Chapter 5 - Renaissance 2.0: More Than a Vision of the Future (3)

I am Nemesus, and I know I promised you a cheerful conclusion to the video series. So, let's move on to the final sections. In them, you will find out why I initially described my mood as cheerful and how we can together overcome clouds to turn towards the stars.

Abstractly considered, my vision is based on a series of insights from current science and technology. It was particularly influenced by fragments of knowledge from psychology, systems theory, and game theory.

The reason why I started this video series thematically with childlike impulses is that, as children, we still have a direction or orientation that is more shaped by our nature than by our culture. This is reflected in the fairy tale 'The Emperor's New Clothes': The adults are deceived. However, a child exposes the deception because it is less blinded by cultural patterns.

For children's development, reference persons are crucial. And, of course, this also applies to adults. The latter just tend to 'forget' this fact in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. In the previous chapters, we talked about the high susceptibility of children to imprinting. In fact, I attribute some of my early childhood experiences to the reason why I never forgot certain things.

Anyway, an important element of my vision is the understanding that a certain level of tension between people who understand each other well can stimulate creativity. If you've been paying attention, you will remember what I said about cultures. The reason for the similarity in my statements lies in the fractal structure of the world. The internet, a group of friends, social networks, companies, our brain - they are all dynamic, complex systems. Culture reflects the pattern of our collective intelligence, just as your value systems and attitudes represent the pattern of your individual intelligence, even if they have been externally influenced.

One could say that every individual can be considered a unique culture embedded within larger cultures. On these different levels of networks, whether they are cultural communities or areas of our brain, similar mechanisms can be found. This becomes especially clear when we take a closer look at the structure of our brain. Let's consider three key areas of the brain: the cortex, the limbic system, and the ascending reticular activating system, or ARAS. When these areas work well together, our potential for creativity expands significantly.

Imagine three friends meeting to discuss a topic. One takes on the role of the Creator, the second the role of the Broker, and the third the role of the Owner. The Owner has the most profound knowledge about the subject in our small group, while the Broker has contacts who could contribute more relevant knowledge and or additional resources if needed. The friend in the role of the Creator knows less than our Owner but is incredibly quick at forming new patterns. When the Owner and Creator exchange ideas, we get a pool of ideas and approaches to solutions. In the brain, this function is represented by the Cortex. When the Owner and Broker interact, you get evaluations, a function taken over by the limbic system in the brain. And when the Broker and Creator communicate, we get arousal, for which in our brain the reticular formation, the ascending reticular activating system, or ARAS, is responsible.

In conventional social networks, ARAS can best be compared to likes, dislikes, and what used to be called retweets. The limbic system represents the emotionally charged part of posts, while the Cortex is associated with the intellectual content of these posts. However, in my opinion, discussions in conventional social media are too rarely harmonious and fruitful. - Friends would be the better choice. - By the way, people do indeed have personal preferences regarding the role in which they feel most comfortable. However, this should not prevent you from occasionally stepping into other roles.

And other roles are also conceivable. For example, a specialized type of Broker could take on a function similar to that of neutrons in atoms. - Just as neutrons hold together the uniformly positive protons, these people could have a harmonizing effect and prevent a group of people from getting so agitated that they, like in a resonance catastrophe, break apart.

As already hinted, systems theory can also be applied to the individual. Have you ever felt misunderstood? The only people who can truly understand you are those who are at least as complex as you are. And regardless of whether you want to overcome personal or societal challenges: Your endeavor will only succeed if your own complexity is at least as great as the problems you want to solve.

The good news is, complexity can be increased. For example, by meeting with friends who are dynamic enough to step into the roles I just described as needed. And even if you don't currently have access to such friends, you can increase your complexity during this time. I believe that we are in the most exciting epoch humanity has ever experienced.

Several hundred thousand years ago, we moved away from swarm intelligence and developed individual intelligence. With the emergence of cultures, we at least partially made the transition or pattern shift from individual to collective intelligence. A current problem of the Internet, which actually makes spatial distances irrelevant and provides us with sufficient diversity, is that it can only bring us together in a limited way. Unlike human systems, the Web 2.0 lacks systemic evaluation. On the other hand, the flood of data has now become too large to be managed by humans alone.

The enormous capabilities of AI in managing and analyzing vast amounts of data are indisputable. Precisely for this reason, AI could help us create a new type of social network based on the principles of systems theory. Imagine, for a while, we refrain from sharing our posts publicly and turn away from the endless discussions and trench warfare on the internet. Instead, we could show our posts to AI. It could then look for unconscious and conscious value patterns without publishing them. Based on our value patterns and the patterns of other people, AI could then suggest individuals with whom interaction opens up the greatest potential spaces for creativity.

This novel network would be supra-summatively intelligent and more aligned with human nature. Unlike groups of three, we would work in and with clusters of people chosen globally, not just locally. These clusters would comprise between 162 and 252 people and be connected through individual relationships of members with people from other clusters. The AI would also consider personal preferences, thus ensuring that Creators, Brokers, and Owners are brought together. Thus, every individual would be at the center of their own cluster, benefiting from both individual and collective intelligence. The consequences would be more time, personal growth, and an unparalleled increase in creativity and vitality.

Another central advantage of such a network is the ability to identify value patterns early on. Such patterns can be the harbingers of changes that manifest years later in people's attitudes and eventually in their behavior. This means that with such a tool, we can not only work more efficiently in the here and now, but also recognize potential future challenges or opportunities for innovation well in advance.

The recognition advantage would provide us with significant benefits, both in problem-solving and in the resulting innovation itself. The network would serve as a powerful and, above all, time-saving tool to tackle all pressing human challenges, beyond all language barriers. Incidentally, it could also help us experience relationships in a depth previously unknown and collectively expand our consciousness. It would probably also be incredibly fun to interact at the center of a subnet tailored to oneself. - And who knows, through the harmonious combination of human and artificial intelligence, we might even find the key to the beginning of a new Renaissance.

I am Nemesus, and I don't believe in politics, social norms, or corporations. In fact, I tend to trust individuals more than the masses. You might wonder why I hold this view. Politics seems sluggish and incompetent to me, many social norms appear unnecessarily restrictive and too arbitrary, and corporations will only bring forth real innovations when they have no other choice because their previous capital accumulation strategies would be affected. I would not be surprised if they kept patents in their drawers to make money with their old achievements, even if humanity could greatly benefit from their new innovations.

And as for the masses of humanity: In 2014, a study was conducted where participants were asked to spend five to fifteen minutes in a room, reflecting on themselves. In case they got bored, a device was available that could administer electric shocks. Previously, all participants had found this shock unpleasant. Yet, 50% of the test subjects chose to administer more electric shocks to themselves during the reflection time. It seems that physical pain was easier for these people to bear than introspection.

For people like me, who far prefer self-reflection to physical pain, I have an audacious desire to create a social network that truly deserves the label 'social'. - The prospect of an environment where people can actually apply the insights they gain in a timely manner is simply too enticing. Of course, such a project requires dedicated individuals who want to walk this path with me. I am aware that these people need to be adequately compensated to fully focus on their tasks.