Breakdown of Consciousness in the Information Age
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:36 am
I heard Mr. Jaynes speak once, years back, in Fresno, CA where I still live. During the "question" period I tried to ask him a question, and wasn't able to get it out. In retrospect it was a simple question, but this was some years before the information age began, and the question wasn't clear to me, so I sounded like an idiot, had him sign my book, and left.
What I wanted to ask was: What's next? How and why will the conscious mind fail in light of changes in the socio/historical structure.
I think it's failing now. The glut of information has become the babble of old. Too many voices. Marilyn Voss Savant, she of the high IQ and sydicated column touched on one aspect of it in a piece years back, suggesting that we were not built to take in all the sad news of the world on a daily basis. News of tragedy has, for the most part, arrived on foot or horseback for most of our history.
That is but one small instance of the failure of the unicameral mind in the growing chaos of ready information. Statistics, journalism, politics, and the current global malaise, fueled by the fears of instant general information. The lack of context created by news and views of children dying of starvation in the Sudan, followed by crowds of ill wishers at the Casey Anthony trial, followed by a commercial, are undoing the benefits of a unicameral perspective.
The obvious cure would be to turn off the TVs, and the Internet, and get back to the smaller, less complex "islands" that a number of modern prophets of doom like Michael Ruppert have offered. We can't do that. Since the bichameral event, seers and sages have advised the middle path, but it is harder and harder to balance on that diminishing rope.
Anyway, I did a search and didn't see this topic. So if I missed it my apologies. Just food for thought. Try not to over eat.
PonceDeLeon
What I wanted to ask was: What's next? How and why will the conscious mind fail in light of changes in the socio/historical structure.
I think it's failing now. The glut of information has become the babble of old. Too many voices. Marilyn Voss Savant, she of the high IQ and sydicated column touched on one aspect of it in a piece years back, suggesting that we were not built to take in all the sad news of the world on a daily basis. News of tragedy has, for the most part, arrived on foot or horseback for most of our history.
That is but one small instance of the failure of the unicameral mind in the growing chaos of ready information. Statistics, journalism, politics, and the current global malaise, fueled by the fears of instant general information. The lack of context created by news and views of children dying of starvation in the Sudan, followed by crowds of ill wishers at the Casey Anthony trial, followed by a commercial, are undoing the benefits of a unicameral perspective.
The obvious cure would be to turn off the TVs, and the Internet, and get back to the smaller, less complex "islands" that a number of modern prophets of doom like Michael Ruppert have offered. We can't do that. Since the bichameral event, seers and sages have advised the middle path, but it is harder and harder to balance on that diminishing rope.
Anyway, I did a search and didn't see this topic. So if I missed it my apologies. Just food for thought. Try not to over eat.
PonceDeLeon