Much better than algoritho-virtualoso coffee! I’ll have mine with extra concrete, please.
This guy has been on my radar ever since listening to him on KMO’s (previously) stellar podcast “C-Realm” (C stands for consciousness…I say previously, for now it is a recording from a radio show that he leads in Vermont, losing some of the natural vibe he had when not set to time-constraints…still has good shows on occasion). I am sure one of you have Greer’s Collected Works upon your bookshelf…
Davis, in the chapter “the path is the network” of mentioned Techgnosis mentions Pierre Levy’s concept of
cosmopedia
A dynamic and kaleidoscopic space of knowledge that provides new ways of understanding the world and of being in the world. In this cosmic and cinematic encyclopedia, the collective knowledge of the thinking community, a category which must include machines as well, becomes materialized “in an immense multidimensional electronic image, perpetually metamorphosing, bustling with the rhythm of quasi-animate inventions and discoveries.” In contrast to the fragmented hypertext that defines what Levy calls “commodity space,” the cosmopedia will provide “a new kind of simplicity,” a simplicity that arises from the principles of organization native to knowledge space: the fold, the pattern, the resonating crystal. The chaos may unfold a cosmos after all.
Davis mentions in the next paragraph (p. 390) a favorite of mine, Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game (written 75 years ago!), a stellar novel that integrates or “mashes-up” knowledge (mathematical, musical, historical, poetic…essentially covering the gamut of “intellectual” history) within the Game
Davis providing an example
We are told that an individual game might begin with an astronomical configuration, or the theme of a Bach fugue, or a sentence out of Leibniz or the Upanishads. Players would then use allusions, intuitive leaps, and formal correspondences in order to develop their chosen theme through kindred concepts, while also juxtaposing themes with contrary images or equations in order to weave a kind of cognitive counterpoint. One could imagine playing links between Indra’s net and the monadology, for example, and then introducing the Borg as an ironic twist.
I see this as the path @achronon meant for the “feed the beast” to map out (which don’t-mind-if-I-do walk down that path myself…even if it turns out to be a plank). A week before the Jordan Brown Cafe, I had recorded a spontaneous video loosely explaining my version of “the Intellectual Dark Web”, as coined by Eric Weinstein, attempting to connect his idea with the "elder sponsoring"writing I am attempting. The video does not fully cover what you all discussed in the Cafe, but perhaps is my input to the conversation (Ed: I mention Harris; just bypass that “red circle” and insert your own).
I imagine this dark web as, not necessarily solely intellectual, but as including more elements of the practical, the spiritual, eventually jumping into the realm of localized/collective politics, decentralized “net/meshworks,” inter-generational spiritual communities (perhaps staring “geekily” into the screen while collectively meditating), sharing not only the intellectual flavors of the intelligentsia, but the interpersonal connection that is missing to some degree in nearly each of our lives.
“I’ll have another, please, with extra dimensions this round…”