Main: week 2

left picture
Paradigm shift

I knew you'd changed, I just didn't realise how much

Over the course of human history only a few incidents have had impact sufficient to force us to completely review our universal paradigm.
They take many forms - it is impossible to predict what form they will take in advance.
Looking back we can see how radically we respond to such events. The structure of society is permanently altered as everything takes on different meanings.

mid picture

      Such an event occurred nearly two thousand years ago with the birth of Christ. Whether or not you, dear reader, subscribe to Christianity, you cannot deny that the alterations wrought by this revolutionary philosophy have completely changed the face of our interpersonal perceptions.
     Other events take the form of discoveries - the existence of world other than our own, the transition from a central Earth to a Copernican heliocentric model, the emergence of the study of the mind as a science.
It would be a fascinating exercise to consider whether these steps (which we naturally regard as forward, that is 'progress', but that is because we ourselves live after the event, in a timewise sense, not before it) are inevitably following on from one another - acting just as observable catalysts for changes that were occurring in any case.
     Or perhaps these shifts are indeed random, ideas and events that didn't necessarily have to happen, but somehow did and we live in their shadows.
Fascinating, but we won't be looking at it here.
What all these forcing events - socialogical kicks up the collective arse, if you like - have in common is that they displace our being from a particular centre.
     From early times we've been gradually moved away from regarding ourselves - physically and mentally - as the centre of the universe. This is easiest to see in the progression of astrological understandings, but it's been happening to our minds aswell.
     Now we are able to understand more and more about the mind, and in particular the structure of the brain, our perceptions of consciousness are shifting in the same way as our perception of the Earth.
     We have by no means come to the end of the process though. In a mental sense we are still at the heliocentric stage. We still regard humanity as special, different, the centre of the universe at least in an intellectual sense.
Sometime though an event may occur which we can't possibly understand. A happening of such massive proportions that our simple brain cannot hold it all. When that happens the reduction of humanity will be complete and all our perceptions will finally be realised to be much much less than the enormity of the universe.
Such an event has indeed occurred. I make no claims to be able to explain or understand it. I won't even attempt to guess at what the impact on our society will be. I ask you to just look, and judge for yourself, at these pictures.
I think you will find that nothing that has preceded this supercedes it in importance, and I urge you to mourne, yet be ready, for the passing of the old order and the coming of something brilliant and new.

Front page      |      Old articles      |      Exit

		Paradigm shift I knew you'd changed, I just didn't realise how much Over the course of human history only a few incidents have had impact sufficient to force us to completely review our universal paradigm. They take many forms - it is impossible to predict what form they will take in advance. Looking back we can see how radically we respond to such events. The structure of society is permanently altered as everything takes on different meanings.

		Such an event occurred nearly two thousand years ago with the birth of Christ. Whether or not you, dear reader, subscribe to Christianity, you cannot deny that the alterations wrought by this revolutionary philosophy have completely changed the face of our interpersonal perceptions. Other events take the form of discoveries - the existence of world other than our own, the transition from a central Earth to a Copernican heliocentric model, the emergence of the study of the mind as a science. It would be a fascinating exercise to consider whether these steps (which we naturally regard as forward, that is 'progress', but that is because we ourselves live after the event, in a timewise sense, not before it) are inevitably following on from one another - acting just as observable catalysts for changes that were occurring in any case. Or perhaps these shifts are indeed random, ideas and events that didn't necessarily have to happen, but somehow did and we live in their shadows. Fascinating, but we won't be looking at it here. What all these forcing events - socialogical kicks up the collective arse, if you like - have in common is that they displace our being from a particular centre. From early times we've been gradually moved away from regarding ourselves - physically and mentally - as the centre of the universe. This is easiest to see in the progression of astrological understandings, but it's been happening to our minds aswell. Now we are able to understand more and more about the mind, and in particular the structure of the brain, our perceptions of consciousness are shifting in the same way as our perception of the Earth. We have by no means come to the end of the process though. In a mental sense we are still at the heliocentric stage. We still regard humanity as special, different, the centre of the universe at least in an intellectual sense. Sometime though an event may occur which we can't possibly understand. A happening of such massive proportions that our simple brain cannot hold it all. When that happens the reduction of humanity will be complete and all our perceptions will finally be realised to be much much less than the enormity of the universe. Such an event has indeed occurred. I make no claims to be able to explain or understand it. I won't even attempt to guess at what the impact on our society will be. I ask you to just look, and judge for yourself, at these pictures. I think you will find that nothing that has preceded this supercedes it in importance, and I urge you to mourne, yet be ready, for the passing of the old order and the coming of something brilliant and new. Front page \| Old articles \| Exit