We are producing a generation of children without faith in ecosystems. What’s new?
In the imagination and in the collective unconscious, nature has always been a dangerous place. It is wise to be cautious and fear it, not just in itself, but also as a symbol of the unknown. This is true now more than ever, since the wilderness represents our own nature, and just as we are destroying the ecosystems we are also destroying what’s best in our own nature. It will, eventually and inevitably, come back to haunt us.
Artificial intelligence will only reinforce the technological materialism to which we are addicted and which separates us from ecosystems. For all its genius, AI will not be able to restore the faith in ecosystems that we already lost, long before computer generated virtual reality reality took over the minds of the latest generations.
We need that faith in ecosystems. Ecosystems are as undefinable and as meaningful as God. But just as factories and farms have hidden the fact that all their products come to us, originally, from ecosystems, so too do mere intellectual and artistic depictions of ecosystems fail to elicit the gratitude that comes from spending time with them, in the wilderness. And as we lose the gratitude, we lose the proper actions that go along with it, the awareness to take care of ecosystems so that they can continue to take care of us, to provide the gifts we need to survive. Soon we will have nothing to place our faith in.
This is a crisis, of course. In a crisis an animal must notice new qualia, go to it, play with it, see if it works. Such ritualing is an act of faith – it is the beginning of a qualiadelic relationship.
A qualiadelic relationship is more than a symbiotic relationship, where two or more living entities have become dependent on each other for survival. Typical symbiotic relationships are moss and trees, bees and flowers, certain bacteria and the stomachs of humans. But a qualiadelic relationship is a relationship in which both parties don’t merely survive together, but they evolve together.
Most symbiotic relationships start out as qualiadelic. For instance, the bees’ ability to sense the color or the smell of flowers evolved right along with the flowers‘ ability to project that particular color or smell. But after a time the evolution reaches an equilibrium, and the relationship slows to a symbiotic routine. But it all starts with ritual.
Ritual should not be confused with routine, although it often is: we have our morning rituals, for instance… But a true ritual, to the contrary, is really a way of responding to a crisis. It is a way of venturing into the unknown. If it works, of course, we repeat it and eventually it does become routine – until the next crisis, that is.
Our relationship with ecosystems is no longer qualiadelic; it isn’t even symbiotic. It is abusive. And we know this is wrong, so we are scared of it. Scared of Mother Nature’s displeasure. What we need to do is redefine ecosystems, not as software or business models, but as Divine. The only way to do this is to go out there into nature and consciously ritual with them.