the human heart

Weaving the Omega Point…Asking the Last Question

A single voice, a single sentence, a single video, a single photo now has the potential to influence the entire fabric of humanity via social networks and its tendrils. But what is it that we would want to collectively manifest? What is the experience we would want to collectively actuate? We are unerringly arrowing toward an Omega Point as a collective community and asking our best questions in the process!

The Omega Point is a term coined by the French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to denote the state of the maximum organized complexity (complexity combined with centricity), towards which the universe is evolving.

“Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other so that the world may come to being. This is no metaphor; and it is much more than poetry. Whether as a force or a curvature, the universal gravity of bodies, so striking to us, is merely the reverse or shadow of that which really moves nature. To perceive cosmic energy ‘at the fount’ we must, if there is a within of things, go down into the internal or radial zone of spiritual attractions. Love in all its subtleties is nothing more, and nothing less, than the more or less direct trace marked on the heart of the element by the psychical convergence of the universe upon itself.” ~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Again, I ask, what flavoring, what tenor, does humanity want to give its Omega Point? What question do we want to answer?

Asimov writes about The Last Question:

“Matter and energy had ended and with it, space and time. Even AC existed only for the sake of the one last question that it had never answered from the time a half-drunken computer ten trillion years before had asked the question of a computer that was to AC far less than was a man to Man.

All other questions had been answered, and until this last question was answered also, AC might not release his consciousness.

All collected data had come to a final end. Nothing was left to be collected.

But all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put together in all possible relationships.

A timeless interval was spent in doing that.

And it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy.

But there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question. No matter. The answer — by demonstration — would take care of that, too.

For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program.

The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done.

And AC said, “LET THERE BE LIGHT!”

And there was light—-“

Social networks re-training humanity

To be clear: One way of seeing social networks and the Internet is as a training ground. Next up, in this respect: making these connections with one another via our minds, our thoughts, our flesh. The relative freedom of these digital networks points away from our previous material limitations toward the vastness of spirit and all the possibilities that realm holds.

To expand on this: Social experience in digital networks has far more to do with spiritual development than anything else. We are learning to navigate vastness, to find our way through our own and others’ psychologies, to create worlds and cast these into the mystery beyond what is known via limited human transparencies.

~Nathaniel Hansen, Athens, Greece, December 2010.

Aphrodite and Merlin: Stories that teach AND delight potentiate an evolution in consciousness

Stories that teach/delight potentiate an evolution in consciousness in individuals and culture change in communities. Discover what’s delighting the world through social intelligence tools. Discover what has historically taught people through quotes from the ancient poets and philosophers. Merge the two in your content to attract AND feed your audience. Be at once Aphrodite, the goddess of love from Greek myth, AND Merlin, the wizard from Arthurian legend. Let these two teach you in this.

Aphrodite’s Story (the Delighter): Aphrodite (Greek Ἀφροδίτη) is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality. Her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus. Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia. According to Hesiod’s Theogony, she was born when Cronus cut off Uranus’ genitals and threw them into the sea, and from the sea foam (aphros) arose Aphrodite.

Because of her beauty other gods feared that jealousy would interrupt the peace among them and lead to war, and so Zeus married her to Hephaestus, who was not viewed as a threat. Aphrodite had many lovers, both gods like Ares, and men like Anchises. Aphrodite also became instrumental in the Eros and Psyche legend, and later was both Adonis’ lover and his surrogate mother. Many lesser beings were said to be children of Aphrodite.

Aphrodite is also known as Cytherea (Lady of Cythera) and Cypris (Lady of Cyprus) after the two cult-sites, Cythera and Cyprus, which claimed her birth. Myrtles, doves, sparrows, horses, and swans are sacred to her. The Greeks further identified the Ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor with Aphrodite.[4] Aphrodite also has many other local names, such as Acidalia, Cytherea and Cerigo, used in specific areas of Greece. Each goddess demanded a slightly different cult but Greeks recognized in their overall similarities the one Aphrodite. Attic philosophers of the fourth century separated a celestial Aphrodite (Aprodite Urania) of transcendent principles with the common Aphrodite of the people (Aphrodite Pandemos).

