Content

OVERVIEW

It is necessary for me to say a few words about the nature of the content that you can expect on this blog so that you can understand why many of my posts are abstract and philosophical and yet I have am providing links to various organizations. Read the following to understand where all of this is going…

It is the nature of the issues that I am interested in writing about that they are complex and therefore there is no simple way to address them. Therefore, a lot of the content that you will find on this blog is conceptual/philosophical in nature. If you are going to benefit in any way from this blog, you will have to think and reflect on the ideas that I put forth.

My objective is, over time, to advance a Theory about Modernity, that will provide people with a certain amount of optimism about the future. This theory of modernity will be integrated into a larger corpus entitled: Fixing the World: a methodology for social change in a networked world, which will hopefully tie everything together.

 

You will be glad to hear, however, that the content on this site will NOT be completely abstract. My purpose for creating this blog is not to simply advance arguments, but to stimulate dialogue and action. As a result, I am also greatly interested in what is happening in the real world and therefore, will be posting on:

• Specific developments with the projects that I am involved in; Radical Inclusion and OpenKollab, at the moment.
• Online communities, companies, not-profit organizations etc. that are operating at the intersection of technology and social change.
• Next Generation Processes that ways of doing things that are unique to the world today and, at least in part, reflect changes in the technological infrastructure to make this processes possible;
• Next Generation Technologies that can be a part of the larger vision of changing the nature of Space in a manner that will make Massive Social Change (MSC!!) possible.
• Research that illuminates the point of intersection between the evolution of technology and the possibility of Massive Social Change (MSC!!).
• Next Generation Companies: I will highlight companies (or other groups) that, even though they may not be operating in the social change space, are examples of the sorts of technologies or processes that represent new ways of doing things.
• The Evolution of the Social Venture Industry: trends, opportunities etc.
• Innovative Mechanisms for Funding Social Ventures

Philosophical Considerations

As mentioned, it is part of my longer term objective to develop a philosophical theory that will tie together the intuitions and observations that drive my day to day activity.A Theory (in the sense that I am describing it) is a set of interdependent Concepts that will comprise an overall vision. My goal is simply to communicate what I am thinking with the hope that this will generate a certain amount of Dialogue.

Concepts will be represented by the capitalization of the words in the concept and, over time, will be elucidated in much greater detail. If the purpose for this is not clear consider my making the assertion that the ‘modern world is a lot different than it used to be in the past’. For you to understand this, you will have to know what I mean by modern as this is a central concept in the assertion that I am making. Hence, if I am to effectively communicate with you it will be imperative for me to elucidate in some detail many of the concepts that I introduce. Unfortunately this cannot be done all at once.

In due course I will hyperlink the concepts so that you can click directly to a more precise elucidation of the idea. This will likely be constructed in a separate wiki (or some such structure) and will be introduced in due course.

PHILOSOPHICAL INTUITIONS THAT TIE THE CONTENT TOGETHER

It is all well and good for me to advance the seemingly utopian vision that the internet can help us to fix all of our problems. For you to take this argument seriously, however, it will be necessary to reflect on some very deep issues about what it is to be human. This requires reflection on:

• The Concept of Being: as initially introduced by Martin Heidegger and further explore by Sartre and others.

• The Nature of Consciousness: The question as to what consciousness is, is obviously highly complex. What is not controversial, however, is that we are conscious of the world and therefore of others in the world. Examining, more precisely how this comes to be is central to the arguments that I want to advance.

• The Nature of Identity: We all have a sense of identity; a sense by which we know ourselves. There are many ways to think about this, but what I will argue is that personal identity is intrinsically communal. There is no sense in which we can know ourselves independent of our relation to others. If this is true, and the nature of community is changing, then the very nature of ‘personhood’ is changing.

• The Concept of Modernity: There is very little discussion about the role that the internet is playing in changing the nature of how we are conscious of each other. I am interested in developing a notion of Modernity that is grounded in the notion of Consciousness.

• The Concept of Space: This is the philosophical notion that I have commenced this conversation as it seems to be most directly applicable to current discussions. It is intuitively clear that the internet is modifying the nature of Space. What is less clear is the relation that this has with our personal identities, our communities etc.

I hope this helps to set the stage…

Peace and Love,

Suresh