We are on the cusp of a new way of thinking. The ways we operate, interact, understand reality. The things we are loyal to. All about to change.
We are on the cusp of a new way of thinking.
The ways we operate, interact, and understand reality. The things we are loyal to.
All about to change.
Shaped by what we create.
Where are we headed? First, a simplified history...
Back in the days of hunters and gatherers, when the tribe was our whole world, when stories were told orally by the elderly sage, the shaman, the keeper of the flame...how was society organized?
In circles.
Our world, our thought, was formed in circles.
And there was usually one person in the center, be it the priest, chief, or father of the household.
We were loyal to the center.
It brought a new structure.
No longer were we sitting around a storyteller. Our stories were now organized in hierarchical form. Like straight lines across a page. And the rest of our world reorganized itself, from the pews of churches to the chairs of classrooms.
We were loyal to the front of the room, the head of the table, the top of the page.
It is also worth noting Gutenberg's impact on the influence of those in authority. Before the press, only the scholars were literate, and Biblical interpretation was heavily controlled by the church.
The advent of the printing press brought an explosion of new ideas, new interpretations, and revolutions in thought. Although it took a while, literacy spread to the common man. It is possibly the closest comparison we have to the internet.
In some ways, this industrial structure is still embedded in our minds and cultures.
No longer is our world a little bubble, enforced by the tribe. Neither is it confined to the spine of a book.
Each individual is part of multiple groups, multiple tribes, listening to stories from multiple sages. By osmosis, our thinking grew more fluid, an open system with ideas and beliefs picked up and dropped at any time.
Now our loyalty is scattered, easily moved about from community to community.
This revolution in communication empowered the everyday man. When before only a relatively few had the ability to write and publish a book in Geneva or speak in an auditorium in Athens, and thus societies had only a few options for what to think and believe, now anyone has the power to publish their philosophies, giving us a virtually unlimited buffet of ideas to choose from.
Consider Twitter, the platform that introduced something radical: the verbalizing of fleeting thoughts, caught in raw form, that other people can respond to. Previously such thoughts needed to be developed into a letter or email. Now, it is as though there is no time interval between the thought and its widespread dissemination.
This usefulness in capturing our thoughts comes at a cost, though. Quality of content is diluted and distractions are multiplied.
In some ways, we still have the hierarchy of the printing press, like in education and scholarship.
And we are still growing into the interconnected mind of our current age.
Will we return to the ways of the circle? The closed system of the tribe?
Or maybe we will progress into micro-communities, with micro blogs and micro content. A more fractured or decentralized world.
We could possibly be moving towards an integration of the circular and hierarchical structures. Or perhaps of circles within circles.
Maybe we are trending back towards the bridging of science and religion. Some say we are witnessing the beginning of the Neo-Renaissance.
How will this reflect in not just the way we think, but in our architecture, our books, our schools and churches?
Maybe we are already there.
Multi-passionate creative and cultural philosopher. I love talking psychology, culture, education, and anything else that deals with living as better people.