Our technological development the last decades with the internet has facilitated an explosion in the rate of information which we consume. But how much of all the info at our fingertips is of actual value, worthy of our investment of time & energy, versus mere meaningless trivia adding deadweight to overburdened minds?
And what is the purpose for which we engage in its consumption?
Most of us have grown up in societies whose institutional indoctrination systems conditioned us to ingest information as facts - accumulating knowledge with the objective of accumulation itself - rewarding memorization & recall, with far less emphasis on actual integration & implementation.
How much time we all spent ‘studying’ different subjects in order to pass tests of our memorization & recall capabilities, only to find out how much of that information ended up being rather useless in ‘real life.’ Yet, “old habits die hard.” No matter our conscious acknowledgement of this type of methodology of “education” (no matter how far-removed it may be from the original meaning of the word, rooted in “educe” - ‘to bring out’), this way we’ve grown up in relationship with information has persisted to influence how we approach its indulgence & accumulation as the flow of info has been rapidly accelerating.
It may be time to reconsider our relationships with how we engage with information. To bring more conscientiousness & intention to the WHY.
One perspective…
This contemplation emerged (though instantaneously) out a reflection offered as someone commented on my natal astrology chart, implying that I have an inclination for taking in lots of different information - which has been quite true - and the observation of how that has evolved over the last couple decades. Indeed, in my twenties especially, I was a straight-up info-junkie, burning through books in search of knowledge & wisdom… until some shift occurred as finding I couldn’t anymore. Not just that I couldn’t, but that there was no longer a purpose to continuing in the same way - because a change in my neural architecture had slowly but surely taken place.
I hadn’t known it at the time, but there may have been some “higher purpose” to my indulgences that was not about the accumulation of information itself, but the building of neural networks.
Think “renaissance man” for a moment.
Take DaVinci, for example. Those who threw themselves into the depths of arts, mathematics, music, science, psychology, linguistics - not to find and memorize facts from each, but to unveil the interconnections between them.
Not to master them all as separate specialized fields, but to unlock mastery of life as developing the sensory capacities for perceiving into deeper layers of the architecture of life/reality itself.
Sensory capacities that could not come simply from the digestion of data, but the activation of dormant potentials through linking the unconscious with the conscious via an expanding comprehension of the various facets & components of systems & structures previously thought to be separate.
To some degree, this ‘alternative’ approach (versus mere memorization & recall of facts) has been a foundational intention of some education(al models). Indeed, the purpose of any musician learning theory and practicing scales is to establish fundamental skills & muscle memory from which further stages of development and thought-free improvisational flow may unfold; or learning the basics of grammar, storyline development and such serves as the base from which a writer may grow their talents with required structure in place. Though nonetheless, much of our societal & institutional approaches to “education” has frequently embodied a prioritization of knowledge accumulation over skill development and division between subjects with disregard for what breakthroughs await at their intersections.
And in our current day & age, such personal accumulation of info is becoming increasingly redundant. Just as may be specialization in siloed fields of knowledge where one’s value used to be in their accumulation & recall of information.
Think about it: how fast can you find any information with nothing more than a search engine now. And how fast can you get answers to (well-formulated) questions with ChatGPT.
As per the classic metaphor of Henry Ford being criticized for his “lack of education” when unable to answer a trivial question with facts only to reply he had under his desk, a button to summon a team of men who could retrieve the answers for him - so too, our world is evolving in unfathomable ways as not only is information itself becoming so much more readily available freely & quickly, but the tools for processing & working with it are becoming increasingly powerful and freely accessible. Who gives a fuck what facts you know when anyone with a computer or smartphone can find them out in seconds.
Let that sink in. And really consider:
What value does the accumulation & recall of information truly have anymore, when absolutely anyone can retrieve that same info within seconds?
Of course, most of us - especially those on this platform, having “been ahead of the curve” when it comes to technological developments such as the internet and its role in a larger trend of decentralization - know this. Like, “duh.” Though while a smaller segment of the population may be “ahead of the curve,” a majority still is not.
Forward-thinking individuals and smaller subcultures of technological revolutionaries might get it - but a good (or perhaps ‘bad’) amount of our institutional structures have been lagging behind. And within them, are still millions of people being programmed, conditioned & indoctrinated into an old way of being (through their relationships with learning & information) that are undergoing an extinction.
Though as easy it may be to point fingers at the masses and find comfort in a sense we are “ahead of the curve” as potentially adapting a bit faster, conditioning runs deep.
And knowledge doesn’t automatically equate to wisdom.
Nor does wisdom really account for / amount to much if not truly integrated & implemented.
There are no one-size-fits-all approaches here that may “work” as we undergo this significant transition in evolution.
Indeed, the old institutionalized approaches we grew up in/with attempted fitting us into neat little boxes, while segmenting us into “specializations,” applying their generalized principles of/to learning - conditioning/programming us to adapt to the societal/cultural/economic systems of days past. And it may be each our own individual responsibility to decondition & deprogram, as new relationships with the way we engage with both an increasing influx of information and its processing & implementation in the development & transformation of new(er) systems are due.
Information alone ain’t gonna serve us as well as it used to.
And while developments in information technology accelerate as tools to facilitate other technological & evolutionary advancements such as that of “artificial intelligence,” we might only truly be able to harness the potential powers of their expansive neural architecture as expanding our own. (“As above, so below…” “as within, so without.”)
