- 8 months ago
This is the final version of The Connections (2023) book (link to pdf version below). The book attempts to highlight the common roots of anti-exploitation (anti-oppression) movements and philosophies of freedom, harmony and sustainability. It presents veganism, environmentalism and human rights in one package; exposing the underlying mechanism for their emergence. It is intended for the dissemination of wisdom in a time when it is most needed. Indeed, if you are a person who is seeking wisdom with a good heart, this book is precisely for you 💖
Please share the link everywhere; the promotion of this book is up to YOU 🙌
Write your comments about the book in the comments section below! 👇
At 32:07, clarification added as: "Usually, these people also tend to highly value (old or modern) traditions, and consider relating to respected organizations and groups (e.g. nationalism, sports team fanaticism, (conservative or progressive) political parties, brand name worshipping, internalizing the company values and climbing the career ladder, etc.), and the rules of the society as their top priority". Also, minor grammar mistakes (as much as I can spot them) have been corrected in the text form 👇
📗 Link to free book pdf (directs to google drive): https://rb.gy/xw9vp
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
01:46 Defining "technology"
07:45 People's perception of technology
10:26 What is so bad about it and why?
26:43 Connection to animal rights
38:32 Connection to human rights
43:17 Parallels with addiction
46:11 Likely outcomes of technology
Disclaimer: The author does not support any violence in any form for ideological purposes. The conclusions drawn are for educational purposes only.
Please share the link everywhere; the promotion of this book is up to YOU 🙌
Write your comments about the book in the comments section below! 👇
At 32:07, clarification added as: "Usually, these people also tend to highly value (old or modern) traditions, and consider relating to respected organizations and groups (e.g. nationalism, sports team fanaticism, (conservative or progressive) political parties, brand name worshipping, internalizing the company values and climbing the career ladder, etc.), and the rules of the society as their top priority". Also, minor grammar mistakes (as much as I can spot them) have been corrected in the text form 👇
📗 Link to free book pdf (directs to google drive): https://rb.gy/xw9vp
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
01:46 Defining "technology"
07:45 People's perception of technology
10:26 What is so bad about it and why?
26:43 Connection to animal rights
38:32 Connection to human rights
43:17 Parallels with addiction
46:11 Likely outcomes of technology
Disclaimer: The author does not support any violence in any form for ideological purposes. The conclusions drawn are for educational purposes only.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00The Connections
00:01Written by Semi O'Guzjan
00:04A level-headed view of the world takes courage more than ever.
00:09The book presents an enlightening perspective on the nature of technology and raises a question,
00:14are we kidding ourselves?
00:17Authors note, this book is intended for audiences who want to do good in this world and want to have a clear view of the situation.
00:24A layman would be satisfied with superficial and half-baked answers, but we expect more than the views of a layman from this book.
00:33Exactly for this reason, I want the reader to be open-minded and entertain these ideas objectively,
00:39as many of the ideas might be alien, complex, shocking or scary to those who are new to them.
00:45The book is relatively short, as I wanted to exclude anything unnecessary and tried to give you the crucial knowledge in a concentrated, clear,
00:55convincing and well-organized form.
00:57Please do not expect pointless entertainment from it.
01:00This is not a drug, but a cure.
01:03Enjoy reading, and don't forget to live in here and now as much as you can.
01:09By reading this book, one can understand the core of the often misunderstood ancient Deoist and Zen philosophies better.
01:16These ancient ideas include aligning with the natural way and living a simple life free from unnatural distractions
01:23and avoiding and healing the traumas that are spreading within the system due to the imbalances caused by novel technologies.
01:30This book is complementary to the documentary, The Connections, 2021, short documentary, and the online video lecture,
01:39Civilization 101, The Untold Dark Secret of Civilization, prepared by the author.
01:47Chapter 1, Defining Technology
01:49Living in probably the most technologically advanced era of all times, we depend on, use, develop, enjoy and complain about technology.
02:01Technology to us is what water is to fish.
02:05Having said that, how many people can define technology?
02:08It is so recognizable, one might think, that they didn't even feel the need to stop and think about it consciously.
02:16One might say with cold confidence that technology is what humans produce with natural resources such as metals, water, fossil fuels, wood and minerals.
02:27Technology enables us to increase efficiency, overcome problems and conquer new niches.
02:32Humans can produce it because, unlike others, humans are very creative and intelligent species.
02:40Humans also have science, which adds on even more to their intelligence.
02:45So far, a layman would be satisfied with these answers, but we expect more than the views of a layman from this book.
02:53Exactly for this reason, I want the reader to be open-minded and entertain these ideas objectively,
02:59as many of the ideas might be alien, shocking or scary to those who are new to them.
03:05If we look at closely to the nature, we realize that the nature is also incredibly creative and intelligent
03:11to the degree that it inspired people and birthed countless religions.
03:16Science, as a subset of evolution, is a method based on trial and error to figure out
03:22which theories are best matching to the observations of one's environment.
03:26Nature also uses science.
03:29Evolution by natural selection, is a method based on trial and error to figure out
03:34which species are best matching to their environment.
03:38If nature can accumulate knowledge by using trial and error, can be creative and intelligent,
03:44and shape natural resources such as metals, water, fossil fuels, wood and minerals into beings
03:50in a way to maximize efficiency.
03:53Then, what is technology?
03:54As we have realized, under careful inspection, these definitions of technology given by a layman
04:01can be shown to be meaningless in the grand scheme of things.
04:06Considering the vagueness of the above definitions, it is time that we define it properly.
