear weapon stockpiles plus changes in global water supply (map) may take us back to the fundamentals pretty quickly.

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:27:52 -0800

Communism for slow learners.

By: polymodus

polymodus — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:50:44 -0800

Deanna Troi, our goddess of empathy.

By: symbioid

symbioid — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:22:00 -0800

In Soviet Russia, the sit-com laughs for YOU.

By: HotPants

HotPants — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:45:12 -0800

Interesting that the only comment on the CBS news story seems to be a white supremacist.

By: symbioid

symbioid — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:04:39 -0800

Ow! My "contiousness" hurts from being dismantled so much!