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Was watching M Night Shyamalan’s latest flick the other night. Though the movie itself was nothing to write to my momma (or on this blog) about – there was a very rare and interesting insight which crept up to me like a komodo dragon about to change drasctically the life of an unsuspecting rodent.
Evolution is not an isolated incident.
It requires not just one life to catch signals of change and adapt…it requires a collective of conscious beings (things with “life”) to communicate and bring about collective metamorphosis. In “The Happening” it was plants in nature detecting humans as a threat and releasing toxin carriers in the air – which would turn hordes of people suicidal. (There. I just saved you 500 bucks.) But really the interesting bit there was that the plants “communicated” to fight for their survival. They worked together to carry forward the interminable juggernaut of evolution.
So much for the glory of the individual – on which the current generation of humans places so much importance. Wrapped up in our cosy comforters – we think we are invincible or worse that we can change the world. Right…and the next thing you know you are stabbing yourself in the neck with a hairpin in the middle of Philadelphia. (Now you really do not need to see the movie…) Ah…but before I become the designated hitter of humans – let me also concede that we have a way to operate as a collective consciousness. Before you think I am gonna say “Facebook” – let me tell you that you are right. See? We already agreed without talking about it!
Seriously…it is much beyond just Facebook – it is all those little marvels of technology which build social networks today and enable me to talk Kinochi Hibodori about his new Hayabusa. (I don’t know who the hell he is – but if he did exist, you can be sure I could talk to him using some social networking tool or the other.) Soon there will be a time when we not only use these tools at a conscious level – but they will become extensions of our consciousness – like the tentacles of a jellyfish. So if there is a distant threat to catch – and the signals are too weak for the BBC or Aaj Tak – one day maybe a part of your subconscious might actually catch these from a random conversation. Similarly millions of minds around the world will recognize the same signals – and sub-patterns will start to emerge through conversations and blogs and rants like this one. Sub-patterns will merge, replicate and transform into discernible micro-events. Micro-Events will lead to subliminal realization – and realization will drive people to behave in a different way or change certain things. And all this can – theoretically – happen within hours.
And you would have evolved without even realizing it. Ever wondered why the rate of change in the world in the past 10 years exceeded the previous 20, which exceeded the previous 100, which exceeded the previous 15000? This is why. Unfortunately nature does not evolve or react so fast. It evolves very slowly, unrecognized by humans, marked by seemingly isolated incidents like a species of turtles which disappears off the coast of New Guinea. Major changes in nature happen once in a millenia or even more… following the principle of the “Tipping Point”. One day – “Bang!” – Manhattan will be under water. For real…not in a Hollywood set.
So what do we do? We think on behalf of nature I guess…we co-evolve with it. There is only so much that we can control in nature – but we can influence factors which will provide the necessary “right” signals to the living beings around us – and maybe they won’t find the need to panic and perhaps major disaster can be averted. We have the technology and bandwidth today to talk as a Global collective – and catch these signals of change. Maybe one day we will know how to really use it.
(Thank you Mr. Shyamalan – you made me think a bit…;))
