Lesson on TATAKalikasan, Ateneo de Manila University
87.9 FM Radyo Katipunan, every Thursday 11 to 12 a.m.
November 30, 2023
Birth of the NOOSPHERE
Towards Global Collective Consciousness.
Part 1 - The Noosphere - Third Planetary Evolution
Part 2 - Topics to research on and keep abreast with our fastchanging worldPart 3 - Global trends that have been changing the way we live
Part 1 -The Noosphere - Third Planetary Evolution
Towards Global Collective Consciousness
Aftermath of September 11, 2001 (9/11)
Background: The attack on the World Trade Center on the morning on September 11, 2001 (9/11) caused intense, excruciating painful surge of grief and anger and sadness to millions and millions all over the world via media, albeit personal experience at the site in NY, instantly forming a global collective consciousness, a sheathe of mental energy that actually altered the operation of computers,* thus ushering the birth of a third evolution of our planet – The Noosphere.
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Dr Abe V Rotor
Towards a Noosphere from the Big Bang in acrylic by AV Rotor 2001
Today with cyber communication, social media, modern transport, breakthroughs in science and technology and growth of megacities, collective consciousness is evolving and inevitably expanding into a global scale. It is visualized as a planetary sphere of mind, a mental sheathe of the earth. It is the third evolutionary event that our planet earth is undergoing. It is called noosphere – the unity of all minds and its thinking layer, in the words of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1926).
Prior to this, the first planetary evolution resulted in the stabilization of our fiery and tumultuous planet to form the geosphere which later began to support life becoming a global ecological system millions of years later - the biosphere, which is our living world today. This time we are entering into a new evolution – that of the human mind: noosphere.
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Collective consciousness (sometimes collective conscience) is a fundamental sociological concept that refers to the set of shared beliefs, ideas, attitudes, and knowledge that are common to a social group or society. (Concept developed by Emile Durheim, 1894)
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The Computer and Social Media
With scientific breakthrough in communication, we are virtually just a call away from one another wherever we are at any given time. Worldwide we watch the same programs on TV and the Internet, celebrate common festivities, adapt standard curricula in school, ride cars, and build houses of common make and design.
We keep abreast with the stock market, the same way with follow sports, fashion, and tourism. We shop on e-commerce, enroll in e-learning, preside over meeting via teleconference. The whole world is wired, so to speak. We live in a very modern world indeed. The gap of consciousness separating individuals is fast dissolving, and that between kids and grownup is narrowing down. In fact, in the world of computers the millennials are far ahead. “Students teach teachers” maybe an exaggeration but this is true with electronic devices and use of social media. This is a scenario to illustrate our expanding and converging collective consciousness in our postmodern era.
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*Princeton University researchers have been trying to measure the hypothetical giant humanity-encompassing hive mind, by tracking the effect of events on a network of computers around the world. – Patrick J Kiger (9/11 and Global Consciousness)
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Collective Effervescence
But the earliest proof of collective consciousness is traced to aboriginal societies that practiced religion in its earliest and purest form by periodically gathering to eat, dance, cry, intoxicate, whip themselves to delirium, and the like. Such state of collective consciousness and ecstasy brings material-spiritual and ideal-spiritual experiences to individual and social well-being. The effect is called collective effervescence.Ati-atihan festival in Aklan
Similarly we experience universal joy and merriment in Christmas, New Year, Valentine, and in lesser celebrations like Thanksgiving, Independence, and in local and family affairs. In fact collective consciousness strengthens our religious faith, sense of nationalism, stimulates our creativity, our compassion for one another, or simply takes us to fantasy as a coping mechanism from the harsh realities of life.
However, what we wish from collective consciousness is the making of an ideal society - a society that is peaceful and harmonious, progressive and sustainable. It is a kind of collective consciousness we wish to create reminiscent of Plato’s Republic, though elusive, has been the dream of humankind.
Collective Consciousness and History
Theories have been put forward since the time of the Greeks and the Romans, whose adage “the glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome” attests to that dream of an ideal society. Ironically, their civilizations declined and fell obscure in the Dark Ages. The term alone implies the dark period of human society which lasted for more than a millennium. Collective consciousness that bound the two civilizations, the Greco-Roman, was shattered and later its fragments were gathered and adapted by warring kingdoms or fiefs.
It was in the Renaissance Period starting in the 15th century that our world found a new beginning – the revival of collective consciousness, a prototype of the old Greco-Roman values, ranging from religion and the humanities to politics and socio-economics. It flourished quickly in its place of origin, Florence, and swept across Europe onto the opposite side of the globe. The age of colonization carried out this social reform to different parts of the world, including the Philippines. The birth of new nations which joined other nations including former masters, ultimately after WWI, formed the United Nations which is the world’s umbrella of cooperation and peace.
