Great stuff to help me fathom the state at which we are in.
We have the technology and resources to run things beautifully.
But still war persists. Corruption persists.
When will humanity make the choice for truth?
Can we handle the truth?
Can a doctor know that he's been injecting toxins into people for decades and be ok with it?
I heard an interview with a neuroscientist that said when he got into graduate school in the 90s, they thought the study of consciousness was not worth it.
Wow, 3 decades ago, scientists of the brain thought that consciousness was something dumb?!
In my years I would see the future as either scary or great. Heaven or hell.
These days, I just see an absurd future. Is that me giving up?
I suppose it is because like you and others here, we have seen times when humanity said one thing and did another.
I hope this time with the study of consciousness in mind we can prevent further insanity.
An excellent article. Although a student of history, I never really drew these parallels with our time, but it makes sense. The speed of technology and its effects on humankind need to be consumed at arm's length to lessen some of the disorienting pulses it unleashes. I find some solace in the fact that the smart phone generation, in now becoming parents, seem to be rebelling a bit at the speed and the influence of changes that the internet and social media has wrought. AI now confronts us with the potential for tectonic changes that seem to echo the same things felt during these vertigo years you have so eloquently described. I am writing a piece about defining our humanness now before AI invades the realm of our self formed reality. I have a better sense of why I was moved to begin writing it.
Thanks, and I appreciate your thoughts. I do see AI as being a bit like the end goal of this relentless change that started in the early 1900s and has kept speeding up ever since
Thanks! Some typos always manage to pop up somehow, no matter how many times I read it over. But that's the cost of entry when you're doing everything yourself, I guess :)
Hard to believe Mach was not influenced by Buddhist thought, which holds exactly that--there's no permanent self, but a collection of habits and personality traits reacting to a stream of stimuli.
Great stuff to help me fathom the state at which we are in.
We have the technology and resources to run things beautifully.
But still war persists. Corruption persists.
When will humanity make the choice for truth?
Can we handle the truth?
Can a doctor know that he's been injecting toxins into people for decades and be ok with it?
I heard an interview with a neuroscientist that said when he got into graduate school in the 90s, they thought the study of consciousness was not worth it.
Wow, 3 decades ago, scientists of the brain thought that consciousness was something dumb?!
In my years I would see the future as either scary or great. Heaven or hell.
These days, I just see an absurd future. Is that me giving up?
I suppose it is because like you and others here, we have seen times when humanity said one thing and did another.
I hope this time with the study of consciousness in mind we can prevent further insanity.
It's been insane enough for decades.
An excellent article. Although a student of history, I never really drew these parallels with our time, but it makes sense. The speed of technology and its effects on humankind need to be consumed at arm's length to lessen some of the disorienting pulses it unleashes. I find some solace in the fact that the smart phone generation, in now becoming parents, seem to be rebelling a bit at the speed and the influence of changes that the internet and social media has wrought. AI now confronts us with the potential for tectonic changes that seem to echo the same things felt during these vertigo years you have so eloquently described. I am writing a piece about defining our humanness now before AI invades the realm of our self formed reality. I have a better sense of why I was moved to begin writing it.
Thanks, and I appreciate your thoughts. I do see AI as being a bit like the end goal of this relentless change that started in the early 1900s and has kept speeding up ever since
Lovely piece, Anton. Thank you for writing.
Fascinating and enlightening. Actually quite a comforting way to look at the current chaos. It does feel like vertigo.
Very good. Agree with the parallels. I am also glancing at Blom's other book, Fracture, and see obvious parallels there as well.
I think I should read Fracture next, I really like Blom's voice
Great essay! So glad you are writing again.
I found what I suspect are a couple of typos:
“Next to this viral question,” he wrote, “all others vanish.” I suspect you meant 'vital', not 'viral'.
This would also become a core tenant of fascist movements in the succeeding decades. You meant 'tenet', not 'tenant'.
Thanks! Some typos always manage to pop up somehow, no matter how many times I read it over. But that's the cost of entry when you're doing everything yourself, I guess :)
Not enough writing done from the Austro-Hungarian perspective today. Keep it up!
That's Philipp Blom - the extra P in his first name makes it easier to search for his book. :)
Oh good catch, fixed that typo
Hard to believe Mach was not influenced by Buddhist thought, which holds exactly that--there's no permanent self, but a collection of habits and personality traits reacting to a stream of stimuli.
He definitely was. I read he was likened to Buddha in his own time and he didn't dislike being called a Buddhist either