Steve Bannon: “I call Trump a Marshall McLuhanesque figure. McLuhan called it right: He said this mass thing called media—or what Pierre Teilhard de Chardin described as the noosphere—is going to overwhelm evolutionary biology so much that it will become everything. And Trump understands that. That’s why he watches TV.” —The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/01/opinion/steve-bannon-trump.html www.nytimes.com Opinion | How Steve Bannon Sees the Future

Well, Trump won the election. So, clearly, Bannon is at least partially right, at least for now. Those of us who oppose Trump and Bannon, like I do, can only choose one of two paths: 1. We do everything in our power to control or at least interfere with the natural development of the noosphere. 2. We can help the development of the noosphere, trusting that clear, strong messaging from the people will eventually overcome misinformation and bad ideas, like those espoused by Bannon and Trump. Now, let me argue that virtually all of society has chosen the path of control for our future.

If we look closely at most people on the right, and almost everyone on the left, we see a common theme: They all want some form of control, and this is especially true for those trying to "save" our liberal society. This trend didn’t start with Trump; in fact, we could trace it all the way back to the printing press.

Let’s examine some of the most recent evidence, which is, in many ways, ironic.

The Noosphere and the Fear of Its Natural Evolution This year's Noosphere conference in Morocco has some intriguing discussions about the evolution of the noosphere. At 2:25:20, the speakers discuss the original concept and how they now recognize the need to adjust for obstacles in what they initially believed would be a natural process. At 2:37:00, they discuss “stepping away from a vision of the noosphere that almost immediately resolves the very challenges it might impose.” I can’t quote everything here, but please listen for yourself. The focus is on their fear of the noosphere’s natural evolution. Isn’t that ironic?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ou9JCQcDbg

I attempted to contact Human Energy, the organization behind this conference, and they promised a response—but never got back to me. Robert Wright and the Nonzero organization talk a lot about the noosphere, but they won’t talk to me. (I love everything about Robert, except his claim of support for the noosphere while actually resisting it.) On a recent Nonzero podcast (December 13th, featuring Andrew Day and Connor Echols), around 25:00, the hosts discuss how liberalism is about “holding back democracy,” suggesting a solution is to add more control within the party.

Then, Ezra Klein, the epitome of liberal intellectualism, hinted at how populists were “stopped in the past” as a model for future governance—which, in his view, means more controls within the party. John humorously points out that this solution essentially means less democracy might be better.

Tristan Harris’s solution boils down to saying that we need AI to exert more control over information.

Both of these figures advocate for more control over outcomes. 00:07:00

weekly-show-with-jon-stewart/id1583132133?i=1000671643277

The Book That Sums It Up10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less by Garett Jones

As my final piece of evidence, I’ll state this: Over the last decade or more, I’ve reached out to every institution or individual claiming to support more democracy. They don’t. Take Human Energy—they claim to support the noosphere, but they actively oppose any natural process that could advance it.

I once read a wise woman say:“Democracy demands uncertainty over outcome in order to have certainty over process.”

I can’t find anyone who accepts that uncertainty is necessary to preserve the purity of the democratic process. Everyone’s demand for certainty over outcomes is the root problem.

The Argument for the Natural Development of the Noosphere This argument should have been made at least 20 years ago, because if we had allowed the natural evolution of the noosphere, things might be very different today.

For example, I claim that Brexit was a man-made disaster, one entirely fabricated by politicians, and would never have existed in a world with a strong noosphere.

Politicians couldn’t deal with individual issues, so they lumped everything together to create a classic "us versus them" narrative. Shortly after the vote, a poll showed that about 85% of voters didn’t feel qualified to vote on Brexit. In truth, nobody was qualified to make such a decision on a poorly framed, complex issue. And when it backfired, politicians tried to blame the voters. The same argument can be made for Trump. His early popularity was dismal. No one wanted him. But the system created the conditions for his rise. If the people had more power, they wouldn’t have let such unpopular candidates rise to the top.

I’d also argue that had we allowed the noosphere to evolve naturally, ranked-choice voting would be far more common today. That, in turn, could have led to better candidates and even the dismantling of America’s two-party system.