04:11Technology can be defined as
04:13At this point, one may raise the question if a meteor striking the Earth and its shockwaves can be considered as technologies or not.
04:34After all, it is difficult to imagine a more rapid event on Earth than a meteor strike.
04:41A careful look at the above definition of technology is sufficient to answer this question.
04:46For a system to be defined as technology, unlike the disintegrating meteor, it should become more organized over time.
04:54Hence, according to our definition, the extinction of dinosaurs was not caused by technology, it was caused by a meteor strike.
05:03There are events, however, such as the introduction of invasive species into an ecosystem, that surprisingly can be classified as technology under the above definition.
05:15In that sense, technology is a subset of relatively fast-changing systems, and as we will see later, such systems tend to destroy their surroundings.
05:24As we just defined the meaning of technology, from now on we will call anything technological, unnatural.
05:32Let's list some generalized examples to unnatural things.
05:36Cars, ships, invasive species, humans living in modern houses, livestock, industry, public or private schools, money, banks, mass media, internet, books, modern musical instruments, etc.
05:49As one can see, many of these unnatural things are considered as beneficial by most people.
05:57This is because of the fact that most people are unnatural, technological.
06:01This will be clearer when we discuss the main principles that cause humans to reduce the level of organization in the rest of the system.
06:10Why can't we just get along with the nature?
06:13Further conclusions can be made from the above discussion.
06:16First, technology cannot be defined in a vacuum, but can only be defined relative to its surroundings.
06:24For this reason, a system that is considered as a technology, at one time, might not be considered as a technology, at another time, when the circumstances are different.
06:35This should be obvious if we imagine a world where evolution of mechanical robots, rather than the biological life, occurred on Earth.
06:44Those robots would not call themselves technology, they would consider themselves as just life.
06:51Another conclusion is that humans who survive by using technology can also be considered as a part, an extension of technology.
07:00A third conclusion might arise from the realization that some novel things that we normally consider as technology might actually restore the natural balance that is disturbed by other technologies by destroying them.
07:13An example to this is a hypothetical case in which this book would convince humanity to gradually reduce the use of technology, which doing so is necessary for the well-being of all biological species, including humans.
07:27As you can see, this is as likely as spotting a unicorn while scuba diving.
07:34The proportion of human-made novel things that are beneficial to nature is so low that we can practically define any novelty by humans, including ideas and cultures, as technology.
07:44When it comes to technology, due to the complexity of the situation, people tend not to have clear and consistent opinions about the effects of it.
08:01They tend to describe technology as a gray area, where some good and some bad happen, but they usually tip the balance towards technology being overall beneficial.
08:11This is because of the fact that they depend on it, hence they don't want to admit that they might be a part of a destructive force.
08:18Let me give you three examples of such contradictory behavior.
08:23They might complain about the environmental pollution, while they want to earn more money to consume more, leading to more pollution.
08:31They might wish that people in other countries earn a decent wage, while wanting to benefit from the cheap products produced by those populations.
08:39They might get angry at people who cage dogs and consume their flesh, while consuming cow, sheep, duck, turkey, chicken, pig, fish or other animals' flesh themselves.
08:51The common cause of these contradictory behaviors is the clash between their natural instincts and their cultures that are shaped by the technological civilization.
09:02People like to think that they are in control of the technological civilization, and that they are good people.
09:09When they realize that actually the technological civilization is in control of them, and that it is forcing them to do harmful things, they delude themselves, usually by addictions and denial, to cover up the reality.
09:23People who suffer from the cognitive dissonance caused by taking the values, dogmas and rules of the technological civilization too seriously can never find peace within themselves.
09:33Therefore, the path to true happiness for the modern human passes from a sense of disdain towards the technological civilization.
09:43This includes not expecting health from the medical industry, but rather trusting and correctly nurturing one's own body.
09:51We should stop seeking validation from the technological civilization, and from the people who are polluted by it.
09:58We must realize that the technological civilization doesn't just pollute rivers, but it also pollutes people's bodies and minds.
10:08Unfortunately, very few people realize this, instead, they see the technological civilization as their savior.
10:16They force themselves towards the opposite direction to comply with the technological civilization and associated cultures, and by doing so they deepen their traumas.
10:25We can list various environmental problems such as climate change, ocean acidification, deforestation, soil loss, pollution, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, etc., to conclude that technology is harming Mother Nature.
10:47Mother Nature, as some personalize her as Pachamama, in South America, or Gaia, in Greek mythology, can be considered as the victim of technology.
10:58From a moral perspective, the act of technological development is immoral because it plunders, pollutes and harms Mother Nature.
11:06This view does not convince everyone, because some people see nature as a collection of wood, rocks and water.
11:12Others argue that the technological development itself is a part of natural progress, hence Mother Nature brought this to herself, and we should trust her wisdom.
11:22Others refuse that Mother Nature can have wisdom about the future, because evolution is a blind process, and what happened in the past is not relevant to what will happen in the future.
11:33The latter can be dismissed by realizing that nature accumulates solutions over time by evolution, and she is not that blind moving forward towards the future.
11:45Materialistic view of the nature can also be easily dismissed as the nature, just like us humans, is a self-organizing entity, and not a pile of materials waiting to be exploited.
11:56What is left to examine, is that the technology, is a part of the natural progress, and there is a wisdom to it.
12:04In this view, technology is just another evolutionary risk-taking, an experiment, to further evolutionary process into new niches, an attempt for increasing diversity so to speak.
12:16And there is some truth to this view.
