Cultivating Holistic Worldview and Practice - or over to Cyborgs?
In this reflection we re-examine, from the perspective of creative evolution, the notion of creativity and the role of artificial intelligence. ?
Holos-Earth Project https://holos-earth.org/ has offered what we consider to be a powerful message for this time. On Sunday evening we introduced the on-line training programme, ‘Cultivating Holistic Worldview and Practice’ and?began to deliver a message geared at empowering people to co-create the perspective and practice enabling us to better ‘navigate the edge of chaos’.
Fragmenting world
In our on-line introductory webinar we looked at the dynamics leading to what is being described as a ‘seismic shift’ in human affairs. The report below by the US National Intelligence Council emphasises some of the core issues we briefly examined. It highlights the paradox that in an interconnected world we see the escalating phenomenon of fragmentation. ?
Technology
Not least of these dynamics is the potentially disruptive potential of technology - especially that being driven by the exponentiating power of artificial intelligence. Love him or hate him, in this video Jordan Petersen unpacks the creative and intrusive power of AI. This phenomenon is a core factor in our intention of co-creating a more compassionate and humane alternative - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUkTz_1uzSs
My waking thoughts as I ponder our human trajectory this morning were the following.
Irreversibility
A core principle in 'complexity and emergence' is ‘irreversibility’. You cannot unscramble Humpty Dumpty. The interrelatedness of unfolding developments, both positive and negative, can’t be undone, but we can influence the future trajectory. This means the exponentiating power of AI cannot be reversed (short of completely switching off the energy supply) but it can be redeployed.
Unpredictability
‘Emergence’ as the product of complex interactive dynamics, is defined by its quality of unpredictability. Yes, with systems analysis of the variables in causal loops, we can envisage interventions, we can sketch alternative scenarios. But what eventuates ultimately is a function of both those factors we have been able to identify, and those ‘externalities’, the much deeper dimensions of hidden evolutionary process, we are unable to detect - until they become obvious. ?The father of systems dynamics, Jay Forrester, in ?‘System Dynamics—the Next Fifty Years’ (2007) laments a tendency to superficial ?application of systems approaches to complex issues. Referring to an escalating ‘knowledge gap’, he asserts:
?"We have ... much to learn yet about high-order nonlinear feedback structures around us ... (to) start to close this huge knowledge gap ...??It has been repeatedly demonstrated that the human mind is not suited for solving high-order dynamic feedback systems ...?Only by going the full road to extensive computer simulations is one prepared for the depth of understanding required in real-world situations.”
Since, by implication this points to the role of artificial intelligence, we question whether AI thereby presents the full answer to our fragmenting human trajectory. ????
Creativity?
Jordan Petersen’s unpacking of the power of AI, and it's so-called creative potential, suggests a serious challenges humanity’s contribution to life’s evolutionary process. In his ?2019 book James Lovelock predicted that this current era, the Anthropocene, will soon be replace by the ‘Novacene’ - a world run by super-intelligent robots, or cyborgs. ?
This development calls for a redefinition of creativity. There are boundless examples of how AI can now generate music, create appealing images, write sophisticated text, by sourcing information from huge data bases within seconds and synthesising an impressive delivery. But is that rehash of existing data, no matter how well done, really creative? ?What does that tend to say about vision, about inspiration, whence the artistic creative muse?
?Fragmenting world
There is deep concern, and rightly so, about our polarising and increasingly fragmented world, notwithstanding its economic interconnectedness. There’s something about human nature that as yet does not get the reality of interconnectedness and interdependencies - or have we forgotten? We are still competing to extract from the ‘whole’, to accumulate wealth by dominating market share, or exercising increasing power through geo-political influence.
Some folks with a more pessimistic view of the human trajectory, predict the possibility of wide-scale systems collapse as a function of human and natural disruption. Kerry Turner's ‘SeetheSystems’ initiative for example has as its slogan ‘relocalising creativity’ - switching creativity 'back on' by systems-informed neighbourhood collaboration.
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Cyborgs to the rescue
It is a serious consideration whether the human trajectory might indeed support Forrester’s case that the human brain has been unable to do the deeper integration? Will we indeed need to rely on AI to access to integrative data-processing systems capable of identifying and quantifying high-level non-linear complex feedback loops through sophisticated simulations?
Certainly there’s a powerful case for utilising that capacity from a scientific perspective - like tracking what is happening in global weather pattern, generating predictive scenarios, understanding ocean dynamics, etc. ??
In whose hands?
But surely the burning question is who will control that capacity, and who will have access to it - both financially and intellectually. Capitalist economics is all about the industrial advantage of owning the platform. We can be sure those data synthesising AI capacities will be monetised.
?A new paradigm - holistic perspective and practice
But is there another way in which our capacity to live together with each other and mother nature in a thriving paradigm can be accessed or developed?
In his 1000-page book, ‘The Road to Reality’ (2004) Roger Penrose seems to address Forrester’s challenge. He says:
“It is quite likely that the 21st century will reveal even more wonderful insights than those that we have been blessed with in the 20th century. But for this to happen, we shall need powerful new ideas, which will take in us directions significantly different from those currently being pursued. Perhaps what we might need is some subtle change in perspective - something we have all missed...”
I wonder whether it has been scientifically missed, or maybe even forgotten in our prevailing paradigm?
Logos to Holos
Maybe Ervin Laszlo has already addressed Forrester’s challenge about the requisite capacity. In ‘Transition from logos to holos: The challenge of civilizational change’ (2000) rather than call on AI to address humanity’s issues, he advocates a societal paradigm shift in consciousness.
“...The mechanistic and reductionist paradigm of Logos is no longer capable of ordering the mushrooming complexity and increasing vulnerability of globally extended interdependent technological societies.”
Laszlo argues that we live at a crucial juncture in the sociocultural evolution of humanity: the transition from one civilisation to the next. Such ‘great transitions’ call for adaptations in legal and political organisation, educational systems, public morals, and socially sanctioned behaviours. ‘Soft’ factors such as worldviews, values, and ethics are needed to 'enculture' the kind of goals and behaviours that are suitable to life under the changed conditions.
"... We are transiting from a civilisation hallmarked by the culture of Logos, to a civilisation that must be characterised by a planetary culture - Holos.
This, he argues, represents ?the evolution of a more embracing and spiritual consciousness. ?
Training programme
The above brief case then provides a background to the intention of the on-line training programme ‘Cultivating Holistic Worldview and Practice’.
Tomorrow I will look more specifically at the shift from 'logos' to 'holos' - from the perspective of ‘edge of chaos' conditions.
Re-examining creativity and evolution?
On Sunday 15th at 18h00 London time in our on-line training module we will take a deep look at the notion of creativity through the holistic lens - especially as a factor of adaptiveness.
Please feel welcome to attend this module - it is not a requirement to attend the entire training program.
?E-mail: [email protected].
Artivist, Musician, musical director, music producer, teacher, NPO project manager (Freelance)
1 年I'd live to attend your workshop about creativity please Claudius, it has just been a bit mad here with trying to fit in everything that must be done before I return to the UK. in the evenings I tend to forget things because I'm tired (getting up very early). Apologies for not showing up this last Sunday. For 15 January I'll set an alarm on my phone.