Thursday, March 4, 2010

Introduction to Tao


The reason of this blog arises from the thesis that the current historical period coincides with what is defined in the indian mitology KaliYuga, an age (Yuga) of destruction and death dominated by the hindu demon Kali.

The souces of KaliYuga are those here are defined as Global Dynamics Process (GDPs), processes at different levels of complexity that affect the entire planet. The GDPs had as precondition the social and scientific revolutions of 600 and 700, began with the industrial revolution of 800, were fully expanding during 900 and will become irreversible within this century.

The three most important GDPs of Kaliyuga, linked together, are the growth and global overpopulation, the depletion of environmental resources and the destruction of the earth ecosystem.

For a description of KaliYuga two instruments will be used here apparently antipodes as language and cultural context: the concept of Connecting Pattern proposed by Gregory Bateson in the 70's and the Tao Te Ching, the classic text that is regarded as one of the peaks of Chinese thought.

The Pattern which Connects is a meta-description (description of description) of meta-models (models of models) developed within the cybernetic and systemic movement after World War II, and one of the basic ideas for the subsequent development of second cybernetics. As such it is considered to be the pinnacle of modern scientific thought.

The Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing) is a short text of about 5000 characters composed of 81 chapters historically attributed to Lao Tzu, believed born around 570 BC, and his disciple Chuang Tzu. Actually it is considered that it was composed by at least five visionaries, including at least two women, in a period between 700 and 400 BC. It is to be regarded as one of the greatest gifts to humanity.

Millenarian myths of the end of the world are therefore becoming a reality. The responsibility lies with the so-called "men of power”, first of all priests and politicians, then of multinational executives, but the real blame belongs to those who gave them this power, therefore all of us.

The terrible paradox underlying this situation never occurred before in human history is that the knowledge, technologies and processes that are leading to the Kaliyuga are the same that could bring the planet to be a real paradise, but certainly not for the 6 billion people of today, while for the 10 billion of 2040 it will be a hell for sure.

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