Again our collective consciousness was divided by the Cold War which separated the world into two ideologies – capitalism and socialism. The world stood still in fear of a possible Armageddon. Fortunately the Cold War ended in 1989 with the reunification of divided countries like Germany and Vietnam, and th dissolution of USSR. Collective consciousness began to take shape under a freer global system of politics and economics, and in fact, with the development of modern communication and transportation, the world shrunk into a “global village.” Globalization had begun.
Jungian Collective Unconscious
As a background, collective consciousness has a counterpart - collective unconscious which has genetic roots the psychologist Carl Jung termed as archetypes. It is some kind of “inherited psychic materials,” that link each and every one of us as a species on one hand, and we today with our ancestors in the past, on the other. According to Jung’s theory, though each of us appears to function independently, in actuality we are all trapped into the same global mind. These archetypes or instincts are hunger, sexuality, activity, reflection and creativity, in the order of increasing abstraction. This laid down the three-tier ladder of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, from primordial to spiritual forms. These constitute the so-called Jungian concept of Collective Unconscious that governs our collective behavior that subordinates our own, guided and guarded by the norms of our society he termed as synchronicity. Archetypes are therefore the genetic link of our species and the components of our rationality as Homo sapiens.
The importance and value of being aware of the collective unconscious is visualized this way: “Myriad invisible hands hold your hands and direct them. When you rise in anger, a great grandfather froths at your mouth, when you make love, an ancestral caveman growls with lust; when you sleep, tombs open in your memory till your skull brims with ghosts.” (Carl Jung: A Living Myth - Collective Intelligence yields Collective Action)
The Jungian concept of collective unconscious places utmost importance in the preservation of our tradition, beliefs, myths and other ethnic values, though they may be lacking in scientific evidences. For all we know, the awareness of our connection with our forebears that make us realize the vital role of such genetic inheritance. Which leads us to realize with awe and respect to our ancestors who lived happier and more fulfilled lives than we do in our postmodern era.
Transcendental Meditation
This leads us to the spiritual side of collective consciousness - transcendental meditation and its correlation to world peace.
“Transcendental Meditation program, or the group practice of the TM-Sidhi program by a sufficient group raised the level of coherence in collective consciousness, thus providing a stable basis for a lasting world peace. Increases in societal coherence have been operationally defined as decreases in armed conflicts, crimes, traffic fatalities, fires, suicides, hospital admissions, notifiable diseases, infant mortality, divorce, alcohol consumption, cigarette consumption, unemployment, and pollution; and increases in international cooperation, stock market indices, leading and coincident economic indicators, and GNP.” (Maharishi's Program to Create World Peace: Theory and Research David W. Orme-Johnson and Michael C. Dillbeck Maharishi International University, 2016 Fairfield, Iowa, U.S.A.)The Noosphere
What are the challenges of the new evolution – The Noosphere?
First, collective consciousness through meditation can release us of fear, anxiety, anger and tension, and help bring peace of mind vital to the attainment of world peace and order.
Second, collective consciousness offers an avenue to resolve divided loyalties and faiths, incompatible ideologies, race discriminations, border conflicts, particularly our present growing problem of terrorism.Dr Jose Rizal, Philippine National Hero
Third, collective consciousness, in order to attain global significance and integrity must exert cumulative power to unite, amalgamate existing and new consciousness, and revitalize waning unity and cooperation of social groups, cultures, and nations, through education, mass media and organizational strategies.
Fourth, collective consciousness must be strengthened and guided towards greater regional cooperation such as ASEAN, EU, APEC, and more assertive global summits and conferences, like Climate Change, the United Nations notwithstanding, all geared towards world peace and unity.
Fifth, collective consciousness, on the compassionate, benevolent and humanistic side, must be cognizant of the lessons set by history and great leaders in the past and present from Aristotle, Christ, Gandhi, Lincoln, Paul, Teresa, Mandela, to our own Jose Rizal, and other great men and women.
Outlook
Lofty indeed is the potential power of the envisioned noosphere in shaping humanity in the future with one-mind, one-heart, one-psyche at the expense of losing much of our rich diversity of intellect, behavior and emotions, and spirituality, physical attributes and health considerations notwithstanding.
Savants are divided. Rationality will make us seek and preserve freedom in many and unimaginable forms and means, retaining our connectivity with the past and the future, and our environment through collective DNA carried on through evolution, and from generation to generation. We belong to this genetic pool. We are natives of Planet Earth.
