[FRIAM] on the obustness of globalism

[Marcus Daniels]

Steve writes:


"I just hope he manages to do it without snapping off the masts and the wheelhouse, and then careens overboard before he sinks the entire ship, rats and all.  Maybe there IS an awesome, high-tech ship-of-state or ship-of-society just over the horizon or beyond the fog of culture-wars ready to sweep us up and jet us off into some unspecified utopian future, but I'm not seeing it."


I mean:  All they know is their canoe, and somehow even though they see all these other kinds of boats on the river, they can't imagine anything but huddling in the center of their little canoe in the wind and rain.  Fellow canoers, let us build vessels with shelter!   No, you say?


At some point some subset will build those vessels, but they'll call them arks.


Marcus

________________________________
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> on behalf of Steven A Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 2, 2017 9:09:41 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] on the obustness of globalism


Steve writes:

"I learned early in life that if a canoe is tipping to one side, you don't lean out the other, you drop to the bottom center, lower your center of gravity.   Why is that so hard in sociopolitical contexts?  Unless you want to tip into the drink!”

Except that if we tip it over, we can swim over to that jet boat that is a hundred meters away.   (See the thread on the 10 meter diving platform.)
I think I get that part.... I grew up with a fascination with post-apocalyptic worlds and sci-fi themes of transcendence.  I still have a soft spot for it.  We have in our local circle (but surely not on this list) a near-inner circle Singularian, the futurist/author Steven Kotler: http://diamandis.com/abundance

I put more stock in complexity thinking than exponential thinking.

Your logic is the only hope I hold out for this Trumpian regime.  He is a loose cannon who is in the process of clearing the deck of our ship of state.  I just hope he manages to do it without snapping off the masts and the wheelhouse, and then careens overboard before he sinks the entire ship, rats and all.  Maybe there IS an awesome, high-tech ship-of-state or ship-of-society just over the horizon or beyond the fog of culture-wars ready to sweep us up and jet us off into some unspecified utopian future, but I'm not seeing it.

I also outgrew utopian fantasies when I realized they were a thin disguise for a dystopia.   I'm still fascinated with the dual of utopia/dystopia, but I'm not easily taken in by the idea that when you can't react fast enough *already* to the things appearing on the road in your headlights, that you should just *drive faster*.

- Steve

Marcus





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