A number of truly remarkable things are being expressed in our global mass consciousness at this unique juncture in time... it makes me think they may be linked, or are perhaps just expressions of the same phenomenon in different ways, specifically:
1. The recent discovery (still to be confirmed) that particles may travel faster than the speed of light upending some of the fundamental physical laws of the universe as currently understood.
2. The advances in the material world like the one-atom-thick planar sheets of graphene transforming the thermo-mechanical-electro-conductive potential of everything from solar panels to cell phones to their use as anti-bacterial agents in preserving fresh food.
3. The exponential acceleration of technology itself. While speed and memory are what we think of most when considering this acceleration, I would now add adoption and connection. The speed that people can and are adopting technology like cell phones that allow them to connect to each other and to information is having impact in ways that are impossible to ignore.
4. This is being most dramatically expressed as the seemingly autonomous mass movements springing up around the world including the youth-led Mid-east and London uprisings and now the Occupy Wall Street movement.
I could add more and will, but jeeze what's going on?!?!? Is the material and social world reorganizing its own structure?
What led me down this path this morning was this thought by Jim Holt in a New York Times article:
"It is interesting to consider the Large Hadron Collider itself in this light. Here we have a gigantic and complex physical object that was consciously created by humans motivated by the desire to obtain, in Randall’s words, “a more comprehensive picture of the nature of reality.” But this physical object, like the scientists who planned it, ultimately just consists of elementary particles bumping around. It came together through interactions that, in principle at least, could be entirely accounted for by the laws of physics, without any reference at all to human will or purpose. Seen in this non-anthropocentric way, the Large Hadron Collider looks like the physical universe’s bid for a kind of self-awareness. Its existence is a sign that the laws of physics mandate their own discovery."
Hmmm...... now that's a leap. I would argue that these potentially inter-related phenomenon are not just a sign that the laws of physics mandate their own discovery, but mind itself does. Its as if mind is ultimately expressing its fundamental nature, that is, its limitless potential to be anything, everything and no-thing simultaneously.
mark
2. The advances in the material world like the one-atom-thick planar sheets of graphene transforming the thermo-mechanical-electro-conductive potential of everything from solar panels to cell phones to their use as anti-bacterial agents in preserving fresh food.
3. The exponential acceleration of technology itself. While speed and memory are what we think of most when considering this acceleration, I would now add adoption and connection. The speed that people can and are adopting technology like cell phones that allow them to connect to each other and to information is having impact in ways that are impossible to ignore.
4. This is being most dramatically expressed as the seemingly autonomous mass movements springing up around the world including the youth-led Mid-east and London uprisings and now the Occupy Wall Street movement.
I could add more and will, but jeeze what's going on?!?!? Is the material and social world reorganizing its own structure?
"It is interesting to consider the Large Hadron Collider itself in this light. Here we have a gigantic and complex physical object that was consciously created by humans motivated by the desire to obtain, in Randall’s words, “a more comprehensive picture of the nature of reality.” But this physical object, like the scientists who planned it, ultimately just consists of elementary particles bumping around. It came together through interactions that, in principle at least, could be entirely accounted for by the laws of physics, without any reference at all to human will or purpose. Seen in this non-anthropocentric way, the Large Hadron Collider looks like the physical universe’s bid for a kind of self-awareness. Its existence is a sign that the laws of physics mandate their own discovery."
Hmmm...... now that's a leap. I would argue that these potentially inter-related phenomenon are not just a sign that the laws of physics mandate their own discovery, but mind itself does. Its as if mind is ultimately expressing its fundamental nature, that is, its limitless potential to be anything, everything and no-thing simultaneously.
mark