FUTURLOGICS a system of prospective thinking:
by james n. hall COPYRIGHT © 1983 BY JAMES NORMAN HALL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatever without express written permission of the publisher ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Printed in the United States of America SELF TEACHING PUBLICATIONS WEST JORDAN, UTAH 84084 USA Previous Next Table of Contents of FUTURLOGICS
Chapter VIII SYNTHETIC FUTURE |
THE CREATIVE MODE AND THE SYNTHETIC FUTURE The key to the creative mode is the hand. The hand is the mind's extenion. With it we can manipulate things around us. Civilization is made possible through the things man has made. In the arts, the mind and the hand become as one. The hand enables us to express and change our lot. The capabilities is possesses in conjunction with the intelligence we develop give us power to change even our future. All our plans and preparations, goals and purposes, all our visions of tomorrow could come true by our hands. How does this mode compare with the previously described modes? Notice how, in the theater, the play is created. The drama brings insights into the first two modes, and also into the third mode, the creative mode. There are at least three elements basic to the stage presentation: the director/producer, the actor, and the audience. Given the script, the actors perform the drama and the audience sees the final production. The best plays are those in which the audience becomes totally involved and forgets they are at the theater. The actors often lose themselves in their roles and lure the audience to suspend their disbelief in favor of the total involvement. The director/producer functions to bring it all together--the lights, the costumes, music, publicity, and other aspects. The synthetic future as a product of the creative mode is similar to the function of the director/producer of the play. The analogy suggests that the future can be a product of our endeavor. The world is a theater in which we can stage our play; however, we can be more than the players. Folklore substantiates this modal approach to the future. The old saying: "the future is make, not waited for." "opportunity knocks but once," "plan ahead and avoid waste and mistakes," "a stitch in time save nine," and numerous others encourage us in our power over our course in life. We need not be passive observers of the future, or mindless robots to the will of our circumstances or of the single, unchangeable "to be." We can change our lot, and because of this we may look at the future as a resource rather that a role in a play. We can write our own script. The future seen through the creative mode is all that man will produce, either by his action or his thoughts. From the time man was conscious of himself, he sought to change things for more desirable conditions--and not for mere survival but to overcome and to succeed. As our ancestors learned to control their environment and to prepare themselves against the uncontrollable, they made changes we now take for granted. The built cities, life-styles, philosophies. The synthetic future is therefore all things man will yet bring into existence. Anything "observed" to occur less man is the natural future. In the creative mode, the natural future and the absolute future are viewed as resources to be drawn upon, to be built upon. They become a basis for our guiding designs. All the desires and wishes of our hearts work towards the synthetic future. However, we have a greater impact upon the future than we know. Our very presence as man, and not just our acts, influences the future. The definition of this future might be more precisely described as the impact make upon nature by man's presence and designs. Obviously, if there were no persons on the earth there would be no possible synthetic future, only the natural future or base will exist. Life has been balancing itself to a harmony of extraordinary complexity for eons of time. From virus to elephant, from diatoms to whales, all have settled into a symphony of give and take. We are learning now the results of the old saying that a "little knowledge is dangerous." for the things we have manufactured in the developmental stages or our learning are now upsetting the intricate balances nature has built up into a stable min-max* live-sustaining program. Only long-range prediction of the impact of the creative mode upon the future can settle the effect of any newly applied technological function of the environment. We must study the synthetic future to see impact of man on the ecology of the planet's life support limits. *A term which means that minimum conditions trigger a change and maximum condition trigger a counter-change. Man's impact upon nature began long before we were aware of the ramifications of our acts and creations. It was felt generally that nature would take care of any mistakes we made. Indeed, the corrosive forces of nature were so great that it was a matter of constant upkeep and maintenance to keep anything from reducing to the source and materials of its creation. But now we produce synthetic non biodegradable materials to such a perfected state, the opposite problem of indestructible wastes exists. We make synthetic rubber, plastic, oil, leather, wood, etc. We are even trying to make synthetic man, as we see from the latest advancements of the medical field. This approach to the future becomes a mode when man is emphasized to the point that nature is secondary. For example, the city dweller who says that mild comes from the supermarket, disallowing the purpose of the cow in milk production, has lost sight of the connection with nature. During the exercise of our powers to change, we create a modal bubble that is burst when nature goes on a rampage. Given a long-term drought we soon rediscover our dependence on nature. BENEFITS OF CONTROL We have raised ourselves above the animals in that we no longer depend upon what we find or hunt. Farming animals and crops, we have set ourselves free to expand our civilization by the cultivation of the materials we need to