Personally as a biologist we are heading toward the sunset of our own species. By the way, all species without exemption follow a normal curve of emergence-plateau-decline and finally extinction, in favor of other species under the law of succession (seres) and pattern of the web of life. We may seem to have reached the plateau of our species. This is dangerous. A Damocles Sword hangs above us, forged by our superior intellect. What with the possibility of global nuclear war, unabated wastes generation resulting in progressive autotoxicity or genocide. By manipulating the plantilla (template) of life through genetic engineering, we destroy homeostasis or the balance of nature. We have altered the composition of the earth as modern alchemists. In short we are destroying paradise the second time around. The noosphere could be our saving grace, or at least it gives us respite to examine and amend our wasteful and evil ways in the guise of The Good Life.
To the futuristic minds, man shall be leaving the earth and live in another planet, perhaps a million years from now. By then I believe Homo sapiens that we are today shall be no longer us. ~
Guest Editorial
For the Greater Lagro Gazette 2017 by AVRotor
Acknowledgement with thanks: Internet
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The Noosphere is the sphere of thought enveloping the Earth. The word comes from the Greek noos (mind) and sphaira (sphere). The Noosphere is the third stage of Earth's development, after the geosphere (think rocks, water, and air) and the biosphere (all the living things).
The noosphere is a philosophical concept developed and popularized by the biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky, and philosopher and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Vernadsky defined the noosphere as the new state of the biosphere and described as the planetary "sphere of reason". Wikipedia ~
We are in the age of knowledge explosion. Every time we wake up there's always something new that touches our lives more directly and profoundly than in any period of human history.
On the other hand we are also facing a dilemma I call infollution, a contracted term for information pollution. Knowledge used to be what we seek and acquire through necessity and obligation, much of it through choice which was limited then. And we knew the measure and pace of learning. We had a better situation in what we should know or choose to know with the guidance of the family, community and the institutions.
Well, that was when the world was divided by distance, walls of culture, politics, etc. When the writers of history were mainly from the West. In the 1000 years that plunged the world into the Dark Ages. When empires split into fiefs and kingdoms. When the West colonized the East. When capitalism and socialism clashed. So with religions. When the Berlin Wall stood for half a century.
Then boom! Science and technology made the world walk on two large feet, so to speak: communication and transportation. Everyone is now a neighbor in a small global village. And he wants to know what's happening at the other side of the fence.
Now that globalization has shrunk the world, wired it, crisscrossed it with routes - land, water and air, and above all, with information highway, how does one stand amidst an overflowing pool of knowledge?
Here we are with a sample list of topics to research on.
1. Are we prisoners of our Genes? (Sociobiology and Human Behavior)
2. Post-Modernism
3. Whose History?
4. Ecosabotage
5. Globalization and Sunset of Nationalism
6. Sex tourism and the Patriotism Prostitute
7. Depression and Suicide
8. The Rainforest: Best Tribes and Lost Knowledge
9. Urbanization and Industrialization
10. Changing Image of Women
11. “Rent-a-uterus” (Surrogate Mothers)
12. Cybercommunication (Wiring the Globe)
13. Opposition to Technology (e.g. Unabomber)
14. Human Genome Project (HGP)
15. Pornography
16. Misguiding the Future
17. Body Beautiful
18. Cultism
19. The Fine Art of Propaganda
20. Homogenization and Loss of Cultural Diversity
21. Social Change and the Natural Environment
22. Age of Robotics
23. Religion and the Spirit of Capitalism
24. Endangered Species and Ecosystems
25. Social and Pandemic Human Diseases
26. Terrorism
27. Neocolonialism
28. Three Worlds of Development
29. Why Social Stratification is Universal
30. Imperialism and Capitalism
31. Capitalism and Consumerism
32. The “McDonaldization” of Society
33. Is EU Applicable in Asia?
Symbol of our revolution whaich has started with the age of computers, the creation of a noosphere - which literally means one mind-one world, visualized as a mental sheath over the globe.
34. Japanese vs American Corporate Culture
35. Origin and Migration of Man
36. Genetic Engineering and Human Cloning
37. Gene Therapy: Frontier of Today’s Medicine
38. Vatican and Conservatism
39. Born to Buy (Consumerism)
40. IMF-WB and Capitalism
41. China: Socialism to Capitalism
42. India and China Dominate World’s Population: Forecast Consequences
43. The Expanding Field of Bioethics
44. Whatever happened to Space Race?
45. Why is the Philippines dubbed Rip Van Winkle of Asia?
46. Why is the Philippines the second most corrupt country in Asia, and among the world’s top countries with highest crime rate.