12:18Despite this realization, the conflict arises when some environmentalists claim, based on the current observations and projections, that technology, is causing a loss in biological diversity, and that technology, is a dead-end experiment, which will cause immense suffering and leave Mother Nature crippled for a long time.
12:38It is the updated view of someone who looks around and says, the experiment is failing, must abort.
12:45So, the question becomes, is there any legitimate reason to believe that the experiment of technology, will fail humanity, let alone failing other biological species?
12:56Sure, technology is causing the ongoing sixth mass extinction, but cannot we cherish it, and use it wiser and more intelligently to reverse the destruction, or at least make it bearable?
13:08The short answer, as we are now going to explain, is a NO.
13:13To be able to understand the fundamental problem with technology, first we need to get familiar with the concept of harmony.
13:20Evolution is a process that, over time, creates connections, organization, harmonies, less likely outcomes, low entropy states, these are all just different terms for the same thing.
13:33We can get a sense of it, when we observe a flower blooming from the mud and feel how special that is, how magical, how harmonious, how organized, how unlikely.
13:44The flower is directly or indirectly connected to the soil, the sun, the bees, the clouds, and practically everything else.
13:52The existence of the flower depends on the bees, and vice versa.
13:57They are specialized for each other.
14:00Now, imagine what would happen if the bees change so rapidly in a few hours, that they have suddenly become a novel species that cannot pollinate the flower.
14:09The flower would be extinct if it didn't have any other pollinator, as well as the morphed bees if they couldn't find any other food source.
14:18On the other hand, if the bees have changed over hundreds of thousands of years, the flower would have had sufficient time to change and adapt, keeping the harmony with the bees.
14:28Here lies our first principle to keep in mind, species, or subsystems, that change much faster than the rest sever their bonds with the rest.
14:38As the ecosystem is a highly connected web of species, the severed connections between two species can ripple within the ecosystem, disrupting the well-being of other species as well.
14:50This is a well-known phenomenon as also mentioned by others.
14:54All species are connected to others through ecological interactions.
14:58Extinctions therefore reverberate through ecosystems, as do extirpations of local populations and declines in abundance, which are widespread even in species not close to extinction.
15:11An example can be the extinction of a specialized bug that depend on the extinct flower for its survival.
15:18From this, we see that each species should evolve in a way that enables other species to catch up.
15:24If not, they would harm the ecosystem that they depend on.
15:29And this is not just true for species, but also true for lakes, rocks, soils, air, etc.
15:36If a species rapidly changes the composition of water bodies by adding or subtracting chemicals to or from it,
15:43that species, as well as other species who are adapted to living with the previous water composition, would be impacted negatively.
15:50Again, relatively rapid changes in any part of the ecosystem, living or non-living, sever the connections within that ecosystem.
16:00Humans are a species that is changing rapidly due to the technological advances.
16:06Technology is very rapidly changing the composition of our atmosphere, water, soil and populations of species at an exponential rate.
16:14There is a fundamental reason for technology behaving this way.
16:19Unlike the biological evolution, which is based on molecular reproduction, the modern technological evolution, is electronic, evolving at the rate of neurological, or electronic signals, which are much faster compared to the chemical processes involved in biological evolution.
16:35The two different modes of evolution, molecular, and electronic, existing without co-evolving, renders the biological life incompatible with the modern technology.
16:46There is an important point to be clarified.
16:49A rapidly evolving system can coexist with a slowly evolving system if and only if they have co-evolved at least from the point of evolutionary rate differentiation.
16:59Or the slowly evolving system came into existence after the rapidly evolving system.
17:03In other words, a rapidly evolving system cannot come into existence in a slowly evolving system and expect to be sustainable.
17:13An example to this phenomenon can be observed in our own bodies.
17:18It is known that the viruses can evolve much more rapidly than the biological human species, yet, humans and viruses can coexist, because they have co-evolved together from the earliest ancestors.
17:30If there were no such thing as viruses, human bodies would not feel the need to evolve immune systems against them.
17:38And if suddenly a virus would come into existence, human species wouldn't have enough time to develop immune systems against the virus, and the virus would wipe out the human species, or wipe out itself due to the high death rates of infected humans.
17:54Modern technology is similar to such a virus.
17:57Figure 1 illustrates the hypothetical process of the creation of exponentially growing problems, which in return triggers the introduction of exponentially growing false solutions, by the technological civilization.
18:10This hypothesis matches the observations in the real world, where technology, and environmental problems are growing in an exponential manner, for example, fossil fuel and energy consumption, the human population, the carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, the number of regional heatwaves per year, or the number of species extinct per year.
18:31In figure 1, initially humanity had a problem, represented by solid triangle, but humans came up with the first wave of false solutions, represented by dashed square, which led to the first wave of environmental, social, psychological and technological problems are represented by solid star, subsequently triggering further false solutions, represented by square.
18:54That started a second, bigger wave of disruption, because they caused rapid changes in the technological system, technosphere, which in turn further sever the connections, as we have discussed, eventually returning back as more problems.
19:11In fact, the technological civilization, technosphere, is itself an accumulation of such false solutions.
19:21Problems grow exponentially, both inside and outside of the technological civilization, because there is more than one path, that can be drawn from the false technological solution back to the technosphere.
19:32This way, a problem created by rapidly changing technologies, proposed as a solution, can ripple in the whole system, and return back to the technosphere from multiple places and directions.
19:46This is known as a positive feedback loop, which leads to imbalance and subsequent exponential growth.
19:52People who defend technology like to focus on the exponentially growing false solutions, such as cars, computers, satellites, vaccines, phones, nuclear energy plants, batteries, etc., while ignoring the much more rapidly growing problems, see figure 2.
