So I’ve been hammering on technology a lot in the last series of posts so it is time to take a step back a bit.
I’m not a luddite. I mean, I moonlight as a sorcerer & philosopher, but most of the time I am a web developer. This blog requires multiple layers of technology to function. There are many marvels at work.
My chief problem with technology isn’t the technology itself, because technology is like anything in our experience — an inseparable manifestation of consciousness. It is inexorable as much as our own bodies, or the natural world itself. When we understand that we are the “whole qualia” (unity) then magic & technology are almost interchangeable. Technology becomes the “best” expression of our will, given the state of our current story.
Technology identifies the intersection between the collective’s stories and how those stories can be utilized to produce effects. They are the means by which we inform the consciousness field to do what we want. But this is the same thing we ALL do in our individual lives as we manage the unfolding of our own stories.
This is how “magic” works. When you do, decide & intend, you are becoming a conduit of technology yourself and creating a new state of affairs. This requires creating the technology within yourself — a congruent paradigm that puts you in a position to tell powerful stories to which the world must obey.
If a lightbulb is the story of electricity & filament that produce light — for which we have such certainty — then what story do we need to tell ourselves to convince ourselves it is possible to create light from only an act of will? I am sure a glowing glass bulb also sounded as absurd before consciousness was ready to make it. Asking such questions shows us how to broaden our perspective and begin the process of disentangling our will from stories that add so many extra steps.
There are right ways and “less right” ways that technology should be used. Most of our technology orients us to think ourselves separate from our experience, or independent from it. Modern thought believes we are situated “in the brain” and that the world is “out there.” And so our technology reflects this way of thinking.
We can also see technology itself as an exploration of our own consciousness. Technology becomes almost the philosophical record of how we described our consciousness back to ourselves as we sought to master our will.
I have such strong opinions about technology because it is such an easy generator of fixation. Fixation is becoming too enamored or too concerned with details. It is like becoming glued to a microscope for so long, you think you ARE the microscope.
Higher truths are not perceivable unless you are able to step away from the microscope. This goes deep into our psyches about how we interact with our qualia. It is about our natural behavior and impulses. Are they fixated, or are they flexible?
As fixation increases, our sense of physicality increases — we become heavier — burdened — subject to too many stories whose demands we can’t get above. Decreasing fixation makes you part of all the stories and thus you become less affected by them. You leak less of your will and cause less chaos. You are able to navigate between many stories without needing to resolve each one.
As we fixate, the less will we are able to bring to bear, because we get lost in the comings and goings of the details ; the will becomes diluted and washed away; the details require too much story, too much verisimilitude and we get dragged along, like being tossed in a raging river.
What we create is always a function of our level of fixation. We cannot create “above our station” and so much of the technology humans have made serves a very dense level of reality.
How should technology be used? Technology should be used as a crutch while we recover our will. Technology should have an inverse relationship with our evolution as humans. As we become more sovereign, we have less need for technology — we “become” the technology, but not anything like the transhumanists mistakenly believe.
We become super heroes — wizards — Q.
Here is a simple example: Some years ago the air conditioning in my vehicle gave out. I did not have the money to repair it. As someone who lives in a place where temperatures can reach over 100 degrees, this at first seemed like an almost inconceivable state of affairs. But over the years, something magical happened.
As I kept the window down, I started feeling more connection to my world. I did not feel so isolated in my little moving bubble of metal & glass. I remembered old feelings of being in nature as a kid and I came to love the fresh air and the breeze. But it didn’t end there …
I became accustomed to a broader range of temperatures. I sweated less. I adapted quickly to both hot & cold to where my sensitivity had decreased. I felt less physical discomfort. That’s right — I had become less fixated — less physical.
All those years of air conditioning had created a fixation and made me consciously & spiritually weaker. But how many people would willingly forgo air conditioning to discover these things within themselves? I imagine very few.
Now — are there good uses for air conditioning? Of course. This is just an example to demonstrate a point.
Many believe that technology should relieve us of the burden of our experience or humanity. They want to use technology as a shortcut, wherein fact it creates many extra steps. Technology can easily become a kind of obsessive avoidance. Many see technology as a kind of messiah, or savior and thus really it becomes another damnation.
If we move towards a Gibson future, then many will believe merging themselves with the machine will free them, but this just makes them even more physical. They are seeing fixes and bandages outside of themselves, making “matter” their master.
If we move towards a Star Trek future, we need to be careful about becoming hedonistic and complacent. If our starships and replicators fail us, then we will find that we haven’t done much to address our human condition at all — in fact, it will seem like one big detour. But if we can remember why we’re zipping through the stars, we might have a chance.
Then there are the few who wish to master consciousness — magic, sorcery — those who know that we are masters of reality already and that the answers are inside. Then the role of technology is best suited for allowing us to gracefully manage our environment. We use technology to give ourselves the space & time to uncover where we have hidden our will and integrate it back within.
I suspect our future may be some strange combination of all of these futures. Will our world have cyborgs, Starfleet cadets and super heroes all? There is room for overlap, I think, that results in a positive outlook and something to look forward to.