47. We are in the Age of Design
48. Natural Farming: A Return to Tradition
49. From Global Warming to Ice Age
50. Mind Benders (Brain Drugs)
51. Was Darwin Wrong? (Evolution Today)
52. Aftermath of the Cold War
53. Unsolved Murders of Philippine Journalists
54. Parliamentary or Presidential Government for the Philippines?
55. Herbal medicine – a Thing of the Past
56. Longevity Trends - Effects on Society
57. The New China – from Socialism to Capitalism
58. Effects of TV and Computers on child development
59. The Sunset of Fine Arts
60. Sustainable Agriculture
61. Sunset of apartheid and racism
62. Will China overtake the US as the world's biggest economy?
63. Same sex marriage - winning or waning?
64. Don't forget your pill, darling
65. Human Genome Project II
66. Gene therapy, latest in medicine.
67. Global Warming - more consequences than we expected
68. Ecological Migration
69. Where have all the fish gone?
70. Vertical farming. Farming in multistory buildings in the city.
Guidelines to students who are going to submit their research as school requirement:
The Noosphere is the sphere of thought enveloping the Earth. The word comes from the Greek noos (mind) and sphaira (sphere). The Noosphere is the third stage of Earth's development, after the geosphere (think rocks, water, and air) and the biosphere (all the living things).
The noosphere is a philosophical concept developed and popularized by the biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky, and philosopher and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Vernadsky defined the noosphere as the new state of the biosphere and described as the planetary "sphere of reason". Wikipedia ~
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Two critical spots - Israel War in Gaza and Russian War in Ukraine - other trouble areas notwithstanding, continue building up worldwide anxiety and fear of potential global consequence reminiscent of the past two World Wars. Such consciousness is expanding across boundaries political, religious, ideological, cultural and the like, all ensconced in this new era called Noosphere
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Part 2 - Topics to research on and keep abreast with our fast changing world
Dr Abe V Rotor
We are in the age of knowledge explosion. Every time we wake up there's always something new that touches our lives more directly and profoundly than in any period of human history.
On the other hand we are also facing a dilemma I call infollution, a contracted term for information pollution. Knowledge used to be what we seek and acquire through necessity and obligation, much of it through choice which was limited then. And we knew the measure and pace of learning. We had a better situation in what we should know or choose to know with the guidance of the family, community and the institutions.
Well, that was when the world was divided by distance, walls of culture, politics, etc. When the writers of history were mainly from the West. In the 1000 years that plunged the world into the Dark Ages. When empires split into fiefs and kingdoms. When the West colonized the East. When capitalism and socialism clashed. So with religions. When the Berlin Wall stood for half a century.
Then boom! Science and technology made the world walk on two large feet, so to speak: communication and transportation. Everyone is now a neighbor in a small global village. And he wants to know what's happening at the other side of the fence.
Now that globalization has shrunk the world, wired it, crisscrossed it with routes - land, water and air, and above all, with information highway, how does one stand amidst an overflowing pool of knowledge?
Here we are with a sample list of topics to research on.University of Santo Tomas, oldest university in Asia, older than Harvard
1. Are we prisoners of our Genes? (Sociobiology and Human Behavior)
2. Post-Modernism
3. Whose History?
4. Ecosabotage
5. Globalization and Sunset of Nationalism
6. Sex tourism and the Patriotism Prostitute
7. Depression and Suicide
8. The Rainforest: Best Tribes and Lost Knowledge
9. Urbanization and Industrialization
10. Changing Image of Women
11. “Rent-a-uterus” (Surrogate Mothers)
12. Cybercommunication (Wiring the Globe)
13. Opposition to Technology (e.g. Unabomber)
14. Human Genome Project (HGP)
15. Pornography
16. Misguiding the Future
17. Body Beautiful
18. Cultism
19. The Fine Art of Propaganda
20. Homogenization and Loss of Cultural Diversity
21. Social Change and the Natural Environment
22. Age of Robotics
23. Religion and the Spirit of Capitalism
24. Endangered Species and Ecosystems
25. Social and Pandemic Human Diseases
26. Terrorism
27. Neocolonialism
28. Three Worlds of Development
29. Why Social Stratification is Universal
30. Imperialism and Capitalism
31. Capitalism and Consumerism
32. The “McDonaldization” of Society
33. Is EU Applicable in Asia?
Symbol of our revolution whaich has started with the age of computers, the creation of a noosphere - which literally means one mind-one world, visualized as a mental sheath over the globe.
