The Rise of Introversion

[Mole]

Literacy explodes.

And the noosphere implodes.

Literacy values extroversion.

And the noosphere values introversion.

And as we implode inwards we become disorientated so we seek to orientate ourselves by type.

For two hundred years we have been exploding outwards starting with the industrial revolution and ending in globalization.

But all the time the literacy explosion has been laying the groundwork for the noosphere implosion.

But how do we handle our implosion?

Thankfully each religion has devoted part of its energies to the inner life. For some it is meditation and for some it is called mysticism. But the striking thing is that the inner tradition of all religions is very much the same. For instance a buddhist mystic will feel quite at home with a christian mystic.

So it seems that the inner life is shared across religions and cultures.

This is very hopeful as the literate explosion has led to nationalism and conflict and the privileging of extroversion.

While the implosion of the noosphere is leading to a recognition of our shared inner life. And is leading to the valuing of introversion.

 

[Feops]

What of the non-religious?

 

[Mole]

What of the non-religious?

Inner experience, or mysticism, transcends any particular religion or any dogma or ideology.

Mysticism is simply paths into the inner life. We are all Parsifal seeking the Grail Castle.

It just turns out that religion has been our defining characteristic until the recent rise of secular societies and so your question.

The inner life is the inner life. It stands or falls on its own merits.

In the literate society the extrovert asks, "What do you do", while in the noosphere the introvert asks, "What are you".

And psychological typing is the beginner's way of coming to terms with the ocean within.

But once we realize we are in the ocean of the noosphere, we start to swim, first by dog-paddling with psychological types then we reach our arms out into the Australian Crawl and before long we are starting to see how people swim. Do they swim gracefully, do they swim beautifully? We can see the quality of their inner life by the style of their movement.

And the style of their movement is how they dance. But now instead of dancing with gravity, we are buoyed up by the noosphere. All our lives we have defined ourselves by the gravitational attraction of literacy but now we are floating in the free space of the noosphere.

For the literate mind the great metaphor for the noosphere is space itself - the final frontier.

We are all now astronauts floating in, "2001: A Space Odyssy". And we are all Odysseus or Parsifal or even Dave, accompanied by HAL, or to be more precise, the HAL 9000. Or to be even more precise, a Mac or a PC.

We are all off our feet floating in the depths of space. But we are not alone. We have HAL with us. And rather than telling us, "I can't do that, Dave", he connects us to one another. But he connects us as pure spirits, without bodies, and with time and distance abolished.

This is what the religious mystics dreamed of. And here it is, freely given to us. Our only danger is that we will take the noosphere for granted and we will not recognize the gift that has been given to us.

In the same way that we take one another for granted and do not recognize that we are gifts to one another.

The only mistake we can make is ingratitude, both for the noosphere and for one another.

 

[INTJ123]

lol the noosphere? I never heard that term. But alot of what you said makes sense to me.

 

[Synarch]

Because literature encourages a less subjective personal experience?

 

[Wonkavision]

Inner experience, or mysticism, transcends any particular religion or any dogma or ideology.

Mysticism is simply paths into the inner life. We are all Parsifal seeking the Grail Castle.

It just turns out that religion has been our defining characteristic until the recent rise of secular societies and so your question.

The inner life is the inner life. It stands or falls on its own merits.

In the literate society the extrovert asks, "What do you do", while in the noosphere the introvert asks, "What are you".

And psychological typing is the beginner's way of coming to terms with the ocean within.

But once we realize we are in the ocean of the noosphere, we start to swim, first by dog-paddling with psychological types then we reach our arms out into the Australian Crawl and before long we are starting to see how people swim. Do they swim gracefully, do they swim beautifully? We can see the quality of their inner life by the style of their movement.

And the style of their movement is how they dance. But now instead of dancing with gravity, we are buoyed up by the noosphere. All our lives we have defined ourselves by the gravitational attraction of literacy but now we are floating in the free space of the noosphere.

For the literate mind the great metaphor for the noosphere is space itself - the final frontier.

We are all now astronauts floating in, "2001: A Space Odyssy". And we are all Odysseus or Parsifal or even Dave, accompanied by HAL, or to be more precise, the HAL 9000. Or to be even more precise, a Mac or a PC.

We are all off our feet floating in the depths of space. But we are not alone. We have HAL with us. And rather than telling us, "I can't do that, Dave", he connects us to one another. But he connects us as pure spirits, without bodies, and with time and distance abolished.

