Hi Waldemar,

The technium is a term coined by Kevin Kelly. The technium is a superorganism of technology. It's the technological aspect of culture. Right now, the technium is less complex than the biosphere. But the technium will eventually surpass the biosphere in complexity when the Singularity occurs. The web is the nervous system of the techium. Soon the web will manage almost all technological, economic, and media activities

I tend to think of the technium like a child of humanity. Our job will be to train the technium, to imbue it with certain principles because, at a certain level and at a certain age, it will basically become much more autonomous than it is now. It will leave us like a teenager who goes on to live alone: although he or she will continue to interact with us and will always be part of us, we have to let it go.

One way to think of the technium is as the 7th kingdom of life. 

Here's my view on the technium:

Technologies are like the phenotypes of memes (thoughts, in this case). Memes are reproducing patterns of behavior, instantiated in the brain/mind, or symbolically on paper, as behaviors, as words, in computer code, letters, sound waves, symbols of any kind. Memes are the software of the mind, manifesting behaviors and technologies. There's a kind of fuzzy ontology about memes that hasn't been worked out yet. They are the stuff of culture.  
Why are memes relevant? How does the technium, the 7th kingdom of life evolve, if we're to say it's alive?
One way to describe general intelligence is the random mutation of memes (thoughts) where the fitness landscape in the goal. That is, random patterns are generated in the brain until they fit the parameters of a goal and an Aha! moment occurs. The aha moment leads to a behavior or the building of a technology, and then it reproduces throughout culture. The DNA of a technology is a meme. Memes are randomly mutating and spawning out of brains, and they reproduce from brain to brain, selected by what you might call 'justification'.  If you see your friend make a fire with two sticks, the meme (the behavioral pattern instantiated in the mind; the memory) reproduces onto your brain because it was justified by the fact that it worked to serve your interests.

The technium is a giant meme-nest. Memes can survive much more easily in computer code than in human brains. Eventually, all of culture (all memes) justified by the criteria for what gets put onto the technium, will be instantiated onto the technium. The technium is uploading everything. Google is sucking up information about you all the time. Eventually, the technium might become conscious and know everyone on the planet better than they know themselves. 

Here's some interesting links:

The 'One Machine':
https://kk.org/thetechnium/dimensions-of-t/

Evidence of a global superorganism:    
https://kk.org/thetechnium/evidence-of-a-g/

There exists on this planet:

  • I    A manufactured superorganism

  • II    An autonomous superorganism
  • III  An autonomous smart superorganism
  • IV  An autonomous conscious superorganism
Major Stages of the technium:
https://kk.org/thetechnium/major-stages-of/

TED evolution of technology https://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_tells_technology_s_epic_story#t-593160

TED The next 5000 days of the web    https://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web

On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 11:46 AM, [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Jamie:

Welcome to the group.
I am interested in the term you use: “technium.”
I wonder if you would provide the definition you apply to “technium.”

Best regards,

Waldemar

Waldemar A Schmidt, PhD, MD
(Perseveret et Percipiunt)
503.631.8044

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. (A Einstein)






On Jul 27, 2018, at 2:09 AM, Mathew Jamie Dunbaugh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Thanks, I hadn't recognized the problem as a cultural identity crisis 
In my understanding, we're reverting to the identities that give people self-esteem while other forces keep us from being violent.  

I'd say that the current state of the left is actually progress, not to say that it's good. It's that we've started to confront hard truths and we're trying to figure out how to deal with them. We've "discovered" systemic racism, and we're trying to figure out how to deal with that. 

I'm inclined to think (and hope) that whoever runs against Trump in 2020 will be more centered, or Trump will get re-elected. 
Because 
1) I don't think the left's identity politics can unify around anything.  
2) Trump is probably the best the far right can ever get. 

The ratcheting of justification will continue towards a more large-scale integration of society. And the global conversation about what's just and true will distill what actually works. 

We're going to have to become tolerant of facts ...and more nuanced in order to keep from reinforcing unjust cultural fictions. And all this while we change the truths we can change. 

Eventually, we're going to have to have a celebrated global identity, and I think that can only happen when we can find self-esteem from being a part of the world...which means that eventually, the technium will have to include everyone in its care. 

Also, I think Jordan Peterson is the beginning of a new "religion", or value-system of transcendence being formed. Part of my inspiration for the Moral Apex was in response to Peterson's philosophy. Peterson argues that embodying and telling the truth is what allows people to rise in dominance hierarchies, or embody the logos or whatever. I wish this were actually true today. It doesn't seem so to me. 

It's twisted that Peterson uses Jesus as the example of someone who achieves transcendence when he was actually killed. If a person aims to be completely truthful and act in the interests of universal well-being, it seems to me that they'd get eaten alive. 

But I think we are moving towards the truth winning out. A big part of that is discovering (and admitting) what's true. I think many forces are converging to make this so. Threats from within will increase if we don't include everyone. The only means of consensus that works is the actual truth.



On Wed, Jul 25, 2018 at 9:42 AM, Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hi List,

  I have completed an initial draft of a five part blog series on Jordan Peterson. It does not have all the links and references, but I am done working on it for the time being and thought I would share. I am going out of town next week, and will be likely posting it the week I get back, right now shooting for August 10.

 

If folks are interested, and read it and have reactions, recommendations, concerns or comments, I would, of course, welcome that.

 

Warm regards,

Gregg

 

___________________________________________

Gregg Henriques, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Graduate Psychology
216 Johnston Hall
MSC 7401
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
(540) 568-7857 (phone)
(540) 568-4747 (fax)


Be that which enhances dignity and well-being with integrity.

Check out my Theory of Knowledge blog at Psychology Today at:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge

 

 

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