Survival in the old world we grew up in seemed rather straightforward: go to college, accumulate information in a specialized field, trade hours for a paycheck with a corporation to fund a mortgage on house with white picket fence and feeding & raising a family so they could rinse & repeat. But times are changing. Many of the old structures & systems are collapsing & changing, and many of the roles people once filled aren’t in the same demand. And new opportunities are arising and being created as transformation of all facets of society occur - especially for/by those undertaking the inner/self-development to grow their own neural networks, bridging neural structures reflective of the old & new worlds requiring bridging to successfully adapt to.
Take the world/realm/domain of crypto (and the corresponding dimensions of blockchain technology and the movement towards decentralization it facilitates) for example. Chances are, many early adopters didn’t merely “get information,” “learn” about the opportunity in the traditional sense of the world, and act accordingly… we saw the much broader vision of its time & place in a far larger context of evolutionary development encompassing trends in not only technology and finance/economics, but culture, society, and consciousness. The perception of the opportunity was not something just intellectually understood consequential of a transmission of facts, but enabled through the activation of an expansive multi-dimensional vision accessible through the bridging of neural networks built via research & study into those different facets of tech, finance, economics, and cultural/societal evolution not with intent to memorize & recall facts but to expand awareness into the depths of their intersection. Accumulating information pertaining to cutting-edge technology might grow one specialized neural network; memorizing data about finance & economics, another; digging in to learn about societal & cultural trends, another - though it is those who transcended the conditioned, conventional approaches to “learning” & engaging with information and invested the time & energy into simultaneously bridging those various neural networks who activated the sensory capacities to truly see the opportunity and corresponding sets of unique skills to seize it.
Granted, that’s just one example. Surely, many have unlocked & created life-changing opportunities in a variety of different fields through similarly breaking down barriers between subjects of study and using information not as a commodity for memorization & recall but a building block for bridges. And while this whole writing might give the impression there is something “superior” to this alternate approach to conventional learning & info consumption, context -> there are indeed many for whom the old ways have worked. And there are indeed certain life & career paths where intensive memorization & recall of information is essential. Not everyone is designed to ride the crypto wave or apply creativity to scientific breakthroughs; the world needs doctors, mechanics, and all variety of specialized professionals that can’t be replaced by even the most advanced AI. The ‘education’ system in its current form has served its place in our evolution, and may continue to - though likely to a decreasing degree, as everything continues undergoing accelerating change. None of this is to imply our old relationships with learning and info consumption are wrong - only that there are significant evolutionary advantages available for many who adapt through transforming them in ways uniquely fit to our own individual needs, rather than continuing in the ways we’ve been programmed/conditioned by societal/cultural/institutional standards.
Again: there are no one-size-fits-all approaches.
We had gone through an era where many were formulated, followed, and did work for many… but times are changing. Fast.
And with that rapid change, the need to change, ourselves.
(Of course, again - context. That here, being that the “need” is dependent on adaptation, to evolve, with intent of thriving in a different world than that we grew up in. That’s not to say the “need” is absolute for everyone in all circumstances. In fact, a majority of humans probably won’t change, but shall carry on as they have been, and that may be correct for their unique life path - their brains, bodies, and souls capped/limited in the amount of development to be undertaken in this lifetime, and that being quite perfect in the Grand.Organizing.Design of it all.)
Just observations. And experience.
Ultimately, “to each their own.”
Though the reason I keep referring back to Human Design throughout my writings as a framework for better seeing & understanding the various facets of the human experience and our evolutionary journies - at the risk of hypocritically oversimplifying things into a different variation of “one-size-fits-all” adaptable truth: to truly live “to each our own” depends upon deconditioning/deprogramming and recalibration back to our unique genetic blueprint and its innate wisdom, as per alignment with & following our own individual Strategy & Authority.
We’ve all been raised in a world praising the mind and information which may be used in support of its logic-based decision-making… at the cost of disconnection from our internal ‘compass’ as it exists in the core of our genetic makeup and corresponding bodily guidance.
Perhaps this is why it may be increasingly vital to recalibrate these relationships of ours with how we engage with information as its availability immensely increases and the forces of evolutionary change accelerate. Increased “noise” of (irrelevant, no matter how logical mind might judge) excess information -> increased interference with our internal guidance system when it is becoming increasingly important to actually connect to & rely upon as the tides of evolutionary change turn.
I could pose the theory that interdisciplinary studies with intent of activating sensory & creative capacities via the bridging of neural networks may offer individuals greater evolutionary advantages in our changing world… which may be true for some… and untrue for others. For some individuals, specialized immersion in specific fields of information may be 100% correct. For others, a de-prioritization of informational learning altogether as getting more out the mind altogether and into the body & life - whether that’s in the “old world” where conditioned conventional ways work, the new, or bridging between.
Yada, yada, yada.
Take what thou wilt here, which may serve deconditioning/deprogramming and the building of your own bridges to the new - should that be the correct direction for your individual path.
🙏✨
“Wisdom, implemented in daily life, enables unfoldment of consciousness, which is otherwise imprisoned in the mental, emotional and physical plane.”
“As we work with wisdom, the human awareness or consciousness finds its unfoldment into areas that are hidden or unknown to mankind.”
“We are pure consciousness and a storehouse of spirit. We are capable of bringing that spirit into matter and thus conduct the White Magic.
”It is basically our responsibility to realize the kingdom of god upon earth.
There are kingdoms of beauty, of light, of love and intuition, which can be manifested through human activity.”
“The true status of man and woman is to be an alchemist…. In the presence of an alchemist, the basic nature of the human being is put to transformation to reach higher aspects of human life.”
~ Dr. I. Parvathi Kumar