Thursday, November 29, 2012
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012
Thoughts about a quote
Last night I was driving home from work. I had a quote running through my mind when I stopped to get coffee.
"With the kinds of problems facing the world....if the expansion if consciousness does not loom large in the human future, then what kind of future is it going to be???" --- Terence Mckenna ---
I was thinking about this as I stopped at Starbucks to get coffee. I was just going to get the coffee to go, but in the parking lot I decided to sit and write my ideas. Basically, I realized that even though people like Mckenna (from Socrates to Hawking) have contributed so much to the intellectual landscape that we live in, there is still another part to be played. Being an eloquent genius who writes philosophical volumes or recites the calculus in their sleep is not a requirement for contribution to the architecture of civilization. I see that there is a part to be played that is more suited to the common yet thoughtful, modern person. I love to learn and try to soak up every bit of knowledge that I can but have many times had the intimidating suspicion that these thinkers of the past had some ability to enter their ideas and conclusions into the database of human knowledge that I probably don't and won't ever have. This ability usually seems to be a mixture of brilliance and being in the right place at the right time. Being in the right place at the right time means that they were interested in a subject that was ready to yield leaps in insight or discovery. Many times this was made possible by wealth and influence in the form of resources, formal education and connections.
Here is my writing:
"With the kinds of problems facing the world....if the expansion if consciousness does not loom large in the human future, then what kind of future is it going to be???" --- Terence Mckenna ---
And it is clear to me that the spreading of memes will be the primary catalyst for the salvation of the species. As an artist and thinker, my basic function is the acquisition, processing and spreading of memes. If I am doing any of these things, then I am doing art. The artist is the rudder of humanity whose job it is to direct the corse of civilization, to guide the flow of culture. I was shocked to read this paraphrased idea in the introduction to a humanities textbook when I was about 20. Arrogance? Megolomaniacal? No. The march towards greater consciousness is inevitable and it's responsibility rests on the shoulders of no individual (luckily). But it can be helped along by each thoughtful mind adding into the stream.
The ideas of great thinkers of the past are many but there is still so much to do. To use art of every medium to translate, sift and reconfigure the data. To make them accessible to every kind of mind. To cast light on analogies and connections that had not been seen before. Technology will enable and create new forms of media that will uncover new insights, in an unending feedback loop of creativity and information.
"With the kinds of problems facing the world....if the expansion if consciousness does not loom large in the human future, then what kind of future is it going to be???" --- Terence Mckenna ---
I was thinking about this as I stopped at Starbucks to get coffee. I was just going to get the coffee to go, but in the parking lot I decided to sit and write my ideas. Basically, I realized that even though people like Mckenna (from Socrates to Hawking) have contributed so much to the intellectual landscape that we live in, there is still another part to be played. Being an eloquent genius who writes philosophical volumes or recites the calculus in their sleep is not a requirement for contribution to the architecture of civilization. I see that there is a part to be played that is more suited to the common yet thoughtful, modern person. I love to learn and try to soak up every bit of knowledge that I can but have many times had the intimidating suspicion that these thinkers of the past had some ability to enter their ideas and conclusions into the database of human knowledge that I probably don't and won't ever have. This ability usually seems to be a mixture of brilliance and being in the right place at the right time. Being in the right place at the right time means that they were interested in a subject that was ready to yield leaps in insight or discovery. Many times this was made possible by wealth and influence in the form of resources, formal education and connections.
Here is my writing:
"With the kinds of problems facing the world....if the expansion if consciousness does not loom large in the human future, then what kind of future is it going to be???" --- Terence Mckenna ---
And it is clear to me that the spreading of memes will be the primary catalyst for the salvation of the species. As an artist and thinker, my basic function is the acquisition, processing and spreading of memes. If I am doing any of these things, then I am doing art. The artist is the rudder of humanity whose job it is to direct the corse of civilization, to guide the flow of culture. I was shocked to read this paraphrased idea in the introduction to a humanities textbook when I was about 20. Arrogance? Megolomaniacal? No. The march towards greater consciousness is inevitable and it's responsibility rests on the shoulders of no individual (luckily). But it can be helped along by each thoughtful mind adding into the stream.
The ideas of great thinkers of the past are many but there is still so much to do. To use art of every medium to translate, sift and reconfigure the data. To make them accessible to every kind of mind. To cast light on analogies and connections that had not been seen before. Technology will enable and create new forms of media that will uncover new insights, in an unending feedback loop of creativity and information.
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