The One
18th November 2010, 10:05
Our past is who we have been, and the future is fundamental to imagining who we will become. However, in order to have either past or future we need a stable present,the space of our everyday lives. We do all have personal and collective pasts, and can imagine individual and collective futures, is central to whatever it means, as humans, to be who or what we are. Most human beings experience themselves in a taken for granted present tense as relatively unitary and stable entities. If we are to conceptualise identity as something other than reification, a fixed thing, some kind of stable present is required,. I am also aware time is accelerating at a fast rate (My opinion) Not only is accelerating change putting us under stress, it is also putting increasing pressure on the planet. Looking back over history it is clear that acceleration is not just a twentieth-century phenomenon whether or not humanity actually reaches this point of unimaginably rapid progress i will probably be long gone before i can answer that question. What is clear is that a trend that has been going on for billions of years is going to come to an end one day. The world around us changes so fast, the more we are forced to let go of any cozy notions we might have of what the future will be like. No one today can predict with any degree of certainty how things will be in a year’s time, or even six months’time. When global stockmarkets can crash without warning, political walls crumble overnight, countries invade each other in a day, and ecological disasters shatter our illusions of control, we are forced more and more to live in the present.
To live with continued acceleration and all it brings will take more than simply learning to manage better. It will involve a complete revision of our thinking about who we are, what we really want, and what life is all about. Hardly the most startling statement. As most of us are only too aware, change comes more and more rapidly. Technological breakthroughs spread through society in years rather than centuries. Calculations that would have taken decades are now made in minutes. Communication that used to take months happens in seconds. Development in every area is happening more and more rapidly.
Hope you enjoy this thread as i am now in the future and this is in the past.:cool:
To live with continued acceleration and all it brings will take more than simply learning to manage better. It will involve a complete revision of our thinking about who we are, what we really want, and what life is all about. Hardly the most startling statement. As most of us are only too aware, change comes more and more rapidly. Technological breakthroughs spread through society in years rather than centuries. Calculations that would have taken decades are now made in minutes. Communication that used to take months happens in seconds. Development in every area is happening more and more rapidly.
Hope you enjoy this thread as i am now in the future and this is in the past.:cool: