Technology and Transformation

Robb Smith, in a TEDx video entitled “The Transformational Life”, explains how throughout the ages the tools of the time have gone hand in the hand with the size of communities.

In the hunting and gathering era, the average size of a community was 40 people. When the digging stick was invented, plants could be cultivated and they provided food for a community of about 1500. The invention of the plow in the agrarian age supported a larger population of about 100 thousand people and the invention of machines such as the printing press and the steam engine in the industrial era of the 17th to 19th centuries, allowed societies to grow to about 10 million people.

This exponential growth continued with the invention of the transistor in 1947 and the computer revolution of the next decades. The early 1990s saw the coming into being of a world wide web of 100 million people. High speed data networks and the spread of smartphones mean that today almost 7 billion people have the possibility of becoming a single society.

We say the world has become smaller, but in actual fact communities have become larger.

As I walked from the metro one evening recently, white cords dangled from my ears and connected to my iphone which I carried in my right hand. The music which accompanied me paused briefly as I took an incoming call. A little while later I stopped to capture an image on my camera roll, and as I did so, I suddenly saw myself as if from afar. This was accompanied by an overwhelming thought - “I’m a cyborg now!”

The separation between being online and offline had suddenly disappeared. The boundary between these two worlds blurred and they suddenly collapsed into one.

No doubt the experience was greatly influenced by a fascinating TED talk, “We are all cyborgs now” by Amber Case, which I had recently watched, but nevertheless, I was filled with excitement and gratitude for the fact that I was living in an age where people can interconnect in real time by means of a little handheld device.

A 1960 paper on space travel defined a cyborg as an organism “to which exogenous components have been added for the purpose of adapting to new environments”.

It is interesting to note that whereas the invention of previous tools had enabled humans to extend their physical selves, current technology allows for the extension of the mental self.

“here2here” took on an added meaning as I realized that the “virtual” and the “real” world were no longer separate for me. They formed a wholeness which brought with it new dimensions I could not have imagined even five years ago.

"Avatars"

My iphoneography art is an attempt to express these dimensions. Created with apps, the outcome is not fixed at the start of the process. Patient flicking through numerous adaptations of an image I am working on allows me to intuitively choose the one I feel most appropriate. The end image is an expression of the experience of being in cyberspace, as well as an example of being a co-creator with the apps and technology at my disposal.

I look at this world as it looks back at me, and suddenly I am looking as the world.

This looking is accompanied by a deepening sense of responsibility and I am reminded of the question asked by Wisdom 2.0:

“How can we live with greater presence, meaning and mindfulness in the technology age?”

The objective of the conference, @Wisdom2conf, this year, was to address the challenge of our generation: “to not only live connected to one another through technology, but to do so in ways that are beneficial to our own well-being, effective in our work and useful to the world.” I can highly recommend the 2013 videos. (One of my favorites is Jon Kabat-Zinn being interviewed by Melissa Daimler of Twitter).

The technology of this age brings with it the temptation of distraction and addiction when we do not realize the need to be grounded. Checking in with our inner and outward experience regularly and mindfully helps us to maintain this groundedness.

“Without a connection to the earth and to the physical body, all signals become static”. Steven Vedro in “Twitter, Ambient Awareness and Spiritual Practice”.

I share Robb Smith’s opinion. We are no longer in the Information age. We have entered the Transformation age with all the opportunities it offers us to look not at the other through all the perspectives being offered us, but as the other.

Related blog posts:

Digital Archways

Corridorsofcyberspace

Cyberflanerie: Deep Listening in Cyberspace

Corridors of Cyberspace

As familiar as we are today with the concept of a corridor, it is interesting to note that corridors did not exist before the late 17th century and only became widely used in the 19th century.

“Before their adoption, circulation flowed from one room to the next, forcing interactions and confrontations between the occupants of rooms, and those just passing through. Largely determined by socio-economic factors, political upheaval, and changing approaches to morality, corridors were invented to serve a very specific purpose. They were developed as a tool to separate different groups of people - the servants from the served, the jailed from the jailors ........” (Tad Jusczyk in Consider the corridor: lessons from architectural history)

Although people could now move more efficiently through buildings, rooms became a series of dead ends. The inventions of architects have social implications and the corridor has greatly influenced how we live, work and communicate.  

The study of the architecture of cyberspace is both relatively new and exciting. 

The minute we make use of a system which enables us to communicate despite our physical location, we enter the realm of cyberspace. In this plane, information is stored, processed and passed on. Inhabited by both machines and humans, time in this realm is otherworldly. Cyberspace cannot be seen with the human eye as it cannot be physically located.

Cyberspace is experiential, and its energies are mostly intuited. 

Words which make sense in the land we have come from, are often used to describe the architecture we find when we begin to explore cyberspace. However, because this new “territory” is experiential rather than actual, we often need new words to allude to that which cannot be seen or existing words take on new meanings.  

The term “corridor” has been used to describe the pathways filled with electricity that connect communication systems, but when it comes to the individual moving around in cyberspace the concept of a corridor becomes interesting.

The experience of cyberspace is very much more one of connectivity than separation. After spending some time there the individual gains the feeling of being a node on a hologram.  One feels part of a whole, but at the same time gets the feeling that the whole enters oneself. Individuals come right into one’s mind-space via word and image, and we enter theirs.  People, places and happenings arrive before one’s eyes in realtime and sharing is key.  

And whereas each web page is a separate room and can be just that if the one entering it  so wishes, it is simultaneously a corridor with many other rooms opening off it via the links it offers. The choice lies with the user who becomes the chief architect of that space and moment. 

The clicking of a link can be equated to stepping into a corridor, but the end destination of the corridor is not necessarily fixed or known upon entering it. Its length is not fixed either.   Reading something can be abandoned midway to answer an incoming mail or check on a social media site filled with an exponential number of connections and available links. Time seems to fly in this plane and one can get lost in the same sense one used to do when reading a good book.  

Corridors in everyday architecture have become associated with mystery and sometimes danger. Online “corridors’’ have their lurkers too and obviously vigilance is required when navigating cyberspace. 

“Corridor” has a root meaning of running, but cyberspace is associated with incredible speed. If its corridors exist they flash by. 

Online “corridors” are like the arcades and passageways of malls which offer merchandise, entertainment, and places to meet and spend time together. As cultures meet in these spaces, they stop to chat and share worldviews, and the world suddenly becomes much smaller. Expansion and contraction happen simultaneously. 

 

I am by nature rather curious and love investigating new areas (see Linda in Wonderland). Words fascinate me (see Langu age). Until a new term for it is coined, and even if it is not, I am happy to be a digital nomad, an online surfer, a cybernaut or whatever else I might be named, in the realm referred to in this blog as the “Corridors of Cyberspace”.  

Related articles:

Digital Archways

Social Media - Bridging Cyberspace

Light Through - Electronic Stainglass

Whirling Dervishes - Lessons for Cyberspace

PRT, Paternoster Lifts, Cyberspace And Mindfulness

Filtering

Linda in Wonderland

Cybeflanerie: Deep Listening in Cyberspace

Tokyo2Dubai Collab

Jordan, Space and Time.

After a four day visit to Jordan, I find myself reflecting again on time and space.

Time was once viewed as being merely linear, with past, present and future. Jordan offers the visitor a perfect opportunity to find out more about past ages by visiting its many historical sites.  

Jerash, one of the sites visited on our first day, is considered to be one of the most well preserved sites of Roman architecture outside of Italy and has its origin more than 2000 years ago. 

After passing through the gate of the city the opportunity exists to witness a chariot race and gladiator fight in a Roman setting.  A walk along the cobbled streets with its columns, baths, theaters and temples allows one to picture times gone by. 

I was not able to lose myself in imagining life in those times for too long, however, as the blazing heat of that afternoon was a strong reminder to me that I am a citizen of another century.  My longing for air-conditioning as I was overcome by the heat, brought me back to the present with a jolt. 

After Jerash, we made our way to Wadi Musa, a little town just outside of Petra, a world heritage site and one of the seven wonders of the world. The whole city of Petra was carved out of the rock face by the Nabataens in the 6th century BC, but settlements began there many centuries before that. 

Our first visit to Petra was at night, along a candle lit path as far as the Treasury. The unknown route through the siq, a deep split in the sandstone rocks, required careful attention to each step, and each step along the way was a reminder that time is not only linear, but can also be experienced sequentially, from moment to moment, on and on and on.

Setting off really early the next morning, before the majority of the tourists, we were alone as we made our way to visit the whole city of Petra. We were able to see what had been above us the night before. The focus of our attention now, was space not time, as the sides of the siq towered above us. Appearing rather tiny in these surroundings, we were clearly separate from the space being inhabited. 

Space, however, can be more than just physical.  It can also be experiential.

A visit to Wadi Rum, a vast valley in the desert with uniquely shaped mountains rising out of the desert sand, provides such an experience. One easily forgets to think of the self when faced with such beauty and such vastness. Space, like time, can also take on a fluidity, stretching on and on.

While being served Bedouin tea by our guide, we suddenly saw an eagle rise above the mountain before us.  We were told that this was very unusual for this time of day, as they usually are spotted at sunrise and sunset. Earlier, when we were being shown a well, we had also seen a Bedouin lady with her camel, goats and dogs appear out of what seemed nowhere.  Time and space was definitely more fluid in this desert. 

