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- Compassionate Action (Kapor)
- "While Buddhists maybe excited by the technological capacity to
wire human consciousness, from the view of Indra's net, this is already
reality-whether or not we are aware of it. So unless the awareness of interconnectedness
can stir compassion, it is of little use. The real design challenge in
cyberspace will be to use it as a basis for enlivening compassionate action."
(Mitch Kapor from Tricycle magazine)Is the internet and World Wide Web the realization of an ancient human longing? One is reminded of Hesse's classic work Magister Ludi: The Glass Bead Game, in which a future race of super-philosophers compete and play in an creative arena that requires extraordinary skill in the highest areas of human achievement-- Science, Art, Mathematics, Music, and Spirituality.
"The Glass Bead Game is thus a mode of playing with the total contents and values of our culture; it plays with them as, say, in the great age of the arts a painter might have played with the colors on his palette."
"We would scarcely be exaggerating if we ventured to say that for the small circle of genuine Glass Bead Game players the Game was virtually equivalent to worship, although it deliberately eschewed developing any theology of its own."
(Magister Ludi, by Herman Hesse) - Praying for the Network of the Future (Lanier)
- "I prayed for the network of the future to be democratic and beautiful
and spiritual. I usually wouldn't even think of the word "pray"
in connection with information technology, but I am really at a loss for
what else to do when faced with a task of such importance, such wonderful
potential, something so inevitable and yet something which cannot be undone
for generations, if we don't get it right.
The stakes are so high that they inspire vertigo. And yet this adventure is entirely worthwhile because the potential rewards are so lovely. But can we do it? Is it possible to plan for the serendipity of a deep creative culture? Let's start with a simpler thought experiment: What if we had to come up with the constitution of the United States today? Would we do as well as the folks in Philadelphia did 200 years ago? Could we do better? I believe that the design of the information infrastructure taking place in this decade is of greater consequence to the long term future of our nation and our world than the constitution was.
This moment is indeed reminiscent of the creation of the American constitution in Philadelphia.Well meaning and brilliant people with nasty conflicting interests somehow created a collective product that was better than any of them could have understood at the time. A similar miracle must occur in the coming years.
It is fortunate that there are some unusually brilliant people with influence over the future of the network at this critical moment. Both in Government and industry, there are some truly competent, informed, and well-intentioned instigators. Yet, as in Philadelphia two hundred years ago, a collective product has to emerge that is better than any of them, or any of us, could achieve singly."
(Jaron Lanier) - Let's Test This Assumption! (Pór)
- "The Web has lowered the threshold for what constitutes a critical
mass for transformation (that which is capable of causing irreversible
change towards a sustainable civilization) because of the more effective
tools and methods available to humankind's self-organizing intelligence
and consciousness. Let's test this assumption!"
(George Pór)
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