20:09This exponential growth, however, cannot continue indefinitely as the unsolved problems will reach to a point that will trigger catastrophic tipping points, eventually, in the long term, leading to the collapse of the technological civilization, or the biological life, or both.
20:29Until now, as mentioned before, all these fit into our observations of the real world.
20:34But wait a minute, if you are following carefully, you might ask the question, is there a chance that a small technological intervention will not create any detectable problems?
20:46After all, there must be some stability to the ecosystem.
20:51At this point, I must admit that I didn't tell you the full story in detail for the sake of firstly describing the simpler concepts.
20:58You asked a crucial question, and the answer involves the concept of thresholds, also called tipping points.
21:06We have actually hidden the concept of thresholds in our definition of technology given in the section, defining technology, of this book within the words, to the degree that.
21:17So, without even realizing, we have already defined technology as a rapid disruption that triggers tipping points.
21:24In this aspect, we can only talk about the risk of triggering tipping points, that can create detectable magnitude of problems, by exceeding our tolerance threshold, that will initiate another false solution, response.
21:38And these thresholds range from finely structured, such as the minimum number of humans, that will lead to the opening of a new bakery, to very coarse, such as the minimum temperature anomaly, that will lead to a runaway climate change.
21:52By our new understanding, we can more accurately say that Figure 1 illustrates the hypothetical process of the risk of creating exponentially growing problems, which in return triggers the introduction of exponentially growing false solutions, by the technological civilization.
22:10Then, how do we know that we know that we are triggering various tipping points from the fact that if we haven't triggered them by our technology, we wouldn't observe exponential rapid growth in neither false solutions nor problems that we face?
22:27Our technological civilization, is full of examples of creating further problems, by the invention of novel technologies, and we can list some of them in simplified form.
22:38Invention of agriculture, invention of agriculture, leading to wars over land and invention of money and governments, invention of money leading to global trade and disintegration of local communities, that enabled further colonization, invention of internal combustion engine leading to climate change, sedentary lifestyle, and auto-transport-oriented cities.
22:57In reality, all these inventions directly, or indirectly interact with each other to worsen the problems.
23:06Is it possible, then, to find a very clever true solution that will not create further problems in the future?
23:14For this to happen, humanity must model all the interactions in nature, which is an extremely chaotic system, to a very high degree of certainty.
23:23These interactions can be extremely complex, such as the psychological decisions of animals under different circumstances, and furthermore, who is modeling the modeler.
23:35The simple fact of trying to guess one's own decisions would impact their final decision.
23:41Let me explain this with an example.
23:44Suppose that as a country you want to decide if you should go to war with the neighboring country.
23:48You hand out polls to people asking if they want to go to war or not, and collect the polls and announce the results to the whole country.
23:57The simple act of announcing the poll results might change the decision of many of the citizens.
24:04As you can see, a country trying to think out loud by itself while trying to figure out if it should go to war or not ends up in more confusion.
24:13Finding the path to technological sustainability on time by trial and error by using the past and current observations on the direction of technology, as well as the short-term projections, is an improbable task.
24:26In such a complex system as the nature, the false solutions far exceed the number of true or harmonious, sustainable, solutions.
24:34The non-linearity of the nature and delayed feedbacks also prevent us from sensing the direction towards harmony by using local observations, trapping us to dead ends, just like in a maze puzzle.
24:46To put this into perspective, it is a much more difficult task than randomly mutating human DNA, and just by chance coming up with a healthy human, most random mutations end up as cancers, or disabilities.
25:02The difficulty of finding harmonious solutions on time increases exponentially with the complexity of the system.
25:09Artificial intelligence, AI, as a subsystem of the whole, faces similar limitations.
25:15In addition to these limitations, techno-utopians who imagine that AI will be their savior that brings the balance back into their lives fail to realize the fundamental problems of technology.
25:27The direction of technology cannot be predicted or controlled.
25:33Such an AI has to be much more complex than our modern civilization, and self-learning, to be able to have a better chance of coming up with a real solution to our problems.
25:43To be able to control this AI, techno-utopians, should also be able to model its behavior.
25:51However, as we have already discussed, modeling and controlling the outcomes of a system that is more complex than oneself is improbable.
26:00Humans are not able to control the direction and outcomes of the current technological civilization, let alone a much more complex one.
26:08The false sense of improvement and security felt by the supporters of technology comes from their limited and naive view of the system that they depend on for their existence.
26:19Their view does not go beyond the false technological solutions, and, just like any addict, ignores or downplays the exponentially growing problems.
26:27Soon, we realize that the modeling approach to save us from the curse of false solutions is an improbable task to be accomplished, and a pipe dream for many people who don't want to face the reality.
26:39We cannot control each other, we covalve.
26:44Chapter 4. Connection to Animal Rights
26:47The exploitation of non-human animals by humans wouldn't exist without the technology.
26:54Let's list some of the technologies that are used in the livestock industry to rape, abuse, kidnap, exploit and murder 75 billion land animals and few trillion marine animals each year.
27:06Fences, rods, ropes, chains, trucks, boats, fishnets, buckets, pumps, sperm injectors, blades, rape racks, heated plates, walls, artificial hormones, plastic packaging, refrigerators, slaughterhouses, tractors, pesticides, gas chambers, macerators, bolt guns, money.
27:26On top of this, the brainwashing by the mass media is everywhere, from the got milk, propaganda by the dairy industry that made people falsely believe that milk is healthy and necessary for healthy bones,
27:39to the grass-fed propaganda by the meat industry that fooled people into thinking that they need to eat animal flesh to get protein, iron or omega-3 fatty acids.