On our last day in Jordan we visited Mount Nebo as well as the Dead Sea, the lowest place on the earth. As we wound our way by car from over 700 metres above sea level to 423 metres below sea level I remembered reading and being deeply touched by Karen Armstrong’s description of this drive in her book, “The Spiral Staircase”. I quote it here:

“With my ears popping as we passed sea level and continued our descent to the Dead Sea, the deepest spot in the world, I gazed at the extraordinary beauty of the desert and felt moved as I had never been before by any landscape.  I could not drag my eyes away from it and felt a great silence opening within me. There were no words and no thoughts; it was enough simply to be there. Perhaps other people found this quietness in prayer, but there was no God here and nothing like the ecstasies experienced by the saints. Instead there was simply a suspension of self”.  

Two experiences stand out for me in Jordan.  On our first night in Wadi Musa, we had dinner on the rooftop of our hotel.  Usually sensitive to the energy of a place, on this night I immediately became aware of feeling something I could not put my finger on.  I mentioned it as being strange, not in a weird way, but because I was not able to describe what I was feeling. After a while, I just let it be and continued to enjoy the evening.  On the second night in Wadi Musa, the minute we sat down on the rooftop again, the feeling returned.  

I have thought about it much since our return.  Surrounded on all sides by hilly mountains and ancient sites as the sun went down, I suspect that I caught a glimpse of what I can only now attempt to describe as timeless space - a dimension beyond the other dimensions of time and space I have attempted to describe above, and a dimension which words cannot adequately explain. Perhaps it was a glimpse of the silence and the suspension of self, Karen Armstrong had written of. Perhaps it was a glimpse of the fourth dimension referred to in quantum physics.  I only have a sense of knowing that it was a realm which seemed to contain all. 

The second experience was in the ancient church of St George, a Greek Orthodox Church in the city of Madaba, our last stop before heading for the airport.  At the back of the church, famous for its mosaic map constructed in AD 560, there was a small but beautiful stained glass window that drew my attention. I walked closer to it, only to discover that on the wall next to the window was a version of my favorite icon by Rublev, The Holy Trinity.  I have written about my love of this icon before, and also about my evolving relationship with it.  As I looked upon this version with an inscription in Arabic which I have not yet managed to find the meaning of, it was as if I was spiralling back above the icon yet again.

The icon has references to time, space and knowledge, and it has an invitation to sit down at the table. Seeing a version of my favorite icon when and where I had least expected to encounter it, was very special. 

Perhaps I should not have been surprised at all. 

Linda in Wonderland

The calendar year was 2012, one hundred and fifty years since Lewis Carroll first began writing “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.  Sitting next to a stream, Alice was still pretty much aware of the fact that even though she sometimes thought she knew who she was, she was also conscious of having changed several times over the years, not to mention since that morning. Bored, she had peeped into her sister’s book, but it had no pictures or conversations. Alice found that weird.

All of a sudden, a white rabbit with iphone in hand, alarm going off rather loudly, attracted Alice’s attention. Following the sound of the alarm playing one of her favorite hits,  Alice ran after him. He passed a digital stream, and as he popped down a rabbit-hole Alice followed him further, only to find herself soon tumbling into what seemed to be a very deep well.

 

Whether the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, Alice did not know. What she did notice after a while were the symbols on the sides of the well depicting the various portals available to those entering this world of wonder. 

She did not know it yet, but by clicking on a link, the traveler in cyberspace can be transported from one place to another. By downloading an app, the user is offered tools and information unheard of before. 

As she fell, Alice remembered what she had learnt at school that week.  Her teacher, a forward thinking wonderful lady, had introduced her class to mindfulness. Sitting in a circle each morning the children focused on their breathing and the feelings they were experiencing. Alice decided that this was as good a time as ever to put this all into practice, and so, taking a deep breath, she allowed herself to be fully aware of herself, her feelings, her muddled emotions and her surroundings, which were rather strange to say the least.

She felt she must have reached the centre of the earth when she suddenly landed with a thump. She thought she spotted the white rabbit but he soon disappeared out of sight. 

Alice found herself in a room with a little table.  On it lay a tablet. To examine it she picked it up, swiped its screen and squealed with delight at what she found. There were stories with pictures that were interactive when she touched them.  There were conversations going on in real time! There were maps and dictionaries, newspapers and magazines. She could play games and even draw using her finger.

She noticed a camera and a special app and before long was taking pictures of herself which transformed her at once into someone tall, someone short, someone with a huge funny face and then someone all squashed up. She squealed with delight.

Swiping the screen yet again she found an app called Instagram. She realized that she had not landed in the centre of the earth, but was somehow in all places at once, as she watched photos from all over the world appear on her screen in real time. This was truly here2here! People commented on these photos and she noticed that many of the comments said Linda!!!