survive and to raise our level of living. The maximum number of people that can be sustained on this planet with a given standard of living and a given technology to produce the necessities of quality living is a figure that changes with each technique of producing or needs syntheticly. Sometimes we outstrip our science and we begin to talk of overpopulation. We may again learn new methods that will make life easier at an even higher standard of living; then it will be easier to accept the natural growth of the population. This is proportional to our knowledge of farming the earth and using its resources positively instead of squandering it and ourselves on war. All of this can result from looking at the future through the creative mode. The ability to adapt has given us great freedom and power to maintain a high level of success. We may be drawn to conclude that this is the best mode to approach the future. Perhaps it is. But along with the power to allow more populated levels of civilization comes an even greater power to destroy it all. If we exercise the negative side of our power to change the face of the earth, it is possible that the synthetic future on this planet will be in the form of our own charred remains. The natural future will be the sterile remnants of our used-up elements. Proper control must be exercised if the synthetic mode is used in dealing with the future. We see now the conflict of the natural future and the synthetic future. We might question who shall control this mode and how shall it be implemented? Can we overcome our lack of control? With these questions in mind, we see that the synthetic future and its mode have drawbacks, also. It becomes very true that the meek will inherit the earth only when the meek are those who do not trust that more brute force is a solution. A wise, harmonious cooperation with the natural forces is the best way to an economical use of resources. The age of sensible use of energy is here and the meek, those who will not govern other by force, but are teachers of freedom, will inherit the earth. The key to comprehending the synthetic future is to know the person who will produce it. Again, the unit of measure is man, himself. What man does, and is, causes the synthetic future. "Know thyself," and "to thine own self be true." The first frontier that one should explore is in one's self. Our understanding of ourselves must be balanced, for we have a tendency to evaluate ourselves in terms of our technological capabilities. Let us consider a problem: If all the undeveloped countries on earth were to be industrialized to the extent of the United States, the consumption of raw materials would be multiplied many times the possible output of the available materials. (The U.S. use per capita more that all the other countries combined.) Technology is not enough. We must learn how and when to apply the technology, and acknowledge the related side effects in non-laboratory conditions, but in free environmental test. THE SOURCE OF OUR GOALS What is the source of the goals, plans, and objectives that guide our activities and produces the synthetic mode? when cities are planned and laws enacted to change the existing status quo, from when do the purposes of these actions come? The purpose of Futurlogics is to find the source of the ideals, goals, futures, directing forces, and "visions" that enable our leaders to shape our lives by shaping our "futures." The Purpose of studying modes and the psychology behind them is to bring an understanding the creation of the mapped futures we seem never to question, but accept their influence in our lives. Democracy demands each citizen participates in shaping his country's future. This is brought home when we begin to think about the emerging science of social engineering and the creation of the synthetic man. Not being aware of the side effects of our industrialization and synthetic input into the environment, we learn too late that what we once considered harmless has accumulated to danger levels. Non-biodegradable and excessive waste concentration in small areas present problems that were not foreseen. In New York City garbage disposal is a major problem. A few decades ago it was ignored. The synthetic future becomes a mode when we do not acknowledge the side effects. War--the conflict between two sets of synthetic futures-- brings out the last point at which the synthetic future becomes a mode, and that we do not always create things for the benefit of our fellows. We design machines and weapons to destroy. War breaks down both natural and synthetic environments. War is not reality, it is antireality. Therefore, if the synthetic mode is destructive, we lose touch with the actual future. Modes do not lead us to a better understanding of reality. They are substitutes we use in place of truth. Wars come from our inability to produce all that we need; therefore they are a breakdown in the synthetic future. How much of what we are has come from the hidden forces of those who try to shape us into the kinds of people useful to their designs? what restraints are employed to control those who wish to engineer us and our society? what portion of our personality is synthetic and what part is a natural product of our own free choice? To shape the future of a person is to control his motivations, and thereby control the things by which he guides his life. The system of Futurlogics will reveal the manipulations of unscrupulous persons who will exercise the power to change the seat of our motivational systems, Which ore the futures of the mind. When we are made conscious of where we obtained our notions of the future, then we will better plan, decide, prepare, predict, wait, motivate, choose, in short, to do anything that is prospective and oriented toward the future. We ensure democracy by being more knowledgeable of everything, including the future that shapes our motivations and goals. COMMITMENT The volitive restrictions found in the absolute mode take another direction in the synthetic mode. Here we find another technique that avoids