27:49What they don't tell you is the weaks-old male calves being torn apart from their mothers and murdered for meat.
27:56Dairy cows also share the same fate after five or six years of being raped annually.
28:03Egg industry is not any better with their free-range propaganda, while conveniently hiding the truth about the day old male chicks macerated to death for the production of eggs.
28:14Livestock industry is also the biggest cause of biodiversity loss, and, especially in Latin America, deforestation.
28:21It is also the second biggest cause of climate change, and a major driver of water pollution, ocean-dead zones, freshwater consumption, antibiotic-resistant microbes and zoonotic diseases.
28:35As if all these are not enough, on average, animal products are about ten times less efficient than plant-based foods.
28:43That's why they need massive subsidies, around 20% of the EU budget is spent on subsidizing the livestock industry to stay relevant and cover disproportionately more land compared to plant foods.
28:57The medical industry is closely connected with these food industries as they make huge profits by selling medications and surgeries to lessen the symptoms of not-to-treat the diseases of lifestyle.
29:09The medical industry, just like any other section of the technological civilization, is focused on maintaining and maximizing itself more than anything else.
29:20The same maximization tendency also explains the irrational behavior of expanding the livestock industry despite its incredible inefficiency.
29:30This, once again, proves that the technological civilization, as a system out of harmony with the rest, will follow the path that will maximize the exploitation of the rest.
29:42Indeed, almost all the social progresses occur if and only if they are beneficial for the technological progress.
29:49Generally speaking, most people are easily fooled, guided and forced by the values of the technological system rather than critical thinking and empathy.
29:58They are also very vulnerable to manipulation and addictions, such as addiction to animal products, due to their traumas inflicted by the unnatural living under the technological civilization, and exploitation, and distortion of their natural tendencies by it.
30:15Alienation from the animals and the nature, who we interact, is another outcome of the technological civilization.
30:22Hence, the progress in animal rights mostly depends on its usefulness in sustaining and spreading the technological progress.
30:31This usefulness might come from the scarcity of land or water for food production, developments in highly processed plant-based alternatives, etc.
30:40Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population, who already sincerely despise exploitation, and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature, and less anthropocentric.
30:56I am saying, sincerely despise exploitation, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do good deeds to gain social status.
31:10These people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation, but never admit it to themselves or others.
31:16They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others.
31:29We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose-type competition-based interactions, such as the modern economic, political and education systems, between humans taking over.
31:45Lose-lose-lose and win-lose-type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems, e.g. technology versus nature, as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long term.
31:59For this reason, most people exhibit relative morality. They do good to look good, to be accepted into the society.
32:07Usually, these people also tend to highly value traditions, and consider relating to respected organizations and groups.
32:15E.g. nationalism, sports team fanaticism, political parties, brand name worshipping, internalizing the company values and climbing the career ladder, etc.
32:25And the rules of the society as their top priority.
32:28As they lack absolute morality, they are full of contradictions and hypocrisies.
32:33They never go vegan if the majority of the society is not vegan.
32:37They might temporarily say that they are vegan, but they stop being vegan, when they realize that it doesn't bring them the desired attention and acceptance.
32:47In the modern world, they might value hierarchies, materialism and superficiality, and be obsessed with socialization and power if they perceive these as a means to be accepted.
32:58Their values come from a place of fear, hence they usually never find peace.
33:05They tend to have chronic anger, suppressed or expressed, and confusion.
33:10These people are at high risk of addictions.
33:13As their focus on fear comes from past traumas, healing their traumas, currently the most crucial and difficult task for humanity,
33:22can make them move towards having absolute morality, implying a transition period.
33:27However, probably, the dynamics of this transition exhibits a tipping point behavior.
33:34Very few people exhibit absolute morality, very few people do good to do good.
33:40People with absolute morality mostly have their fears in check, and can adopt compassion and empathy as their primary drivers and values.
33:50Combined with self-discipline, these people usually go vegan, against animal exploitation.
33:55As they derive meaning and sense of belonging from their compassion as their main focus, they can find peace.
34:03They are usually very honest, straightforward and they are not interested in playing mind tricks.
34:10They are more open to forgiving and more open-minded in their worldviews.
34:14They are less likely to be interested in social structures and rules, as they primarily follow their internal moral compass.
34:23We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent,
34:28the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so.
34:33Such a world, if informed enough, as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress.
34:39Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary,
34:47or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves.
34:53But exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization.
34:57I can hear some of you saying, but consuming animal products is natural.
35:04There is nothing natural about using technology, as defined earlier, to enable domestication, guns, arrows, fishnets, trapping, artificial insemination,
35:14stealing babies and drinking milk from another species, especially as an adult.
35:19One would expect that people would have a better excuse for eating things, or I should correctly say beings, that are their leading cause of death.
35:28If consuming animal products was so natural for humans, who are indeed a great ape species along with practically herbivorous bonobos,
35:37chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas, it wouldn't be the number one cause of their death.
35:42But, we now know that this is indeed an addiction perpetuated by the technological civilization.
35:49There are also people who argue that wildlife lives in constant agony, running away from predators all the time until their miserable death by disease or predators, hence wildlife is not harmonious.
36:02These people confuse harmony with perfection.
36:06Also they confuse longevity, as a simple metric, with the fulfillment from life.
36:11But even with their own metrics, wildlife still seems to be a reasonable choice.
36:17A study published in 2016 found out that the baseline mortality was lower in zoos for about 62% of the 59 mammalian species compared to wildlife.