Linda? She thought her name was Alice! But then anything was possible when time was no longer linear and she felt herself so close to the other and the other felt as she.

To find out more about who she could possibly now be, she clicked on wikipedia to discover that the name Linda might be derived from the same root as the linden tree, with a German and ultimately Celtic root.  The image of the tree is often used to indicate a gentle personality. 

Alice was confused but read on. Linda could come from the “Celt Lindworm”, another variation of the mythical concept know as the ouroboros, the serpent biting its own tail. The ouroboros represents the perpetual cyclic renewal of life. More worlds of wonder were possibly awaiting her, whether she be Alice or Linda or whoever. 

Muchalinda was also the name of a snake-like being who protected the Buddha from the elements after his enlightenment.

The name Linda in Xhosa means “wait” and that perhaps made a little sense. Perhaps if she waited long enough it would all become clear to her.

This was getting curiouser and curiouser, until for now at least, it all suddenly made sense.

Linda was also used in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese to mean beautiful, pretty or cute.  People on Instagram were indicating that they liked a particular photo!!!

Alice looked up and saw the Mad Hatter laughing at her. She was not sure whether time had stopped or it had been transcended. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the Cheshire Cat smiling.

---

When starting this website, it was my intention to explore the concept of here2here through word and image and thereby promote a shared vision of diversity within unity. My blog and my presence on twitter are, and share, my explorations through word. To explore here2here through the use of image I have recently entered the world of Instagram.

I often feel like Alice, as a world of everyday happenings, memories and creativity appears on my screen in real time. In the gallery, “Some Instagram Pics”, you can see some of the images I have shared. If of course, you are on Instagram you can see more of these pics there. If not you can follow them here.

The image is a powerful tool and one that I believe can assist in an opening of the heart to compassion. 

 

We live in wonderful times. Wonder is there when we stop to see it. What is more, modern technology is making it possible to share these moments if we so choose.

I end with one such example. On New Year’s Eve, the Burj Khalifa, lit up with fireworks.  Standing on my balcony directly opposite the Burj Khalifa, overwhelmed at one stage by tears, I witnessed an event of beauty. You may not have been with me, but in a sense you are as I share with you a video of the event made possible through moving imagery and the world of youtube. Take a few minutes to step into this wonderland.

The Gathering

Visiting the Pavilion in Downtown Dubai yesterday, I noticed that there were workers completing the installation of a new sculpture on the sidewalk.

After the installation was completed I went outside to photograph the figures from various angles, before going inside to continue what I was working on. 

As sunset approached the pink fingers stretching across the sky to embrace the Burj Khalifa drew me outside again. The chatting figures of the sculpture seemed happy in their new setting. 

While photographing them a gentleman and lady approached. Seeing me photograph the figures, she told me that the gentleman was the artist. I was privileged to meet architect and sculptor Xavier Corbero. 

A man with incredible vision, Corbero has built a dream home whose spaces are linked by underground passageways.

“His original vision of the property has since expanded to include a retreat for artists, studio spaces, workshops, a foundry, dozens of surreal chambers for residents and guests, sprawling galleries, living rooms, a myriad of hobbit nooks all connected by serpentine stairways filling over 10,000 square meters.”

Salvador Dali was Corbero’s first patron and Corbero is now considered to be Spain’s most important living sculptor. 

"You must leave things open so the person enjoys or looks," says Corbero. "I feel that when people look at a piece of art they become artists, they see what they see not what there is. What there is helps them to see something else and they feel better because they see something they were not seeing before seeing that. That's what I like to do.”

Standing next to his work, he seemed to effortlessly blend in with the figures, even unintentionally perhaps, replicating the pose of the figure he was standing next to.

 

In her piece on Corbero’s work in Beirut, Micheline Hazou, @mich1mich writes,

“Perhaps it’s the way the figures are positioned, in relation to the space and to one another that is as important as their bulk and mass…”

Corbero has said, "What is good is the scale, if you get the scale right, space stops being space to become mind. And this happens in a sculpture and it happens in architecture."

The sculpture, called The Gathering, invites one into its circle. The chatting figures capture for me the mix that is Dubai, a city where  many different nationalities and cultures meet.

The figures lean into each other with attention. They are accommodating of each other’s space and seem to acknowledge the other, while at the same time forming a unit. The energy flowing between them as they connect is almost palpable.

There is the sense that more personalities are about to join the gathering and engage in conversation. This excites me as non-judgmental listening and peaceful dialogue is so crucial in the world right now.

I immediately think too of this here2here space where we are all gathering now. What does it matter where we are physically situated in time and space. We can gather, be present here together, converse and share. We might all be different but we are more similar than we can imagine.

Whether gathering on sidewalks of cities, or sensing our interconnectedness in a large web made possible by technology, together we bear witness to Presence.