Coming Soon

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1,615

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1. Wake-up
2. Find ways to to breath the same air
3. Play together
4. Seek together
5. And maybe we survive together

Gar Mac Críosta is an IASA certified architect and spends much of his time trying to figure out what being a sociotechnologist is; so he can be one. He regularly engages in humane human experiments and is very certain that he spends most of his time being uncertain. Currently (since March 2020) he is the Product Lead for the COVID Tracker App in the Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland (www.covidtracker.ie) a COVID-19 pandemic response app. Gar has worked as a Digital Advisor to the CIO in the HSE since early 2019. Gar is the founder of Business Model Adventures and has been an active contributor to IASA Global since 2006, developing & delivering education and certification programs. Gar has facilitated the development of change programs with C-level executives, senior managers, technology leaders, and executives in the areas of business model innovation, digital strategy, architecture, and design across various indus­tries. Gar is a Certified Architect Professional (IASA CITAP), a Fellow of the Irish Computer Society, a LEGO Serious Play Practitioner (LSP) and in the process of becoming a Cynefin Practitioner.

Coming Soon

By Gar Mac Críosta

Conversations about the future tend to hinge around what it will look like when we get there. How things will be better, fairer, more just, more equal. If you had a subatomic particle sieve that you could push our universe through i don’t believe you will find one ounce of fair, one atom of justice. We the talking monkeys on the back of this organic space ship who at this point after 200,000 years of development have a story about ourselves that includes the ideas of heroes/villains, good/bad, right/wrong, success/failure, friend/foe. These are all stories that we use to make sense of the world we briefly inhabit, they are passed down, distilled, washed and amended to suit. We can tell ourselves these beautiful stories and it’s entertaining, hopeful and optimistic. It also gives us a sense of certainty we imbue the story with belief, we invest time, we give this future, life and we jointly share it with each other.

We have created a story about the way the world works and for many people we cannot see this matrix-like weaving of story internally, communally and globally that traps us into a system that is adversarial, self-terminating and running out of time unless the techno-optimists dreams come true (Mars, Meteors and more).

If we accept that we are in some ways trapped in this mesh of stories in a potentially self-terminating system then waking up from this can be quite scary. It’s easier to cling to these fantasies. This situation is compounded by the increasingly partisan nature of communications, the pollution of the information ecology and an increase in mis-information and dis-information. Our loss of self and loss of sovereignty render us like a neotenous newborn who cannot survive outside of the current system.

Wake Up

• How do we wake up and what do we do if we wake up? I’m not an naive idealistic believer that this will all magically fix itself. I’ve got the baggage and the mental malware associated with 20+ years of work plus 20+ years of education running inside my cranium. Leave aside the bad code – the wiring isn’t great and the plumbing could do with some work.
• That said the conversations I’ve been having over the past 36 months give me a sense that there is an increased awakening and recognition not just of the immediate risks but rather of the the existential risks and generator functions that are leading us down a self-terminating path.
• Waking up is not just being alive to possibilities it’s about investing time in the development of self – (not just woo
• -woo self development stuff) our relationship to information and our relationship to others. This is real development of self with relation to sensemaking and choicemaking, our relationship to others, our ability to engage in the world in a different way are a prereq to anything.
• Given the scale of the problem this is not one we can tackle alone, nor is one person (definitely not me) able to make sense of it all, therefore collective sensemaking will be needed.
• Cong is a place where we get to glimpse, we meet, we share and we marvel with others who are in varying degrees of waking up and some still sound asleep. What do we do next?
• Well we make some moves and throw some shapes and see what happens. The moves we make will use familiar words in unfamiliar ways.

Conspire – breathing together

• conspire – make secret plans jointly to commit an unlawful or harmful act breathing together with
• etymology – fromcon– ‘together with’ + spirare ‘breathe’.
• Conspire has such a bad name but unless we breath the same air and plot together we will never get out and make progress. The unlawful or harmful nature is only with relation to the current prevailing story and narrative. If our goal is to break free we need to mentally unhook ourselves from the shackles of this story. Breaking the mold is never comfortable, but finding people to explore idea and breath the same air is a start. Cong is one such place to start to breathe the same air.