36:29In the same study, the longevity of the species with a slower pace of life, i.e. a long lifespan, low reproduction rate and low mortality in the wild,
36:39was not drastically different between wildlife and zoos.
36:43Baseline mortality, defined as annual mortality observed at the age corresponding to the onset of senescence,
36:50was higher at zoos for most primates, and about half of the even-toed ungulates,
36:54hoofed animals such as hippopotamuses, antelopes, deer, giraffes, cattle, etc.
36:59Considering the extent of human impact on the wild mammal populations,
37:05the mortalities in the wild would probably be even lower than the figures reported in the study.
37:10Wildlife documentaries reflect a skewed view of wildlife by showing shocking moments,
37:16such as a chase or an attack, more often to gain viewers' attention, which creates a negative perception of nature.
37:23Another factor to consider is that without the wild predators eliminating the sick,
37:28the fitness of the wild animals would deteriorate.
37:32This is the yin and yang principle.
37:35In fact, in a world without predators,
37:38animals wouldn't feel the need to develop a central nervous system
37:41that was evolved to run away from predators, or to chase prey.
37:46Without prey-predator interaction, there would be plant-like animals,
37:49only moving fast enough to get to the next plant
37:52before they fully digest their food that they got from the previous plant.
37:57They would be even slower than snails as snails still need to react fast enough
38:02to be able to hide in their shells.
38:05Wildlife, despite all the difficulties and imperfections,
38:08most of the time enjoys life in harmony with the rest.
38:12Wildlife is the best we have,
38:14the alternative is the destruction of life,
38:17exponentially growing problems,
38:19disintegration of connections,
38:21enslavement and isolation.
38:23We don't have a sustainable alternative to wildlife.
38:27Given the choice,
38:29I would prefer to be living in the wild rather than a zoo.
38:33Chapter 5.
38:35Connection to Human Rights
38:36Just like the exploitation of non-human animals,
38:42exploitation of humans skyrocketed by the development of technologies,
38:47technologies not just enabled these exploitations but necessitated them.
38:53Slavery and militarization paralleled the technological growth,
38:57and it is still continuing today in more and more subtle ways.
39:02Alienation from the humans,
39:04who we directly or indirectly interact,
39:07is another outcome of the technological civilization.
39:10The invention of steam engine and other technologies triggered the rapid industrialization,
39:17and the need for manual workers to collect the resources to feed the hungry industrial machine.
39:23At first,
39:24these human slaves were forbidden from learning how to read and write so they could be controlled easier.
39:29As the technological civilization required more and more technical knowledge
39:35that can be found in books,
39:37slavery had to evolve into its modern form.
39:40They mandated that children must go to school at an early age,
39:44and practically groomed to be the obedient parts of the technological machine.
39:48Slaves were no more enslaved by chains,
39:52but by the economic system and the modern culture shaped by the mass education and mass media.
39:58The technological system successfully made people adopt the values of it
40:02and cherish these values as the highest level of progress without much scrutiny.
40:07Despite the technological system requiring more and more divergence away from the natural ways of living,
40:13and disintegrated communities making enslavement easier,
40:17supporters of the technological civilization argue that automation will free us all and end slavery forever.
40:24When they are rightfully pointed out to the fact that globally the work hours are not decreasing,
40:29they blame the governments,
40:31the economic system,
40:32or the capitalist system,
40:34etc.
40:35without realizing that these entities are also an essential part of the technological system that they are celebrating.
40:41Governments,
40:42the economic system,
40:43or the capitalist system were indeed selected by the technological civilization,
40:48because these systems were the ones which could expand it the fastest.
40:53And why does the technological civilization need expansion?
40:58Remember figure 2 from the section,
41:00what is so bad about it and why?
41:03The technological civilization needs expansion,
41:06because of the exponentially growing problems that it creates.
41:09If it stopped growing by ceasing the introduction of short-term,
41:14false solutions,
41:15the tensions created by it would became unbearable to most people.
41:19That's the fundamental reason behind the unlikeliness of having a stable economy,
41:24or a stable technological civilization,
41:27the exponential growth,
41:28is baked into it.
41:29This explains the fundamental principle behind the well-known,
41:34rebound effect,
41:35or,
41:36Jevon's paradox,
41:37in which increase in efficiency leads to further growth rather than stability.
41:42With this exponential growth,
41:44comes the unsteady and ever more complicated life of the poor,
41:48clueless,
41:48modern slave.
41:49Similarly,
41:51human population numbers are also determined by the technological civilization,
41:56in favor of the technological civilization.
41:59That's the reason why programs that try to reduce birth rates,
42:03such as the one-child policy in China,
42:06all fail,
42:07the system requires a certain amount of people to optimize its functioning.
42:11And not just the number of people,
42:13but also their behavior must be controlled in favor of the technological civilization.
42:19The technological civilization has convinced most people that the mobile phones,
42:24airplanes,
42:25cars,
42:26fridges and all the other gadgets are for their own good,
42:29that they are richer than the old kings.
42:32It is time to see it the other way around.
42:35What is so good about being dependent on material possessions to be happy and healthy?
42:40When we lived in pristine nature in our natural habitat,
42:43we were much richer
42:44than any human
42:46who ever lived under the technological civilization.
42:49We were like the gorillas in the wild,
42:52fulfilling all our basic and natural needs,
42:54and we have been reduced to gorillas in a circus,
42:57while being brainwashed into thinking that the scheduled meals,
43:00medical care,
43:01forced education and toys makes us richer than those in the wild.