34. Japanese vs American Corporate Culture
35. Origin and Migration of Man
36. Genetic Engineering and Human Cloning
37. Gene Therapy: Frontier of Today’s Medicine
38. Vatican and Conservatism
39. Born to Buy (Consumerism)
40. IMF-WB and Capitalism
41. China: Socialism to Capitalism
42. India and China Dominate World’s Population: Forecast Consequences
43. The Expanding Field of Bioethics
44. Whatever happened to Space Race?
45. Why is the Philippines dubbed Rip Van Winkle of Asia?
46. Why is the Philippines the second most corrupt country in Asia, and among the world’s top countries with highest crime rate.
47. We are in the Age of Design
48. Natural Farming: A Return to Tradition
49. From Global Warming to Ice Age
50. Mind Benders (Brain Drugs)
51. Was Darwin Wrong? (Evolution Today)
52. Aftermath of the Cold War
53. Unsolved Murders of Philippine Journalists
54. Parliamentary or Presidential Government for the Philippines?
55. Herbal medicine – a Thing of the Past
56. Longevity Trends - Effects on Society
57. The New China – from Socialism to Capitalism
58. Effects of TV and Computers on child development
59. The Sunset of Fine Arts
60. Sustainable Agriculture
61. Sunset of apartheid and racism
62. Will China overtake the US as the world's biggest economy?
63. Same sex marriage - winning or waning?
64. Don't forget your pill, darling
65. Human Genome Project II
66. Gene therapy, latest in medicine.
67. Global Warming - more consequences than we expected
68. Ecological Migration
69. Where have all the fish gone?
70. Vertical farming. Farming in multistory buildings in the city.
Guidelines to students who are going to submit their research as school requirement:
1. Research paper must be printed (12 pts New Times Roman), 10 to 12 pages, short bond, single space excluding illustrations and photos, in folder.
2. Final copy to be submitted before presentation of topic in class. No paper, no report.
3. References at least 5: journal, books, news magazine, popular publications, Internet, interviews, company papers and documents.
4. Parts of paper: Introduction and rationale, review of literature, research proper, case studies (including interviews), conclusion, media advocacy.
5. Presentation - 10 min, open forum –5; use audio-visual aids (conventional and electronic); other presentation methods.~
Part 3 - Global trends that have been changing the way we live
The Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) stunned and shackled the world for four long years, followed by the Russian war in Ukraine War, Israel War in Gaza, and now, we are confronted with worldwide recession, and impending economic depression - these, and many other reasons compel us to "change the way we live".
Dr Abe V Rotor
The adage, "History repeats itself," is real: The rise and fall of the Greco-Roman Empire; the Dark Age - aftermath of the Bubonic Plague pestilence; two world wars in succession; and the recent Spanish Influenza (1920-22) which killed 50 to 100 million people. Other lost cultures like the Mayans, American Indians that "history forgot," notwithstanding.
And whose making are these tragic episodes of history? Albert Einstein has this to say, “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” In this era of pandemic and post pandemic, we have yet to prove under the new normal humanity's resilience and resolve to cope up and prove that "history repeats itself for the better." Then, suddenly without apparent warning, the Russian-Ukraine conflict is escalating into war of global concern. Pessimists both from the old and new schools say it is the beginning of a third world war.
Global Warming, and Shrinking Nature, paintings by AVR 2015
1. Shrinking Nature - displacement of natural habitats with man-made settlements, wildlife is vanishing both in areas and biological diversity. Nature reserves cannot compensate for such loss, and will never be able to bring about ecological balance as a whole. "It is no longer us against Nature, instead it's we who decide what nature is and what it will be." says Paul Crutzen, Nobel Prize Awardee.2. Stressful modern living - the higher the status the more stressful life is. The social ladder takes us to the syndrome posed by Paulas'Hope for the Flowers. There is really nothing up there, but a stressful life at the apex of society. The stressors affecting the poor are different from those in higher society. Those suffering of high-status stress find it more difficult to adjust than their counterpart in lower society.
3. Loss of privacy - Yet we always strive to retain our privacy even in public. No way: the computer has all the info about us - true or not; our relationships on various levels, more so with our public image. Hidden cameras are everywhere, on the other hand we too, intrude into the privacy of others. GPS gives us information about places, with minute details, often intruding to one's privacy similar to trespassing.
4. Aging gracefully and Niche Aging - Forget conventional wisdom; gray-haired societies aren't a problem. Longevity is increasing all over the world: the average age of a Japanese is 78 years with America following at its heels with 75 or 76 years. We are quite close to China with at least 70 years. Science and technology, socio-cultural and economic opportunities make ageing a privilege today.
