02 - A First Look - A New Framework
From curiosity to something concrete
In my introductory article in this stream, and the follow-up from it on a key enabling aspect of this enquiry, curiosity, I laid out a core objective: understanding reality, first perceiving the world around us, and ultimately making sense of it all.
I now want to dive into the specifics of how I intend to go about this, including sharing my own thoughts and experience of how I have attempted this in the past, and as part of that having you join me at this juncture so we can continue this journey, hopefully, together.
There are many ways of looking at things – I have, in the previous episode, touched upon the tools, means and props that will come in handy in this journey. And as I’ve said there, these tools – such as intelligence, the means – such as observation, reasoning and learning, and the props, all, in my no-stone-unturned, first-principles approach, all deserve their own intimate treatment, which will be done from within the epistemological framework I will be building dedicated for it, with such surgical focus justified given how broadly applicable and how immensely useful they will be in buttressing our understanding of anything we care to examine from such a foundation.
However, given that that’s an elaborate endeavor in itself – whence its own separate stream, the Polymathon – I don’t want that to hold us back, or hold me back, in getting us going on the journey I want us to make here.
And in particular, even as the polymathic stew in the epistemological pot may be slowly but steadily, surely simmering over there with what I’m certain will yield dividends in the medium-to-long term, I seek to demonstrate practical and tangible value, here and now. Well, within the next handful of conversations to get us started.
So, let’s get cracking!
Of the several ways of looking at things, which I will get to as promised above, I want to now zoom in on one particular paradigm, which will inform the next set of reflections and ruminations in the current stream.
And this is what I call technology! No no, wait…, don’t go away! Hear me out - well, here’s my promise: you do not need to have any more skills or qualifications at hand than being able to read the text here, and that key ingredient that got us going: curiosity! Yes, trust me, when I say ‘technology’ here, it’s not what we normally mean, it certainly does not need you to know how to upgrade your mobile phone or reinstall an app within! I’m going to the very fundamentals of a much broader concept: remember my first-principles promise?
So yes – and oh, I’m glad you’re still here, thank you! – I want to take us back to the very beginnings, the very foundations, the very essence of it. By technology I mean at its core the very activity of human imprint on nature, on our environment, as affects our reality. The minute man touches something taken from the environment and changes it to suit our specific needs, modifying what’s been taken, into something nature itself might never have done, that is when, I propose, we humans distinguish ourselves from other animals, and that is what I call, technology.
Can I now hear a huge sigh of relief from the ‘technophobes’1 in our midst! You don’t need to have your iPhone in your hands, unless of course that’s where you’re reading this article!!
But I have a rather serious point to make here. What I intend to talk about in the next few articles, with the intention to empower our understanding, from this paradigm I’m presenting here, which I promise will come in really handy in our stated objectives on this journey, all starts with this core first-principles definition of technology. And this core paradigm I call the technocentric paradigm.2
So yes, this is Exhibit A of the promise I made to you last time:
… this is… a multi-faceted, polyontic, polymathic adventure.
The technocentric paradigm is but one of the polyontic3 interpretations of reality we shall make in the course of this journey: one of the several ways of understanding reality, first perceiving the world around us, and ultimately making sense of it all!
Why does the technocentric view matter? Because it promises to give an explanation of all human activity, and the consequences of all human activity. It thus allows us to chart out the grand story of human progress, and sometimes of human retrogress, but all man-made change nevertheless.
And I offer you the technocentric method that will help make sense of, yes, technology, but, without us having to be technical. Yes, you heard that right - without having to be technical!
Paradoxical as that may sound, I'm proposing a paradigm that’ll empower us to see the wood for the trees, to crack the nut, come to terms with the rapid pace of latest technological developments; without having to wade knee-deep into the dizzy whirlpool of technological change. I shall thus ‘cure’ you, if I may myself so boldly say so, and if it ails you, of your technophobia!
I trust I don’t have to make a case of how useful this can be. There is much angst4 about this rapid pace of change, and technological change does impact every aspect of society. How can we let all this fly by with us not having a solid grounding and view of what’s going on?
So hop on!
Again, the word ‘technophobe’ is really a narrow application of the meaning of the word ‘technology’, but I’ll rant more about that another time!
The episodes following this one shall therefore be prefixed ‘Tech’, such as Tech 03, Tech 04, etc, to signify this technocentric approach.
I will address this specifically and in-depth in this and other series