Mental Disruption: Pleading for a New Conversation of Entrepreneurs and Philosophers

by Christoph Quarch published in #Thebookofbeautifulbusiness

Vitally, the human race is dying. It is like a great uprooted tree, with its roots in the air. We must plant ourselves again in the universe (D.H. Lawrence)

 The most crucial virtue of entrepreneurship is sober realism. To run successful businesses, you have to know what’s going on: in your company, on the market, in society, politics, on planet Earth, in the universe. Without a proper perspective on reality you will hardly ever perform proper actions. Therefore the very origin of virtuous leadership, governance, and entrepreneurship are qualities like sobriety, attentiveness, receptiveness, and courage. For it takes courage to face the plain reality of our times.

Behold what’s going on: At the edge of the third millennium, humankind is confronted with a broad range of severe challenges on different layers. First, the unprecedented dynamics of global warming and climate change. Of course, it seems still easy to ignore what’s coming up — rising sea-levels, millions of climate-migrants, drowning countries — but pretending not to know and not to realize what’s going on has never been a hedge against destruction. Ignorance will only augment trouble. And then there’s the garbage-carpets floating on the ocean, the toxic nano-particles contaminating foods and bellies, the pollution of air in mega-cities, nuclear waste, the growth of deserts, and the loss of biodiversity. The situation’s getting serious. As a virtuous and sober entrepreneur, there’s no denying it.

Behold what else is going on: An increasing number of people in the industrialized countries suffer from psychogenic illness such as depression or burn-out. Drug addiction, sickness caused by inadequate nutrition, and other symptoms of lifestyle-diseases reveal a disturbing level of social disorder – not to mention the rising gap between rich and poor on a global level, which is about to cause serious political trouble.

On the other hand, legions of prophets and apostles are preaching a new and glorious time to come. Their new religion, as described by the author Juval Noah Harari, is called dataism. And its promises are tempting and compelling: everlasting life by means of biotech, genetic engineering, human enhancement-technologies, and the transgression of the gap between organic and artificial intelligence; omnipotence via super-intelligent algorithms, robots, cyborgs, and an omnipresent digital space; omniscience by the all-encompassing digitization of the analogous sphere, which is gently termed the internet of things. This is the triumphal procession emanating from Silicon Valley, guided by some charismatic leaders such as Ray Kurzweil, and fuelled by billions of dollars from Big Tech: to transcend humanity and create a divine and immortal new species called Homo Deus. Splendid is the vision – and even more so when staged against the prospect of the grave and terrifying background of the planet’s devastation.

The tide of digitization will rise – just as the ocean levels will. Nobody will block it. The dynamics are enormously powerful. And transhumanist promises of a new, reformed, digital existence is far more compelling than the pale prediction of a weary analogous life on a devastated planet. Therefore, all the energy of current investment is lured by the attractive vision of a digitally optimized world: smart houses, smart medicine, smart transport, smart factories, smart decision-making. The long list of promises can induce a paralysing trance within our heads. Will you be lured as well?

The threshold

Anyway, humankind is doubtlessly located at a threshold between the analogous epoque and the digital age. It’s likely that most contemporaries not even adumbrate the outreach and significance of that. Nothing remained the way it was, when digitization began to flood our private and social lives. Nothing will remain the same, when dataism starts to colonize our brains and hearts. Everything will change when the polar caps turn to water. And the only crucial question is whether we as humans will be well prepared to face these changes in a proper way, a way which will not only grant survival but enable us to make the world a place of blooming mankind – a place of real prosperity and beauty, of human wealth and natural diversity, a place worth dwelling in.

These are the questions any entrepreneur is obliged to pose – given their intent to achieve enduring success. Are we really ready for what’s to come? We have to consider whether our mental and emotional capacities are adequate tools to deal with all the new technologies, machines, and options before us. We have to reflect on our vulnerable morality, our values, mental patterns, belief systems, philosophies, religions, and our metaphysics. We have to take some time for this – to drop out of the torrent and maneuver to a dry place which enables us to take a breath and think.

The junction

What does it mean to think? To think is not to calculate or compute. To think is not to consume information and process it by algorithms. To think is to pose questions – real questions: questions that open different horizons. Good questions are like powerful engines aviating our considerations on a proper cruising altitude. Given that all of Silicon Valley’s promises will become true, good questions in such a situation sound like this::

●     Why should we embrace inventions such as super-intelligent algorithms, human enhancement tools, everlasting existence?

●     What shall we use the algorithms of our artificial intelligences for?

●     Do we intend to control algorithms, or are we be obliged to subject ourselves to them?

Or to put in more simple terms:

●     How do we want to live?

●     Which of our values are indispensable?

●     What’s the essence of our dignity?

Only by answering these questions can we proceed with urgent topics such as these:

●     Any no-goes for technology?

●     Anything divine or sacred we should honour?

●     Any virtues we should cultivate?

Questions, questions – give me the answer! But it’s not that easy. For there are no simple answers, and even if there were, it wouldn’t help us at all, so long as the answers were not self-generated but merely borrowed opinions. Only by thinking on our own and then sharing our thoughts, and by this joining into a common conversation, shall we reach the cruising altitude required for the proper perspective for dealing with future challenges.

Back to the roots

Being aware of the need to pose crucial questions, we unexpectedly find ourselves confronted with the oldest call of western civilisation. It was given by the ancient Greek god Apollo on whose temple in Delphi a mayor proverb was engraved: Γν?θι σα?τον – Know who you are! That imperative compels us to get rooted in the psychic soil of our existence: the layer our ancestors called soul – the mostly concealed but nevertheless always present basement of humanity.