In an article - Niche Aging, author Harriet Barovick said, "...the generic settlement model is starting to give way to what developers are calling affinity housing - niche communities where people as they advance in age opt to grow old alongside others who share a specific interest. Niche living is the latest step in the evolution of the planned retirement community.
5. "Immortal" Food - Food that virtually last forever (by increasing the shelf life), while there is a current trend which is the opposite. Go natural - food, clothing, energy, housing, and practically anything we eat and use everyday. (See article, Living Naturally, in this Blog)
6. Black Irony - Blackness has many connotations and implications - principally, historical and religious. Black means race, hell, disease, death, hopelessness, discrimination. But all these cannot be grossly weighed as negative or destructive. Today when we talk of black we may be referring to the colored athletes who dominate many sports, great leaders of movements like Wangari who planted millions of trees in Kenya, and not to look far, former President Obama of the US, and the living hero of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. Racial discrimination - racism and apartheid - may soon be a thing of the past. It is because man is created equal beneath their skin, and in fact, by circumstance, the colored races have proved superiority over the non-colored: in schools, scientific discoveries, business, technology - name it and you have a colored standing out.
7. "Handprints, not Footprints" - a more encouraging way to conceptualize our impact in our handprints; the sum of all the reductions we make in our footprints."
Eye of a dying coral as a result of global warming and pollution by AV Rotor 2005
Says the brainchild of this idea, a Harvard professor. We can reduce the impact of living against the environment - less CO2, less CFC, less non-biodegradables and other synthetics, less pesticides, etc. On the other side of the equation would be the number of trees we plant, our savings on electricity and water. Lesser pollutants, if not arresting pollution itself - and the like.
8. "Your head is in the cloud" - The best way to explain this is in the article written by Annie Murphy Paul. To quote: "Inundated by more information that we can possibly hold in our heads, we're increasingly handing off the job of remembering to search engines and smart phones." Never mind memorizing the multiplication table, or Mendeleev's Periodic Table of Elements. Spelling of a word, its homonym, antonym? Check it out on the computer. Presto! it will correct the word automatically. Search Love, and it comes in a thousand-and-one definitions. Assignment? Search, download, print, submit - just don't forget to place your name. Psychologists are back to the drawing board about learning. They have proposed a new term - transactive memory, a prelude to blending natural and artificial intelligence.
9. The rise of Nones - Nones are people who have no religious affiliation. More and more people are dissociating from organized religions, a kind of freedom to feel more devoted to God, of moving away from the scandals of the church, and money-making religions . For most, they are not rejecting God. They are rejecting organized religion as being rigid and dogmatic. However, a survey in the US showed that spiritual connection and community hasn't be severed by this new trend. Forty percent (40%) of the unaffiliated are fairly religious, and many of them are still hoping to eventually find the right religious home.
10. Living alone is the new norm - Solitary living is spreading all over the world. It is the biggest social change that has been long neglected. Living solo is highest in Sweden (47%), followed by Britain (37%). Following the list in decreasing order are Japan, Italy, US, Canada, Russia, South Africa, Kenya, and Brazil (10%). Living alone helps people pursue sacred modern values - individual freedom, personal control and self realization. In Lonely American, however, Harvard psychiatrists warn of increased aloneness and the movement toward greater social isolation, which are detrimental to health and happiness to the person, and in the long run, to the community and nation.
11. Common Wealth - National interests aren't what they used to be. Our survival requires global solutions. The defining challenge of the 21st century will be to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet. Global warming, acid rain, El Niño, don't know political boundaries.
12. The End of Customer Service - With self-service technology, you'll never have to see a clerk again. It is an era of self-service - from filling up gas to banking to food service. Swipe your ID card to enter an office or a school campus. Credit cards abound, so with many kinds of coupons, all self service.
13. The Post-Movie-Star Era. Get ready for more films in which the leading man is not "he" but "Who?" Goodbye James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Fernando Poe Jr. Welcome Nemo in Finding Nemo, Xi in Gods Must be Crazy.
14. Reverse Radicalism . Want to stop terrorism? Start talking to terrorists who stop themselves. Conflicts arising from radicalism can be settled through peaceful rather than by bloody means.
15. Kitchen Chemistry . Why the squishy art of cooking is giving way to cold, hard science? There are specialized courses in culinary art, with the chef as central figure with a degree. Home economics has grown into Hotel and Restaurant Management.
16. Geoengineering . Messing with Nature caused global warming. Messing with it more might fix it. Can we ignite a volcano to cool the earth like the eruption of Mt Pinatubo did twenty five years ago? Scientists believe we can divert an approaching typhoon out of its path. Better still abort it at its early stage.
