In the Four Stages of Greek Thought, John H. Finley describes how human thought evolved from a mythological mindset to a rational mindset in Ancient Greece. A mythological mindset is an understanding of the world built through sharing stories involving the personification, or deification, of natural phenomenon. The mythological mindset was useful in creating consensus between large groups of people, or communities. A rational mind is built from logic and is the foundation of science and objective reason. The rational mindset has been integral to establishing larger, global networks of individuals.
The transition from mythological mind to rational mind seems to have taken approximately 400 years. Homer, the author of the foundational texts of ancient Greek literature, the Iliad and the Odyssey, lived around 750 BC and Plato, a most pivotal figure in western philosophy and a seminal figure in the development of reason lived until ~350 BC.
The four stages that Finley outlines are Mythological, Visionary, Theoretical, and Rational.
Galileo Galilei (~1642 CE) is said to be the father of the scientific method, leaning into observation rather than reason for deduction.
We existed in a mythological mentality for eons. It took 400 years to transition to a rational mind, and from the rational mind it took 2,000 years before we needed more.
The major innovations that enable the development of the mind are in the modes of extending the mind. When Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, it's not even known if he wrote it down or simply authored it in his mind before it having been recorded into clay tablets by others after being passed through hundreds of years of oral tradition. Plato's ideas were explored in dialogue and recorded on papyrus or animal skins. It wasn't until ~100 CE when paper was invented in China. The increasing ease and reduction in cost of recording ideas, thoughts, and history have for thousands of years been the only real means of increasing complexity of thought and fidelity of memory and imagination.
Scientific method depends on observation, comparison with previous observations, and analysis of data sets. As we extend the mind, and reduce the need to accurately store memories within ourselves what becomes of our mode of thinking? What becomes of our lived experience, and our spirit?
Ulysses, by Lord Alfred Tennyson (Memex Highlights)
'T is not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. ... Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
The stages of thought that I see are:
Recent Stages of in Art:
In the novel Fall: or Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson, the greater the population of Dodge's digital realm becomes, the less power Dodge has to manipulate his created reality as a god to better serve himself and the growing population. Observation becomes a crushing force to the fabric of reality, making what was once malleability ridged and inflexible. This inflexibility generates a proving ground for a great deal of conflict. Two god characters, Egdod and El, battle for control/influence over the "Firmament". In the end, El is ejected into a type of hell and Egdod is transmuted into a new world, "Firmament 2" (need to confirm ending summary).
One space was not enough for two modes of thinking and governance.
This mirrors the need colonists felt as they left the old world for the new world in the Americas. It's difficult to imagine, much less practice new modes of thinking when surrounded by observers of old thought. Once there was an example in the United States of successful revolution against old England the French sought to follow suit. The American revolution, a world away from the focused power of old thought, required a 7 year war and then 12 years more to ratify our Constitution. The French Revolution, still surrounded by and entrenched in old thought, took 10 years from 1792-1802, followed by counter-revolutions, the rise and fall of the Napoleonic Empire, and a national decline, took another 70 years before things really got ironed out.
We need new spaces to explore new modes of thinking.
Recently there has been a consolidation of thought space in large social networks creating a system which constricts and pressures social expression to a point of combustion, exacerbated by algorithms designed to increase engagement at all cost, and which pay no heed to their anger fueling ramifications.
As we navigate to the other side of this pressure cooker of social consolidation, and offload our history and experience into other platform(s) or spaces we will enable the flourishing of new modes of thinking and bind our selves to the computer. This is not necessarily a bleak future. If we can offload our pasts, and revisit only as needed, perhaps we can escape the as yet lingering impacts of personal and collective traumas. This future does, however, call to question the nature of the self. If we are always in a present moment, only comparing to previous events, data, experiences, when consciously calling to do so, will our self, our minds continue to grow and develop?