betasam's Journal: Stereo Life

I see people around, a lot of people I'm connected with, and the ape that we are; we seem to love aping other apes. Stereotyped living has probably been what we keep calling "civilisation". Every leap into a new cultural generation is created by an oddity (or rather an eccentricity) within the earlier generation.

I think the one piece that needs to be seeded into culture, is the freedom to be different; to avoid being a stereotype, to avoid doing what others have done or are doing. That's the only way evolution (or memetic evolution or whatever you choose to call it) could progress. Every earlier civilisation or culture that vanished without a trace tried to get organised, classified into specific types. Yet, we have to both diversify, build that into our mindsets, and still achieve interdependent living; now seems to be the right time to try and get it right, without trying to create a whole new romanesque world. If we don't start doing this now, science, technology and civilisation is all bound for the next loop by whatever might stop it.

We no longer need fear Nukes, there's Nature, Toxic Life forms, there's the Cosmos, anything can make an organised and settled civilisation disappear. We can't plan for everything if we just sit back to make a better world.