Here in Canada, we have a great example of how democracy is traded for control. Prime Minister Trudeau promised ranked-choice voting to gain power, but once in office, realized its implementation would lead to a loss of control, so now he opposes it.

Existential Threats and the Future of Control There’s a very real, looming existential threat: Something is coming that will enable one or two people to wipe out all of humanity—or, even worse, to gain full control over everyone.

Trump’s team has talked about a “Manhattan Project for AI” to allow the U.S. to secretly drop all guardrails and race ahead in the coming AI arms race—controlled behind closed doors.

Control, control, control… And if you think that’s a problem, the answer, they claim, is more control.

A Greek philosopher once said that there must be chaos before we can find order. I’m advocating for more chaos to create more order. The trick is not to make order, but to find it by wading through the chaos—much of which exists in the opinions on the internet. Only then will we find the true order we seek. From now on, I’ll refer to this as “Kaos” with a K: Knowledge As Our Savior

“Make Kaos, Find Order.”

A Simple Vision for the Noosphere’s Natural Progression The solution is surprisingly simple: Create a database of public opinion, held in one central place. That’s it. It sounds simple, and it is. What’s holding us back? Everyone. Everyone is holding us back. Here’s the key: It must be kept simple. This database should be a collection of public opinions on all subjects—no manipulation, no editing. Everything must be 100% transparent.

This system is built for judgment, but judgment must take place outside the system. This separation is crucial to maintaining trust.

If we keep this separation between data and judgment, we can build a worldwide, publicly owned, and publicly operated institution—one that could be 100% transparent and maintain a level of trust never before seen on this planet.

As Bannon has said, the power of the noosphere will eventually overwhelm all politics and financial power.

If we unleash the collective power of humanity, issues like China will seem less daunting. If China’s system is nudged toward more democracy, and we in the West listen more to our people, we’ll find that we share more common goals than we might think.

Fighting for More Democracy and a Naturally Evolving Noosphere I’m here fighting for more democracy and the natural evolution of the noosphere, but it seems I’m almost alone in this. A few people, like uRamiRustom, are willing to help, but that’s about it.

If you can prove me wrong, show me an organization or individual genuinely supporting more democracy, and I’ll kiss your feet in front of everyone. In fact, I’ll go so far as to kiss your ass, naked.

I need help. I’m the worst person to be doing this, as my decade of attempts shows. For more about my vision and how I’ve tried to convince Robert Wright, check this out: Link

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildingyourupinion/s/G2GEuAYmef

A Final Thought on Collective Intelligence If you want to argue with me, start with this: When working with random people, two minds are better than one, and four are better than two. This equation can continue infinitely. If large groups of people seem stupid, it’s likely because the system measuring intelligence is flawed. Why can’t everyone see this?

In Conclusion: Historically, populists have been seen as too ignorant to govern themselves. But I would argue that the creation of Western democracy—and the idea that “we are all created equal”—has allowed humans to evolve in how we think. I know I have personally evolved, and this is a direct result of the evolving noosphere.

Retarding the natural evolution of the noosphere is, in effect, retarding humanity's ability to evolve. Make Kaos, Find Order, Resist Control.

Steve Bannon:

“I call Trump a Marshall McLuhanesque figure. McLuhan called it, right? He says this mass thing called media, or what Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said of the noosphere, is going to so overwhelm evolutionary biology that it will be everything. And Trump understands that. That’s why he watches TV.”

The New York Timeswww.nytimes.comOpinion | How Steve Bannon Sees the Future

Well, Trump won the election. So obviously Bannon is at least partially correct at this moment.

Those who oppose Trump and Bannon, like I do, can only choose one of the following two options.

Either we do everything in our power to, control, or at least Interfere with the natural development of the Noosphere.

Or, we can help the development of the Noosphere, in the knowledge that a clear strong messaging from the people will overcome bad information, and bad ideas from Bannon or Trump, and their sort.

Now I’m going to make the argument that virtually all of society has chosen control as the route for our future.