MORE ON APHRODITE

Merlin’s Story: Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures. Geoffrey combined existing stories of Myrddin Wyllt (Merlinus Caledonensis), a North Brythonic prophet and madman with no connection to King Arthur, with tales of the Romano-British war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus to form the composite figure he called Merlin Ambrosius (Welsh: Myrddin Emrys).

Geoffrey’s rendering of the character was immediately popular, especially in Wales; later writers expanded the account to produce a fuller image of the wizard. Merlin’s traditional biography casts him as a cambion; born of a mortal woman, sired by an incubus, the non-human wellspring from whom he inherits his supernatural powers and abilities. Merlin matures to an ascendant sagehood and engineers the birth of Arthur through magic and intrigue.

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THE BENEFIT OF BEAUTY AND WISDOM:
Humans want to taste delight, want to have their needs met on all dimensions of Maslow’s pyramid and want to know what to do about the conflict they face on any given day. When wisdom is draped in beauty, change happens very quickly. This is because true wisdom teaches the path to a beautiful life.

Good Social Tech works on multiple dimensions

Social technology has caused an acceleration in the evolution of human consciousness and spirituality. In realizing that more connections are available than one person can possibly take advantage of in a lifetime, the individual is presented with the choice of complexity or simplicity. Simplicity could be stated as essence, or realization, or self-actualization. Social technology precipitates simplicity. Why? Because good social tech takes away excessive boundaries and obstacles to connection. When I can connect to my bliss, to my passion, all else fades away. Good social tech facilitates swift connection to passion and methodologies for remaining in touch with and deepening that passion.

A great example of this is the work that our tech now does in showing us similar items to those we like – in music, film, photography, literature, travel and relationships. I can buy a song on iTunes and receive a focused list of other songs that those similar to myself also like. This results in swift creation of a tribe and an interest graph. Our interest graph is the passionate group surrounding similar interests. Those faces form a different kind of affinity, which grows in volume very easily due to social tech. And once one has tasted leadership within a tribe of passion, there really is no going back. Why? Because then one has found a path of discovery that attaches to the heart, the single most important physical and spiritual muscle!

Leonardo da Vinci has said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Good social tech creates sophisticated humans, who are in touch with both physical AND spiritual gratification.

Six Ways To Be Likeable in Social Networks

(Adapted from How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie)

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
• Follow them on Twitter and DM them on what they tweet.
• Become their friend on Facebook and comment positively on their wall posts.
• Subscribe to their YouTube or Vimeo channel. Like, Share and positively comment on their uploaded video content
• Follow their blog via RSS and positively comment, share their posts with your community via Twitter, FB and your blog.
• Follow their Slideshare account and share their presentations.
• Get connected on LinkedIn and connect them to individuals and LinkedIn groups that are helpful and specific to their industry.
• Share their photos from Flickr, Picasa and Photobucket, along with positive comments.

2. Smile.
• Like others content and be positive in your comments.
• Share uplifting content that brightens others days.
• Share a variety of uplifting content, including music, video, photos, blogposts, product reviews, events, good news, tweets and others’ FB posts.

3. Remember that a man’s name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in the English language.
• When you connect with others use their first name in the body of your messages!
• When you share another’s content, use their full name and share their weblink, YouTube channel, Twitter handle or FB link.

4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
• Send others private messages with questions that are not nosey but helpful.
• Let your comments show that you listened to what they said and in their post, Tweet, video, photo or music share.
• RSVP on events you are invited to.
• Share other’s posts on your wall or Re-Tweet them, furthering dialogue on their content.

5. Talk in terms of the other man’s interest.
• Identify what was important to the other in what they posted and orient your comment around that. This will foster friendship AND engender further conversation that is positive and helpful.
• Ask questions about the other’s posting in a way that is kind and identifies their post as an asset to you and others.

6. Make people feel important, and do it sincerely.
• Comment when it comes form your heart and gut. That’s usually a good sign that you are being sincere.
• Elevate the person by speaking about them in your content.
• If you don’t have anything to say, then don’t comment!