Know who you are! We must newly consider what it takes to be human. We must tap the knowledge of our souls to become re-inspired by the common wisdom of humanity. We must look for a proper mindset and language by which to come to terms with new technologies and options. We need to know what really matters to see what’s good about the promised inventions – and what are mere siren songs luring us to a bad end. We have to listen carefully to the whisper of the real, analogous world.

If we dare to commit ourselves to that task, we shall open the gates to a new civilisation that will be strong enough to moderate current and future disruptions and the dynamics of digitization.

A new narrative

Now it’s possible to contextualize technologies so that they serve human aliveness and prosperity. But we can also go on as we have for ages: optimize our economy, perfect our technology, exploit our planet, prolong the devastation of our souls. That’s what’s going to happen, if we hold on tight to our convenient mental habits and spiritual ignorance, and just hope that algorithms will work it out and deliver us from any mess we’ve made.

You can choose this path – but if you do, don’t dare to call yourself entrepreneur; for this is not the path of a courageous hero but the path of cushy cowards.

Real entrepreneurship requires the willingness to conquer new economic horizons and new mental horizons. And advanced entrepreneurship requires the courage to transform one’s way of thinking: your mindset, your belief systems, your paradigms. What actually matters– at the edge of the new digital epoque – is to redefine what it really means to be successful as a human being in a digitized world.

By this – and only by this – can entrepreneurs contribute to making the world a better place.

But it’s not about creating your own personal and private new paradigm. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it won’t change anything. What matters is to share your insights, to discuss them humbly and truthfully with your partners and colleagues – to weave them into a shared network of entrepreneurs and by this to foster your impact on society. Only by common conversation will a new and powerful mindset evolve.

Let’s embark on a quest for a new economy that inspires humans to be fully alive! Let’s multiply our entrepreneurial powers to generate sustainable harmony between humans and nature. Let’s dare to strive for beauty.

The invisible governor

In German there’s the saying: Der Fisch stinkt vom Kopf her – A fish stinks by the head. The proverb is mainly used to express hierarchical failure such as mismanagement or any kind of mess on the highest level. But there also is a deeper meaning of the words: Any problem, of any organization, is due to its mental groundwork – to its thinking-habits.

Now, reflecting on one’s own mindset and mental paradigm is easier said than done. Generally, humans are not aware of the patterns and processes by which they think – they have no idea of the very peculiar and sometimes unique perspectives they use to get access to reality. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this. Constantly reflecting on your thoughts and actions would severely weaken you. Too much consciousness will paralyse you. And entrepreneurship in particular doubtlessly requires a hefty dose of self-trust and healthy unconsciousness: intuition, instinct, situational intelligence. Again: there’s nothing wrong with that.

And yet, the associated danger can be phrased quite simply: What unconsciously governs you can either enable you to unfold your potential or it can silently imprison you within the cage of your concepts, subtly forcing you into alienation from reality. Then the fish called your organization will start to smell by its head. This is the reason why you should never underestimate the power of your unconscious mental patterns. They are like the operating system of your brain, configurating your perceptions, concepts, and decisions. And the less you are aware of them, the more powerful they become. Once again, this is problematic only when your mental patterns and paradigms remain fixed even while reality is changing.

It’s urgent for leaders and entrepreneurs to regularly check the toolboxes of their minds and ask themselves whether the way they think is still appropriate.

Practice of liberation and the machine-matrix

Now we have to pose the question of how to gain access to the operating system of our brains. The traditional answer is called philosophy. The ancients Greeks described philosophy as a practice of liberation: a practice to empower people to open their eyes, rub away the dust of convention, and take a fresh and sober look on reality.

In these days – for a leader and entrepreneur – philosophy becomes more and more important. Remember, we’re standing at a threshold leading us from an analogue past to a digital future. This threshold is a junction at which we have to decide how to proceed: to go along with paradigms designed for the analogue world – or to break up and courageously quest for the proper mindset for the digital millennium to come?

Reflecting on the conventional paradigm that currently governs our common life, there’s one perhaps shocking insight: It was designed in the eighteenth century. It can properly be called the machine-matrix, and it is governed by the idea that every single item in the universe – and the universe itself – can be described as a mechanical apparatus to generate an intended product or output. Given this, nature, humans, or even spirit are resources to be exploited to serve the intended goals and targets. Technological, economic or political machines are then designed to optimally transform these resources to consumable products.

Being part of a political, economic or technological machine therefore requires one virtue only: functionality. Gears, citizens, and employers have to function properly – and the main duty of leadership is to optimize the efficiency, productivity, and functionality of the machine. In the framework of the machine-matrix leadership and entrepreneurship are understood in terms of engineering. Success is regarded as the maximized output of the intended product.

How we organized the world is nothing but the manifestation of the 18th century machine-matrix. And it’s also the way we treat ourselves. We treat ourselves as optimizable machines which by healthcare, athletics, cosmetics, mental techniques, spiritual teaching etc. can be optimized to maximize the intended goal called happiness.

Disruptive change of mind

Now, the crucial question is: Do you believe entrepreneurs will be successful in the years to come by continuing to operate within the machine-matrix? If they do, it’s easy to predict what’s going to happen next. Digital technology will be used to optimized the machine, constantly exploiting the given resources and constantly producing the same output: short-term success accompanied (as collateral damage) by long-term devastation of nature, societies and humans.

Obviously this is not a bright and inspiring perspective for advanced entrepreneurship. One thing is certain: We have to reload our brains.

Given that the current mindset of the globalized world – the machine matrix –causes lots of severe crises it’s pretty obvious that in regard of entrepreneurial philosophy only a disruptive shift of mind will equip us with the mental tools to deal with new technologies and options. But how will mental disruption occur? What can you do to promote philosophical innovation? How can you foster the rise of a new paradigm? Entrepreneurs, you may say, are not philosophers. That’s true. But they can meet each other from time to time. That time has come