Shlomo Yishai, Ph.D. (1)
An Historic Moment – Tested by Time
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Neil Armstrong’s immortal line has become embedded in human consciousness as a high-point in human history. Actually, it is a double achievement – it is a peak of technological science generated by the United States through the NASA space agency, and at the same time, it is a political and security summit. Planting the American flag on the moon was a significant victory in one of the major battlefields of the Cold War. The Space Race opened in 1957 with Russia in the lead after launching the first Russian Sputnik into space. In 1961 the Russians widened the gap still further by launching Vostok, the first manned space capsule. The rest of the race is well known, with America closing the gap and taking over the lead. The Apollo 11 team reached the finish line and planted the American flag on the moon on July 20th, 1969. It can be claimed that this double achievement forcefully tipped the balance of power that brought about the collapse of the USSR in 1991. The Moon Conquest can be regarded as the high point in the development of human ability and therefore the defining moment of the 20th century. Yet the test of time allows us to pinpoint another pivotal moment with far-reaching consequences. (2)
That moment came about accidentally during Apollo 8’s mission in 1968 – the moment when the astronauts witnessed Earthrise. The influence of this moment has extended far into the 21st century and its significance will accompany humanity as we face present and future challenges. The famous picture of Earthrise taken by the astronauts during those magical moments generated a new human consciousness. (3) The recording of the astronauts’ conversation within the space craft – published by NASA – is testament to their amazement and awe at their first view of Earthrise. They initially photographed the phenomenon in black-and-white, and on the recording they can be heard searching for color film in order to capture the amazing sight before their eyes. They had no idea they were taking part in a historic moment and that this picture would generate a change in human consciousness.
Earthrise
The pictures taken by Frank Borman, mission commander and William Anders, astronaut (4)
The human consciousness created by the Overview Effect experienced by the astronauts as they beheld earth from space was transformed into human awareness through the Earthrise and ensuing pictures. The long-term effect of this consciousness engendered the human awareness that Earth has one climatic system.
Expanding the human consciousness soon made it possible to observe the critical human challenge generated by the Industrial Revolution – Global Warming. This challenge was answered by the creation of global movements awakening the need to deal with this threatening reality. These movements pressured governments to act and take responsibility for managing the Global Ecological System. One focus of activity was to generate international public pressure on the industrialized countries, urging them to reduce the gas emissions creating the Greenhouse Effect and encouraging the use of alternate energy sources.
Martin Winterkorn, CEO of the Volkswagen Group, was until recently a prominent leader in the world vehicle industry. (5) He resigned in September 2015 following the discovery that for the previous six years Volkswagen had installed a program in the computers of all VW diesel engine cars marketed in the United States. This program identified pollution tests and artificially reduced the emission of pollutions in order to meet standard requirements. His resignation demonstrates the long-term effect of Apollo 8’s ‘consciousness generating’ space mission picture, the Earthrise. It is still too early to estimate the effect his resignation will have on German economy, one of the leading economies in the EU. This example demonstrates the ripples of effect created by the consciousness change that came about through Apollo 8’s flight.
Let us use the Test of Time to evaluate the high point of the Apollo program. It seems that the change in human consciousness that followed Apollo 8’s flight challenges the high point of human ability as represented by the Apollo 11 Moonwalk. At the time, human focus was undoubtedly on Apollo 11 – one out of every six people on the planet watched man’s landing on the moon. Yet under the radar, history had planted another pivotal moment in the American space program that was destined to generate an essential change in human consciousness. The effect of this change follows us deep into the 21st century.
Still, to my mind this is not the most significant surprise hiding under history’s surface in the 1960’s. The most powerful change destined to shake the pillars of our existence was buried deep under the surface of history, concealed in the guise of banality. It would change human abilities and human essence, raise questions about human destiny, and in effect usher in a new human era.
The New Life – Living in Interconnected Networks
The internet is one more product of the Cold War.(6) Spurred by fear of nuclear attack, towards the end of the 1960’s the US Defense Department developed a communications network whose durability was guaranteed because it was independent of communication centers.
The internet developed during the 1980’s. It became a sophisticated communication network, creating a reality of virtual networks, a reality parallel to the real world humanity had inhabited exclusively until then. Towards the end of the 20th century humanity began living in superposition – living simultaneously in both the real world and the virtual world of the network. This virtual network reality has generated a new era of humanity – Humanity’s Global Era. This new era challenges us on all levels while simultaneously pushing us to conquer our next summit. (7)
In my opinion, history shows that humanity’s high point of ‘creating a world’ parallel to the real world inhabited by humanity throughout its existence is the pinnacle of human achievements in the 20th century. From its heights we are discovering that this summit may be too high for us. Conquering the virtual summit has brought humanity to a tipping point. Humanity has created a reality for which our traditional systems and the social structures that have so far accompanied our history are unsuited. We are at a watershed: on the one hand we are being called upon to generate humanity’s next reality, yet at the same time we can observe the cracks in our social and political state that may lead us to governmental, societal and personal chaos. This reality can be likened to vertigo – the dizziness and lack of orientation that may attack a pilot flying at high speed at a great height. The force and speed of change generated by the reality of the internet may culminate in a state of ‘social vertigo’, and possibly plunge us downwards, hurtling towards a crash.
