The two slides about the noosphere — “Noosphere or Habitus?” and “Example: ‘Automotive Cosmopolis’” — lack accuracy. The risk of using definitions from ChatGPT?
Instead of making it look like Teilhard and Vernadsky had rival definitions. the first slide would improve if it provided a core definition of the noosphere. Then show that T’s view was more spiritual, V’s more materialist. The second slide overdraws too.
Plus, I’d suggest a point is being missed: Nation-states, metropolises, and cosmopolises all have (and depend on having) a noosphere to some degree. But the future-oriented cosmopolis concept requires the development of a bigger better noosphere. And by bigger better, I mean across all its layers (ideational, technological, organizational, social) and their respective protocols.
I sense you could do a lot more with the noosphere concept, and that it can serve your interests as much if not more than the habitus concept. After all, as Teilhard, Vernadsky, and LeRoy forecast a century ago, a fully-linked noosphere is just beginning to emerge as a third layer atop our planet’s geosphere (first to evolve) and biosphere (second to evolve).
Anyway, glad to see you working on such matters. Onward.
Yeah the whole noosphere connection was a last minute addition based on a comment someone posted on my essay. I was aware of that set of ideas vaguely, but hadn’t made the connection myself until the last minute, hence the chatgpt stub slides :D
You’re probably right that there’s a lot more worthwhile stuff to mine there
“An articulation of civilizational memory so rich, deep, and alive, it constitutes something like a planetary awakening, not merely into a new consciousness, but a new memory of itself.” Reminds me of Teilhard de Chardin’s noosphere.
Kind of surprised that diasporas aren't considered cosmopolises but things like frequent-flyer programs are. I've plugged this book before (10 years ago on Ribbonfarm and maybe elsewhere), but it was revelatory to me about the nature of cosmpolitianism: *The Jewish Century* by Yuri Slezkine https://hyperphor.com/ammdi/The-Jewish-Century
The basics:The world is divided into Apollonians (soil) and Mercurians (urban cosmopolitans);
diaspora Jews are a paradigmatic case of Mercurians; the modern world involves *everybody becoming Jewish* (or Mercurian). That is, nobody really is blood-and-soil any more, we are all forced into being cosmopolites. This breeds anti-semitism since Jews have had more practice at it.
There's a very interesting section on how its a very common cultural pattern for a settled agricultural community to have. a caste of outsiders from some diaspora who perform necessary but taboo functions (moneylending, magic, sometimes blacksmithing).
Not sure exactly how it fits into your present model. You seem to focus more on technology than on ethnicity and other traditional cultural groupings. But they go together (it was Jewish literacy rates well above that of the host population that made their role possible)
The two slides about the noosphere — “Noosphere or Habitus?” and “Example: ‘Automotive Cosmopolis’” — lack accuracy. The risk of using definitions from ChatGPT?
Instead of making it look like Teilhard and Vernadsky had rival definitions. the first slide would improve if it provided a core definition of the noosphere. Then show that T’s view was more spiritual, V’s more materialist. The second slide overdraws too.
Plus, I’d suggest a point is being missed: Nation-states, metropolises, and cosmopolises all have (and depend on having) a noosphere to some degree. But the future-oriented cosmopolis concept requires the development of a bigger better noosphere. And by bigger better, I mean across all its layers (ideational, technological, organizational, social) and their respective protocols.
I sense you could do a lot more with the noosphere concept, and that it can serve your interests as much if not more than the habitus concept. After all, as Teilhard, Vernadsky, and LeRoy forecast a century ago, a fully-linked noosphere is just beginning to emerge as a third layer atop our planet’s geosphere (first to evolve) and biosphere (second to evolve).
Anyway, glad to see you working on such matters. Onward.
Yeah the whole noosphere connection was a last minute addition based on a comment someone posted on my essay. I was aware of that set of ideas vaguely, but hadn’t made the connection myself until the last minute, hence the chatgpt stub slides :D
You’re probably right that there’s a lot more worthwhile stuff to mine there
“An articulation of civilizational memory so rich, deep, and alive, it constitutes something like a planetary awakening, not merely into a new consciousness, but a new memory of itself.” Reminds me of Teilhard de Chardin’s noosphere.
Thanks for this connection — ended up adding a slide about it in the talk
super cool! thanks for letting me know :)
Now whenever Hari Seldon makes an appearance in 'Foundation', I'm going to think of you.
Kind of surprised that diasporas aren't considered cosmopolises but things like frequent-flyer programs are. I've plugged this book before (10 years ago on Ribbonfarm and maybe elsewhere), but it was revelatory to me about the nature of cosmpolitianism: *The Jewish Century* by Yuri Slezkine https://hyperphor.com/ammdi/The-Jewish-Century
The basics:The world is divided into Apollonians (soil) and Mercurians (urban cosmopolitans);
diaspora Jews are a paradigmatic case of Mercurians; the modern world involves *everybody becoming Jewish* (or Mercurian). That is, nobody really is blood-and-soil any more, we are all forced into being cosmopolites. This breeds anti-semitism since Jews have had more practice at it.
There's a very interesting section on how its a very common cultural pattern for a settled agricultural community to have. a caste of outsiders from some diaspora who perform necessary but taboo functions (moneylending, magic, sometimes blacksmithing).
Not sure exactly how it fits into your present model. You seem to focus more on technology than on ethnicity and other traditional cultural groupings. But they go together (it was Jewish literacy rates well above that of the host population that made their role possible)