Overexposed

2016 is upon us and this year, like every prior year, we face more problems and sources of discontent than ever before. Both individually and societally. Why?

Earth's already dizzying population continues to expand. We're exposed to more ideas, worldviews, friends, adversaries, religious groups, political parties, news sources, advocacies and random people than ever before. This is both a blessing and a tragedy.

Let's take a step back and consider what makes us happy. There's a lot to it, but when I think about happiness, I think about being content. One could argue that content is the natural state of humanity, blemished by an interminable flood of "sources of discontent." These sources of discontent are largely a result of "cognitive dissonance," the disconnect we feel when we encounter a new idea or piece of knowledge that clashes with our sacrosanct worldview. The pain of discontent scales with how deeply the newly encountered idea threatens or invalidates our beliefs and way of life. This is not the natural pain of a scraped knee, but a deep rooted existential parasite, gnawing at the ego and sense of self-worth. This might take the form of a person smarter, wealthier or happier than me, a society "superior" to my own, or an explanation for a phenomenon previously only attributable to the hand of God.

Consider our indigenous ancestors. I'd postulate that the small tribes that formed early society, following the advent of spoken language, experienced relatively few inter-tribal conflicts resulting in mass discontent. Even if one such conflict did arise, the foundational values shared by tribal members would likely be a strong enough glue to keep the society from splintering into chaos. Only upon the discovery of an ideologically incompatible tribe, a turn of events that breaks the previously unilateral worldview of "we are alone, our way is the only way," are the seeds of mass discontent sewn. Mass discontent cascades into hurricane of hatred, disenfranchisement, disagreement, schisms and ultimately, violence and destruction - both domestic and inter-tribal. This brings us to the question of how we reconcile cognitive dissonance, both individually and societally.

The easiest reconciliation probably results from scientific or self discovery, in which an individual is the only participant in his/her dissonance. He/she learns something new which results in a necessity to integrate this new learning into his/her standing worldview. Once reconciled, there is no residual discontent. The second easiest would then result from interaction with just one other person. No two persons' worldviews or idea sets will match perfectly at first encounter. Only through an involved process of the dialectic can they come to iron the wrinkles out their philosophical differences and form a basis for a shared foundational worldview. Even then, they'll likely form a structural consensus of just the most foundational ideas, ornamented by differences in opinion. Thus, there remains tangential discontent. Even though they agree 99% of the time, there is a 1% discontent factor. A sliver of discontent, while not deadly, may still inflict minor pain, which can snowball if left unchecked. What can we expect as we scale this process to larger and more diverse groups? As each new character with his/her unique value-set is introduced, the wedge of discontent drives slightly deeper, and the need for unbreakable unity in the foundational alloy of our worldview multiplies.

In spite of our limitations, we found powerful adhesives in religion and political ideology to hold unnaturally large societies together. Humans evolved naturally to participate in "tribes" of roughly 100-200 people, at most. Why such a low number? Probably because our mental capacity, while admirable, is finite. We can only integrate so many new ideas per day while remaining largely content. As new tribes, new people, and new worldviews enter the stage, the theater destabilizes. Sadly, the quickest route to re-stabilization is destruction, thanks to the limits of our mental computing power. We simply cannot integrate every idea, especially those that threaten our foundational beliefs. We're faced with two options: abandon our old worldview in favor of the new one, or eradicate the new one. Shall I read every book in the Library of Alexandria, weighing the virtues of each against my worldview, or simply burn the Library?

As massive, largely homogeneous populations mix with conflicting counterparts, the structural integrity of both societies is weakened. The Internet has accelerated this process of structural erosion immensely, as it has torn down the dams of physical distance, allowing previously separate streams of ideology to flood one another in a roiling riptide of conflicting ideas. Just 50 years ago, the number of new information sources we were exposed to per day was probably no more than a few. We could access information in one of three primary ways: written (books and newspapers), media (television and radio), and aural (in-person and telephone conversations). The bar to accessing a new source of information was quite high - we'd either need to start a new book, subscribe to a new publication, start listening to a new channel, or encounter a new person. Furthermore, we'd have a natural tendency towards people, channels and publications that have synergies with our existing worldviews. We had the benefit of excommunicating conflicting ideas through a healthy selective ignorance, thereby reducing sources of discontent, making us happier. But that luxury, for better or worse, is gone. We have become overexposed.

Today the Internet affords us instant access to a practically infinite library: millions of worldwide publications, a social media population of billions, millions of books on Kindle, billions of of videos on YouTube, billions of blog articles and opinions, and over 7 billion human beings, each with a life story and value-set as complex and rich as our own. Who should I trust? Who shall I heed and who shall I ignore? We simply cannot reconcile all of it, for there exists no basis for universal continuity in this chaotic ocean of ideas. In an attempt to override the dissonance, we isolate ourselves, watch Netflix, play video games, imbibe intoxicants, fuck strangers. These are our (quite understandable and acceptable) remedies to most profound cognitive dissonance humanity has ever faced. The aspiration for everyone to simply "see the light" in our way of thinking, and the realization that it's impossible. It's like every person is afflicted with some medical condition, and simultaneously prescribes a slightly different medication. 7 billion diseases with 7 billion cures. Taking the wrong one kills you. Taking all of them kills you. Today, there exists no one-size-fits-all pill.

But there exists a spark of hope - the faith that a universal cure is conceivable. It comes with the realization that reverting to old ways of thinking will not suffice. They've all been tried and none have delivered us. We must recognize that none of our beliefs are sacred. New laws of physics will be discovered. New interpretations of holy texts will be adopted. New forms of government will emerge. We must remain agile in what we choose what to believe, how we learn, the very way we think. What we require is a new charter, a new constitution. We must construct a platform of Unity, not for our nation, our religion or our worldview, but for our species. The platform must be devoid of divisive ideas, including only those that unify us. It must be simplified and atomic. It must be resilient to tidal shifts in thinking, technology and governance. It must be divided from economics and impervious to human flaws. It must only include things we all agree upon, 100% of the time. And we must devise a process of retroactively applying this foundation to every existing ideology and worldview. An impossible task? Maybe, but we have 7 billion people and an unprecedented network of communication to help us. We must author these Golden Pages of Unity, or face the only viable alternative - destruction on a massive scale. We're on the Event Horizon, and it's time for us to decide whether we will be absorbed by Darkness or build a warp drive and head towards the Light.