[FRIAM] nice quote

[Marcus Daniels]

A belief later espoused by the Unabomber.



From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of steve smith
Sent: Friday, October 4, 2024 11:53 AM
To: friam at redfish.com
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] nice quote







"The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, 
medieval institutions, and godlike technology. And it is terrifically 
dangerous."  Edward O. Wilson.



davew



This is a favorite quote for me of late...  the challenge, methinks is "what 
am I going to do about it?"

I try to resolve these questions for myself before I get too carried away 
trying to prescribe anything for anyone else (especially large scale/global 
solutions), yet it is useful to keep this in mind whilst considering what I 
think is 'best for the collective'.

Maturing and Aging have offered me some perspective and relief from the 
emotional component (especially the fight/flight reproduce-at-all cost hormone 
driven ones).   Similarly I've now seen (and studied) a variety of 
socio-economic-political systems enough to have at least vaguely informed 
opinions about them (unlike the totally mis-informed ones I had leading me to 
vote Reagan in over Carter as my first vote).   The technological question is 
more near and dear to my heart having been simultaneously (or alternately?) a 
technophile and a luddite.

I have dabbled in 19th century (and earlier) technology to help ground my 
grounding in the mid-late 20th century I grew up as part of the background. 
I've been lucky enough to engage some with 21st century tech early by virtue 
of working at an over-funded scientific laboratory which often either had 
access to or was developing for it's own ideosyncratic reasons, things which 
the public wouldn't see or maybe even hear about for decades.   It was heady. 
But also disturbing.

Yuval Harari's latest book Nexus, touches on the implications of our 
"information technology" development over millenia but especially the last few 
decades with a very *liberal* view of what means information technology (and 
networks in particular).  Continuing his other cautionary tales about the 
power of our "storytelling", I feel like he lays the groundwork for the most 
likely way we might recalibrate emotions to institutions to technology.   Our 
technology has been pulling hard against the drag of our institutions which 
are faithfully trying to drag our emotions (e.g. religious/political/cultural 
moral frameworks) and the impedance mismatch seems to be the source of most of 
our worst behaviours/outcomes?

The stories our modern MAGA/FauxRepublican/FauxConservative political party in 
the US is telling is rooted deeply in the emotional with only the barest nod 
to the institutional (support LawNorder!!!!) and a jealous greedy eye for the 
godlike tech (e.g. Trump cozying up to Musk/TechBros and NFTs and Crypto as if 
he understands ANY of it?).

The Progressive/Liberal "institutions" of the DNC seem to be a little less 
regressive/reactionary but do in fact suffer some of the same problems albeit 
not as acutely superficially obvious.   Without bashing the specifics of what 
"the Dems" might be getting wrong, if we don't notice the impedance mismach EO 
Wilson called out for us there, we are destined to have raucous "ringing" in 
our systems?   I think the promise of a "Green New Deal" juxtaposed with some 
of the biggest obvious fallacies and inadequacies are a good example...  by 
the time we actually settle on what a GND might really look like the 
challenges and opportunities may have moved on by a decade or more (is GND a 
whole decade old as a term yet?) while MAGA keeps trying to claim "we believe 
in clean air and water but sea level rise will be fractions of an inch in 
centuries at worst and will yield more beachfront property in any case"?

How do we move our collective storytelling to be both coherent and aligned 
with the physics/chemistry/bio/ecology of Gaia quickly enough to quit driving 
the various components past their limits (drill baby drill!)?

Maybe we cannot.  Maybe we will have to crash and burn and hope something can 
rise from the ashes (cockroaches and the Rolling Stones?   NeoLibertarian 
TechBros in their high-tech Bitcoin Bunkers raising their own clones?)

Atlas Shrugs,  Gaia Shrugs more Bigly....  (Rand, Margulis, Dilbert, Trump 
references convolved?)







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