Where do we go from here? What direction is everything heading?
At this stage of the discussion, the magnitude of the summit we experienced through Apollo 8 is revealed – Earthrise. The climatic confrontation can be seen as a ‘human drill’ on a global scale before the advent of the new era, the Era of the Global Person. The stages of handling the climatic challenge can serve us as a model for dealing correctly with the new virtual reality. Humanity has in fact practiced ‘how to deal with a new human consciousness and how to turn this consciousness into active awareness’. An awareness that generates a new goal – managing a Global Ecological System.
Based on this model we can define the three vital stages of confrontation that will allow us to turn humanity’s challenge of a virtual network reality into a global human force.
The coping model:
A. Consciousness and awareness of the new reality – the Overview Effect of the virtual network reality;
B. The human challenge – Humanity’s Global Warning;
C. The solution – creating a Human Mutuality System.
Below is a brief demonstration of each of the coping stages.
The Overview Effect of the Virtual Network Reality
The following principles are manifested when we take a broad perspective of the reality of life in the virtual network world:
⦁ Human superposition (8) – humanity is currently living simultaneously in both a real and a virtual world.
This is a double reality of life that exposes us to new horizons while at the same time challenges the existing order on every level of our existence. Humanity is challenged on the existential level – financial and physical; on the human level – personal and social; and on the ideological level – ethical and judicial.
⦁ In Humanity’s Global Era the empowering of human networks creates an unprecedented number of phenomena.
The reality of the global network – the information internet and additional internet configurations such as the Internet of Things and the Energy Internet – has transformed the world into a uniform network reality. Expanding our horizon to a ‘global horizon’ through the information internet, complemented by social networks, generates a network reality.
Network consciousness means comprehending the power, responsibility and obligations interwoven in the reality of the virtual network.
⦁ In the cyber world the Global Person accumulates power that until now had only been accessible to states and leaders and uses this power to influence the real world.
Access to professional and security information, global financial capability, and the ability to appeal to the masses through social networks are now in everyone’s hands. These leadership abilities, which throughout history have lain in the hands of country leaders, are now available to everyone.
A reality in which leadership powers are granted to everyone necessitates a new concept of social leadership – network leadership.
The Global Person lives in a network reality that combines his being at one and the same time a significant and powerful individual and part of the human collective.
Another superposition is that at the beginning of the 20th century humanity’s focus was on the collective and by the end of that century that focus had shifted to the individual. The 21st century began with a reality that integrated the individual and the collective as a uniform, complementary essence. Never before has humanity been so connected and so dependent on itself and at the same time never before has each individual been as powerful and significant as they are now.
This is a new reality of mutuality between the individual and the collective – a reality of Individual Collectivism complemented by Collective Individualism.
We can summarize and say that the Global Person is connected to and dependent on the virtual network reality – he is interdependent and interconnected.
The virtual network reality generates a reality in which every person is empowered through the virtual network reality as never before, yet at the same time his existence is dependent on this reality as never before. This is an organic, global reality.
The Challenge – Humanity’s Global Warning
The awareness of this virtual network reality engenders dual sentiments. On the one hand, the new human power stemming from this reality opens new vistas and fosters new hopes. The new horizon enables every person to be present in the new reality to an unprecedented degree. At the same time this awareness gives rise to fear. The fear is existential. It stems from the incompatibility of the life systems previously created by humanity – financial, social and governmental – with the new reality. This widening chasm raises questions regarding our physical and moral presence with greater intensity. This is Man’s Search for Existence and Man’s Search for Meaning.
An overview of the challenges created by this reality gives rise to the understanding that despite the technological advances that have generated a new force of humanity, the prevalent personal sensation at the beginning of the 21st century is of instability:
⦁ Social networks have created a new public sphere that has no code of ethical behavior. This sphere raises moral questions and requires creating new social norms (shaming, cyber bullying).
⦁ Extreme phenomena – the network reality has facilitated the creation of a positive shared human consciousness and practice to an unprecedented degree. At the same time it also enables more powerful and more extreme negative human behaviors that push us closer to the abyss.
⦁ Social networks expose what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ of government and so deepen civilian mistrust of public representatives.
⦁ Extremist terrorism is weaving a global net under our feet.
⦁ The economic gaps, cost of living and unclear employment horizon create existential anxiety that increases with the awareness of smart machines that will replace workers in many fields. This reality caused the social protests that erupted around the world in 2011 to continue festering in the social networks, fed by growing frustration. This has given rise to public sentiment that the governmental system is detached and alienated from peoples’ existential distress.
⦁ The global horizon created by the virtual network reality allows refugees from third world countries to discover and flood Western countries. This challenge requires a new way of thinking.
⦁ The education systems are run according to principles suited to the Industrial Revolution but are not suited to the reality of a world flooded with information. Education systems lack the educational code to prepare students for the challenges of the future – life in a powerful reality of dynamic virtual networks.
⦁ Fear of an unknown future that will include ‘smart machines’ that will ‘take control of human life’.
