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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: WHEN’S THE NEXT QUANTUM SOCIAL LEAP? In spite of the gloom and doom that experts on global warming and political comment are feeding us, an empirical look around informs us that civilisation is evolving into greater and better things. Remember the cave man, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the days when people’s average life expectancy was 35-40. Are we better off or worse off now? Don’t think too hard. The answer is pretty obvious. Recently we saw technology .. the computer age .. make a quantum leap in communication for the benefit of us all. Where did that come from? Who could have expected it to be so far-reaching? The impact of that breakthrough is only now rippling through society. It’s making everyone, regardless of social standing, wealth or education, open to scrutiny. Anyone with an average grade mobile phone can snap someone behaving badly at any time, if they just happen to be there. In an instant it can be around the world. It’s put a different spin on social accountability. Levelled the playing field a bit, shall we say. Having seen this astounding progress in technology causes me to speculate .. when is the next quantum leap in social organisation going to happen? Of course it depends on collective humanity. Collective humanity is made of individuals grouped together. So what individuals think and do determines the collective future. So I guess that makes us all accountable for what we think and how we influence others. Which reminds me of a story about crabs. Purveyors of live crabs keep their stock in large barrels. When there are many crabs in the barrel it does not need to be covered. When there are only a few crabs left in a barrel, it must be covered with a gunny sack. Logic might make you think that the reverse should be true. But the underlying reason is that when there are many crabs in the barrel, the society of crabs in that barrel prevents individuals from escaping. The crabs a bit lower down in the barrel pull the “would-be escapee crabs” back. Who knows what their motive is. Do they really need the company of those would-be escapee crabs, or are they jealous that the escapees won’t have to suffer the same destiny or is it just some primeval instinct governing their behaviour that causes them to prevent any one crab from escaping the collective fate. I think this crab metaphor says a lot about why social behaviour evolves so slowly. Why social behaviour hasn’t made too many quantum leaps in centuries. Could it be that society is “dumbing itself down” because the “collective might” fears what could happen if evolutionary social intelligence was given free rein. At the macro level, inequalities in wealth and position still abound. Scarcity and starvation still exist. Wars still takes place. Prisons still fail to rehabilitate their prisoners. Taking a more micro perspective, people are still shy with each other, still argue and behave negatively, still believe that they must bump someone out of the way to do better themselves. All these attitudes have been in place for centuries and centuries. I guess the Computer Age never would have happened if everyone said, “oh it will never be possible to send messages from country to country, exchange data and pictures within seconds .. it’s not going to happen”. We know that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates did not agree, along with countless others before them. Eventually they produced a physical result which we as a society just couldn’t argue with. Besides it was cool for games and other things … So it does seem a mystery that no-one much challenges the social status quo: beliefs like the majority of people are always going to have to work from 9-5 earning peanuts while the minority can take charge and earn fortunes. That the majority are always going to have to spend most of their lives doing what they find boring or positively hate, live a meagre existence and then die. That society has to protect itself against its enemies outside and inside to make sure that all the crabs stay in the barrel and keep the status quo perpetuating… The knowledge that exists in personal development at this very time is sufficient to create a quantum leap in social behaviour which could have far-reaching and profound positive effects for society and its evolution. Are we like those crabs from the crowded barrel, keeping any crab from escaping? Or do we embrace the power and energy of thought, positive thought, to accelerate the world into a new, exciting and as yet unknown social order. Is it possible that the evolutionary social thought which already exists in the world, if unbridled, could eradicate many of the social problems and notions of scarcity that continue to plague us? If there was a way for individuals to evolve to a higher level of thought and understanding about themselves, and the majority of individuals took that way .. wouldn’t that mean that society as a whole would take a quantum leap? Or will fear of the unknown continue to impede society’s progress and ensure it only ever takes baby steps to evolve itself … and never quantum leaps?
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#2. To: earthchild. all (#0)
Excellent, thought-provoking question to which I have no good answer.
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