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