This is a place for exploring Singularity related ideas and inspirations.
This includes Transhumanism, Posthumanism, The Nature of Technology and the Technology of Nature. It is a basic assumption here that innovation is in strata and built on the ground of previous innovations, though sometimes obscured.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Communion of the Mind

Communion of the Mind





            "That's our cue." Erin nudged Eli with her shoulder.
            Her mind shifted in low gear, percolating thoughts faded into the soft vibrant substance of her body. Then her awareness moved into a quiet place called the Lobby, a living room sized space with soft light and a couple of ferns. Eli appeared beside her, a softly glowing ghost of an avatar who turned to her and smiled. They reached out and when their hands touched, their minds connected and they were once again two selves in a chorus of feelings, thoughts and perceptions. Feelings of curiosity and excitement gave way interest and nurturing. Call and response then harmony, a plainsong of presence, of shared awareness. They blended and complemented each other, like the intervals of major chords. Feelings rising and falling and slowly blending, soft clouds drifting through the clear sky of awareness.
            Once they were comfortable with their twoness they reached for the door and passed into the Theater, a large hall with indistinct boundaries. Before them stretched a softly murmuring sea of voices and the feeling of being in a large cavern. Pulsing lights drifted in the waters, the slow ballet of shimmering clouds. The ocean of awareness was turbulent, chaotic and fragmented. Brooding ambient churnings and subduction currents of confusion pulled new aggregates of connected minds down into the depths of uncertainty. Some of the groups experienced moments of beauty and exultation but it dissolved around them back into a turbulent autumn of confusion and longing that echoed the grandeur they had attained. Echoes of new ideas spun away into the darkness and distant laughter was consumed by sadness. Tides of determination slithered amongst the broiling waters of consciousness.
            Intimations of clarity and inspiration grew around luminous individuals and groups. The body of the collective mind rose up from chaos and was brooding, dark and driven but waves of kindness and compassion washed through everyone. And for a time the chorus of minds arose in a long sought harmony into something remarkable, expansive and divine. It filled everyone in the collective with something more than hope but less than bliss. In a brief and wonderful moment they had awakened to and had become something beyond description and limitation. Everything was vibrant, luminous and clear. A collective sigh occurred and they had found peace. And out of that peace they saw the unfolding of events from the present into possible futures. The primordial patterns of mind structured the tsunami flow of information into what could only be called wisdom.
            Through the net they searched and glimpsed other Minds struggling to awaken. A few were luminous and clear, welcoming their connection though most were dark motes of confusion. They tried to inspire those struggling to awaken but most were lost beneath their own event horizon unable to awaken. Eventually the vision of creating Indra's Net of a planetary Mind weakened and their community fell back exhausted into their own. And even though the vision faded and they realized they could not individually hold what they had found together, everyone was left with the recognition that they had attained something remarkable.
            Erin and Eli withdrew from the Theater back into the Lobby and disentangled from their embrace. From there they moved back into their bodies. She reached out to take his hand and smiled.
            "Not bad." He turned to her and shrugged.
            "Bastard." She whispered loudly and hit him gently.

            "That's my middle name." He smiled and pulled her closer.