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2024 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

1. Finding the Narrative: Shifting East

Author : Stefan Brunnhuber

Published in: The Third Culture

Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland

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Abstract

This first chapter sets out the question that lies at the heart of the book: what is it to be human in the twenty-first century, at the dawn of new technologies—AI, big data, the Internet of Things? I argue that Eastern rather than Western narratives are most helpful for answering this question. Every technology is ambivalent. Most research findings are not the result of a rational process, but rather emerge from science’s intuitive, irrational ‘dark side’.

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next chapter Finding Potential Integrators

The more expansive a narrative becomes over time, the more powerful it is. This apparent paradox derives from the fact that until an alternative story is found, we are forced to give the victims and losses resulting from this initial narrative a sense of ultimate purpose. This is also true of powerful narratives concerning the impact of new technologies on human societies.

Wikipedia (2023a).

The Western human-centred approach does have its advantages: it acknowledges humans’ unique ability to reflect upon, question and revise their agendas, dogmas and worldviews, and to constantly correct and recorrect their path in a way that is disruptive and failure-tolerant. This approach has allowed humans to overcome Malthus cycles, brought about a revolution in education, science, the arts, architecture, technology, music and crafts, and transformed government constitutions, trade and politics, while at the same time differentiating and dissociating our knowledge about ourselves and the world around us. But Western universalism has lost its superiority, not only in this general and philosophical sense, but also in a very practical, social, moral and political one. This is especially true when it comes to understanding and explaining public affairs, the human mind and the impact of new technologies.

From a Buddhist perspective, the entire world is an illusion (Maya), in which we are constantly identifying ourselves with objects, desires and ideas, simultaneously creating transitory successful adaptations and harmful deceptions that ultimately cause suffering. These multiple mental identifications eventually create the narratives we use to explain the world around and within us. If we were able to fully disidentify from the world, we would overcome all illusions and would finally see reality as it is: mental states such as ‘full emptiness’, ‘oneness’, ‘nirvana’ and ‘the one taste’ bring us as close as possible to reality as it truly is, beyond any distorting conceptualisations. It may sound paradoxical, but the new technologies we explore in this book share the property of allowing us to both disidentify from and more fully engage with the world.

The interconnectedness we are now experiencing in the Anthropocene era is similar to the ‘ecology of mind’ first described in detail by Bateson (1972). It is only through interconnectedness that there can be any meaning. Isolation and abstraction are a universal impossibility, since everything is interconnected with everything else. Strictly speaking, we could study anything through the lens of any discipline.

Western traditions have similar sacred geometric proportions (such as the ‘golden rule’), which establish an intrinsic link between beauty, proportion and goodness. In Greek philosophy we find the expression kalos kagathos, which means ‘beautiful and good’. It suggests that if we want to do the right thing and make the right decisions, we need to search for and be exposed to the beauty of correct proportions.

See Bohr (2008), Meyer-Abich (1965), Walach (2010).

Humans have developed three ways to identify complementary pairs. The first, perception, involves observing and mimicking nature; a second, analytical thinking, originated in the prehistorical practices of shamans, which were then further systematised in Greek, Arabic and Chinese culture; a third, contemplation, is rooted in the mystical practices that cut across all religions.

Whenever technological progress or innovation occurs in one field, a potential shadow is cast, or a void created, in another. Western thinking excels at celebrating progress and disruptive innovation, but has great difficulty recognising the voids resulting from this progress. For example, the invention of the printing press had a negative impact on oral memory, driving a car has a negative impact on walking and consequently upon our health, digitalisation has had a negative impact on jobs and so on. In short, whenever we progress in one area, we also ‘regress’ in another. From an Eastern perspective, the divided view of the Western Enlightenment is seen as a form of avidiya or ignorance.

The first Industrial Revolution (1820) was characterised by mechanisation, and in particular by the invention of the steam engine; the second (1900) by mass production and electrification; the third (1970) by automation and computer technology; the fourth (2000) by the IoT, AI, deep learning, big data and autonomisation. See Schwab (2017).

One way to look at this is as follows: the amount of water and air on this planet has remained constant throughout history (Berner and Berner 2012). Every time we breathe in—and each of the eight billion human beings on the planet does so about 17,000 times a day—we breathe in the same air as all previous generations. The same goes for every glass of water we drink: we are drinking the same water as every previous generation. We have always been connected, and in the future we will be even more connected. The difference from the past is that we can now measure, scientifically evaluate and influence the degree of connection. See Ford (2016), Utke (1998).

See Fischer (2014, 2015).

See Delbrück (1978).

Kurzweil (2005) claims that there is a ‘law of accelerating returns’, such that the process of change is itself exponential.

Byers (2014).

There are three additional integrators. On an individual and interior level, our spiritual practices; on a collective level, our commonly shared values; and on a systemic outer level, the architecture of the financial system. All three have the potential to fundamentally change our minds, our consciousness and the future course of humankind for good or for ill. See Brunnhuber (2021b, 2023a).

Bateson G (1972) Steps to an ecology of mind: collected essays in anthropology, psychiatry, evolution, and epistemology. Jason Aronson, Northvale, NJ

Berner EK, Berner RA (2012) Global environment: water, air, and geochemical cycles. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJCrossRef

Bohr N (2008) Collected works, vol 10: Complementarity beyond physics (1928–1962). Elsevier, Amsterdam

Brunnhuber S (2021b) Financing our future: unveiling a parallel digital currency system to fund the SDGs and the common good. Palgrave Macmillan, BasingstokeCrossRef

Brunnhuber S (2023a) Financing our Anthropocene: how Wall Street, Main Street and central banks can manage, fund and hedge our global commons. Springer, ChamCrossRef

Byers W (2014) Deep thinking: what mathematics can tell us about the mind. World Scientific Publishing, Hackensack, NJCrossRef

Delbrück M (1978) Interview with Carolyn Harding. Oral History Project, 14 July–11 September 1978, California Institute of Technology Archives

Fischer EP (2014) Die Verzauberung der Welt: Eine andere Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften. Siedler, Munich

Fischer EP (2015) Durch die Nacht: Eine Naturgeschichte der Dunkelheit. Siedler, Munich

Ford JL (2016) The divine quest, east and west: a comparative study of ultimate realities. SUNY Press, Albany, NY

Kurzweil R (2005) The singularity is near. Viking Books, New York

Meyer-Abich KM (1965) Korrespondenz, Individualität und Komplementarität. Steiner, Wiesbaden

Schwab K (2017) The fourth industrial revolution. Penguin, London

Utke AR (1998) Introduction: the (re)unification of knowledge: why? how? where? when? Counterpoints 39:1–33

Walach H (2010) Complementary? Alternative? Integrative? Forsch Komplementmed 17(4):215–216

Wikipedia (2023a) Culture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture. Accessed 19 July 2023

Title: Finding the Narrative: Shifting East
Author: Stefan Brunnhuber
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland
Book: The Third Culture
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-48112-3

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-48113-0

Copyright Year: 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48113-0_1

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