Hi all, Just wanted to forward the below poem I wrote Sunday and some additional reflections. I'm wondering if the concept and phrase "Meditation Not Violence" can help reduce the harm caused by future crises. It's just a question really, not sure of the answer.
All best, Max +++++ ....One way the sanitized story of big data brother misleads is, I think, lies in its masking of its own violence. The cheerful banality of "likes" covers up the amputation of autonomous disagreement. The violent proclivities of internet data flows were I think underestimated in the early days when "transgressive" meant freedom, progress, and truth. Now we see all too well how easy it is to meld naughty clicking and posting to a global anti-democracy onslaught. The medium is too sharp and unreflective, and its myopia is where the money is. We have highways but no seat belts. Thankfully the seat belt is not rocket science, and might even be a built-in feature we have just been too well-goaded into ignoring. I view meditation as the antidote; it's as simple as breathing, needs no analytics, and has no substitute. Does one's data arrive in a "feed" from the outside, unfortunately akin to a horse's feedbag, or does it grow from within? If humanity resides in our ability to imagine then losing that ability has vast implications. Meditation just means stopping the in-feed for a little while to allow for processing, breathing, and metabolism. As you note, the big harvesting has no idea how to see that and it might even be invisible by definition. As to creation, the making of words and data, perhaps they can study which kinds of data-consumption lead to meditative creation? I don't know if you can teach an AI to meditate or recognize meditative creation. And do we really know how to look at a painting? The world for 500 years has agreed that the bridge in the Mona Lisa means nothing, but it almost certainly means technology. Below is a bad poem I wrote Sunday about the trials now underway. I don't know if "Meditation Not Violence" can make any difference in avoiding conflagration but it seems possible at least. What good does it do to have analytics that tell us "people no longer meditate, and this breeds the violence that eliminates democracy" if they don't do anything about it? All best, Max +++++ March 2021 Today while driving to a park I saw The Second Precinct double-ringed in fence Up on big concrete blocks, the inner wreathed In shining helixes of razor wire. A bramble more filled up the space between. Something about the heavy mixed with sharp And bright with dull, the tangle and the wall Seemed natural, however it was not. The algorithm choosing war or peace (Because we humans lack the confidence) Is blind to what our hearts may wish to do. It only knows the actions and the fruit. The partisans of January Six No longer guard foundations of a state; In fear of fading myths they turn to ruin. What terrifies them simply is the vote, The right of each to have a voice their hell. Destruction’s what they want! There's nothing left But wrack to stem the even steps of peace. When we stay calm, their rabid hatred shows; Not violence but meditation wins. +++++
_______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
