I've Lost My Way

so uh now i've lost my way here ah yes no no optimism so i sit in hawaii and i look at all

this and i try to contextualize it and and come out with a good story because i think the best

story will win so if you can if you can get together the best version of how it should

all come out so shall it be and i work at this because in the past i've been very very happy

with the results between my interior fantasy and the unfolding of historical developments

i mean i i wished for lsd and then it happened then i dreamed of the internet and then it

happened so i should keep at this uh and i i recently read a very interesting book called

a thousand years of nonlinear history by michael delanda and if you get a chance you should take

a look at this and he made the point which caused me to expand his point into this little thing i'm

going to tell you now but his point was that human beings are very involved in the movement of

geological material that as a species we move rocks around on a very large scale and of course it's

interesting that the early some of the earliest human structures are the most physically massive

and the way like the great pyramids um so delanda made this point about our relationship with the

the geograf geological stratigraphy of the earth and that cities were a kind of geological extension

of the process of crystallization carried on through the intermediation of a biological unit

i.e intelligent primates who are building these structures and uh i thought that was very

interesting i had never considered it before i'd all i've talked about virtual reality and i've said

that uh it's nothing new that er was a virtual reality and chatalyu was a virtual reality but done in stucco and

fired ceramic and stone and that when the medium is so intractable as stone the epistemic assumptions that get

formed about what reality is are very different than if you can build versailles at the click of a mouse button

but nevertheless it's the same

but

embedded in my reading

of Delanda was

I've been thinking a lot

and I talked to you a lot

last year about artificial

intelligences

and minds which are not

human

minds which are

very different from us

intelligence which is

very different from us

you know, while the

naive are scanning the stars

our appliances

have become telepathic

there is

a very strange kind

of intelligence being called into

existence by ourselves

strangely enough

and, and this is the connection

to Delanda

this artificial intelligence which is

being called into being by

human activity is

made of the same materials as

Ur and Chattalyuk

it's made of

ceramics

glasses and metals

it's that

so then I took this

on board and thought

about it and I'm

I've sort of come to some kind of

cyberpantheistic

Emersonianism

which is

here I'll give it to you as a headline

and then work backwards so that in case I forget what I'm saying

it won't be lost to suffering mankind

the earth's

the earth's strategy for its own salvation is through machines

is what it is

and human beings are some kind of

we are the deputized spouse

we are the bride in this alchemical rarefaction of glasses, ceramics, metals and volatile materials

apparently

the earth is like some kind of an embryonic

or fetal thing

and at the end of its gestation what is happening is it is ramifying its nervous system

is appearing in its developmental, in the unfolding of its morphogenesis

and as we contemplate nanotechnologies and see ourselves working through bacteria and this sort of thing at the engineering level

you have to be blind to not then reflect back upon the fact that in some sense we are already working at that kind of level at the behest of it is not clear who

because nobody ever asked the question in quite this way before

the answer to who I think

is the earth

and that what lies ahead at the end of the linear tunnel

of

western subjectivist, positivist, structuralist assumptions that we have been operating

