[ExI] seamless uploading

[Amon Zero]

On 14 July 2011 03:00, Jeff Davis <jrd1415 at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Anyone else feel similar?  What about you younger folks (I'm
> sixty-two, now.  How the hell did that happen?! I don't feel
> sixty-two)? Do you feel more in synch, more in control?



Hi Jeff -

Thanks for the post - very interesting! I'm 38, and feel exactly the way you
describe. I'm a technophile and self-described transhumanist, but
increasingly feel the need to take a moment just to breathe/relax/think when
confronted with some of the rates of innovation and convergence we're seeing
at the moment.

Brian Eno once commented that in all forms of technological and cultural
exploration there are two modes - "tunnel digging" and "surfing". Tunnel
digging is the essential, join-the-dots type work which of course drives the
kind of innovation we're seeing today. But if you take an "eye for the
details" tunnel-digging mindset and look at the big picture - the sudden
change exploding all around - then in my experience the result can be
vertigo. Personally, I find that it relaxes me to switching the "surfing"
mode. Surfing is that loosely creative, even artistic, right-brain approach
in which you relax the need for control and just enjoy the ride, and watch
out for any interesting novelties along the way.

In short, I appreciate the technological details as much as anybody, but
sometimes the sense of being able to "keep up" ironically comes from not
trying to. I probably wouldn't have gone off on a hippy tangent here, except
that this seems related to Brian's concept of "left brian" extended
computational selves coupled to a "right brain" sense of self, identity, and
centre. Maybe Brian is articulating a Singularitarian version of what Brian
Eno was saying all along?

Cheers,
Amon
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