The future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed.
William Gibson
Many of you will be familiar with the above quote, it’s widely distributed, yet it’s a memetic hazard as outlined below by Igor Swarzman
The more we rely on this quote as a mantra, the more we relinquish our own agency. It puts us all into the position of living in a future that belongs to someone else and never our own.
Igor Swarzman
I’ve tried to craft my own version, many times. I think it is best summarized as:
Many future’s grow around us, it’s up to us to demand, nurture and distribute the seeds of the future we wish to see.
But we face many challenges in doing so. Kinder futures are withering away, neglected as our attention is directed towards the future’s we don’t want.
The Summoning of All Fears.
Our demands are mostly about what we don’t want, and the Universe doesn’t understand negative statements, neither does your subconscious.
If I say don’t think of a black cat. What do you do? Think of a Black Cat
Derren Brown
Imagine if you will a way of viewing the world, where demons, egregores, memes, whatever you wish to call them are summoned into being by speaking their names. The more they are discussed (regardless of sentiment), the stronger they become. Because they thrive on attention. Without attention they die or lay dormant. Stories act as Sigils, giving the ideas a place to anchor and assist in their manifestation. Our collective opposition, strengthens and sharpens the will of those who would bring them into being. The pro-life movement owes its growth to early protests of a niche film. The more we speak of them, the more awareness grows.
Our stories of inevitable dystopia, mean that our limited attention is directed towards that which we don’t want. Meanwhile the futures we crave, wither and wilt as they are overwhelmed in a tangle of ideological weeds. We cast the light of our attention upon that which we hate, and leave our passions dying in the dark.
When we devote our attention to dystopic future visions, we contribute to them. Writing a book as a warning, becomes an operating manual in the hands of malevolent or foolish actors. They serve as inspiration for power and often even manifest (albeit in a different form) in name. eg. Theil names his surveillance company Palantir, the NSA name their machine learning system for killing people with drones SKYNET, there are many HAL computer companies.
But not looking at a tiger that is going to eat you, won’t stop you being eaten. But nor is it wise to be frozen in place, transfixed by terror. You have to find a big stick, preferably ablaze. If you are focused only on the fear, then the fear will take you, eat you and leave your bones for the vultures.
But what stalks us isn’t as simple as a tiger, I gave it a name and many others have given theirs. But this is not the seed I wish to plant. Instead I want to talk of a Kinder Context. To focus our attention on the future we want.
We shape our Contexts, Our Contexts shape us
The above statement is best written in a circle. It’s a never ending evolutionary loop. In Behave: Humans at their best and worst, by Robert Sapolsky we find context at every scale, shaping the actions we take. From the immediate circumstances we find ourselves in, our hormones, and dna, through to the environments which shaped our ancestors, our cultures and our religions.
Layers of overlapping, and nested contexts shaping our responses to every moment.
But while Sapolsky concludes from this observation that we have no free will. I conclude that free will can only be achieved through Context Craft – by consciously shaping our contexts, an expression of our will upon the world, to shape the behaviours of our present and future selves.
This requires us first to be present to each of the threads that tug upon our being. Then to consciously and carefully weave new patterns to manifest the outcomes we want more frequently.
Most of the ideas, technologies and behaviours we require for a Kinder Context, exist or are evolving. Many future’s grow around us, it’s up to us to nurture, demand, and distribute the seeds of the future we wish to see.
To reweave ourselves with the World and that which nourishes us. To feed and be fed, to nurture and be nurtured.
To be kind.
To be Kin.
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I want to write more deeply about this, to explore the actual practice of Context Craft. To actively grow Contexts of Kindness, to highlight amplify and provide access to technologies, processes, ideas and behaviours that I wish to see grow in the world.
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If you love the ideas here, help them grow.
Circus of Seeds 