Are you exploding with frustration like I am?
We live at a time when the solution to all of our problems is right in front of our eyes but is agonizingly just beyond our reach.
“To organize the information of the world and make it universally accessible and useful.”
That mission has been achieved.
All of the information in the world lies at our fingertips.
All of the conditions are in place for the ascension of our species out of the age of barbarism.
It’s as if chemical solution is just waiting for the introduction of a catalyst before it explodes. And yet we wait and we wait and we wait. Salivating. And the catalyst does not come. It is maddening.
With 7 billion brains connected to the Internet, how are we actually using this treasure to collaboratively solve the problems which plague us all?
How do we spend the majority for the hours of the days of our life? What is the return on the investment of our time and effort? What are we pursuing? How are we investing our time? Are we any closer to solving the big problems today than we were yesterday? If not, why the hell not? Why have we been wasting our time?
We need only to plug in and to use our brain.
To formulate the question.
To search.
To discover.
To absorb.
To think.
To accept and reject.
To refine our predictive model.
To refine our hypothesis or create a new one.
To test our hypotheses with a thought experiment.
To think.
To savor the rewards of insight.
One step closer to the goal.
To formulate a new hypothesis.
To search again.
By this means all of the problems in the world can be solved.
But who does this?
Neither the slaves nor the enslavers.
Both are trapped in a system of being which leads them to their own destruction
The broken slave awaits his orders from his master and does what he is told. Never summoning the courage to turn towards the discomfort in his heart. Never summoning the courage to break the chains that enslaves his mind and all of humanity. Condemning us all to death. Drugging himself to ease the pain of the inner conflict so that he might carry-on being a slave and receive his meager rewards for doing the bidding of his master.
But as bad as things are, at least he has the peace of mind of knowing that he is not a slaver. He lives in harmony with his conscience for the most part. Bending the knee to Almighty God expecting that he will be rewarded for his sacrifices in heaven. He won’t. His worm infested corpse will rot in the ground and that will be the end of him. This promise of heaven is but a clever lie of the slaver to compel the slave to do his bidding and to never revolt against him.
The enslaver, by contrast, actually uses his brain. He uses all resources at his disposal but not with the aim of solving the problems of the world. Not with the aim of actually helping others. Rather his aim is to help himself at the expense of others. The questions which drives his every waking thought being “How do I accumulate more for myself? How do I raise my status in the hierarchy? How do I more efficiently subjugate more slaves beneath my feet? How do I motivate them to do my bidding more efficiently than the slaves of my adversary so that I might triumph over him and further advance my status over his broken body? How do I more effectively punish and reward my slaves to satiate my insatiable quest for more money, more power and more status?”
Both the slave and his master are destined for death. Both are slaves to the primal compulsions of the survival machine for genes.
The enslaver is most likely beyond hope. Irredeemably evil at a genetic level. Lacking the ingredients for the emergence of a conscience which would restrain his predatory compulsions. He cannot be saved. And yet the predators have been so successful in outbreeding the prey that the entire ecosystem is destabilizing. With each passing day the threat of a violent conflict which may kill us all seems to become more and more unavoidable. The inevitable result of allowing this system to continue. The inevitable result of refusing to use our brains to think through problems more deeply add to actually solve them. The inevitable result of putting a bandage on the problem. The inevitable result of half measures. The inevitable result of the habitual choice to take the easy path. The inevitable result of the choice to turn away from the uncomfortable in favor of the comfortable.
The slave, on the other hand, has the potential to save not only himself but the entire world if only he would only summon the courage to free his mind. What will it take to compel him to break the chains? How bad do things need to get before his pain threshold is exceeded and he finally rebels? When will he turn his attention away from the enslaving narratives of his master? When will he plug in, formulate his question and search? When will his hero’s journey begin?