The direction our civilization is headed is brilliantly discussed in this interview. I'd love to know what you think.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/opinion/paul-kingsnorth-humanity-technology.html
It's about where AI is taking us from the viewpoint of an philosopher, author, and scholar who decided 12 years ago to move his family to rural Galway, Ireland where they grow their own food and have very limited screen time. Their children are homeschooled without phones. He's tried various religious traditions and now embraces Orthodox Christianity, a relationship to the land, and to spirit. He addresses Peter Theil and Elon Musk's philosophy which he calls Anti-Christ and Silicon Valley's singularity, also in his view, anti-Christ. But mostly he discusses how we are fast become slaves to machines that could end our humanness.
I did not find it depressing but enlightening.
It posits a choice for each of us. And it awakens us too. What do you choose between the convenience and wealth of these machines and the danger of a Faustian bargain that will put us in hell?
@tgraf66 @lovendures @bluebelle @deetoo @seaholly @sealion @journeywithme2 @vesta @cc21 @Caroline @lynne @raincloud @dannyboy @dana @tesseract @kateinpdx @lowtide
What a mind-expanding conversation! This stays with me, from Kingsnorth's remarks:
"And I was thinking only yesterday, actually, about this: that maybe a society which can balance its outer exploration with its inner exploration could be a more healthy one."
The US is not that mature, yet.
Each of us has to decide how much of "the machine" we can live with in our lives, and to what extent we set boundaries and "opt out".
Here it is almost Thanksgiving. I was outside trying to read a book with a cat, in the way, setting on my lap, when a ladybug landed on my book. It thrilled me, because ladybugs are good luck.
I have been saying to acquaintances for some time that we have become slaves to 'the machine', that my work must fit the machine's format with the machine's required words etc. it seems we're required more and more to comply, be it AI "chat bots" that claim ability to provide solutions when our Internet connection is slow (they're rarely helpful), or tech 'problem solvers' in India who have no clue. Conform & Comply or be assimilated. Flashbacks to the Borg and it's Cube. The minds of the writers on those shows let us peek into the future which is happening all around us now.
"Technology standing in the way of progress" is often my observation.
I have been saying to acquaintances for some time that we have become slaves to 'the machine', that my work must fit the machine's format with the machine's required words etc. it seems we're required more and more to comply..."Technology standing in the way of progress" is often my observation.
Yes! We are being brainwashed by tech & corporations. Remeber Apple's ads telilng us to take photos of everything with our phones? They got people to take their phones everywhere, and now I pay them to store the photos! The Internet steals our attention, brainwashing us into consumerism that in turn trains us to want more, to buy more, and in the end to shape our lives around our devices. which also harms the environment.
Still, there are positive benefits: Technology has opened doors—new ideas, new teachers, new communities we’d never have found alone. If it weren't for my ability to connect to you all via this website, I'd be in a smaller-thinking world of people whose dominant religion teaches that psychic ability is the work of the devil. We've been able to expand our minds this way, and reach people around the world who are awake to the vast horizons of consciousness we are exploring.
Take a look at this Vox interview with a sociologist who has studied the effects of technology on humanness for several decades: https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/3/27/17085282/technology-facebook-social-media-sherry-turkle
Politics has been twisted by the same forces. Social media made division easy, disinformation cheap, and outrage profitable.
Years ago I imagined people retreating into rural spaces, off the grid, searching for privacy and freedom—from the government, but also from the constant pull of the internet. A more human life. A quieter one.
But we can’t throw it all away. Technology has helped us, too. The real work now is learning how to manage it.
@jeanne-mayell The first step to managing it is to recognize the great benefit technology offers us for knowledge, exploration, and learning, while separating tech from platforms. There is nothing, in my mind, as dangerous to society as social media. I have a long and sordid history with it myself. And yes, I know. It's wonderful to see pictures of people's families and cats, and all the nice things that most people claim they keep their social media for. As a guy who abandoned all of his twice (once in 2020 until mid-2024 when I donated my liver to a family member and again in October,) I can tell you quite definitively that if you want the pictures of family and cats to continue, all you have to do is send some text messages from time to time reminding your friends that you want to see pictures of family and cats. Eventually it becomes second nature to them to send you some photos now and then and you can exist without the algorithm. (I'm 47. I lived 35 non continuous years of my life successfully without social media. I promise you it's doable!)
Social Media could be a powerful tool for connection, and it did start out that way, but like everything, capitalism killed that promise dead. The algorithms are built purposely to keep you scrolling, keep you engaged, and in many cases, keep you enraged. I don't begrudge anyone who enjoys it their time with it, but for me, my mental health is always at its lowest when I'm on one of those sites - Charlie Kirk and the ultimatums being issued willy nilly about "If you don't agree with every word in this post feel free to unfriend me right now..." - I rarely read the posts, I just followed the instructions. I don't agree with every word that comes out of my best friends mouths, so random co-worker from college movie theater job can exit stage left. The second I was off again, my mental health started a sharp upward trend.
A great read that I picked up before it became cool was "The Anxious Generation" - I highly recommend it though it's a bit dense. If you come out of that still championing what social media is doing to us, our kids, and our society, you should probably try reading it again.
Have to laugh..my daughter and I were on the London Eye today watching as several people leaned inward against the glass (away from the view) looking at their phones; the Eye rotation is a mere 30 minutes??!!
I've been thinking about this off and on all day.
As harsh and horrible as our world is at the moment, we have been told over and over—well, I have been told over and over by Spirit—that things must be torn down in order to open to the CREATION of a better world. This does not mean we stuff our anger and pain or do not feel, deeply, the pain of others. What it tries to tell our stubborn fearful minds is that staying inside that pain, growing that pain, feeling it in our bodies and minds, does no one any good.
We must honor the feelings of pain and rage, but we must not stay in that vibration.
Acknowledge, yes. Always. Then, lift your power up into positives, whatever that may be for you. Do literal and visualization things that increase the TRUST that humanity will emerge into a better, higher, overall vibration.
t and others have been the disrupters, those who perhaps had a greater *purpose* in life (? I'm not sure what I believe about disrupters' purpose), but for sure, souls who chose against soul growth and for evil, whose disruptive actions would push us from one age, one level of comprehension, UP into the next comprehension.
We, humanity, are the transition incarnations, here to promote greater awareness and understanding. Our challenge, I believe, our calling from the higher beings, is to get humanity through this transition without falling into the hate evil wants from us—because hate feeds evil.
Spirit can not do it for us. WE are truly the change.
"Be the Change" is not just a slogan, not just an affirmation. It is who we are in this moment of humanity's evolution.
It's incredibly difficult to be the ones called on to forge ahead of our own comprehensions and trust (that word again) that we are walking out of hell and into Light, when it seems oh, so very hellish.
Hang in there. The water is really rough, but the boat is stronger than we think. As are we.
@tesseract I started reading this on my phone before bed, and knew who was posting without seeing who it was from. I then took the link to website, and was proved right. You do have a way with words. Any way, thank you @tesseract for sharing all of your post. You gave us marching orders.😉
@pat-czap ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
What a wonderful compliment! Thank you! You made my day! 🌼 Probably my week 😊 Maybe my month 🤣 considering all we are going through right now. 🌻