17.Curing the "Dutch Disease." How resource-rich nations can unravel the paradox of plenty. It's true, oil-rich nations in the Middle East - and Holland, and lately Nigeria, where the term was developed - are not growing fast in terms of Gross Domestic Products (GDP). Now compare this is non-oil rich nations like China and Vietnam, which are growing close to 10 percent annually in GDP.
18. Women's Work. Tapping the female entrepreneurial; spirit can pay big dividends. Women's Lib brought the female species at par - if not excel - with its counterpart. More and more women are occupying high positions in government and industries. Women may soon have higher literacy rates than men.
19. Beyond the Olympics. Coming: Constant TV coverage of global sporting events. Boxing grew into various titles, football games in various tournaments fill the TV screen. New sports and games are coming out.
20. Jobs Are the New Assets. A sampling of fast-growing occupations - Actuaries, financial analyst, computer programmer, fitness trainer, biophysicists, translators, manicurists, marriage counselors, radiologists. Need a design for your product? Give it to an IT graduate with a background in design. Need a kind of product or service not found in the mall or supermarket, search the Internet. Entrepreneurs have taken over much of the functions of big business. Unemployment has given rise to this new breed - the entrepreneurs.
21. Recycling the Suburbs. Environmentalists will celebrate the demise of sprawling suburbs, which left national addicted to cars. Infrastructures will be converted in favor of "green", town centers, public libraries, museums, sports centers, parks. Notice the gas stations along NLEX and South Road, they have transformed into a complex where motorists can enjoy their brief stopover. More and more countries are imposing regulation to green the cities, from sidewalks to rooftops. Hanging Gardens of Babylon, anyone? If this was one of the wonders of the ancient world, why certainly we can make a replicate - perhaps a bigger one - given all our modern technology and enormous available capital.
22. The New Calvinism. More moderate evangelicals are exploring cures for doctrinal drift, offering some assurance to "a lot of young people growing up in sub-cultures of brokenness, divorce, drugs, sexual temptations, etc."
23. Reinstating the Interstate, the Superhighways. These are becoming a new network of light rail and "smart power" electric grid. This is the alternative to car culture that thrives on fossil fuel and promotes suburban sprawl.
24. Amortality - "non-moral sensitive" or "neutral morality' - whatever you may call it, this thinking has revolutionized our attitudes toward age. There are people who "refuse to grow old," people who wish to be resurrected from his cryonized corpse.
9. The rise of Nones - Nones are people who have no religious affiliation. More and more people are dissociating from organized religions, a kind of freedom to feel more devoted to God, of moving away from the scandals of the church, and money-making religions . For most, they are not rejecting God. They are rejecting organized religion as being rigid and dogmatic. However, a survey in the US showed that spiritual connection and community hasn't be severed by this new trend. Forty percent (40%) of the unaffiliated are fairly religious, and many of them are still hoping to eventually find the right religious home.
10. Living alone is the new norm - Solitary living is spreading all over the world. It is the biggest social change that has been long neglected. Living solo is highest in Sweden (47%), followed by Britain (37%). Following the list in decreasing order are Japan, Italy, US, Canada, Russia, South Africa, Kenya, and Brazil (10%). Living alone helps people pursue sacred modern values - individual freedom, personal control and self realization. In Lonely American, however, Harvard psychiatrists warn of increased aloneness and the movement toward greater social isolation, which are detrimental to health and happiness to the person, and in the long run, to the community and nation.
11. Common Wealth - National interests aren't what they used to be. Our survival requires global solutions. The defining challenge of the 21st century will be to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet. Global warming, acid rain, El Niño, don't know political boundaries.
12. The End of Customer Service - With self-service technology, you'll never have to see a clerk again. It is an era of self-service - from filling up gas to banking to food service. Swipe your ID card to enter an office or a school campus. Credit cards abound, so with many kinds of coupons, all self service.
13. The Post-Movie-Star Era. Get ready for more films in which the leading man is not "he" but "Who?" Goodbye James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Fernando Poe Jr. Welcome Nemo in Finding Nemo, Xi in Gods Must be Crazy.
14. Reverse Radicalism . Want to stop terrorism? Start talking to terrorists who stop themselves. Conflicts arising from radicalism can be settled through peaceful rather than by bloody means.
15. Kitchen Chemistry . Why the squishy art of cooking is giving way to cold, hard science? There are specialized courses in culinary art, with the chef as central figure with a degree. Home economics has grown into Hotel and Restaurant Management.