This is what the religious mystics dreamed of. And here it is, freely given to us. Our only danger is that we will take the noosphere for granted and we will not recognize the gift that has been given to us.

In the same way that we take one another for granted and do not recognize that we are gifts to one another.

The only mistake we can make is ingratitude, both for the noosphere and for one another.

Holy Shit, that was really beautiful and inspiring, Victor.

Proof once again that a post does not necessarily have to be easily understood to be incredibly worthwhile.

Thank You.

This is one of my favorite posts, ever.

 

[Lady_X]

Holy Shit, that was really beautiful and inspiring, Victor.

Proof once again that a post does not necessarily have to be easily understood to be incredibly worthwhile.

Thank You.

This is one of my favorite posts, ever.

+1

loved that victor.

 

[heart]

I am not trying to be difficult, just asking a question: How many people have significant internet lives though? Most of the people I know just use the internet to do things like check the movie times,watch netflix or look at porn. They don't delve into the self-expression aspects.

I know four people from my offline life who post to boards and IM.

 

[Litvyak]

Sorry Victor, I don't have the slightest clue wth you're talking about - and not because I failed to understand the hypothetical depth in your first post. It is like a poem written by a drugged hippy, which may be cool and stuff, it's just that these sentences make me want to scream:

In the literate society the extrovert asks, "What do you do", while in the noosphere the introvert asks, "What are you".

I'd stay away from such oversimplified answers and convenient truths, they don't lead you anywhere - and they don't even have a nodding acquaintance with facts. Believe in whatever you'd like, but drawing unrealistic pseudo-sociological conclusions using only your faith is like divining from a cookbook; though it can definitely be comfortable and sublime.

ETA disclaimer: I don't want to be a douche or anything, this is my personal opinion only.

 

[Wonkavision]

Sorry Victor, I don't have the slightest clue wth you're talking about - and not because I failed to understand the hypothetical depth in your first post. It is like a poem written by a drugged hippy, which may be cool and stuff, it's just that these sentences make me want to scream:



I'd stay away from such oversimplified answers and convenient truths, they don't lead you anywhere - and they don't even have a nodding acquaintance with facts. Believe in whatever you'd like, but drawing unrealistic pseudo-sociological conclusions using only your faith is like divining from a cookbook; though it can definitely be comfortable and sublime.

ETA disclaimer: I don't want to be a douche or anything, this is my personal opinion only.

It's your loss, really.

With Victor, it takes some patience, but there is beauty and depth in there.

 

[Litvyak]

Yeah, I guess it's my loss

(myths and fairy tales are beautiful, but I consider other things "deep")

 

[Moiety]

I think there's is room for introversion online...but I think it's still very much favors extroversion. In the sense that you share only what you want and people can still use façades.

 

[Ivy]

I think there's is room for introversion online...but I think it's still very much favors extroversion. In the sense that you share only what you want and people can still use façades.

I'm not really sure how that is extroverted.

 

[Lauren Ashley]

^+1.

 

[simulatedworld]

What I'm not really sure of is why the NFP-nut gallery shows up to shower Victor in compliments no matter how inane his posts are.

WOW I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT MEANT BUT THE LANGUAGE SOUNDED PROFOUND OMG IT'S PRETTY

sigh

 

[Moiety]

I'm not really sure how that is extroverted.

Extroversion, when it comes to social interaction, entails disclosure. And response to outside stimuli. I didn't mean to imply that façades come with the territory (extroversion). Simply that the spirituality...the truth of the soul...the honesty of our introverted sides, that Victor hinted at, isn't necessarily more apparent online.

 

[Stanton Moore]

What I'm not really sure of is why the NFP-nut gallery shows up to shower Victor in compliments no matter how inane his posts are.

WOW I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT MEANT BUT THE LANGUAGE SOUNDED PROFOUND OMG IT'S PRETTY

sigh

Troll. Go fiddle with your video games. Your 'superiority' is noted for the record.

 

[Moiety]

Troll. Go fiddle with your video games. Your 'superiority' is noted for the record.

In the name of all of Geekdom I resent that comment!

 

[Tiny Army]

I love watching Victor post. He's like that guy on the L train who wears antennae and keeps asking for money to repair his spaceship so he can beam all the Republicans to Mars.

 

[Thalassa]

I love watching Victor post. He's like that guy on the L train who wears antennae and keeps asking for money to repair his spaceship so he can beam all the Republicans to Mars.

In my experience of talking with Victor about politics, I can see him if he were an American beaming all of the liberals to Mars, instead.