Gregg:

Hey -- glad you liked it . . . <g>

This is simply what happens to people when one environment is replaced  
by another.  Since the Axios folks know nothing about the "structures"  
that come with these psycho-technological environments (and they've  
been raised reading about "complexity"), all they can imagine is  
"chaos."  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Every PTE comes with its own structures.  There is nothing that you  
can do about them, in terms of trying to fight against these "forms,"  
they are "hard-wired."  If you don't understand these "forms," which  
is to say you don't understand Aristotle, then you are doomed to  
become a part of the Borg.  Resistance is futile!

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.amazon.com_Aristotles-2DMetaphysics-2DAristotle_dp_1888009039&d=DwIDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=7yL4fuTVdYdKL-puLAT2y4f2cB6nnOpx_vwHwndI6K8&s=KK6JOUCf3st4ahXbSO09cPaGvwHZS2s_pKW_JxvmYjs&e=

On the other hand, if you can actually *understand* what is going on,  
then dealing with the "chaos" becomes straightforward.  No, the Axios  
folks can't do that.  They are up-a-creek (environmentally speaking)  
without a paddle (any understanding of PTE forms.)

Another recent post on one of my lists was from John Horgan (a  
Scientific American "blogger," who I know), who has also attracted  
Gregg's interest.  He is despondent about the "Dark Days."  He is a  
"hippie" (who teaches "creative writing.")  He has no clue what is  
going on (and doesn't want to know.)  No wonder he's upset (and, yes,  
it's his own fault.)

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__blogs.scientificamerican.com_cross-2Dcheck_dark-2Ddays_&d=DwIDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=7yL4fuTVdYdKL-puLAT2y4f2cB6nnOpx_vwHwndI6K8&s=2F4vSJQWSYJKfwFEuvBGNL-h9qEJx4dpZIlRId8QQV8&e=

"Existential crisis" is just the naive reaction to all this.  It has  
happened many times before.  It happened in the 60s, when TELEVISION  
took over from RADIO.  "Burn, baby burn!"  It happened *big time* when  
ELECTRICITY took over from PRINT in the mid-1800s.  Thus, Nietzsche's  
"revaluation of all values" &c.

The only person I know of who has proposed a way out of all this is  
Marshall McLuhan.  That is why his work is at the heart of my Center.

Marshall accomplished that by *not* coming from the usual PTE --  
which, given that he was born in 1911, would have been RADIO.  But he  
grew up on the Canadian prairie and was "formed" outside of that  
environment -- a "peripheral" role he often commented about.  Thus  
his, "I don't know who discovered water but it wasn't a fish."

If you refuse to understand *forms*, then you are lost.  If you insist  
of doubling-down on the same nonsense that got you into this mess  
(i.e. most ideas since 1850), then you are lost.  If you look under  
the "streetlamp for your car-keys," then you are lost.  Yes, most  
people are quite lost (thus their anxiety &c.)  McLuhan called this  
"looking in the rear-view mirror."

One of my favorite 50s Sci-Fi movies is "Forbidden Planet."  It was  
actually a treatment of the Freudian "Monster Id" and the attempts to  
"tame it."  It's where we first got "Robby the Robot," who would later  
give us "Danger, Will Robinson" -- which is just what Axios is saying,  
while flailing their arms in the air.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_Forbidden-5FPlanet&d=DwIDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=7yL4fuTVdYdKL-puLAT2y4f2cB6nnOpx_vwHwndI6K8&s=HGln8ysrDKXZpypdvNeXOC_uLbD2KymBs3tjH4ELIA4&e=

Recently on Alexander's "Intellectual Dark Web" private-list, I  
suggested the following analogy (i.e. correspondence, not  
equivalence), based on the fact that Freud was trained (in some  
fashion) in *medieval* psychology --

Id ~ Imagination
Superego ~ Memory

What if the "forms" of the ELECTRIC environment favored the "Id" and  
DIGITAL favors the "Superego"?  How would that transition appear to  
people who have lived their whole lives under "Id" conditions?  Just  
as it appears to people like Steve Levine of Axios and John Horgan of  
Stevens Institute?

Yes, it would look like a "world in chaos" (when, in fact, it is  
simply taking on different *forms* that remain "invisible" to those  
shouting "danger") . . . !!

Mark

P.S. "Adapation" requires aligning with these new forms.  We already  
know where it will "settle."  Alas, Plato's "Good" will not help.   
Neither will mathematics or complexity.  Without Aristotle, we're all  
"lost in space."

Quoting "Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx" <[log in to unmask]>:

> Hi List,
>
>   I saw this posted to Mark’s Center for Digital Life List, and  
> thought it would be good to be shared here.  
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.axios.com_newsletters_axios-2Dfuture-2Ddca28385-2D9508-2D412d-2D8c1a-2Dec2189c15354.html&d=DwIDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=7yL4fuTVdYdKL-puLAT2y4f2cB6nnOpx_vwHwndI6K8&s=bhhP5RJh_uNeCIChmPjuWVxleQZOCHi80OaR1_CdYU8&e=
>
>    It offers some good reflections on this being a very chaotic time  
> in history. I see us as being in a place of “fragmented pluralism,”  
> which is producing existential angst. And this at a time when the  
> rapid technological changes are changing us and the planet around us  
> in fundamental ways. In “experimental” terms: “take a confused and  
> interconnected talking ape and massively change the environment and  
> give them hope that anything is possible, create huge levels of  
> status inequality, change the lifestyle playing field dramatically,  
> and then see what happens. Oh, and for a kicker, as a reflection of  
> this fragmented pluralism, elect a chaotic disrupter with poor  
> character values to the most powerful job on the planet!
>
> Yes, flux will follow. The question is where and how will it settle.  
> Will we be able to use the disruption to chart a new, adaptive  
> course? Or will the chaos grow and grow and threaten the entire  
> infrastructure and place the world in the brink of (or in actual)  
> catastrophe?
>
> Just some cheery thoughts for a Saturday morning 😊.
>
> Best,
> G
>
>
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