These challenges and many others testify that we are being called upon to redesign the reality of our lives.
In actuality we are experiencing a reality in which human and financial capital is mostly invested in creating the technology for generating a cyber world parallel to the real one. In contrast to this technological success, not enough investment is being made in researching, visualizing and developing human adaptation to this new reality. This gap is the reason we are challenged, both as a society and as individuals, on all levels of human existence: our physical existence, our humanity and our values.
Humanity is at a turning point that challenges all structures of our life. The bloody revolutions throughout history were generated in a reality in which the structures were incompatible with humanity’s needs. Reviewing these challenges gives rise to the apprehension that the chaotic situation we are in and the powers generated by this new network reality are leading us to anarchy and violence.
In contrast to this grim forecast there is a possibility – and therefor a responsibility – of turning the Era of Global Humanity into humanity’s next stage of development.
The challenge that arises from this limited overview is: How do we transform the technological power we all enjoy into a significant, viable and thriving human reality?
Creating a Human Mutuality System
Understanding the scope of the change to the reality of our lives as expressed in The Overview Effect and in Humanity’s Global Warning enables us to understand that we are in the midst of a tectonic change in our lives (the tectonic plates are Earth’s internal plates underlying the oceans and continents). We must understand that the change in human abilities – leadership powers accessible to all – and the essence of networking have generated a new reality. This reality undermines the traditional order of existence. It demands a redefinition of the basis for human existence, the basis on which humanity constructs the reality of our lives.
Based on this understanding, the purpose of presenting the Human Mutuality System approach is not to provide solutions for specific challenges but to create an infrastructure that will enable us to generate a solution. We must create a new, durable, existential infrastructure that will allow humanity to create diverse solutions that will provide us all with a significant, stable and empowered existence.
The Human Mutuality System approach integrates an in-depth understanding that the new infrastructure in which we live in this virtual network reality involves the Global Person. The Global Person is empowered to the level of global leader by the leadership abilities offered by the internet web, while at the same time each individual’s actions are based on the understanding that he is part of a human whole – the network reality.
The meaning of human mutuality is that the Global Person lives in a Superimposed Reality. Each person is at one and the same time both an individual and part of a collective. Therefore any place in which people are active must include responsibility for the Human Superimposition.
Collective Individualism – a reality in which the Global Person realizes his powerful individual essence while understanding that he is simultaneously part of a collective and committed to it. To complement this, Individual Collectivism is a reality in which the Global Person acts as a collective while acknowledging the importance of each individual and attending to each person’s needs.
In order to reach this integrative reality we must develop both sides of the equation – both the individual and the collective.
The Individual
The self-empowerment of each individual is the empowerment of –
Inspiration – the basis of human will. Self-inspiration is the expression of a person’s overall will. A will combining the person’s strengths, abilities and feelings into a force acting to express his personality, values and beliefs.
Wisdom – the basis for understanding our own abilities and capabilities based on existing knowledge. Acknowledgement that allows practical translation into self-inspiration.
Commitment – to carry out self-inspiration and act upon it in reality.
The Collective
Creating a network collective based on network leadership. Leadership that is not based on a leadership of ‘one wise, knowledgeable person’, but a leader capable of generating leadership. Realizing the partners’ self-leadership and using it to create collective inspiration and the wisdom of the crowd.
Generating Leadership
An integrating leader
Meaning – action based on meaning allowing us to harness others to a shared path.
Sense of worthy – Recognition and Appreciation – only leadership that is capable of appreciating the value and contribution of each individual and connecting with them while esteeming their contribution, can generate the ‘collective inspiration’ and ‘wisdom of the crowds’ necessary for coping with the new and complex reality we live in.
Trust – the basis for cooperation between empowered people. Mutual trust, trust in the honesty of intention and mutual acknowledgement and appreciation.
Epilogue: It is important to note that this condensed article is intended as a general outline of the new consciousness and the possibility of transforming technological power into an empowering human reality. Each stage in this outline requires further explanation and in-depth research in order to generate a practical solution.
For further discussion see the book Humanity’s Global Era – A Dual Paradigm Change and other publications by the Humanity’s Global R&D Center.
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1. Founder and Director Humanity’s Global Era Research Center
2. Further reading:
http://www.nationalcoldwarexhibition.org/schools-colleges/national-curriculum/space-race HYPERLINK “http://www.nationalcoldwarexhibition.org/schools-colleges/national-curriculum/space-race/”/ http://www.history.com/topics/space-race
3 http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/features/bm_gallery_4.html
4. http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/features/bm_gallery_4.html
5. http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2015/sep/23/markets-chinese-economy-fears-vw-crisislive-updates
http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/23/news/companies/volkswagen-emissions-crisis/
6. http://www.history.com/topics/inventions/invention-of-the-internet
7. Further reading Yishai Shlomo 2015 Humanity’s Global Era – A Dual Paradigm Change, Publishing house Humanity’s Global Era Research Center
8. Further reading Yishai Shlomo 2015 Humanity’s Global Era – A Dual Paradigm Change, Publishing house Humanity’s Global Era Research Center, P.124-131