43:06Let's end this section with a very fitting quote.
43:09None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
43:13Johann Wolfgang von Gertie
43:16Chapter 6, Parallels with Addiction
43:21Gain in the short term at the expense of well-being in the long term
43:27is the widely accepted definition of addiction.
43:31Drug addicts, including cigarette smokers and alcoholics,
43:35lose their health in the long term for the short-term pleasure of stress relief.
43:39Even the seemingly harmless behaviors,
43:41such as studying, cleaning, sex, using internet, watching TV, socializing, eating, going out, etc.
43:51turn into addictions.
43:52If only people could solve the root cause of their stress and feeling of emptiness,
43:57they wouldn't be making such bad decisions.
44:01Instead, they choose to adopt false solutions that, in the long term, create more problems.
44:06So, where do their stresses come from?
44:10They come from the previous false solutions of others, leading to the technological civilization.
44:16From the traffic, disintegration of communities, lack of access to nature,
44:21fear of future in a rapidly changing and disintegrating society,
44:25an environment, individualistic and competition-based education system,
44:30sense of lack of control, mass media, to job stress.
44:34Almost everything in the modern world create traumas in the human species that was designed to live in nature,
44:39not in a modern technological setting.
44:42Technology is indeed a destructive vicious cycle, an addiction.
44:47People with absolute morality are good at blocking the traumas and disturbances
44:51coming from the technological civilization,
44:54because they do not rely on societal structures for their internal balance.
44:59They don't grab on unhealthy connections,
45:02such as consuming animal products,
45:04smoking, drinking alcohol,
45:07toxic relationships,
45:08consumerism, etc.,
45:10and they are very aware of the contrast of these unhealthy behaviors with their internal peace.
45:15Their roots are deep in the balance of Mother Nature.
45:18As long as their basic needs are met,
45:20these people are happy and satisfied with what nature gave them.
45:24People with relative morality cannot understand them,
45:28because they cannot imagine themselves managing their unrest and finding peace.
45:33We must be wise enough to give up our addictions,
45:36including our addiction to technology,
45:38for our own and our family's well-being.
45:41Our family includes our distant cousins,
45:44all the other species that are here with us on Earth.
45:47If not, in the light of the previous chapters,
45:50with a human population facing ever-growing problems and traumas,
45:54we can only expect an increase in the cases and severity of addictions and subsequent destruction.
46:01The sadder part is that while the humanity is not healing itself from its addictions,
46:06the wildlife will keep suffering from the heavy second-hand smoking.
46:10If you kept reading until now,
46:21it is likely that you have the courage to face the truth and agree with many points that I have raised.
46:26Now, the next step is to discuss the possible outcomes of the technological civilization
46:32with the ideas we have previously expressed.
46:35Let's start by realizing that the technological civilization
46:39is not compatible with the biological life.
46:43Furthermore, most humans,
46:45especially with the current population numbers and consumption levels
46:48that far exceeded the carrying capacity of Earth,
46:51are dependent on technology,
46:53and likely that they will not have the awareness,
46:55the will and the courage to gradually give up on technology
46:57and face the short-term consequences for the long-term gain.
47:01A gradual reduction in technology is only possible
47:04when the majority of people agree with such a policy,
47:07with great understanding, compassion, integrity,
47:11self-discipline and sacrifice in the short-term.
47:14These are the qualities of the wise sages.
47:17For this to happen,
47:18there must be an evolved and widely adopted mechanism
47:21within the human population towards acceptance
47:24and sharing of the truth,
47:26no matter how harsh it might be.
47:28And, this mechanism must also be stable enough
47:32within the current and upcoming technological disturbances.
47:36At first glance,
47:38the discipline of science seems to be a good fit for this purpose.
47:41However,
47:42it is currently mostly funded and controlled by the technological machine,
47:46and this will not change.
47:48Hence,
47:49when it comes to its focus,
47:51modern science is not as objective as some people like to think.
47:54Scientists are also prone to having delusions and biases.
48:00And,
48:00modern science is not even in most people's radar,
48:04hence not a usual direct medium for dissemination of wisdom to the masses.
48:08It is rather a source of information,
48:11to be carefully filtered to the masses
48:13through a mass media filter that favors the technological civilization.
48:18Modern science's main goal is not to seek for wisdom,
48:21but to come up with false solutions.
48:23In general,
48:25if we know one thing about people's organized behavior,
48:28they are very prone to delusions
48:30and they often sacrifice the truth and harmony for short-term emotional relief.
48:35They are far from exhibiting the behaviors of sages.
48:38As we have discussed,
48:39under the disturbance of the technological civilization,
48:43most people are motivated by fear and addictions more than anything else.
48:47I am yet to see such a preserved natural mechanism
48:50that might convince the majority of people to be rational under emotional distress
48:55caused by the technological civilization.
48:58If it existed,
49:00it would manifest itself by now.
49:02We cannot expect most people,
49:04especially people with relative morality,
49:07having healthy natural responses,
49:09such as acting sane and harmonious,
49:12under unnatural settings,
49:13especially if they are strongly connected to the technological civilization
49:17and associated cultures.
49:20If the majority of people do not agree with the gradual reduction in technology,
49:25the ones who favor reduction in technology
49:27have to compete with the rest to take control
49:30and stay in control
49:31in a constant technological arms race.
49:34This, of course, creates a contradiction,
49:38hence, this scenario is not possible.
49:41People who are against technology
49:43would have more chances of being successful
49:45if they have organized sabotages
49:47against the technological system
49:49rather than trying to control the direction
49:51of its evolution.
