Photography

Techgnosis as a process is easy to see in the arts. In every artistic endeavor, the intention of the creator to express a non tangible idea through some physical medium is what creates its value. The medium is the technology. Paints, instruments, light, fabric, cameras, ect… nature didn’t make these things we did. Why would we develop the technology to express ourselves if it didn’t in some way feedback into the whole of society. This is where technology can be seen to steer the creation process. What we create is an expression of ourselves but a projection of the technology. This is easy to understand in an art like painting. It appears to be more abstract in manufacturing an automobile for example but it is not. The conceptual cognitive processes are the same for both. In fact I believe that the creation process is probably similar across all fields. It is the intention of the creator that differs.

Things are created out of a perceptual lacking. We believe we are missing something. Out of what came before us we work to fill that void within. Which is why so much undeveloped art is focused on the expression of pain. Artists, just starting out with art as a technology to express themselves tend to produce very raw interpretations of the easiest thing to express, their pain. This type of creation although personal is very selfish. The viewer is asked to engage in a misery that is not their own. Not something you would want to put on your wall. Here we can already start to see the connection between technology, intention, content creation, projection, viewer, and communication. The technology is the medium; so while you might not want to hang a sad painting on your wall you would like to see two cars crash into a giant flaming heart in the middle of a downtown intersection as an expression. The good artists are the ones who understand the harmony of all of the above mentioned connections. They also create new technologies if one doesn’t already exist through which they can express themselves.

Once you have become adept at listening to the harmony of the components and knowing how to communicate in subtler ways even more complex intentions then you have the ability to manifest the change you want through your art. Then you are creating mirrors and engaging Techgnosis. In the process of practice you will see yourself change through the creation of your ideas and your ideas will change the world around you. Essentially the reasons for creation change. There is a trinity of expression between yourself yourmedium and youraudience. When you are creating from that harmonic place you are imbuing your art with the spirituality that creates artifacts. Because of what they give to the world, artifacts have real value. What you become in the process of creating artifacts effects everyone you meet. Aside from your art you have become more valuable. This value is transposable. It then is not about the artifacts, it is about the expression of your highest potential at all times through all things. At this point the technology can fall away and the next round of creation begins.

Observe how the intentions change the outcome. If you are using your artistic ability to produce things with the intention being to sell those things at a specific price; your goal is the price not value. This goal feeds back into the technology used and the intention of the creation. What you get is a product that reflects its actual value. Realistically most consumable products then have a short usable lifespan and degrade as the perception of them shifts into refuse. This is a mistake. The people that have interacted with this product have not been encouraged to move in a natural direction towards their own success. The disposable culture reflects poorly on every one of us. It is time that we recognize our power as creators to affect the entire world and its people. There is value in creating artifacts not just economic value but the value within us that when shared uplifts all of humanity. It is our challenge to create only the things that better remind us of our opportunities to climb to the next rung of evolution. Everything else is just in the way. D

The famous philosopher George Carlin used to say, “anyone who drives faster than you is crazy and anyone who drives slower than you is an idiot.” When you stand in a crowd and look at other people, what do you see? Crazies or idiots? Where does that leave you? Have you ever considered what the actual action of seeing really is? The mechanics, i’m sure are complex, but in its essence our eyes take in light. They absorb the light that carries data to our brain. Notice that I said “data” not information. Thats because in its raw state before it is processed it is nothing more than potentiality. If you were unable to process the light signal you would just see chaos or noise. The same thing would happen if you were in a white or black room. A very interesting set of things occur between reception and perception. First we know that light vibrates at different rates bringing color information to our eyes. In this case it is information because it has been preprocessed by whatever has absorbed and reflected, essentially filtered a portion of the spectrum. That object has its own frequency as well. When the light gets to our eyes more information is lost as our eyes shave the spectrum or filter again into what we call visible light. What was once a chaotic flood of light bouncing around the environment has now lost both data and information to become processable by our brain.

Crazies or idiots? That is a lot of information to lose. Things like, how old their car is, fuel consumption awareness, worn out tires, or German engineering and tons of traction all contribute. The point is that our generalizations have shed more information than they have gained. Information entropy occurs everywhere. Consider the information lost in a solid set of conservative values. What happens then at the point of perception? The tools we have created to manufacture generalizations and decrease the processing burden on our brain work like exactly so many other things around here, they filter. Filters separate and polarize the infinite into digestible bits.
Vision is a two part process. The act of seeing is as much about giving as receiving. Once the light has entered our eyes it gets processed by the brain. Somewhere in there the information bounces around connecting to memories and actions. This set of past experiences creates the perceptual filters of what we are observing. It is at this point that the information reverses direction and begins heading back out of our eyes carrying the processed information of our filters back into the environment. Windows of the soul they say. More like mirrors of our environment. In quantum physics this act of observation is what collapses superposition. We can see that perception does in fact create changes in the environment.

