Over at +kenwilber.com, Lama Surya Das offers up an interesting post about Twitter:
I believe that technology is pure spirit. It is not just a tool but can be a transformative force. Some experts, such as Ray Kurzweil and Ken Wilber, say that The SingularitY (when computers evolve to reach the level of the human mind and its evolving consciousness) is all but imminent, and that technology will be integrated into all facets of the world, including consciousness. Kurzweil, a noted technology thinker, has extolled the coming of ultrasmart machines, saying they will offer huge advances in life extension and wealth creation. “Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years,” Eric Horvitz of Microsoft has said. “Technologists are replacing religion, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture.” The neuroscience-minded monk and meditation master Dalai Lama of Tibet has suggested that, given the proper conditions, a person could be reborn as a computer (italics added). (“Consciousness could take rebirth with the support of the five elements <—earth, water, fire, air and space—>in the form of a computer; why not?”) This raises the evergreen question of human identity. I feel it’s worth looking at the emergence of this new social networking industry along with the entire realm of instant communications and explore together its potential and possibilities in terms of authentic interbeing and synergy, so we can co-create a more deeply interconnected community, society and world. Education is the silver bullet to alleviate many of our societal ills, and modern media communications exhibit all the various characteristics of both the best and the worst of traditional delivery systems. Like thought, tools are good servants but poor masters. The Singularity that forward thinkers apprehend may very well put such dichotomies to the test.
While I think the Dalai Lama’s words will surely lead to some pretty fun commentary, I think that there is an opportunity for a great spiritual co-mingling as Twitter, and technologies like it, begin to offer avenues of deeper and deeper interconnectivity.
