We no longer live in the modern world. Digital technology has already fundamentally re-structured human societies. In order to act responsibly in this new world, the causes and consequences of this paradigm shift must be understood. This class was designed to help with that understanding.
– Mark Stahlman
52 Living Ideas is proud to bring you a free 8 session course by Mark Stahlman, President, The Center for the Study of Digital Life (CSDL)
Three Spheres: East, West & Digital -- Man & the Machine
Sundays 3pm ET, Oct 3 to Nov 21: Register Here
Watch on YouTube
1) Overview: A History of History of Civilizations - October 3
2) Overview: The Lost Cause - October 10
3) East: China Retrieves Chi & Leapfrogs the West - October 17
4) East: India & Japan: Reconfiguration of the East - October 24
5) West: Disenchantment of the West - October 31
6) West: Natural Law - November 7
7) Digital: Digital Sphere Retrieves Alchemy - November 14
8) Digital: Post Humanity? - November 21
Globalism is Dead but most haven't got the memo. It has been replaced by a new structure, Three Spheres: East, West & Digital. Understanding this fundamental change is critical for anyone evaluating the opportunities and risks they are facing today. The chaos we are experiencing is the result of the shift from Television (Fantasy) to Digital (Memory) as paradigms. Coming to grips with this shift, however destabilizing it may be, has become mandatory.
1) Overview: A History of History of Civilizations - Oct 3
The "Decline of the West" (1918/22) by Oswald Spangler has been hanging over our heads for a century. The future of civilization is now in question. Understanding how historians have dealt with these issues (or not) is the context for understanding the effect of new technologies on society and our personal lives.
Further Reading:
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964)
Marshall McLuhan, Laws of Media: The New Science (1988)
Marshall McLuhan, War and Peace in the Global Village (1968)
Marshall McLuhan & Eric McLuhan, Media and Formal Cause (2011)
Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West: Form and Actuality (1918/26)
Oswald Spengler, Man and Technics: A Contribution to a Philosophy of Life (1931/32)
Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History (1934-1961)
Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope (1966)
Samuel Huntington, Clash of Civilizations (1993)
Romano Guardini, Letters from Lake Como (1925/59)
Romano Guardini, End of the Modern World (1950/56)
Watch session 1 on YouTube
2) Overview: The Lost Cause - Oct 10
Nothing can be understood without grasping its causes. But causality has largely been removed from modern thinking (often replaced by statistics) -- fatally wounding our ability to comprehend change. How can we retrieve causality -- particularly Formal cause -- so we can understand the world around us?
Watch session 2 on YouTube
3) East: China Retrieves Qi & Leapfrogs the West - Oct 17
Chinese civilization is often described as being 5,000 years old. Today's Chinese leadership is aggressively emphasizing that heritage. Particularly important is the interest in Qi and its medical and spiritual expressions in Qigong. This presents an opportunity for China to leapfrog the West in its understanding of primal energy -- especially as it pertains to human beings as Qi concentrators.
4) East: India & Japan: Reconfiguration of the East - Oct 24
Both India and Japan are also retrieving their ancient heritage. This is required in the face of Digital technology which threatens to replace humanity with machines. Only a thorough remembrance of what it means to be human can deal with this challenge.
5) West: Disenchantment of the West - Oct 31
Can the West recover in the face of a resurgent East and an accelerating Digital sphere? The tables have turned and the colonial West is now at a disadvantage. "Disenchanted" secularism cannot lead to success in this spiritual contest. Can the West recover its own moral ground?
6) West: Natural Law - Nov 7
The abandonment of Natural Law is at the heart of West's decline. Originally a pagan formulation and then incorporated by Christianity, Natural Law is the required basis for a revival of scientific inquiry in a recovering West Sphere. Our new paradigm requires new sciences.
7) Digital: Digital Sphere Retrieves Alchemy - November 14
Alchemy is a pursuit of golden souls not golden metal. It seeks to purify a professed "divine spark" in humanity and to transform society in the process. This ancient impulse now threatens to replace the human with immortal machines under Digital conditions.
8) Digital: Post Humanity? - Nov 21
Artificial Intelligence (AI) disguises the real effects of thesetechnologies on human beings. Regardless of what the machines can door our attempts to regulate these technologies, the most important development is how these efforts change the humans in the process. Can humanity survive in a "post-human" world?
The Center for the Study of Digital Life (CSDL) was founded in 2015 to pursue the unique challenges and opportunities of life under DIGITAL conditions. We have capitalized DIGITAL throughout to indicate that this is an environment (not just a technology) which is radically different from any previous one that has been experienced by humanity. Recognition of the patterns that have already changed in our lives has become a crucial task for those who wish to understand, take responsibility and act positively in this new environment.
Mark Stahlman is President of the Center for the Study of Digital Life (CSDL).