Ming the Mechanic:
Accelerating Evolution Externally

The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 Accelerating Evolution Externally2002-10-14 16:34
7 comments
pictureby Flemming Funch

It occurred to me that there's some kind of philosophical point to be made by the fact that humans will often be most creative and successful when they can place something 'outside' themselves, at least temporarily. A couple of examples:

When I'm being a counselor, and a client needs to change something about their own behavior, it isn't going to happen before they're willing to put it 'outside' themselves and examine it. "Aha, I'm doing so-and-so, and that causes so-and-so, and that's not really what I want. I see now." That opens the door to them changing that aspect of themselves. And then they might re-integrate it back into themselves, so to speak.

In economic endeavors in a capitalist society, the people who are most successful tend to be those who think as businesspeople rather than as workers. I.e. you don't just work hard and try to do your job well. You work towards setting up a system, a machine, a racket, a company - something that 'automatically' will be making money for you. Ideally, even when you sleep.

Does the parallel between those scenarios make sense? Well, it does to me. When we can see something a little bit at a distance, we can use a lot of our human intellectual faculties better. We can be more 'rational'. Which is useful when we're trying to fix something or plan something or make it work in an optimum way.


As to the personal counseling scenario, a person has a much harder time changing himself if he is BEING his problems. He will not acknowledge having those problems, or will not acknowledge that they are problems, and he'll have a hard time seeing clearly what is really going on with him.

As to the business scenario, a 'worker' is somebody who has identified himself as somebody who has a job, which depends on somebody else giving it to him, and the best he can do is to show up and work hard, and stand in line for a raise once in a while. A wage slave. That's typically a person who isn't quite capable of stepping back and figuring out how the whole business works. If he could do that he would usually quickly figure out that it could be a much better deal if HE was the guy who pulled the resources together and managed them, and HE would be the one hiring other people, who would keep working even when he went out to lunch.

There are lots of situations in life where being 'outside' the action isn't what you want. If you're having sex or eating a great meal or skiing in the alps, you certainly want to be inside the action.

But there seems to be something about human evolution that relates to that ability to abstract from things and make them work outside yourself. You can multiply your efforts if you can make them work outside yourself. To potentially any magnitude.

If I can put my words into print, they might go into a book that millions of people read. Or I can record a TV program that other millions of people see, and that can be syndicated and repeated many times.

I wouldn't be able to do that if it was just myself, and people had to come and talk with me in person.

It is like compounded interest. If I can put my energy (money) somewhere where it grows by itself, it will surprisingly quickly turn into a whole lot. If I can express my energy on paper so it can be copied and read many times, it multiplies much faster than I'd ever be able to accomplish by myself.

If I can make a machine that will do something useful, it can do the work instead of me. And I can be free to create something else, rather than being stuck with hard, repetitive work.

If I can make an organization, it can do much more than what I can do. And it might do it when I'm not there, and it might continue doing it, even when the individual people come and go.

That is unbeatable. Life forms that can set up machines, organizations, hierarchies, networks, distribution channels, businesses - they can easily outcompete any life forms that have to do all their own work. Beings who do this can accelerate their own evolution.

There are some problems in this, however. There's a level of maturity and responsibility that better go along with it.

Just like a person who becomes isolated and shut off from their own emotions might become a ruthless killer, somebody who makes machines or organizations might do so in an irresponsible way. They might create something that does something they wouldn't even personally do, but they might still make it be multiplied and amplified.

An investor might buy stocks of companies that do things they wouldn't dream of doing themselves. Executives might drive their businesses to do things they wouldn't really feel good about, if they actually were connected with it.

So, the challenge is in maximizing what we can do, in accelerating our evolution, while not losing touch with our humanity or our integrity. Amplifying our creativity, while coming from the heart.



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7 comments

14 Oct 2002 @ 23:19 by vaxen : The reason is...
"The mind is not the brain. The mind is an energy field. The brain is a physical 'switchboard' between the mind and the body."

http://www.relfe.com/

--------------------------

http://www.tfhka.org/

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Are you familiar, at all, with 'Wernicke's commands?'

Good thoughts but...can be carried a lot further. Keep pushing flemming san.  



14 Oct 2002 @ 23:55 by shawa : I agree with Vaxen´s...
...last comment. These are interesting thoughts.
Organizations can get distorted by the bits of the "creator" who don´t want to "come out and be examined", certain unconscious structures which are the fundamental lie society has you believing is "you". So, until ALL you think is "you" is not examined by yourself-as-Observer (next level of personal integration) - there´s little chance that you will not produce a distorsion (albeit a creative one, if you are honest to begin with) and entrain numerous "mistakes" in the luminous web of Creation. Which would create a situation that would have to be addressed, and this would become a learning tool for lots of people (for ex. NCN).
You are right when you say that to "see" something, it must be brought "out" - and be seen, and then re-integrated WITH the analysis, in its rightful place, to become more effective and change the real world. That is valid for groups and organizations, too. Not only individuals in therapy.
I hope you do that with NCN ... :-)  



15 Oct 2002 @ 00:53 by ming : Examination
Hm, yes, it would be nice if there would be a way of doing it in a useful way within NCN, where we could bring things out and look at them, without getting into fights about what we see. Oh, we're doing it to some degree, I suppose, but not enough.  


