hi Daniel! thanks so much for all the great observations in this (brilliant) analysis - only one thing really stuck out for me in it that seemed worth questioning; IMO, hoping for Blockchain- related tech to be anything but environmentally catastrophic anytime soon (unfortunately) seems misplaced; with the comment in mind you made about NFT's themselves being "digital distractions" also consider this from a few weeks ago; "the Guardian estimated that the sale of 303 editions of Earth, an NFT produced by the musician and artist Grimes earlier this month, “used the same electrical power as the average EU resident would in 33 years, and produced 70 tons of CO2 emissions.” ..+ from what I gather even the most optimistic scenarios for BC's eco-sustainability seem a long way off...+ it seems evident that the whole phenom itself was (unsurprisingly) initially, voraciously developed, like so many things in tech, without any real long (or short!) term regard for the environmental impact/ consequences...+ my assumption here would be that, you being you, that you probably already knew all this, etc...which then leads me to wonder what your thinking/ rationale would be for still advocating for it the way you do...especially as a sort of "glimmer of hope" at the end of the essay? (+ IMO this hope seems additionally curious as earlier in the essay you explicitly lamented the "...the deeper incursion or penetration of Capitalist economics and the one-dimensional logic of the market.." which in all likelihood, would/ will continue to be the primary material and idoelogical modalities this tech is used within?) thanks man
Good point! I suppose the hope is that there are new ways for validation to happen on blockchains that don't use excess energy. What intrigues me is the new developments that are happening which could allow for new orchestrations combining value creation / value exchange with governance / decision-making structures. These could be designed to support ecologically beneficial activities over ecologically destructive ones. For instance, some kind of token which you gain by doing something regenerative, or the idea of a negative-interest currency which works against hoarding capital / resources. But yes, the energy use is a big problem until other forms of decentralized validation become available. Ethereum got stopped a few years back by the slowness of validating transactions. One new project is Polkadot which uses side chains or "para chains" to create a tree structure and in theory this makes it possible to have hundreds of thousands of transactions per minute. But yes it is also still feasible that blockchain will have turned out to be another destructive waste of energy without achieving ecologically regenerative goals.
Thank you Daniel….thinking about the positive/ revolutionary potentials for Blockchain illuminates what seems like several insurmountable gulfs between my ideal of/ aspiration to have basic behavioral/ moral integrity as a modern human…within a system where I am already deeply, habitually, decades-locked-into several hyper convenient, indispensable 20th and 21st century Faustian material consumer habits, and their associated environmentally catastrophic infrastructures.
I guess I just don’t want to end up feeling compelled to (necessarily) always tacitly have to morally support whatever the, “latest thing“ is, just because I’m already so deeply locked into all of the other prior technologies...+ even though in many cases it wouldn’t even be possible, I generally think that having one’s policy approach and regular behavior evolve in the direction of “local Luddite fantasy“, in general, usually is probably gonna the better course of action; IE on a cultural level, abolishing the space program, etc = reducing and eventually eliminating anything that actually doesn’t serve the current first principle needs of the Earth/ oceans/ air, people, and the entire non-human animal world as its primary moral objective.
My point is is that the entire development of blockchain, inasmuch as it already is (apparently) so catastrophically out of sync with natural limits…IMO (possibly) ought to be the grounds for totally discontinuing it outright, until further notice… but unfortunately I think most people these days would disagree with me about this (as well as about the space program, the Hadron megacollider, etc) these days... I’m just generally suspicious of the way a type of uncritical (anthropocentric) futurism can (again) be philosophically frictionlessly transposed onto the development of another (already demonstrably!) Earth killing technology (+ please forgive me if this was a little meandering...I believe in your essay you already alluded to what I’m getting at in many ways, here!)
"Our incessant immersion in the digital and virtual costs us a certain degree of interiority and unique subjectivity. With our ever-present phones, we can’t escape the intrusion of the collective into our inner space of self-reflection. This insistent presence is like an implicit, mute Greek chorus, ever ready to judge, praise, condone, or condemn." I could not agree more. Your comments on modern film and television are also spot on.
Thank you Daniel. Pulled your book 2012 from my shelf to re-read more about Gebser's insights. So appreciate your essay's and books and the depth by which you explore these issues. Very helpful indeed.
Great stuff, particularly the analysis of how technology is interrupting our ability to have the quiet subjective moments art requires. You lost me on the vaccine stuff and the blockchain stuff but I think you articulated something crucial up until then.
Such a poignant, illuminating and intelligently well written piece Daniel.
Virtual reality and the stealing of our attention by Smart devices has plunged many into a concentrated cyber world of contracted consciousness and ignorance within which new artificial representations of art forms have replaced real artistic and genuinely creative endeavors and classical forms of art with designer and digital forms of superficial and synthetic artistic expressions. This ranges from narcissistic social media memes and messages to superfluous pictures and superficial photographs and posts that ultimately supplant any real artistic and cultural appreciation for the good, the true, and the beautiful, as expressed by and through the sacred beauty and supernal power of soul and spirit, and their irrefutable and undeniable connection to the heart of cosmic consciousness, infinite intelligence, and Divine love.
