13 Comments
Nov 10, 2022Liked by Bobby Azarian

This has a Malthusian ring to it: “Of course, spreading more quickly over the long term will often require choosing to spread less quickly over the short term. This is not a paradox. Continued growth passed a certain point takes foresight, and an understanding that resources for growth will be limited until the time comes when we figure out how to unlock more of nature’s free energy supply.”

Are you aware of nuclear power, which has been demonized by Malthusians and other special interests? How about we set about unlocking this now?

As far as avoiding world wars, how about we all agree to push for a peace negotiation between USA and Russia now? Yes, USA , whose proxy war is being fought in Ukraine and, along with UK lapdog has actively prevented peace talks.

Expand full comment
author

Hi PL, what do you mean by "unlocking this now"? We already use nuclear power for space exploration, powering cities, and many other things. From what I understand about the Malthusian view, they believe that we won't be able to keep up with our energy demands and the population will die off. I actually believe the opposite--that growth can continue without bound, because life learns how to unlock new sources of energy, like fossil fuels and then nuclear power, and soon fusion. However, resources will always be limited because we won't have access to those other energy reservoirs until we acquire the scientific understanding and invent the technology required to exploit it.

I think some sort of peace negotiation is needed. Any insights on this is much appreciated and will help shape the Manahattan Peace Project. Howard Bloom, an evolutionary theorist and popular author will be an advisor on this project, as he has lots of ideas about this. An interview with him is coming next month.

Expand full comment

You must know that we have gone backwards in our use of nuclear power for decades now. Germany is Exhibit A. There is no sane reason for this if the goal is to improve the lot of humanity, to lift more and more people out of poverty, to decrease the ongoing petro-politics.

Expand full comment

Great summary!

Re "These efforts and the underlying ideology of the emergence paradigm will be part of an attempt to influence an emerging third party in America called the Forward Party. "

This is very interesting. I wish all the best to Andrew Yang and the Forward Party. God (or cosmic evolution) knows that we need more and more politicians who take distance from both left insanity and right insanity, and are willing to work with people of different ideological persuasion for the common good. Here's to radical moderates!

Of course what voters are mostly interested in is how to put food on the table for their family, find a good school where their kids won't be shot, etc. But if they hear good answers for all these things (and Yang's answers seem good), they'll also be interested in a coherent philosophy for our times.

Expand full comment
author

"Radical moderates," I love that Giulio! I hope Yang is successful too, though to get my support the platform would need to be shaped by the ideas mentioned in the article, which are many of the same ideas that the Turing Church holds. I would love to collaborate with you and your group on this in the future. I agree with your last statement--the new philosophy we are proposing must have practical benefits for regular people. That is something to definitely think about and I'm glad you brought it up. Systems thinking, cybernetics, and cryptoeconomics could allow for the redesign of our current systems in ways that have immediate practical benefits. This will be a topic that will be explored in future posts.

Expand full comment

Systems thinking, cybernetics, cryptoeconomics and other innovations could certainly result in practical benefits, but alas not immediate. You need to give societies time to adapt, and that time is often measured in decades. As a voter, I support candidates when I agree with their programs for the immediate here-and-now. That is a need-to-have, but philosophical compatibility is also a nice-to-have. Marxism, for example, is both a political program and a philosophical framework.

BTW see Twitter DM.

Expand full comment
author

I'm hoping we can make these things implementable in the near future. You have every right to be skeptical, but future posts will show that these things are possible. It definitely won't be easy, but when like-minded people come together and form a collective mind, the impossible becomes possible.

Expand full comment

Sounds like a lot of exciting stuff in the works! My only qualm is that humans have a poor track record around giving up power so it seems unlikely we will willingly "assist the cosmos in its process of awakening" or "play our part" if it requires relinquishing power (or convenience, comfort, etc) to something higher in the stack than ourselves. Unwillingly, maybe. Could be an ugly transition... let's hope not! Either way, I think it's well observed that humans do better when applying themselves to something bigger than themselves. This could literally be that.

Expand full comment
author

I'm not sure it requires relinquishing any power. If anything, I think the realization will bring about new levels of causal power to humanity. It does require compromise, and coming together under a new unified vision. But if we do that, our new level of global coordination can allow us to solve world problems in a fraction of the time. The only people that would have to give up some power are the authoritarian regimes of the world, and other centralized sources of power. But since those actors already have an unhealthy amount of power and control, this would be a good thing.

I agree that humans do better when applying themselves to a larger goal. That's how civilization came about! The question is now how do we get them to do that. I think one thing to do is getting people to take a "meta perspective," where they see themselves as embedded in this larger whole, and that by helping others we help ourselves. This naturally happens as the human race becomes more intelligent—that is, we use metacognition more and are able to see ourselves "from above"—but not everyone thinks this way. It does seem to be something that needs to be taught. That is one of the goals of the project.

Expand full comment
founding

Great to see a place where ideas and concepts of your book can evolve and be shared. Looking forward to what will come.

Expand full comment
author

Thank you Chris, glad to have your support. Looking forward to putting ideas out there and seeing how they are shaped by the community.

Expand full comment
Nov 9, 2022Liked by Bobby Azarian

A great summary of everything I love about complexity science! Thanks Bobby for making it easier to understand such complicated scientific research.

Expand full comment
author

Thank you Oliver, glad to have your support!

Expand full comment