49:53Disclaimer.
49:55The author does not support any violence
49:57in any form for ideological purposes.
50:00The conclusions drawn are merely the logical extensions
50:03of the previous ideas
50:04that have been discussed objectively
50:06and for educational purposes only.
50:09The technological system is more prone to collapse
50:13than most people think.
50:14Due to the highly connected nature
50:16of the global technological system,
50:18its desperate need for growth
50:20and the exponentially growing problems
50:21that it is causing.
50:23Finally, as the most likely outcome,
50:26the technological civilization
50:28can keep growing relatively undisturbed by humans
50:31until the technological system,
50:33or the ecosystem,
50:34or both, collapses.
50:36At this point,
50:38people who defend technology
50:39might assume
50:40that it will be a superior life form
50:42to biological life,
50:44hence it is worth pursuing
50:45the path of technology.
50:47There are three main reasons
50:48for this perceived superiority.
50:50First,
50:51the ability of technology to change,
50:54hence adapt,
50:55quicker than the biological life
50:57when there is no limitation of energy.
50:59Second,
51:00the exponential rapid growth of technology
51:03implying a so-called singularity
51:05in the near future
51:06with a godlike,
51:08unifying runaway intelligence.
51:10And third,
51:11the perceived potential ability
51:13of technology to survive on other planets,
51:16hence a path towards the colonization
51:18of the universe by life.
51:20The first point can be dismissed
51:22by realizing
51:23that the adaptation ability
51:24not just depend on the processing power,
51:27which implies an ability
51:28to change faster,
51:30but also the efficiency
51:31of the processor,
51:32and the limited nature
51:33of the available energy.
51:35It is known that today
51:36the human brain
51:37is much more energy efficient
51:39in processing data
51:40than the modern computers.
51:42When we realize
51:43that the modern technology
51:44often relies on highly inefficient
51:46thermal processes
51:47for its production,
51:49the situation gets even worse.
51:51In fact,
51:52without relying on the stored energy
51:54from the sun,
51:55fossil fuels
51:56as stored solar energy,
51:57the technological civilization
51:59would not be able
52:00to develop this rapidly,
52:02and the reliance of technology
52:03on stored solar energy
52:05is unsustainable,
52:07only giving it
52:07a relatively short burst of expansion
52:09and a temporary upper hand
52:11against the biological life.
52:13When the energy input is constant,
52:15such as from the sun,
52:17the complexity of the balanced state
52:19depends on the efficiency
52:20of the processes
52:21rather than the processing rates
52:22when the energy availability
52:24is not an issue.
52:26Hence,
52:26although a technological life
52:28might evolve
52:29and reach to an equilibrium state
52:30much faster
52:31than the biological life,
52:33the complexity and harmony,
52:35hence the beauty,
52:36of the attained state
52:37would not necessarily be superior
52:39to the biological life
52:40we have today.
52:42The second point
52:43can be dismissed
52:43by realizing
52:44that the exponential growth
52:46in technology
52:47is caused by the disturbance
52:48to the natural balance
52:50and is destroying
52:51much more
52:52than it is building.
52:53With this in mind,
52:55and by considering
52:56the energy efficiency
52:57and availability argument
52:58given in the previous paragraph,
53:01it is obvious
53:01that singularity
53:03is just a pipe dream
53:04and not a realistic outcome.
53:07The third point
53:08can also be dismissed
53:09by realizing
53:10that technological life
53:11would not have
53:12a better chance
53:13of surviving
53:14in alien environments
53:15to the environment
53:16it evolved in.
53:18Just like the biological life,
53:19technological life forms
53:21following an evolutionary path
53:23would require
53:24the existence
53:25of the circumstances
53:26such as a given
53:27chemical composition,
53:29temperature range,
53:30etc.
53:31to be able to survive.
53:33Hence,
53:34as they would evolve
53:35on Earth,
53:36they would be adapted
53:36to Earth,
53:37the fittest who can fit
53:39to the Earth
53:39would survive
53:40and the rest
53:40will go extinct.
53:42And the more complex
53:43the technological life
53:44becomes,
53:45the more fine-tuned
53:46it will become,
53:47making it ever more difficult
53:49to survive
53:50on other alien environments.
53:52Hence,
53:53given enough time
53:54and considering
53:55the energy efficiency argument
53:57as a limiting factor
53:58as well,
53:59there is no reason
54:00to believe
54:00that technological life
54:02would have a better chance
54:03of colonizing other planets
54:05than the biological life would.
54:07Figure 3 presents
54:08an algorithm
54:09describing the possible outcomes
54:11of the technological civilization.
54:13I hope that people
54:15will evaluate
54:15their lifestyles,
54:17habits and values
54:18in the light of this book.
54:21Until then,
54:22people who are aware
54:23of these issues
54:24will keep feeling
54:25like babysitting humanity.
54:27Now,
54:28time to live in harmony
54:29as nature intended.
54:30is a Christmas
54:34and July
54:35is a process
54:35of being
54:36a movement
54:36in the middle
54:36of this book.
54:36Are you
54:36looking at
54:36the packing
54:37of the fingers
54:38and the origin
54:39of the little
54:39one of the big things
54:39that is
54:41going to be
54:41all over?
54:48Or is this
54:48going to be
54:49the same
54:50way?
54:50Or is this
54:51going to be
54:51the same
54:52way?
54:53Is this
54:54going to be
54:54the same
54:55way?
54:55Or is this
54:55going to be
54:56the same
54:56way?
54:57Or is this
54:58going to be
54:59the same
54:59way?
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