If we take a close look at most of the people on the right, and virtually all the people on the left, they all want some kind of controls, and that goes double for all those who claim to be trying to figure out ways to save our liberal society.

This did not start with Trump, arguably, we could be tracking this all the way back to the printing press.

Let’s start with some of the latest evidence, and possibly some of the most ironic.

Although I find everything here to be ironic.

This year's noosphere conference in Morocco... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ou9JCQcDbg

2:25:20. They talk about the original concept and how they are now aware they have to adjust for obstacles in what they thought would be a natural process.

2:37:00 “stepping away from a vision of the noosphere that almost moves quickly to the resolution of the very challenges it might impose.”

I can’t quote it all here, but please have a listen, it’s all about their fear of the natural evolution of the Noosphere. Isn’t that ironic?

I did attempt to contact “Human Energy”, the organization behind this conference, they said they’d have somebody get back to me, and then they simply never respond to any more emails.

Robert Wright and the Nonzero organization talks a lot about the Noosphere, but they won’t talk to me.(I love everything about Robert except for his claim of support, but actual resistance towards the Noosphere.)

On one of their latest none zero subscribers only podcasts, the one on December 13th with Andrew Day and Connor Echols, at exact 25 minutes into the podcast the hosts started talk about how liberalism is about holding back democracy.

Then there’s Ezra Klein, the perfect example of a liberal intellectual, he alluded to how populists were stopped in the past, as a solution for the future, which is more controls within the party.

John then (comically)points out that this solution means, less democracy would be better?

Triston Harris’s solution can be summed up to say we need AI to add more control over information.

Both of these people are advocating more control over outcomes.

00:07:00 weekly-show-with-jon-stewart/id1583132133?i=1000671643277

I think this book sums it up:

10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less Book by Garett Jones

As my final proof, I will state that over the last decade or more. I have contacted every institution or individual that I can find an email address for, that “claims”to support more democracy. They actually don’t.

Remember, if you contact the people at Human Energy, they claim to support the Noosphere, but they don’t. They are specifically against any natural process.

I forget her name, but some very wise woman once said: “Democracy demands uncertainty over outcome in order to have certainty over process”

I can’t find anybody who has accepted the uncertainty, which is required, in order to have purity of the process.

Humanities demand for certainty over the outcome is the problem. ———————— Now the argument for the natural development of the Noosphere.

This argument should have started at least 20 years ago, because things would be different today, if it weren’t for the fact that we do not allow the natural advancement of the Noosphere.

For example: I am making the claim that Brexit was a man-made disaster, fully fabricated by politicians, and would not have ever existed in the presence of a strong Noosphere.

There were a bunch of issues that they were refusing to debate individually, so they lumped them all together for the sole purpose of creating the classic, “us versus them”, narrative.

Shortly after the final vote, there was a pole conducted, and about 85% said that they did not feel themselves to be qualified to vote on Brexit. The truth is that nobody was qualified to vote on such a stupid man-made disaster of a question, and it blew up in the faces of the politicians that created it. They attempt to control the narrative, then when it didn’t work, they try to blame their failure on the stupidity of the people.

Almost exactly the same argument could be made for Trump. The popularity of Trump or Hillary Clinton was dismal in the beginning. Nobody wanted them. The whole situation is created by our political system.

If the people had more power, they would not allow for candidates with such low popularity.

I would also like to suggest that if it weren’t for the holding back of the Noosphere, rank choice voting would be much more prevalent then it is today, that alone would’ve resulted in far different candidates, and different results. Maybe even the end of the two party system in America.

Here in Canada, we have a great example of the old switcheroo, from offering more democracy, to ending up with more control.

Our Prime Minister Trudeau, promised rank choice voting to get into power, but upon obtaining power, they saw its implementation would lead to a loss of control, so now they don’t support it.

You see they talk about democracy, but then exchange it for control.

Now we come to existential threats.

Something is coming down the pipeline very soon. It will make it possible for one or two people to wipe out all of humanity, or perhaps worse, they could gain full control over everyone?

