This is part 2 in a 5 part series to be released over the next week or two on the Global Brain. To help me continue this research at the Ph.D. level please consider visiting Microryza and supporting my campaign.
Here is my Hubski post discussing the reasoning behind the campaign.
And if you missed the first instalment in the Pathway to the Global Brain series:
(Part 1/5): Introduction to Cybernetics - and you can discuss it on Hubski here.
Do you think that the Western ideal of individualism has hurt us as a technoculture? I don't mean to say that because individualism exists that cooperation does not exist, but I do wonder if the emphasis on individual achievement is having an impact on the kinds of technological advancements we are making. This passage also made me wonder if there is any connection between China's collectivist ideals and their space program and also the state of the American space program.A lot of primatologists who study chimpanzees and bonobos often remark that “if only we could get the chimps to cooperate a little more, they would have a cultural revolution.” In fact, cooperation is something chimpanzees do… but they do it very poorly compared to modern humans. And it isn’t their fault. Chimpanzees are very good at being chimpanzees, they just aren’t very good at producing what I call the “new evolutions” which is the production of technoculture.
Emphasis on the individual (over the collective) is the most important philosophical development in human history. I will be exploring this in great detail in part 3 (agriculture/industry) and part 4 (global brain). The American space program is suffering because its funding comes from a horribly corrupt and inefficient challenge propagation center (an industrial political system). This will all be explained in great detail in part 3 and 4. :)I do wonder if the emphasis on individual achievement is having an impact on the kinds of technological advancements we are making.
This passage also made me wonder if there is any connection between China's collectivist ideals and their space program and also the state of the American space program.