Re: Free-will/the Internet

I was struck by the similarity in the frustration you express regarding the inability or the unwillingness of mainstream science to look at the material world differently than the Cartesian or Newtonian paradigm has taught-- My father was swimming against that current his entire life. The thing that has made the biggest difference in the number of people who are "making the switch" is information sharing. Books were the first mode, but the internet is having a massive impact now. I have been watching the rise of the internet with great curiosity and no small amazement because of the effect it is having on humanity-- and almost always positive effects. I remember the dire warnings at the beginning, when psychologists said the internet would "dehumanize" society and make us all into vegetative bodies sitting hypnotized in front of computer screens, interacting only with our thoughts. I laughed at them at the time and I think my intuition is proving right.

In this instance, the internet is allowing information sharing at an unprecidented rate in human history. That fact is having several noticeable impacts: 1. People who have some disquiet over the Cartesian mode of approach now have access to a vast research tool that gives them access to all sorts of other ideas, (like Rosennean Complexity). 2. People who have already made the switch in perspective are no longer "outnumbered" and drowned out by established or mainstream science. The internet has afforded people the opportunity to network and create "support systems" or groups of like minds that can allow a new perspective a place to flourish before it has to face the intellectual firing squad of academia or commercial publication. 3. Similarly, support can come in other ways, such that new modes of publication or of arranging symposia, etc, can be generated and "hard copy" information sharing can be caused.

There are infinite possibilities being generated by the internet, in my view. My father would have been fascinated. Unfortunately, he was not able to really appreciate the internet as it was in the late 1990's because his diabetic neuropathy had progressed too far for him to type anymore and the voice recognition software was frustratingly primitive. But he and I had many discussions about what it could become over time. I find these kinds of developments fascinating and the unprecedented nature of it makes it particularly exciting to watch, for me.

Ultimately, I predict that the "accepted" paradigms will lose their stranglehold on mainstream science, because there will be no mainstream anymore. The internet is like the river running through the Aegean Stables. The information flow will be irrefutable and there will be no "defense" against changing perspectives because the truth will be coming at the old paradigms from all directions.