For Your Consideration - 4

For Your Consideration - 3

If you’re like me, you probably think about technology a lot. I often wonder about the future: how technological advancements will continue to change our lives for both the better and worse, and how the more we integrate technology into our lives the more it fundamentally changes what it means to be a human being. The rapidly accelerating pace at which we’ve made these vast leaps in technological progress is both fascinating and terrifying simultaneously.

With that in mind, I am asking you to watch this really old TED talk from 20 years ago and think about what he predicts versus where we are in 2014. Think about the premise of his entire argument, which may challenge those who are close-minded (and surely no burgeoning philosophers are). It is both fascinating and terrifying.

Oh, and if you don’t know who Danny Hillis is, he’s one of the guys who helped build the original internet back in the 1970s. Makes his perspective that much more interesting.

Got Wisdom?

            Though the English language only has a few vestiges of gender left in its lexicon, most languages spoken today still use gender as an effective way to communicate the undercurrent of a word’s meaning. For the last several days, I’ve been thinking about the word “wisdom” and what it means to be wise. I think I have grown wiser over the years, especially as I close in on 40, but I know I have so much more to learn and experience before I would consider myself wise. And if our hero Socrates is any model for this, we would do ourselves a service by even doubting what wisdom we claim to have.

            The Greek word for wisdom that is at the root of the word philosophy is Sophia. It’s interesting to me that the word is feminine because it intimates tenderness, a supple nature that is yielding when it needs to be and firm only when absolutely necessary (like all good mothers are). More importantly, this reveals what I think the heart of wisdom is—our collected experiences being brought to bear on a particular situation in a particular moment. Wisdom does not have a one-size-fits-all solution to any challenge; instead, it is a skill that is honed over time if we are willing to learn from our failures and mistakes as human beings.

            Part of what brought on this reflection during the last few days is due to the book I am reading, Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing by Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe. They make a clear case for the need for cultivating wisdom in everyday living, especially in a society that prizes rules and incentives—two forces that essentially erode that wisdom (or at least its application). What’s most important about this book, though, is that the authors illustrate time and again how wisdom is not only necessary but universal. It is a skill that can be developed just like any other and, most notably, does not require super-human intelligence to be wielded.

            What is wisdom to you? How would you define it? Do you consider yourself a wise person? Why or why not? If so, how did you become so? Are there better ways of cultivating it than others? If not, why do you feel that is? Surely you must have some wisdom about some aspect of life, correct? How can we all encourage the use of wisdom in our daily living and the lives of others?

P.S. - If you love TED Talks as much as I do, check out Barry Schwartz's lament on the loss of wisdom in our society. It's quite good and full of useful anecdotes that demonstrate that anyone can be a wise person. I'm about halfway through the book, which is chock full of even more of these types of examples.

 

For Your Consideration - 2

            Here is this week’s “For Your Consideration” video. Like last week, it is another excellent TED Talk, though this one deals with another topic. Whether you realize it or not, Google (along with just about every other major internet entity) tailors your experience of the web through the use of algorithms. I had known this for some time, but I never realized the extent to which it was being used by other companies such as Facebook, Yahoo, etc.

            While this might not seem like such a problem, it has undoubtedly contributed to the radical political polarization we have seen here in the United States over the last decade or so. This also affects us in other potentially detrimental ways such as inhibiting the open-mindedness that one must cultivate as a philosopher. To be able to ask important questions is contingent upon being exposed to wide and diverse views, even those diametrically opposed to your own personal convictions. In order to dialogue with others—especially those with whom we disagree about our opinions—we must have the access to their perspective, to their worldview. But if we are being limited in that exposure, does it not stifle us and the wisdom we would potentially accrue?

            How can we work around these “filter bubbles”? How can we effectively seek out information that broadens the horizons of our inquiry? How can we help the algorithms better serve our needs while still allowing them to function properly and well? Why is this crucial for progress in a representative democracy such as ours, especially one that has been plagued with dysfunction and ideological gridlock over the last decade?

            As always, please post your thoughts, comments, and questions below.

For Your Consideration

      Paul Piff: Does Money Make You Mean?     

            Similar to the Saturday “Ponder This” post, I will be posting a recent and/or favorite TED Talk on here for you to watch and think about (just click the link above to watch). Today’s by Paul Piff is about how wealth has the potential to make people mean, less generous, less altruistic, et cetera. I don’t necessarily think this is always the case, as a mindful approach to one’s wealth has the potential to do good things with those resources. However, mindfulness often falls to the wayside when it comes to wealth because people usually are not thinking critically about it (which only highlights the necessity to develop critical thinking skills and cultivate mindfulness in all realms of living).

The theory of economics is highly rational—something that the entire field assumes every human being is under any and all circumstances when making economic decisions—yet we are often irrational and overly emotional when it comes to money. Why is this? What does this say about our choice to develop a capitalistic economy? Could there be a better way forward as we move into the 21^st century? Will the further globalization of the economy continue to make this problem worse? How will it affect developing nations who are now being seduced into the allure of consumption?

There are no easy answers, but I am sure it will be a topic to which we return in the future. Please leave your own thoughts and questions to share with others.