So today, being a "writing day"
break from the hectic production and post production schedules on the two
films, it will take great restraint not to disappear down the
140-character-wisdom rabbit hole. Social media debates are informed largely by
the same set of principles that pump the adrenaline in any sport - a sense of
belonging, an idea of the "other", the sharpening of skills that seem
necessary for survival, a competition between the kin and the
"outsiders", a race to claim resources of survival, the preservation
of your "own", an intention to leading "the team" towards a more sustainable choice, and even avenge insult or injury with a "lesson
taught well" to stave off further risk of intrusion.
If I indulge in this notion beyond the obvious
parallels, it would be at my own peril. The consequences of an idea can go far beyond
the earliest participants exchanging it or engaging with it. While we enjoy the
life sustaining and life enhancing effects of good ideas, world transforming
and enlightening effects of great ones, we also suffer the repercussions of bad
ones for generations. (Of course, good ideas can also have seen/unforeseen
detrimental consequences). Like the appendix and the wisdom tooth, some ideas
are vestigial – could have had some evolutionary benefit thousands of years
ago, but have lost all reason to exist. At their best, they can be mostly
harmless, at their worst, fatal.
We know now that ideas, like genes, mutate,
fuse, vary, replicate themselves, inherit traits, co-evolve, and die off. Ideas
are “selfish”. They can be symbiotic or parasitical to their hosts, and the
paradigm that reflects the nature of this relationship is “cui bono?” – the
question, “to whose benefit?”
How do we negotiate our way through this? Can
we chart out a “quantum” constitution, a “manual to spaceship earth” that is in
a constant state of flux, varying, evolving, contextual, while having a (more
or less) solid preamble? A preamble that distills thousands of years of “good”
intention into a singular aspiration – equal rights, equitably distributed
resources and opportunities, future proof collective sustenance (?),
prioritized anthropocentrically (?), but extending to all life.
The world exists in the continua of
contradicting forces. The opposable thumb sped up the evolution of the species
and so did the “opposable mind”. Here’s a wonderful thought experiment created
by Loren Carpenter in 1991, examining swarm intelligence and the continuum
effect of contradiction –
http://vimeo.com/78043173
(You can also start with the newer replica of
the experiment here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9eVz4wBBgU
)
This brings me back to my little twitter experiment in this morning. Sharing here -
Well, so much for an opposable thumb without a firm grip!
Thought provoking!
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