The best cameras in the world are known for their sharp optics. The clearer the lens the less distorted the image on the film. The more “real” we would say. Why would this be valued? The more accurate the reproduction the more valuable the lens. If a lens shaves off certain details the image is lacking “truth”. I think its the same for people. The more light/information you can receive without discoloration the more likely to be “true” or “real” your actions.
Techgnosis is about retaining as much information as possible and acting through direct experience with as unmediated of a perception as you can. I call this “the flow” Its a conversation with the world around you. Your ability to listen and articulate truth should represent your actual value. You can actually create filters within yourself that amplify the light back out. I call this “polishing you mirror” I will write about this next time.

The quote, “the only constant is change” applies when thinking in terms of the infinite. Infinity itself being a state of superposition. The constant change of state between being and not being looks very much like chaos. This chaos, from a techgnostic perspective, is opportunity for movement forward. Existing in the infinite chaos is like floating in space. Suddenly all that matters is navigation and moving forward. What you are moving towards can only be answered uniquely within each individual. The secret is that once we start sharing our direction with each other we find ourselves on similar trajectories. What becomes special is how we get there. Each person creates their own tunnel reality out of experiences and perceptions. Every expression is a manifest of individual understanding (ego). Every book, a single voice. Every movie, couch, table, anything made by man is a symbol of our likeness to the creator. Not by what it is but because it is. This is the great understanding of freewill. “You can create anything, What are you going to create?”

The television is a window into the minds of the masses. It takes huge numbers of people to create the spectacles and even more to absorb them. It is like a very sensitive consciousness measuring device. The feedback in the tool is the ratings system. The less attention given to a particular show the quicker it withers and dies. What makes a show “sticky“? Very low frequency, usually circuit1, biological and circuit2 territorial stimulus with brief spikes to circuit4 social/sexual. Explosions and material possessions, sexual interlude blah blah blah we’ve seen it. Why do we keep feeding this stuff to ourselves? We can create anything! Yet we stay locked on the same formula of crap. Its because we lack the development of the tools needed to perceive uniquely.

So lets tear into this. Popular culture is a huge bank of energy. A force that supersedes religion because it thrives on our biological embodiment and rarely engages the immune/defense system of our consciousness. Popular culture inspires passivity while religion asks you to participate. What happens if we attempt to become like the images we see? You would be thrown in jail. The cultural immune system would suppress you. You are not allowed to act out the things you see on the tv. A good thing for all of us. Examine the power structure for a moment. You have a huge amount of energy going into image creation that no one is allowed to achieve in their own lives. The pinnacle of success is dangled just out of reach enough to keep us locked in a cycle of striving but never really able to have. The proverbial “carrot on a string” trick. The hierarchical power structure loves it. We are so busy striving for something we cant have that we don’t notice we have lost ourselves in the process. If we don’t know who we are its easy to tell us anything. Here is the magic though. The power of content creation is finding its way back into our hands. We are slowly moving off the treadmill into ourselves as the creators that we are. The trick is going to be keeping people mindful of their creations.

This is where the overwhelming decentralization of power that we see is leading us. Unfortunately we don’t have a solid infrastructure to catch and guide the newly found creators. All of our past systems were focused on getting us here. Now that we have made it, those systems seem so antiquated. I don’t believe we are the first people on this planet this close to freedom though. There have been past civilizations that have gotten here and failed. Buried by their own capacity and inability to manage their creations. We have to leapfrog the coming collapse.

The thing to be learned in the framework of popular culture is what success feels like. This is tricky so let me explain. When you are successful it leads you to perceive opportunities and create more success. Success becomes a headspace that you carry into new experiences. However success is just a headspace. It is not hiding in the material somewhere. When a successful headspace is stimulated by the material it is something that occurs inside you. Headspaces or perceptions are the software we carry around with us. The material reminds us of what our goal feels like. It stimulates those feelings. So within the framework of pop culture, take from its huge efforts the reminder of yourself as a successful creator. You can hold the frequency in your mind as you go into the world and take action. You will find happening more and more that you will be successful. With your new headspace you will find yourself asking, “How will what I am about to create help other people find success within themselves?”