16. Geoengineering . Messing with Nature caused global warming. Messing with it more might fix it. Can we ignite a volcano to cool the earth like the eruption of Mt Pinatubo did twenty five years ago? Scientists believe we can divert an approaching typhoon out of its path. Better still abort it at its early stage.
17.Curing the "Dutch Disease." How resource-rich nations can unravel the paradox of plenty. It's true, oil-rich nations in the Middle East - and Holland, and lately Nigeria, where the term was developed - are not growing fast in terms of Gross Domestic Products (GDP). Now compare this is non-oil rich nations like China and Vietnam, which are growing close to 10 percent annually in GDP.
18. Women's Work. Tapping the female entrepreneurial; spirit can pay big dividends. Women's Lib brought the female species at par - if not excel - with its counterpart. More and more women are occupying high positions in government and industries. Women may soon have higher literacy rates than men.
19. Beyond the Olympics. Coming: Constant TV coverage of global sporting events. Boxing grew into various titles, football games in various tournaments fill the TV screen. New sports and games are coming out.
20. Jobs Are the New Assets. A sampling of fast-growing occupations - Actuaries, financial analyst, computer programmer, fitness trainer, biophysicists, translators, manicurists, marriage counselors, radiologists. Need a design for your product? Give it to an IT graduate with a background in design. Need a kind of product or service not found in the mall or supermarket, search the Internet. Entrepreneurs have taken over much of the functions of big business. Unemployment has given rise to this new breed - the entrepreneurs.
21. Recycling the Suburbs. Environmentalists will celebrate the demise of sprawling suburbs, which left national addicted to cars. Infrastructures will be converted in favor of "green", town centers, public libraries, museums, sports centers, parks. Notice the gas stations along NLEX and South Road, they have transformed into a complex where motorists can enjoy their brief stopover. More and more countries are imposing regulation to green the cities, from sidewalks to rooftops. Hanging Gardens of Babylon, anyone? If this was one of the wonders of the ancient world, why certainly we can make a replicate - perhaps a bigger one - given all our modern technology and enormous available capital.
22. The New Calvinism. More moderate evangelicals are exploring cures for doctrinal drift, offering some assurance to "a lot of young people growing up in sub-cultures of brokenness, divorce, drugs, sexual temptations, etc."
23. Reinstating the Interstate, the Superhighways. These are becoming a new network of light rail and "smart power" electric grid. This is the alternative to car culture that thrives on fossil fuel and promotes suburban sprawl.
24. Amortality - "non-moral sensitive" or "neutral morality' - whatever you may call it, this thinking has revolutionized our attitudes toward age. There are people who "refuse to grow old," people who wish to be resurrected from his cryonized corpse.
Our Dying Earth becoming virtually a fossil planet, painting by the author
25. Africa , Business Destination. Next "economic miracle" is in the black continent. Actually it has began stirring the economic consciousness of investors and developers.
26. The Rent-a-Country. Corporate Farming, an approach pioneered by the Philippines in the 60's and 70s, is now adopted by giant companies to farm whole valleys, provinces, island, of countries other than their own. Call it neo-colonialism, - these are food contracts, the latest new green revolution, more reliable food security.
27. Biobanks. Safe deposits - freezers full of tissues for transplants, cryotude for blood samples, liquid nitrogen storage for sperms and eggs, test-tube baby laboratories and clinics. Welcome, surrogate motherhood, post-menopausal technology, in-situ cloning, multiple birth technology, and the like.
28. Survival Stores. Sensible shops selling solar panels, electric bicycles, power generators, energy food bars, portable windmill, etc. Attributes: living off the grid, smart recycling, sustainability, consume less, self-sufficiency, basic+ useful, durable lifetime guarantee, hip + cool community, independent, responsible, co-op, brand-free, out of the oven, goodness-driven, health fitness, meditation, bartering, sharing, socialistic capitalism.
29. Ecological Intelligence. There are guidelines now available to judge products on their social and environmental impact. This is new culture characterized by environment-consciousness, environment-friendliness. Here life-cycle assessment and clean-up corporate ecology become an obligation. We are going back - happily and beautifully to a simple and natural lifestyle.30. Ecomigration - As global warming continues and the sea level rises more and more low lying areas will be swallowed up by the sea. Before this happens, people will have to move to safer grounds. This phenomenon is happening to many island in the Pacific, among them the Kiribati and Micronesia groups of islands.
Distorted reality - a product of postmodernism, acrylic painting by AVRotor
Reference: Living with Nature Volumes 1 and 2 by A V Rotor; Time Magazine, March 24, 2008 and March 23, 2009; Time Magazine March 12, 2012; Internet
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