15 Oct 2002 @ 00:56 by ming : Brains
Vaxen, yes, I agree that the mind and the brain is not the same thing, and that the brain is probably more like a switchboard.

I don't think I know what Wernicke's commands are. Is that related to Touch for Health?  



23 Oct 2002 @ 02:39 by dharmicmel : wage slaves
I disagree with your thoughts on waves slaves, and in fact, I disagree with most economic thinking, no matter where it comes from

I am not at all interested in this dichotomy of whether I am successful because I think of myself as a business person or a worker; I am successful just because I exist, and it really does not matter who thinks what on that; I am a worker, but not in the capitalist sense; I am a worker for the greater dharma, which has to do with raising consciousness, or more to the point, the evolution of consciousness; that is work, an important work, second to none

this endless, senseless money grubbing is of less and less interest to me as time goes by; everything, it seems, sooner or later, has to go back to $$$; but as we evolve consciousness, we are only going to take the consciousness with us; let's instead, get on with the serious business of shaping technology to do our will, i.e, a greater will, something that would in fact reflect higher principles regarding a New Civilization; there is all this talk about what a great and glorious future we can create, and I agree with a lot if it, but I find it almost impossible to believe that all we can come up with, in all of that, is the endless economic indentured servitude of the mind of money; let us develop nanotechnology, for example, to create a material superabundance, coupled with Artilects to run things for us, for humans, and then the money grubbing will be over -- once and for all, and we can do more interesting things, like evolve consciousness, and all that is involved in the greater dharmic dance

ask the millions of wage slaves in this country what it means to be a wage slave; and ask them if they want to run the show, as it were; many among us do not want to be capitalists, we want to get by, and there is nothing wrong with that; we want, instead, to go further, higher, and deeper in the consciousness continuum, as though it were real and actually meant something

someone lamented about the lack of revolutionaries here at NCN, or more to the point, the lack of the revolutionary spirit; I see it in a lot of places, and it must be understood that it is not just one thing

I think we have to get over the money-grubbing trip once and for all; I am not interested in the present system; I want something that goes beyond the present consensus agreement of fundamentalist materialism, and I think it can happen, especially if we were to use the resources of the earth as though they were intended for one and all, and not for selfish competition, or a struggle as to who will be a wage slave and who will run things; advanced, intelligently evolved machines can, it is envisioned, run things and we -- human beings -- can do other things

then, there will be no more wage slaves, and that will be a great and wonderful day, even if it seems impossible, or a very long, long time coming

Sherie, where are you?; you need to get in on this

p.s. I have the greatest respect and interest in Mr. Flemmings words, but I think there is too much worship of what he says; he is an ICON at NCN, but I submit that NCN does not need ICONS, but rather radical thinkers and free spirits; we should agree to disagree, and think more in opposites; that would be revolutionary


melvin. mindgarden. wednesday. 23 october 2002 ce  



23 Oct 2002 @ 02:56 by ming : Beyond Money
I think I agree with all of that too.

But I'm interested in the strategies involved in getting there faster - to a conscious, abundant society, where money is meaningless. Do we dream about that, while allowing ourselves to be exploited in the present, or do we endeavor to arrange our present circumstances to best propel things towards what we really want.  



24 Oct 2002 @ 01:33 by dharmicmel : beyond money grubbing
I think we have to be active in an active world; that is why I refer to things as the greater dharmic dance
sometimes, the dream, the vision, the desire for a new world, a better world, seems impossibly far away
we are exploited, in this world, no matter what we dream, or not dream, because there are many competing truth claims, worldviews, values, attitudes, assumptions, and dreams; there are those among us who like the status quo, and who have a lot invested in it; the establishment, as it were, is not going to hand it over, and will resist a conscious change to transcend money
yes, we have to work with the present circumstances and conditions, but that is a very mixed bag
what I really want is an end to money, and yet, I have to work with and through money, to make that happen; I guess, in a way, it is like having to work in and through flesh and blood to realize transhumanist states, or higher spiritual states
the thing about the icon reference: I feel like too many hang on your thoughts, instead of thinking for themselves; it is not your fault, and I apologize if I have offended you, because that was not my intention; sometimes the fire inside of me gets ahead of me
all in all, right at this moment, this seems to be a very depressing subject


melvin. mindgarden. ground zero. thursday. 24 october 2002 ce  



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