when we hit the end of the tunnel and burst out into the larger

mental space

of

cosmic evolution

what we are going to find is

that we are

actors

in a cosmic drama

that involves

the earth

at one polarity

and machines

at the other polarity

as the expression of the will of the earth

toward a kind of self-reflective transcendence

that is achieved through

machine

symbiosis

and that and this is

you know it won't

there will never be a headline

which says this

some people won't even notice

that it's happening

because these large scale processes

can be described by many metaphors

at many depths

but I'm telling you

I think this is what's going on

the reason I like this story

is because

it's not a story about processes out of control

it's not a story about human guilt

it's not a story full of

we musts and we shoulds

it's a story which gives honor to

every part of the unfolding experience field

in other words, biology

technology

human culture

human traditional values

transcendent human

dystopian values

it's a story of things on course on time

and under budget

and I assume that's how nature

really operates

and that we live inside

some kind of anxiety producing culture

that is

a necessary

I don't want to say evil

but a necessary response to conditions

of stress

there are processes

which let you know

waste

nuclear waste build up

urbanization

land disturbance

there are processes

which if allowed to run on

indefinitely

would wreck the whole system

and pitch it into chaos

but Confucius said

no tree grows to heaven

and what he meant by that

is it's fruitless

to project any process to infinity

because any process

projected to infinity

creates some kind of catastrophic scenario

if no fruit flies

died in six months

the earth would spin out of its orbit

from the weight of fruit flies

no I don't think that's

but what an image

somebody once told me

if the earth completely disappeared

except for its nematodes

that you could still see the outlines

of the continents

if you were standing on the moon

I thought

now just

who gathered this

so then

to bring this back around a little

where

where is the psychedelic experience

in all of this

well

it used to be called

or at one phase

it was called

consciousness expansion

in human beings

is going to become

an absolute necessity

because we are summoning

out of the woodwork

of cybernetic technology

machines that are going to require

super intelligent humans

to direct

and have discourse

with them

this is happening

it is already happening

I mean

the internet

is this

I mean it doesn't

tap you on the shoulder

and remind you to brush your teeth

but it is

you know

a partner

in the understanding

of the world

that is genie-like

that's the image

I have

when I sit down to it

it is

all John D. would have asked

of his archangelic messengers

you know

he wanted instantaneous information

on the political situation

in the courts of Europe

he wanted information

on the course

of the

Drake's expedition

then

on the other side

of the planet

the internet

is

this

kind of

magical

intelligent

prosthesis

and as I said

there won't come

a dramatic moment

I think

a la lawnmower man

or something like that

these things are

much more

seeping

the only people

who in fact

can see the game

move

against the background

of the forest pattern

are

psychedelic heads

you have to think

about this stuff

and you have to develop

vocabularies

for catching it

in action

this is what the game

of

being an intellectual

is

I think

trying to

see

the process

of morphological

unfoldment

in action

and

guess

the direction

in which

it's

headed

because

it's

inevitably

headed

toward

greater density

of information

at greater speeds

higher level

integrative

metaphors

visually

rather than

textually

displayed

transformation

of such

graphic

and glyphic

elements over

time

it becomes

more and more

like the interface

of a computer

more and more

like some kind

of machine

environment

and I mean

we have thought

for I assume

at least a hundred

thousand years

maybe much

longer

but the quality

of thought

you know

it was early

when it was early

it was intermittent

it was thin

it was a groping

it was a

an undigested

intuition

a perception

slipping away

from the mind's eye

because of media

reinforcement

and education

and acculturation

and the passage

of a hundred thousand

years

the voice

of the mind

the logos

has grown stronger

but now

it takes

an exponential

leap forward

into visualization

into

manifestation

through this

information processing

prosthesis

that integrates

us

all

and

you know

I can imagine

a future

not very

far away

where

the

the individual

the expression

of the individual

is lowered

is more

muted

I mean

this is the most

individualistic

individual

worshiping

century

the century

just ending

that we have

ever known

and it's

it's great

accomplishments

it's great

works of art

were all

accomplished

by individuals

and

political

undertaking

such as the

Third Reich

and so forth

and so on

also highly

motivated

individuals

who rose above

the masses

I'm not sure

we can afford

the luxury

of that kind

of exhibitionistic

individualism

in the future

and I think

probably it's not

that we're talking

about a restriction

of human rights

we're talking about

a transformation

of human drives

the states of integration

and collectivity

that will be sold

as public utilities

in the next century

are anticipated now

by groups

psychedelic experiences

ayahuasca sections

this sort of thing

and the dichotomy

and I think I made this clear

when I talked about

the earth and machines

the dichotomy

between the natural

and the artificial

is an obsession

of the twentieth century

hence cancelled

now

in fact a whole bunch

of things

are cancelled

we were talking

at home

about how

how

Roger Shattuck

in his history

of Dada

said

that the twentieth century

couldn't wait

to be born

it was born

in eighteen eighty eight

at the death

of Victor Hugo

and then I said

well

so if it was born

in eighteen eighty eight

when did the twentieth century

end

and I think it ended

in nineteen ninety two

it expired early

with the birth

of the world wide web

what defined all that

modernity

was mass media

you know

mass media

shaped that whole psychology

and it is now archaic

it is now

it's not archaic

it's obsolete

it's

it's wonderful

that the phrase

twentieth century

is beginning to have

that wonderful

brown gravy

Edwardian tone

that used to be reserved

for the term

nineteenth century

meaning

you know

those terribly stuffy

and confused

and rather silly people

who just didn't quite

get it right

but were doing the best

they could

and muddling through

and thank God

they gave way

to us

the people

of the twenty-first century

and ruined the

three

and then

the third

chapter

is

and

the third

and the third

of the

century

he

has

and

his

and

he