Living on a tropical island has always inspired us human beings. The idea of waking every morning to peace?—?the sheer beauty. A gentle lapping of crystal blue water on your very own white beach. Palm trees crackling in the gentle breeze. A simple idea.
A desert island is such a compelling image. It’s one that excites in us our basic desire for safety and simple thoughtfulness. Each day the sun ignites our senses. The possibility of calm reflection overpowering us.
Well, we are a long way off that island right now.
A Tsunami Just Hit
If you’ve been on a 5-year mission to outer space, suffered total communi-cations failure, and are returning to Earth in December 2016?—?then you’re excused. Otherwise right now you’ll be thinking we’ve all gone back a century or two.
Unprogressing
I’m guessing, like me, you strive to improve yourself each day. When you make a decision, it’s for improvement. When you vote, you vote for progress. Your whole life is about making better sense of what’s around you?—?working hard to get better at it. So it feels like that’s all been a bit pointless.
At home and work the challenge is being as effective as possible?—?making it work amid the chaos/complexity that swirls around us all.
What Happened?
We say we inhabit a civilised world. Hmm, I’m asking for a recount on that one. We seem to have screwed with the concept. The definition is rigged. And it’s not in our favour.
“Progress traditionally signals change. Things become different over time?—?and better. It seems inherent within the idea of progression. But pick your favourite dimensions of society and regression seems more apt…”
There’s major inequality in every major system on Earth. Whether education, health, work, leisure?—?your gender, the law?—?choose your favourite system. No matter which one, you’re likely to feel the subject of stupidity?—?possibly marginalisation, disenfranchisement or even exploitation.
“The so called ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ have never been in such graphic conflict as right now…Even a simple reflection with an open mind?—?extremism and isolationism can seem a rational strategy. If people have a way to say they’ve had enough they will. No matter how counter intuitive it is…”
At what distance do we need to stand to see this bigger picture? How far back before it stops looking like a global outbreak of insanity. (Enough to jump back on that space ship?)
What’s The Difference?
I’ve always felt different to most of the people I meet. I don’t fit into most people’s definition of normal. I’m scared of normal, in fact. Normal doesn’t appeal to me one bit. I’ve come across others like me but they’ve been the exception?—?a rare treat. “Most people seem to be trying to be ever more normal. So, everywhere I search it’s for less normality?—?let’s call that ‘difference’. And the sadness is, there’s ever more mediocrity…”
Until recently society seems increasingly accepting of all the stupidity around. Crazy unbelievable addictions to food we know kills us, myopic disregard for the changing climate, praying to the gods of celebrity, an addiction to owning weapons, superficial denial of corrupt practices in our banking systems and causes of war on other countries.
A ‘Drive Through’ Mentality
We have developed a disgraceful tolerance for inequity. An acceptance of poverty and hunger?—?the trafficking and slavery of children in pursuit of low cost goods that we don’t need. Sending children to fight wars. The outrageous politics designed to benefit the few. The deceit of the many. “One Hell of a list…”
Asleep At The Wheel
There’s a majority who are upset at the ignominy, but it has woken more of us up. Although the action we’ve taken is wrong the change has to be welcomed. The shock waves are sending a tsunami across many islands. Many will disappear without trace. But change has most definitely happened.
“We are desensitised to how bad things are. We’ve accepted lower standards in life perhaps because we pursue conformity. In the United Kingdom we had sent all our sovereignty to another country in Europe. In the United States, unless you lived on the east or west coasts you were a forgotten race…”
Why is there such blind obedience to the low common denominators of denial, ignorance, abdication of accountability?
Remembering What Matters
You can ruin your life by desensitizing yourself. We become distant from what’s real and what matters. In the face of stupidity we don’t say too much. We appear afraid to think deeply, to care about what’s really going on around us. Not caring is synonymous with ignorance.
We have to get back to what matters.
One of the biggest attractions of that island was the space to think. A perfect climate?—?abundance for the soul, but practical acceptance that we have to fend for ourselves.
There will be no fast food or internet. We would have to work at it.
