Progress as a Falling Away

Questioning the idea of “progress” as ascent, “future” as forward movement, and “productivity” as “active, material.”

“Two of these vids belong together, two of these vids are kind of the same.” 🎵

Watch SETI AIR: Xin Liu’s Inward Expeditions if the embed does not behave nicely.

Just. Wow. This SETI Institute interview with Xin Liu broke my brain in the best possible way. I can never think of the qualia of progress or future in the same way. Transformed. Never doubt the power of words and language to shape and change the very structure of reality in a 100% playful and 100% serious way. My entire body-mind feels materially lighter after upgrades installed by this video. Utterly ridiculous and undeniably real at the same time.

It feels as if my entire life has changed in ways that I’m certain I can’t yet imagine. An assuredness that itself feels as existent as the laptop keys under my fingertips as I type. This is the kind of stuff for which The Bureau of Linguistical Reality hotline was created. I feel like we need 8 new words to describe the multivariate aspects of the transformation I’m describing, but also must get back to work on an assigned task at hand, and all 9 tasks feel equally imbued with inherent “productivity” and “added value.” 🤣

I submit this entry as empirical subjective evidence of the immeasurable effect of artistic “productivity,” the experience of reaching, and of feeling reached. Like an anti-Agent-Smith invisible hand extended across an invisible river that we didn’t even know we were in the process of crossing, ever so carefully, one focused-and-intentional foot in front of the other, across a narrow, single-log bridge. Yeah, that’s the feeling. The kind of help that can be transmitted and received across the Global Brain dendrites and synapses of the Internet.

Watch Alicia Escott and Heidi Quante | The Bureau of Linguistical Reality Performance Lecture if the embed does not behave nicely.

Maybe it is nothing more than a silly, juvenile, solipsistic revelation to realize that what brings me the greatest joy in this journey of sapience is sharing the joy of discoveries like these, moments when art & science turn our preconceptions on their head with all the esthetic playful genius of Xu Bing, unexpectedly cracking open a freshness of ancient hidden worlds that were always with us, worlds that are us, and return us to our true selves. A spontaneous return of childlike wonder as a falling away of adult-ness; even if only for a fleeting momentary glimpse of experiencing life on Earth as it is in Heaven.

I’m temporarily dubbing Xin’s insight as the truth of falling away, which helped me to see more clearly the miracle of Bernoulli’s Principle, the inverse-force of lift that effectively vacuums-up an aircraft into the sky. While it’s equally and oppositely true that we refer to lift as a pushing of the aircraft aloft, the causal influence is the faster moving, lower-pressure air, above. We could refer to this as the truth of falling up.

There is one more helpful insight about our human nature in the combined truth of falling up and away. It’s this: less pressure is what enables and empowers flight, not more pressure.

Give that truth, it’s nothing short of a miracle that humanity survived the 20th century, given the nature of the constantly increasing and accelerating pressure to Get More Things Done. In awe, wonder, and gratitude for all the gleaming steel towers and technological superabundance, I am simultaneously in whole-hearted agreement with Xin that we need to deeply question and interrogate the 20th century false God of “productivity,” the most worshipped idol of the 20th century.

I hope you find even a fraction of the joy that Xin’s views on art and life brought to me this morning. I’m so grateful for this day, which invites a show of gratitude to today’s host, the non-profit SETI Institute, and yesterday’s host, The Long Now Foundation, for the unique work they each do in assisting humanity to gain a deeper understanding and more profound appreciation for the miraculous nature of our ineffable terrestrial human experience, by exploring and articulating new understandings gained by incrementally expanding our partial understanding of the extra-terrestrial.

Hope this helps you find the lightness of being in your day. 💖