the conflict by rewarding it to submission. The objective that produces this future places us in the position of sacrificing our will to gain our will. We commit ourselves to the operations of a plan to create a future that the synthetic mode will generate. In other words, we voluntarily limit the range of volition by saying that we are concentrating our efforts and thoughts to the accomplishment of the design. Commitment is the point where we assign our activities to the plan that will make the achievement of our goals and objective real. Civilization is a commitment. When we look to the future with the synthetic mode, we will be confronted with a commitment. The persons who work under this mode will be captured by the mode itself. City dwellers will be more subject to the demands of civilization than the rural farmer, who is practically independent, producing to meet most of his own needs. LOOKING AT THE FUTURE THROUGH THE CREATIVE MODE We must realize that there will always be things and events that we can never create. There are limits. The ultimate limit may be man himself. God, who seems to leave us to ourselves, may one day reveal those limits. How much energy and power would it require to accomplish all the dreams of the mind? If we learn to work with nature, it may not require any energy at all, except that of intelligence. Making nature work for us is the art of creating a synthetic future we can live in. Brute force and exercising muscles in every direction with no control or forethought may produce a synthetic future which no one can tolerate. Creativity separates man and animals. It is a great gift, but as with genius, it can be misused. We must learn to farm the deserts and the ocean, and control the weather. We must create a means of living peacefully and with freedom for all the earth's citizens. The planet becomes smaller as we gain more power to change, and as we make devices to overcome the forces of nature. The planetary society will be ushered in with forecasts of doom if we continue to cheapen human life and rights. The potential, however, is utopian in scope. The variety of our physical environment is almost beyond comprehension. Nature has both order and variety. As we learn more about our earth we gain a better perspective of the synthetic mode and Mother Nature working out her own problems. Her surprises are evidence of how dependent upon her we are. Yet, her surprise are really no surprise, for we have seen them before. We expect most of what occurs even though precise prediction still eludes us. Perfection of these skills necessary to prognostication of time and date and place are till in the offing. Earthquakes, floods, eruptions of volcanos, solar spots, hurricanes and such are all still in the infant stage of prediction. Shark tooth replacement, bird migration, etc., are familiar to us. Through we know these expressions of her moods, we have yet to see what she has in store for us if we tamper with intricate balances. It could be that such holocaust awaits in the wings that fear and trembling are in good taste when we approach her secret parts. All that Mother Nature has done can only be guessed at. Her mistakes are extinct and buried. The present balance is the result of all the trial and error of the past, and long waits for renewal. The race of man is a latecomer and we haven't learned all the mistakes possible. With the threat of an unbalance ecology, the study of the natural future has been emphasized. We have been forced to eat some of our worst mistakes. A better understanding of the natural future will give us a good chance to survive on this space-island earth. We enact laws to limit our input into the natural order of things. If we were eliminated from the planet, then everything would reduce to a perfectly clean and orderly state of naturally occurring events. This is the extreme vision of the "environmentalist" who wishes to preserve samples of nature for grandchildren. But we will have to provide for our children the best we can, taking from the environment only the things we need to survive and progress. The balance between these divided interests are discussed with strained relationships. The contest between the preservation of natural order and the satisfaction of needs is going to meet new heights in the future. Our laws are only as good as our ability to control ourselves and the others we share with on the earth. Our indiscriminate use of technology requires that we take a second look. Balancing restraints will be a constant point of attention in the developing synthetic future. The long range effects of things we wire either unaware of or unconcerned about are straining our ecological limits. Elk, buffalo, and bear abounded in the grasslands of Kentucky. Today all the buffalo in Kentucky are in the zoo. The life support zone is so critical that most of its operations are being studied to prevent the ecology from being upset to such an unrecoverable state that we may forever alter the normal traits of Mother Nature. It might be argued that man himself is a natural thing and as such could be lumped into the whole concept of the natural future. If this is the case, then the natural future takes upon it the similitude of the synthetic future. Some of the distinctions of the natural future become diffused in the merge. However, these divisions are for the sake of making the study of the future easier and more manageable. When we have studied all the pieces separately, we shall sum them up, and we will find that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts--a synergy. Life throws many variable into the computations which strain the reaches of the physics and related fields. Once the element of life is introduced, new complexities of infinite scope are impacted on the relatively simple physical sciences. Bioscience introduced us gradually to ourselves. The absolute, natural, and the synthetic futures can exist only less the variables of man's introspections. The natural future becomes apparent when we eliminate man or the self-consciousness of man.