Dance, Flow State, Machines & Immortality
The Woven Basket
I am wanting to run an ‘experiment’, and see if either you or I (preferably both right) enjoy it. It’s an idea that has been running in the background of the more formal pieces I weave through here. Leaning into the weaving metaphor, let’s call this ‘The Woven Basket’.
It entails sending an email 1-2 a month (as the inspiration strikes), that collects and brings together a variety of different threads (like a woven basket). It’s a digital nod to Ancestral skill of basket weaving too (and I always enjoy giving Ancestral skills a nod; you probably know this by now).
It opens space to share ‘smaller’ and more ‘miscellaneous’ pieces of information, or important updates with those who enjoy the work I do.
Hate it, love it, or feel indifferent? Take a minute to let me know. Hey, it’s your inbox and this is why there is a comments section.
Here we go….
Biophilia. (N). A love of life and the living world; the affinity of human beings for other life forms.
In my recent essay: We Are Not Computers: An Invitation to Stop Using Machine Metaphors, I wrote about how modern computation is unlikely to accurately describe the underlying mechanics of human functioning in any meaningful way.
So when people say they ‘download’ some piece of information into their consciousness, or that we ‘program’ new patterns into our behavior, I contended that this is a massive oversimplification of actual reality, that doubles as a transhumanist enchantment meant to disentangle you from your humanity.
Anyways…
I wanted to invite you to watch this dancer below perform.
He is utterly incredible.
A master.
He is a virtuoso of a particular style of dance if there ever was one.
The Reason I Am Sharing This…
Nothing in modern computation, A.I. or robotics can come within a hare’s breath of approximating the scope of 'calculations’ that he is making. The amount of information flowing through his neurological, muscular, and endocrine systems is so vast, as to be in a different universe altogether, if you were to compare this to modern technology.
The paradigm of modern tech will have to go through eons of evolution to approximate what he is doing in real time. What his is capable of is made possible by billions of year of evolution.
It is human technology.
To create this routine, he had to enter into flow state countless times, over many years. The threshold of flow anchored in his abilities, then produced new combinations, possibilities and iterations. This requires not just ‘logic and computation’, but a body that can produce the complex neuro-endocrine and immune responses that facilitate flow in the first place.
His whole system has to synchronize to produce this flow state. He enjoys it, relishes in it, and goes deeper into an art form he loves.
Machines cannot do this.
In contrast, this video below represents the height of movement based robotics and, while impressive in the context of that field, it has taken exuberant amounts of money, research and time to badly approximate a fraction of what a 3 year old can do.
Why do people find this impressive in the grand scheme of things? It’s not.
At most, it offers the creators a vehicle for their innate talents, but current scientific models will have to die and be reborn in the phoenix fire countless times to reach 3 year old status.
This is What’s Impressive
This is the best guitarist from a technical standpoint, I have ever had the privilege of seeing. He plays the whole song, including the singers voice, on one acoustic guitar without singing.
It’s all the guitar.
He does this with a method he created called ‘True Finger Independence’. I have talked about how the human hand was designed for complexity.
This is what 8 hours a day of practice for years on end gets you.
I promise that if you enjoy the guitar you will be sorry for missing this.
Something to think about…
“Commentators frequently blame MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) for an increasing sense of isolation in modern life. But virtual worlds are less a cause of that isolation than a response to it. Virtual worlds give back what has been scooped out of modern life. The virtual world is in important ways more authentically human than the real world. It gives us back community, a feeling of competence, and a sense of being an important person whom people depend on.” ― Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human
Some people in the modern world like to believe they are discovering the ‘secrets of immortality’, and their vision for the future, which they believe represents ‘advancement’, looks like some iteration of this (which could include nanotechnology, cyborgs, and cryogenics).
I see this and cringe, but hey your mileage may vary.
But ‘immortality’ as a ‘field of study’ has already been studied, mapped and practiced for eons of time in various traditions, and this is especially true in Daoism. This is small snippet of human immortality tech.
You can see Mantak Chia, connecting to an transmitting his energy and consciousness into an ‘immortal fetus’, while circulating his chi, and connecting to various natural forces.
The difference lies in the quest for ‘spiritual immortality’ which follows the inherent order in nature (meaning you physically die) vs. seeking to break the natural order and create a ‘physical body’ (a machine), that lives forever.
Hey, I want to stay alive as much as the next guy, but there is more to the story.
One model wants to turn you into this:
The other model wants to turn you into this:
Here is a question for you to tie it all together…
What is the body communicating?