Technology & Stories of Power

Predictions & Commands

“What is Truth?”

This question ricochets throughout society in the form of court testimonies, scholarly debate and investigative journalism. Likewise it echoes throughout history in the form of religious conflict, scientific discoveries and technological domination. Indeed, Truth and Winning seem inseparable when the Victors write History.

The Brain is Miraculously Flexible. The space of possible neural connections is so vast, it is able to encode seemingly any idea, no matter how strange. This Naturally gives rise to the question “which neurons should be connected?”. Of course, this question is impossible to answer without some idea of what the purpose of the brain is. Many creatures survive without the metabolically expensive brain, so its presence must give some advantage in the game of survival and reproduction.

Anticipation of the future behaviour of Reality has led to tremendous resource abundance for Humanity. From predicting the onset of Winter to optimizing the conditions for crop growth to harnessing electromagnetism to make Machines think, we have progressively subdued unknowable Chaos into predictable Order.

And yet this Progress is not linear. It is full of fits and starts. Energy gets temporarily trapped in dead ends, eddies of amusing but ultimately useless stories that add Friction to the current of Truth. Stories do not inherently reveal their Truth; they must be repeatedly cast against the jagged rocks of Reality to discover their merit. Technology and it’s child, Power, emerge from those successful Abstractions that obscure irrelevant Detail and focus the Mind on repetitious Principles. Nature is not unpredictable, but She will make you Work for it. Her Pleasure Button is Hidden.

Self-Stories

This question of “which story?” is not merely sociological, it is deeply personal. As an experiment, try the following:

For one week, every morning, look in the mirror and say the following

• You’re disgusting

• You don’t deserve to live

• You should be ashamed of yourself

• You are stupid and ugly

• You fail at everything you do

Feel free to add your own negativity. Then at the end of the day, write down how the day went and how you feel.

Next week, replace the morning mirror message with the following

• You are beautiful

• You are powerful

• You deserve to be happy

• Your success is inevitable

• You never give up

Again, at the end of the day, record your physical and emotional results.

You can probably guess how this will go, but actually doing the experiment will make it abundantly clear that your Self-Story is the operating system on which your personality runs. It primes your direction in life and can either dramatically limit or intensely amplify your capabilities.

Of course, your Self-Story extends beyond superficial characteristics. It includes your Relationships with your Family, your Birth, your Ancestral Legends, all the way back to your Creation Story. Indeed, your Story about God is inseparable from your Story about your Self.

Let us therefore take up the Great Responsibility of Choice! Let us receive with Grace our Inheritance of Stories! Let us reverse Decay and Discard that which is Dead and Amplify that which gives us Power! For every thing that Lives must Eat and Death is the Mother of Life!

Sat Chit Ananda