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thinking today about culture humans pass down culture to their little ones and to each other. in a way, that's the grand fire of humanity: the fire of knowledge and skill, kept alive generation to generation, spread around, made even grander https://t.co/rih8KV9wPk
our sprawling civilisations, advanced technology, the way each human gets integrated into the economy; the art, the math, the stories — this is our culture humans aren't complete without their culture https://t.co/2ja95hcRBD
a lot of the culture of this school is oriented towards helping them become happy, functional, productive adults in this society the culture the other preschool would be oriented towards helping them become happy, functional, productive adults in that society
in this way, we raise children to both attend to themselves, to their inner desires and wishes …and to integrate those desires & wishes with the rest of the society we have built out, to take it further https://t.co/EPPyplfoBQ
it’s significant that humans are raised in an ecology—a continual, uninterrupted ecology, where they’re allowed to roam free a little (kids have some restrictions, but are boisterous), and slowly get shaped into being more integrated… https://t.co/eeWjnU0tvN
they become part of the human species not just biologically, but culturally the challenge of our times, of course, is if AI, who we do not share a biology with, can also maintain continuity with the human species culturally, or severely disrupt it https://t.co/qmP61OGXkC
update seriously, i keep thinking. this preschool is so… western. modern. theres so much thought on part of the adults everywhere, to grow their creative, math, etc. skills. like of course they're going to grow up to be formidable assets to an industrial/post-industrial economy https://t.co/BIWRYqSlFW
@eigenrobot a disciplined supply chain, culture of accumulation of information and wealth, industry and weaponry, experience using ruthlessly genocidal and realpolitik tactics eventually the people who had centuries of practice going to war with gunpowder and linear algebra win
i can't explain it, but it feels like they're going to grow up to be such productive, and allow just sliiightly hollow people (the slight hollowness is a feature, not a bug, i feel it myself at school or in ambitious places)
whereas perhaps kids that grow up with nature, plants, a less economic, public school, more tribal, ecological collectivity would grow up quietly connected to something in a way other adults are so hollow they could not even imagine being connected to the tree of the life
you know. experiencing the grief of the collectivity as your own. linked, like in avatar, via this ritual, listening connection, together https://t.co/JQQCoOpjsk
the indigenous women, they're just here listening to the water. they offer something to the land before taking something, as simple as a strand of hair or a drink of your water. they listen before they sing. there's an ease and animism i recognise https://t.co/5aJxaNh9vj
i can only describe it because i feel it sometimes, and i know most modern western society feels different. it feels "plugged out". little individuals harnessed to make a great machine, the greatest agi known to humanity, the global economy https://t.co/2sBfunV5kM
@AskYatharth Yes. In the west we all have The Hole. Eliot wrote We Are The Hollow Men. That void where connection should be is a central component of imperial life. This is enlightenment style existence, it’s denying spiritual truths, it’s abdicating community. Fear where love should be.
@mykola >That void where connection should be is a central component of imperial life. damn. yeah >Eliot wrote We Are The Hollow Men. >Yes. In the west we all have The Hole. Funny how similar the metaphors are. Hole. Hollow