A Freakin’ Eco-Cool Look at Technology

I recently attended a meeting for discussion of an eco-village in Toronto. It was hosted by ReGenesis and featured members of The Zeitgeist Movement, Sonny Young (an upcoming mayoral candidate), and many other awesome interested individuals.

We were discussing technology and how it relates to the building of an eco-village. I listened intently, thought deeply, made a solitary joke, and had an utter blast.

If one observes any debate or discussion, it is not uncommon for a certain quantity (and quality) of thought to occur.

Many people find it truly interesting to see if they are able to sense the types of thought occurring in a room. Try it

Here are some thoughts I’d have loved to have shared more with the people there, if the moment had felt right.

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On Technology (and Eco-Villages )

Though it comes up rarely on this website so far, (mainly here, for example: http://spiritsentient.com/simple-harmonius-integrated-living) SpiritSentient is passionately, passionately pro eco-village-type-projects. We love concepts like sustainability, eco-friendliness, and intentional communities.

I personally have so many thoughts, words, actions, and energy to offer on the subject, I could easily fill multiple books. (and likely will, when the time’s right — watch for the upcoming Idealution & Thoughtsperity from SpiritSentient.)

For now, I’ll talk about a subject near and dear to our culture’s hearts, technology.

Our global society has been reductionist for quite some time.

‘Reductionist’ describes a tendency to think hyper-logically, attempting to isolate the fundamental parts without context. It leaves no room for love or miracles and relies heavily on an A->B->C perception of causality.

This reductionism colors a large majority of events from the smallest words we speak to our largest scale wars.

The reductionist trend can be easily noticed in the day-to-day lives of people.

It can be seen in discussion + debate (in this case of technology.)

Most people choose to ask questions about and discuss the minute details of a certain technology, or they decide to speak of a single particular minute example of technology that *they’ve personally experienced* and that they have many logical and analytical trains-of-thought for. Currently, people asking big-picture questions, as to how technology *relates* to global culture, and humanity’s evolution, are rare.

The fact that there is a notable absence of these types of expansive topics and questions, is an indicator that our technology will be heavily misused and imbalanced, as our actions will mirror our thinking, which is also heavily imbalanced.

Many things were brought up during the meeting regarding technology, and one of my favorites, raised by a gentleman named Dimitri, and echoed by the Zeitgeist Movement, was that technology isn’t inherently good or bad, it is simply a tool created by humanity, to be used in ways we prefer. Those ways can be aware, educated, and conscious of all sides… or clueless and dismissive of certain sides.

To broaden our awareness and education of technology, it may behoove (I love using the word ‘behoove’) us to note that:

Society’s thinking pendulums back and forth; at times we may wish to mitigate this swing, and at times we may wish to amplify it.

I’m going to take a moment to illuminate global trends in attitudes using the metaphor of a pendulum. Stick with me

In man’s very early primitive ancestral/tribal stages, our global-consciousness was aimed towards a manner-of-thinking based on an understanding of our big-picture bond with the earth (Gaia).

This was not a reductionist attitude. It was oriented more towards the larger-pattern and connectivity of all things; man, his environment, all the internal and external movements involved, etc.

Until quite recently, society has not been super-connected to earth and the environment as it has been in the past.

The pendulum had swung hard to the side of reductionism.

‘Systemic thinking’ is big-picture thinking, that doesn’t react to particular outcomes or events, potentially adding to the undesired issue or problem. It focuses on a connectedness to nature and our environment, and larger-scale pattern recognition, understanding things in their place in relationship with everything else, as opposed to in isolation.

This reductionist-thinking has resulted in some of our most powerful technological creations, coming from the analysis of the most minute details. It resulted in nuclear power, complex computers, and massive advances in medicine and genetics. Very, very powerful things, to be sure.

There is a flip-side to reductionism, and that is systemic thinking.

This focus on reductionism, has subtly drawn our society away from systemic thinking.

By focusing so powerfully on reductionism and choosing to remain ignorant of systemic thinking for a while, a sort of, "not seeing the forest for the trees" syndrome has occurred.

There are powerful technologies to be found in systemic thinking, such as recycling/composting programs, wind-turbine energy, and passive-solar, which arise out of a deep focus on humanity’s relationship and interaction with our environment. These powerful technologies are a part of the momentum and why systemic thinking is making a resurgence.

The pendulum is swinging back towards an appreciation of the larger pattern of life, highlighted by the green movement, eco-literacy, and cultural themes in general (see: James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar.)

Basically, reductionist thinking has resulted in extremely advanced and brilliant technologies, and now systemic thinking is resulting in the same, and though it appears as if reductionist-generated technologies have been on the whole damaging and that systemic-thinking generated tech has been on the whole earth-saving, they are both just tools, and either of them can be abused or carried too far.

In Simple Terms

I am suggesting that simply remaining aware of the two methods of thought, and what they tend to generate, and how and why, can provide a self-organizing, self-guiding balance that will allow us the use of all fields of human advancement — including technology — with a poetic grace that defies description. When an individual or a society remains in a state of true awareness regarding a certain thing, poor, imbalanced decisions are not really possible under those conditions.

This article is filled with ideas intended as starting points for an eco-village looking to create an ambitious new way of life.

If the intention is to apply technology to create a beautiful, sustainable, eco-friendly way to live — marshal, regroup, and be at peace with your own thoughts and methods of thinking first.

From that comes an aware, educated, and proper application of reductionist AND systemic thinking, resulting in something beautiful and powerful and greater than the sum of it’s parts (systemic ).

We as individuals and as a collective are mysteriously impelled to do the "right thing" when we are aware of both the minute details as well as the bigger picture of a particular moment/focus. How and why does this occur? Perhaps some reductionist thinking can get to the bottom of it… or maybe some visionary web-of-life thought will get us there?

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I’d like to thank: The ReGensis Project, The Zeitgeist Movement, and The AboutFace Collective for inspiring this post (which I feel really, really good about. Seriously. It rocks, right? Tell me it rocks. You know you wanna…)

Note: Much of this article re-hashes the visionary work of Fritjof Capra (author of The Web Of Life, and co-author of EcoManagement), and introduced to me by Tim White, of TheSereneWay.com (soon to be re-launched, SpiritSentient style) and much of Capra’s work integrates all kinds of advances from all walks of life. (Ed Note: I fucking love Fritjof Capra, and he has a stunning perspective on life.)

Tags: capra, fritjof, reductionism, spirituality, systemic thinking, technology, toronto, vision

Written by Jason Fonceca

Jason Fonceca is a visionary/creator with 25 years experience in writing, art, technology, spirituality, and many other disciplines. He's the author of the upcoming book "Idealution & Thoughtsperity," as well as the founder of SpiritSentient.com & JasonFonceca.com.

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