It's an IT World

This week I took the plunge and got me a brand new i-phone. I have resisted for many years getting a fancy mobile device, because what I observe as an intuitive level is that mobile devices tend to become an extension of the monkey mind – the distracted, impatient expression of the human ego. I believe that simple presence is more important than “being wired”. But the two are not mutually exclusive, of course.

It has to be admitted that education, learning and human communication will only continue to be further transformed by IT. The benefits are enormous. Just in my own work as a futurist, I have tahken full advantage of IT. I have:

• this blog
• my web site www.mindfutures.com,
• nearly 150 articles posted on www.scribd.com, and many hundreds more on various other web sites
• published several of my own books, and sell them through Amazon.com and
• web sites for all my self-published books e.g. www.extraordmind.com
• a membership for the Foresight Network, a forum for futurists http://shapingtomorrowmain.ning.com
• a FaceBook account, including a ‘fan’ type page called The Power of Intuition (I believe I have more than two fans already ;-)
• quite a few self-made videos on YouTube
• An excellent  virtual assistant (Eve Psu), who helps with all this when I simply run out of time, and when both my typing fingers get tired
• a Kindle, which I use to read books readily and comfortably
• published my books in that Kindle format
• written a PhD thesis, largely completed off campus and by taking advantage of online databases and other online materials

Thus I would most certainly be a hypocrite if I said that IT is a not a fantastic development for humanity, as I myself take extensive advantage of it. Almost all of these things could not have happened 20 years ago.

As just one tiny example of the general benefits of mobile technology, after opening my shiny new i-phone, I immediately uploaded a free app which is a 3-D map of the brain, featuring a general outline of the major brain regions and their functions. For me, as someone passionate about human intelligence and consciousness, this is a wonderful thing to have at ready disposal (and if you have read my deeply twisted short story, Killing Einstein’s Brain – which makes some specific references to neuro-anatomy - no; this was written before I got the phone. Honest!).

All this IT is here to stay, and as far as I’m concerned the focus for futurists like me should be upon how to employ the technology optimally, so that they enhance the development of Deep Futures, not perpetuate the shallow materialism of Money and Machine Futures. Deep Futures are deeply meaningful futures which permit a full expression of the flowering of human experience and consciousness. Money and Machines futures are business-as-usual futures where people are deeply manipulated and controlled, effectively becoming robotic cogs in an unbalanced finance and technology focused capitalist machine.

More about that tomorrow!

Marcus