A Mixed Reality Island
We are coming to terms with a new worldview. The outlook is mixed and we need to get used to it.
A short detour?—?Mixed Reality* it is a relatively new term. It holds real merit for the construction of our island. It’s certainly a useful metaphor for how to rewire our brains. It’s already a powerful definition for our technological future.
In a nutshell, it combines several types of technology into one device. As a result, we are informed in a more meaningful and rich way. This is different from well-known terms for devices such as the cousins?—?Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality platforms for example.
Unlike Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality doesn’t invite you to a completely different world?—?rather, it invites the digital world into yours. Mixed Reality devices constantly scan your space?—?they gather up a 3D understanding of your surroundings. It uses all that information to place digital information within your view in a realistic way?—?depending on what it can gather. You can then interact with it. You view it through transparent displays and naturally interact with the result using your hands.
We Have To Be In This Together
By being together we find connections?—?by working together we own the outcome. If we don’t own things we don’t change things. By owning the challenge, the opportunity, and all the stuff that makes them up we can make a real difference.
“It’s all too easy to let the world slide by thinking that everybody else is doing the stuff and you can just sit by and watch it happen…”
We know there is never enough time to sit back and reflect. In fact, we know it’s hard to do that in any meaningful way because of how our minds wander. In the near future we will have systems and technologies to help us do that, but we have to be careful with where that information comes from.
Defining An Island Of Sanity — Thinking Like An Air Traffic Controller
Everything is so complex now that we need help. We need the support of all our colleagues across all our connected networks. We need the best information from wherever we can get it. And we need a way to look at that information without being overwhelmed.
We’ve heard and seen a lot recently through our own self-imposed ‘echo chamber’– an isolation from the greater world that causes us to interpret things with bias?—?incorrectly. An island of sanity will help us create a space to monitor and interpret without being a part of a particular outcome or prejudice.
The Islands Of Sanity
1. Islands of sanity allow us to look at critical information through the mixed reality we need. What that means is to stand apart far enough to see what matters and be able to properly interpret it all. Filtering out the fake news, biased input and self-serving opinions from those with vested interests.
“An island of sanity allows us to stand on the shores of ignorance and the mountains of data. Looking at both from an impartial perspective?—having a more critical look at what it all means will move us to a far better place…”
Sanity requires definition. There are many who would say that insanity is
just a different place from which to view the world. Many a genius has
been qualified as insane. It just depends on how you look at it.
2. For our definition we are stating it as a place to perceive balance, equilibriums, aggregation and the absence of compromise. This allows us breathe and focus on what is right for our species and the planet as a whole.
3. This kind of sanity allows is to make better quality decisions for the benefit of everybody, not just for the few. There is a lot to say for artificial intelligence and the recent rise of data science. From here we stand a chance, as human beings are being supported by greater ways to calculate the right outcome from masses and masses of information.
4. We are seeing countless examples of machines solving long-term human ailment and disease in better ways then we can as humans. We need to apply these kinds of thinking in islands of sanity far away from the vested interests.
5. An island of sanity may sound remote but far from it. It is merely a different dimension of the same planet. It is right here right now in a very mixed and this degree of ambiguity points to the words and the definitions rather than to the metaphor of an island.
6. So an island of sanity is a state of mind as much as it is a place for people to get together, adjacent to the busy world in which we live. It is an attitude and mindset and an approach to the prevailing insanity and lack of leadership displayed in the systems that have been around us for generations.
7. It is by no means a new concept that capitalism and democracy and the systems that are in place today are not working for the majority. We need a new economy I knew way of thinking about that very definition and A new kind of equality for people if we are to survive.
8. Islands of sanity will be everywhere they will be within us and they will be fixed sessions retreats communities but they will always be there outside of meetings and events.
9. If we relied on meetings and events where people get together as the metric by which things change, it will be too late. The islands of sanity need to be 24x7x 365. A collaborative and connected set of minds. A place where everyone on the planet who gives a damn can contribute?—?working to the common aim without knowing what that may need to be.