The Covid crisis has dramatically accelerated the use of digital communications. It is as if a new human ecosystem is emerging. There is a hot debate about whether this is a good thing. But this debate often ignores a bigger picture, which includes two other worlds, nature and the town.
Like it or not, we are being impelled into a digital ecology of virtual relationships. At worst It separates us from real connection. We see people addicted to their devices. Inhuman and out-of-balance!
There is of course another view. At its best, digital communication is for many a very comfortable medium, provides genuine connection and has the bonus of being environmentally friendly with less travel and paper.
But many people are concerned about the long-term effects. We may become robots.
But the digital world is not our only environment. We simultaneously exist in two other realms. Nature and Town.
Nature is our world of earth, water, air and fire; mountains, oceans, forests, animals, plants.
Town is our world of modern human society with houses, piped water, electricity, mortgages, education, television, industry and cities.
Historians, sociologists and commentators have long discussed this movement of humanity from nature to town. Looking back, this is the great sweep of human history:
Hunter-gatherer –> town dweller.
And we can see another great sweep happening right now:
Town dweller –> Digital persona
From this perspective we could suggest that the digital environment is a new human ecosystem.
In a previous blog I wrote about the ‘Global Brain’, which suggests that the electronic networks across the planet are creating a new cultural, psychological and psychic environment for humanity.
So it is that we now live in all three of these ecosystems: Nature, Town and Digital.
A problem arises if we are not comfortable in all three.
Some romantics may protest that we could be very comfortable if we returned completely to nature. Hm. Okay that may be possible for a few. But I would miss Shakespeare, Venice, the Taj Mahal and Machu Pichu just to begin my list. . .
So let’s be realistic about the facts. There are eight billion people on the planet and we have to self-organise. Towns, ‘civilisation’ and technology are inescapable. One of the most powerful social dynamics is to make this environment good for all of us. And that often means balancing town with nature. Without nature we lose wellbeing and balance.
Another reality. The digital environment is here to stay. It is unavoidable.
So here is my suggestion: We need to be competent and comfortable in all three spheres — nature, towns and digital. Being too focused or uncomfortable in one or two or all of them is unhealthy, unsustainable.
Keep the three in balance and we can create a harmonious future. That is what I want for us and for our children.
The suggestion that a “digital ecology of virtual relationships” interconnects with the natural world of elements, animals and plants, and the cityscape of houses and systems of water, electricity, and broadcasting advances our perception of the evolving external world of which we are all participants. Whether or not we are fully operative in the digital world, we cannot ignore it and wish we were back in an earlier age. So, in my view it is better to acknowledge its influence without ignoring the inner Self. The objective is surely to navigate a course that attracts such positive outcomes as the transmission of uplifting knowledge as opens our minds and hearts, connecting with our quests for meaning and spiritual wisdom.
Excellent deductions and reasoning. Written with the purpose of educating and furthering the human motive, love and peace. Much appreciated.
Thank you William, insightful as ever. I like the concept of technology as an environment, it sounds more like an organic part of our life. Having a family member on another continent and working from home I experience technology as connecting and enabling. Interesting thought to now embrace and ‘juggle’ 3 environments but I feel that positive (use of) technology could actually make that juggle easier.
Excellent piece, William – clear, concise, and saying something new and important. Hope it finds the wider circulation it deserves.
Brilliant reasoning, Wise, and helpful. Thank you William. Here’s to green economies of the future! 🙏
“So here is my suggestion: We need to be competent and comfortable in all three spheres — nature, towns and digital. Being too focused or uncomfortable in one or two or all of them is unhealthy, unsustainable” ….
Hi William ………………
I agree with the first sentence competent and comfortable in all – but also comfortable with being uncomfortable with that by which we are challenged. I do however feel that we all need to be much closer closer to nature whilst accepting we are part of a world that is now developed and digital. We don’t need urban or digital for a good life or to tread lightly.
I strongly believe that the industrialised world has had its day and we are moving into a new era. Being competent and savvy in relation to urban and digital is very important but only to make the best of the new journey on which mankind is starting out. Hope I understood your point – and that I make some sense!!
Excellent blog William. I’ve posted it on Facebook as I think people should read and note it
This is so true. As a depth and spiritually based psychotherapist I was so reluctant to accept technology. Last year, I was not only forced to accept technology, but I decided to embrace it and look at it as another psychic realm, as you say. I have to say, just shifting my attitude was monumental. It has allowed me to do my work, connect with and support people and I feel it has had the added benefit of expanding my consciousness and my psychic/energetic/Intuative abilities. I believe our consciousness can evolve right alongside these technological advances if we are open and receptive to it. Thank you for your insights. They’ve reflected back to me my own very hopeful attitude about the possibilities of our future as a species destined to evolve.
Hi William,
Thank you so much for your beautiful heart!
Sometimes in these times, navigating our worlds can feel stressful and exhausting. I’d like to share a Post I’ve just finished about Retreat.
https://heartandgrithealing.com/2021/02/retreat/
Much love to you <3
That’s all very well, William, if you are competent with computers. My brain was made before they were invented (I’m 88 years young) and I am not equipped with the appropriate bytes to manage more than e.mails and a few skurmishes into important information available on the internet – even fail on those often enough. I hope for some consideration from those who flourish in this digital world and I do find the potential robot aspect of it disturbing. lots of love Ann
On one level everything you say here I agree with.
However, how about focusing more on our own ‘Self’ because really it is only That Self that will enable any of us to be truly comfortable in this world?
This is the priority, not whether ‘we feel comfortable’ in the environment we have to live in, but whether we know Who We Are, or, more accurately ‘What I Am’? (i.e. One, rather than ‘many’?
With this as our focus, other things will fall into place?