"We lie in the lap of an immense intelligence that makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activity." (Ralph Waldo Emmerson, Self Reliance Essay, 1841)
There is an obvious paradox underlying this artistic degradation though; that lies in the ubiquitous opportunity of the all pervasive electronic reality of the cyber world of the internet, that has afforded humanity across the board a virtually unlimited opportunity for connectivity and communication spanning continents and cultures in real time; while concomitantly being able to share information, ideas, and knowledge across these global borders, boundaries and time zones from virtually anywhere in the world, at any time.
The technology and digital platforms offer the so called ordinary man and woman, the 99% if you will, the opportunity to participate in a global exchange of information, ideas, and value - previously limited to those with the means, money, and resources to traverse the globe by sea, air, rail or road, or a combination of them, often at great peril and risk to themselves (the Titanic springs to mind) - for those with access to the internet, the social media platforms and the Smart technologies connecting us all; albeit within an emerging totalitarian system of the 21st century.
The Oscars last night were a good even prime example of the growing unpopularity and disinterest in these previously adored and admired artists with their now overly political and prejudicial forms of artistic entertainment and the associated dulling and deterioration of the form and expression of their art, and its emergent fakery, as they move away from (and conspicuously into a self defeating and ultimately deadly cul-de-sac of deluded identity politics, cancel culture, gender dissolution, and social, economic, and political tyranny) the source from which all genuine and great works of art originate and spring - the infinite, unfathomable, all inclusive and unlimited reservoir and river of life or cosmic ocean of Divine inspiration, energy, intelligence and love.
Thought provoking essay, as always. One thing that comes to mind right off the bat is that artists, and all creatives, have been completely shut down in this pandemic. DJs, dancers, theater folk, art galleries, lighting crew, stage hands, musicians, all without any, or just the smallest amounts, of work possibilities. TV, or the new Netflixing state of TV, is one of the only places flourishing for creative writing and storytelling. Shows that would never have seen the airwaves back in the old model are able to exist. “Hamilton’s Pharmacopia,” “Rick & Morty,” come to mind as well as the troves of great documentaries add to the great TV output currently. But yeah, so much of it is bleak. I could picture you writing a show that would do very well. You are on point with so much that is going on, there are people you could reach far beyond the limits of this direct method of sharing your thoughts via subscription-based email blasting. There are likely out-of-work video production friends in your circle that would love to bring your vision to Netflix. If you can’t stop ‘em, beat them at their game! -jason1969
hi Daniel! thanks so much for all the great observations in this (brilliant) analysis - only one thing really stuck out for me in it that seemed worth questioning; IMO, hoping for Blockchain- related tech to be anything but environmentally catastrophic anytime soon (unfortunately) seems misplaced; with the comment in mind you made about NFT's themselves being "digital distractions" also consider this from a few weeks ago; "the Guardian estimated that the sale of 303 editions of Earth, an NFT produced by the musician and artist Grimes earlier this month, “used the same electrical power as the average EU resident would in 33 years, and produced 70 tons of CO2 emissions.” ..+ from what I gather even the most optimistic scenarios for BC's eco-sustainability seem a long way off...+ it seems evident that the whole phenom itself was (unsurprisingly) initially, voraciously developed, like so many things in tech, without any real long (or short!) term regard for the environmental impact/ consequences...+ my assumption here would be that, you being you, that you probably already knew all this, etc...which then leads me to wonder what your thinking/ rationale would be for still advocating for it the way you do...especially as a sort of "glimmer of hope" at the end of the essay? (+ IMO this hope seems additionally curious as earlier in the essay you explicitly lamented the "...the deeper incursion or penetration of Capitalist economics and the one-dimensional logic of the market.." which in all likelihood, would/ will continue to be the primary material and idoelogical modalities this tech is used within?) thanks man
Good point! I suppose the hope is that there are new ways for validation to happen on blockchains that don't use excess energy. What intrigues me is the new developments that are happening which could allow for new orchestrations combining value creation / value exchange with governance / decision-making structures. These could be designed to support ecologically beneficial activities over ecologically destructive ones. For instance, some kind of token which you gain by doing something regenerative, or the idea of a negative-interest currency which works against hoarding capital / resources. But yes, the energy use is a big problem until other forms of decentralized validation become available. Ethereum got stopped a few years back by the slowness of validating transactions. One new project is Polkadot which uses side chains or "para chains" to create a tree structure and in theory this makes it possible to have hundreds of thousands of transactions per minute. But yes it is also still feasible that blockchain will have turned out to be another destructive waste of energy without achieving ecologically regenerative goals.
Thank you Daniel….thinking about the positive/ revolutionary potentials for Blockchain illuminates what seems like several insurmountable gulfs between my ideal of/ aspiration to have basic behavioral/ moral integrity as a modern human…within a system where I am already deeply, habitually, decades-locked-into several hyper convenient, indispensable 20th and 21st century Faustian material consumer habits, and their associated environmentally catastrophic infrastructures.