Collude – playing together

• collude – to work together secretly especially in order to do something illegal or dishonest
• etymology – early 16th century: from Latin colludere‘have a secret agreement’, from col- ‘together’ + ludere ‘to play’.
• colluding equally has a terrible reputation but if you look to it’s roots we find the opportunity to play together, to experiment to explore. Col == together. This is not a passive or academic only exercise, you need to roll up sleeves and get stuck in to do the work. Not playing is not an option. We need to become better players with more skill and a deeper understanding.

Corrupt – breaking altogether

• corrupt – having or showing a willingness to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain.
• etymology – Middle English: from Latin corruptus, past participle of corrumpere‘mar, bribe, destroy’, from cor- ‘altogether’ + rumpere ‘to break’.
• Corrupting yet another midunderstood beast but look to it’s roots and we see the heart of a nobel pursuit, altogether we break remaking and reimagining a system will require corruption – of ourselves and of others. It’s a remaking of the story and retelling of the tale. True versus truth each story has a truth a perspective upon which it judges the actors in that story. It’s ours to change, searching for what’s true is a different pursuit.
• If at this point you are feeling uncomfortable then stop reading. This is not for the feint of heart.

Compete – seeking together

• compete – be able to rival another or others.
• etymology – early 17th century: from Latin competere, in its late sense ‘strive or contend for (something)’, from com-‘together’ + petere ‘aim at, seek’.
• To seek together and to strive or contend. The best doesn’t always win, the pull of the past is strong. The attractors that hold us in place, keep us satisficed create an inertia that is difficult to break the previous steps of conspiring, colluding and corrupting are necessary to create the conditions and develop the intelligence to outcompete the current system.

Collapse – slip and fall together or rise and survive together

• collapse – of a structure or system suddenly fall down or give way
• etymology- early 17th century (as collapsed): from medical Latin collapsus, past participle of collabi, from col- ‘together’ + labi ‘to slip’.
• If we are successful we collapse the system Jim Rutt calls the current system Game A it’s rivalrous and self-terminating and Game B is the unnamable future it will emerge and emergence is key, fitness and survival. If we can’t compete then together we will slip and fall and become a cautionary tale that whoever is left behind will look with pity on. One way or the other collapse seems inevitable.

Time Traps

• The time for this is not now, we are trapped by the arrow of time. We mark things in minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years. A move to lifetimes and inter-generational timeframes leads us to think of ancestors, what we leave behind, your grandchildrens grandchildren. Letting go of your small existence is not easy, we are bound by it and to it. Lifting our heads we see that Society X.0 is not a thing, not a destination or a set of qualities at a point in time. It shouldn’ be named too soon as it limits us and it. We need to breathe the same air, play together, break altogether, seek together and slip and slide or survive and surf together.

My thoughts are not my own

• Much of this is influenced by the work of Jim Rutt, Daniel Schmactenberger, Jordan Hall, Bonnitta Roy, Nora Bateson, Dave Snowden, Shane Parrish, Buckminster Fuller, Ryan Holiday, David McWIlliams, Juval Noah Harari, Hanzi Freinacht, John Stuart Mill, the Stoics and others combined with conversations with friends, congregation alumni and others Orlaith, Stephen, Néady, Tim, Paddy, Charlie, Carlos, Laurence, Jacl Chris, Martine, Ruth, Haje, Sally Anne, Páidí, Clare, Dermot, Paul, Barry, Eoin Kennedy, Joan, Tracy, Conn, Conor, Eilish, Tim, Leo, David, Paddy, Miklos, Danese, Denis, Chalky, Al, Terry, Joe and many more

“If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the universe” – Joe Rogan

 

References

• https://www.jimruttshow.com/the-jim-rutt-show-transcripts/transcript-of-episode-8-jordan-greenhall-hall/
• https://www.jimruttshow.com/the-jim-rutt-show-transcripts/transcript-of-episode-7-daniel-schmachtenberger/
• https://medium.com/@memetic007/a-journey-to-gameb-4fb13772bcf3
• https://www.gameblibrary.com/