🌍 How Indigenous Thinking Can Save The World | SS3
🌍 How Indigenous Thinking Can Save The World | SS3
... while UK riots stoke rising cultural tensions, humanoid robots enter BMW factories and war continues to escalate in the Middle East 🤯
Welcome to Symbiocene Signal #3!
In this month’s newsletter we’ll kick off with an excerpt from my latest essay on How to Decolonize Your Mind, inspired by Tyson Yunkaporta’s book Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save The World, applied to the violent riots in the UK—this month’s metacrisis moment. 🕸️
Plus, we’ll cover:
🦅 Indigenous wisdom
🌍 Changing climate
🤖 Accelerating technology
Can UBI mitigate the disruptive impact of AI & automation? 💸
Lex & Elon discuss Neuralink, Ayahuasca & The Future of Humanity 🦾
🌱 Regenerative futures
🌄 Rites of passage
Vision Quest, Wild Mountain Colorado | Sep 28th, 2024 - Oct 11th, 2024
Vision Quest, Budawang Wilderness Area New South Wales | Sept 14- 21, 2024
🏕️ Events & courses
What Does Water Want? 3 Day Online Summit with
’ Audrey
🦅 Indigenous wisdom
How to decolonize your mind: Part I 🌍🔥⚔️
If you have plugged your brain into the matrix—I mean the internet—the last couple weeks you may have thought “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?”, and you would not have been alone. Over the last few days we’ve had rumblings of a global recession, stock market meltdowns, violent riots across the UK, escalating war in the Middle East and humanoid robots entering BMW factories.
(Maybe this is what futuristic genius Terrence McKenna’s was trying to tell us—see below👇)
In this week’s essay I explore how Tyson Yunkaporta’s Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save The World can help us navigate the multi-generational conflict bubbling out of the surface of our filthy smartphone screens with four simple takeaways you can do to this weekend.
🌍 Changing climate
Why is nobody taking notice of AMOC?
Here's the gist: There's a growing freakout that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) might bite the dust this century, which could royally mess up life as we know it. Some brainiacs used salinity data and reanalysis products to predict that this catastrophic event could happen between 2037 and 2064, with a mean guess of 2050. So, we've got about a 50-50 chance to brace ourselves for a watery apocalypse before mid-century.
Renewables FINALLY surpass coal in 2025 as the largest source for electricity ⚡️
Mark your calendars, folks! In early 2025, renewables are set to finally dethrone coal as the top dog in global electricity generation. That’s right—wind, solar, and other clean energy sources will officially outshine the dirtiest of fossil fuels. Who knew saving the planet could be so… electrifying? 😬
W-T-actual-F is Article 6? 🫠
Brace yourselves! Article 6 of the Paris Agreement (2015) is finally shaking up the world of carbon trading, allowing countries to swap carbon credits to meet their climate goals. Despite a slow start, with only one trade concluded between Switzerland and Thailand, the buzz is growing (enter swarm of VCs). But hey, don’t hold your breath—domestic regulations and a myriad of bureaucratic hoops mean it might be a few more decades before trading really takes off! 🛫
🤖 Accelerating technologies
Humanoid Robots tested at BMW Factories in Germany 🤖
Well the future’s already here. And it’s pretty sexy—or ugly, depending on whether you build cars or robots. If the former, you might want to look at UBI below, and if the latter I’m sure you’ll have lots to invest at the end of the quarter.
Can Universal Basic Income Mitigate the Disruptive Impact of AI and Automation? 💸
Universal Basic Income (UBI) is often hailed as a solution to economic inequality and job displacement due to AI and automation. However, its viability remains uncertain, with much debate regarding the economic feasibility and potential unintended consequences such as inflation or reduced workforce motivation. But without UBI what other options do we have to the inevitable widespread disruption of AI and automation?
By FAR the longest podcast I’ve ever listened to, an 8.5 hour super marathon between Lex Fridman, Elon Musk and the Neuralink team cover the latest in human-computer brain interface, X’s AI vision, Lex’s recent revelations with Ayahuasca in the Amazon and the future of humanity. There are some truly mind blowing explorations here, including Musk’s Transhumanist Interplanetary Dream as well as how people with disabilities will be the first humans to experience superhuman powers thanks to the internet, AI and computer vision.
🌱 Regenerative futures
Terrence McKenna discusses Novelty Theory and introduces the concept of the Omega Point, a future moment when the rate of complexification becomes overwhelmingly rapid, resulting in a transcendental object at the end of history. What would he say were he alive today?
🌄 Rites of passage
Vision Quest, Wild Mountain Colorado | Sep 28th, 2024 - Oct 11th, 2024
Experience a transformative journey with the Colorado Fall Vision Fast in 2024, offered by the School of Lost Borders. This 12-day wilderness rite of passage involves solo fasting, personal reflection, and deep connection with nature in the stunning landscapes of Colorado.
Vision Quest, Budawang Wilderness Area New South Wales | Sept 14- 21, 2024
This immersive wilderness experience involves solo time in nature, fasting, and personal reflection, designed to help participants connect deeply with their highest selves and the natural world.
🏕️ Events & courses
Fall Stewardship Program at Traditional Dream Factory 🐑
Join my good friend Sam Delesque at TDF for a new 12-week stewardship program to learn from pioneers of the regenerative village movement and explore regenerative agriculture, renewable energy systems, innovative governance models and community living. Volunteers commit four hours per day in exchange for room and board as well as TDF tokens! 🚀
Practical AI with 🎨 | Sep 16 – Oct 7
Join Practical AI with Stephen Reid to learn how to use large language models like Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini, create images with Midjourney, DALLE and Stable Diffusion while exploring video and music with Runway, Pika, Suno and Udio. “Stephen Reid is a trans-disciplinary technologist, facilitator and Dharma student who has trained in the fields of AI/ML, complexity science, physics, transformative coaching and insight meditation.”
The Future of Consciousness w/ 🧘🏽 | Aug 25 - Sep 9
Pinchbeck’s upcoming course The Future of Consciousness explores the potential evolution of human awareness through advancements in neuroscience, technology, and artificial intelligence. It questions how these innovations might expand our cognitive abilities and alter our perception of reality. However, it also raises critical considerations about ethical implications, the nature of human experience, and the possible risks of merging technology with the human mind.
That’s a wrap! 👏
Thanks for venturing with me in this month’s edition of Symbiocene Signal. We covered everything from indigenous wisdom to make sense of the unfolding cultural tension and violence in the UK to robots entering BMW factories in Germany. Thanks to Terrence McKenna we have a framework to make sense of this accelerating novelty machine and Tyson Yunkaporta to draw lines in the sand and explain to our children what we should do about it…
Hope you enjoyed, the read—would love to know what you think in a quick survey! 👇
AI generated description here I guess? 😆 "Join the Practical AI for the Open Web event to explore cutting-edge AI applications and their potential in fostering an open web ecosystem. This event will cover AI’s practical uses, ethical considerations, and innovative solutions for decentralized platforms. Attendees will gain insights from industry experts and collaborate on advancing AI technologies that support a more accessible and equitable web."