I guess I just don’t want to end up feeling compelled to (necessarily) always tacitly have to morally support whatever the, “latest thing“ is, just because I’m already so deeply locked into all of the other prior technologies...+ even though in many cases it wouldn’t even be possible, I generally think that having one’s policy approach and regular behavior evolve in the direction of “local Luddite fantasy“, in general, usually is probably gonna the better course of action; IE on a cultural level, abolishing the space program, etc = reducing and eventually eliminating anything that actually doesn’t serve the current first principle needs of the Earth/ oceans/ air, people, and the entire non-human animal world as its primary moral objective.
My point is is that the entire development of blockchain, inasmuch as it already is (apparently) so catastrophically out of sync with natural limits…IMO (possibly) ought to be the grounds for totally discontinuing it outright, until further notice… but unfortunately I think most people these days would disagree with me about this (as well as about the space program, the Hadron megacollider, etc) these days... I’m just generally suspicious of the way a type of uncritical (anthropocentric) futurism can (again) be philosophically frictionlessly transposed onto the development of another (already demonstrably!) Earth killing technology (+ please forgive me if this was a little meandering...I believe in your essay you already alluded to what I’m getting at in many ways, here!)
"Our incessant immersion in the digital and virtual costs us a certain degree of interiority and unique subjectivity. With our ever-present phones, we can’t escape the intrusion of the collective into our inner space of self-reflection. This insistent presence is like an implicit, mute Greek chorus, ever ready to judge, praise, condone, or condemn." I could not agree more. Your comments on modern film and television are also spot on.
Thanks Daniel-very insightful piece you share here. I think though, that this version of The Absinthe Drinker is by Degas..
Thank you Daniel. Pulled your book 2012 from my shelf to re-read more about Gebser's insights. So appreciate your essay's and books and the depth by which you explore these issues. Very helpful indeed.
Beautiful. Thank you for explaining complexity so clearly and meaningfully.
Great stuff, particularly the analysis of how technology is interrupting our ability to have the quiet subjective moments art requires. You lost me on the vaccine stuff and the blockchain stuff but I think you articulated something crucial up until then.
Such a poignant, illuminating and intelligently well written piece Daniel.
Virtual reality and the stealing of our attention by Smart devices has plunged many into a concentrated cyber world of contracted consciousness and ignorance within which new artificial representations of art forms have replaced real artistic and genuinely creative endeavors and classical forms of art with designer and digital forms of superficial and synthetic artistic expressions. This ranges from narcissistic social media memes and messages to superfluous pictures and superficial photographs and posts that ultimately supplant any real artistic and cultural appreciation for the good, the true, and the beautiful, as expressed by and through the sacred beauty and supernal power of soul and spirit, and their irrefutable and undeniable connection to the heart of cosmic consciousness, infinite intelligence, and Divine love.
"We lie in the lap of an immense intelligence that makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activity." (Ralph Waldo Emmerson, Self Reliance Essay, 1841)
There is an obvious paradox underlying this artistic degradation though; that lies in the ubiquitous opportunity of the all pervasive electronic reality of the cyber world of the internet, that has afforded humanity across the board a virtually unlimited opportunity for connectivity and communication spanning continents and cultures in real time; while concomitantly being able to share information, ideas, and knowledge across these global borders, boundaries and time zones from virtually anywhere in the world, at any time.
The technology and digital platforms offer the so called ordinary man and woman, the 99% if you will, the opportunity to participate in a global exchange of information, ideas, and value - previously limited to those with the means, money, and resources to traverse the globe by sea, air, rail or road, or a combination of them, often at great peril and risk to themselves (the Titanic springs to mind) - for those with access to the internet, the social media platforms and the Smart technologies connecting us all; albeit within an emerging totalitarian system of the 21st century.
The Oscars last night were a good even prime example of the growing unpopularity and disinterest in these previously adored and admired artists with their now overly political and prejudicial forms of artistic entertainment and the associated dulling and deterioration of the form and expression of their art, and its emergent fakery, as they move away from (and conspicuously into a self defeating and ultimately deadly cul-de-sac of deluded identity politics, cancel culture, gender dissolution, and social, economic, and political tyranny) the source from which all genuine and great works of art originate and spring - the infinite, unfathomable, all inclusive and unlimited reservoir and river of life or cosmic ocean of Divine inspiration, energy, intelligence and love.
Thought provoking essay, as always. One thing that comes to mind right off the bat is that artists, and all creatives, have been completely shut down in this pandemic. DJs, dancers, theater folk, art galleries, lighting crew, stage hands, musicians, all without any, or just the smallest amounts, of work possibilities. TV, or the new Netflixing state of TV, is one of the only places flourishing for creative writing and storytelling. Shows that would never have seen the airwaves back in the old model are able to exist. “Hamilton’s Pharmacopia,” “Rick & Morty,” come to mind as well as the troves of great documentaries add to the great TV output currently. But yeah, so much of it is bleak. I could picture you writing a show that would do very well. You are on point with so much that is going on, there are people you could reach far beyond the limits of this direct method of sharing your thoughts via subscription-based email blasting. There are likely out-of-work video production friends in your circle that would love to bring your vision to Netflix. If you can’t stop ‘em, beat them at their game! -jason1969