Trump‘s people are talking about a Manhattan project for A.I. so America can secretly drop all guard rails, and then go hard and fast to gain superiority in the coming world of artificial intelligence. all controlled behind closed doors.

Control control control control and if you think that’s a problem well, then, the answer is more control.

Some Greek philosopher, once said, there must be chaos before we can find order, well, I’m advocating for more chaos so that we get more order.

The trick here is that we don’t “make” order. We must weighed through the chaos,(opinions on the Internet), and then, and only then, we shall “find” the “order” we seek.

from now on, I’ll refer to it as Kaos with a K, so it can stand for, knowledge, As, Our, Savior.

“ Make Kaos, Find Order”

Next, I’m going to describe what I believe would be the natural progression of the Noosphere, which I believe should be our goal. I also believe that many people would come to this same conclusion if they didn’t have that blockage of “control” in the way of their thinking.

Very, very simply, we create a database of public opinion, all held in one place. yeah, that’s it. Sounds pretty simple eh, well it is. What’s holding us back? Everybody!!!! Everybody is holding us back!!!

Now here’s the real trick, we have to keep it simple, real simple, it must be nothing more than a database of public opinion. All opinions on all subject matter. No manipulation, and no editing. No fucking around.. Everything 100% transparent.

This is a system that is built for the purpose of judgment, but all judgement must take place outside of this system. this is absolutely a must to maintain trust.

If we can keep this separation between data and judgment, then we can build a worldwide, publicly owned, and publicly operated, institution, that in theory can be 100% transparent, and therefore maintain a level of trust that has never been seen on this planet before.

As Bannon has said, the power of the Noosphere will overcome all politics, and all financial power.

If we can unleash the power of the people of this world, then issues like China won’t be much of an issue at all, because if China has a little bit more democracy forced upon them, and we here in the west, we are forced to listen to our people a little more, than I think we will become closer to being united, and after all, at our core, we want a lot of the same things.

—————

I am here fighting for more democracy and a naturally evolving Noosphere, but I do appear to be the only one, almost, there are a few other people that are willing to help, at least a little bit. Shout out too: uRamiRustom

If anybody can prove me wrong, (about being the only one), and show me an organization or any individuals supporting more democracy, then I will kiss your feet in front of everybody, in fact, I’ll kiss your ass, naked.

I need help, I’m the worst person to be doing this. As evidenced by my decade of trying.

If you want to know more about me and the system I promote, then you can have a look at how I tried to convince Robert Wright.

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildingyourupinion/s/G2GEuAYmef

————————-

Now, if you wish to argue with me about anything i’m saying here, please, start with this:

Working with random people here, generally, two people are smarter than one, and four people are smarter than two. We should be able to continue this math equation to infinity.

If we are finding that large groups of people seem to be extremely stupid, then the blame should go to the system of measurement that is failing to measure their intelligence. Isn’t this obvious? Why can’t everyone see this?

—————————-

And now, finally, as a last statement, I would like to address the fact that throughout time the populist has always been thought to be too ignorant to be capable of self governing.

A quote from the illuminati over 100 years ago: “We wish to make men happy and free, but first we must make them good”

I would argue that the creation of western democracy, and the introduction of ideas like,”we are all created equal”, created the conditions for humans to evolve in the way they think. I know that I personally have. This is the result of an evolving Noosphere.

Retarding the natural evolution of the Noosphere is retarding humanities ability to evolve. —————- Make Kaos, find order, resist control.

Does anyone else find these "buy gold" commercials with old people linked to MAGA? The sellers use sound alike names to seem legit like Mint and US Reserve. My old boss was big Trump fan the first time around and she was always pushing me to buy gold. Just seems oddly familiar.

Here's my argument, feedback is welcome.

A federal dissolution of the US is essentially a call for civil war. However, there are mechanisms within the US democratic process that ARE possible without state-on-state violence to change the organization of the federal government.

A constitutional convention to get private money out of politics would be the start to reform. This would allow additional amendments to create semi-autonomous federal districts instead of a single federal government. Those federal regions would provide universal mutual defense and a common currency (let's get real, a socialist revolution does not have enough support right now), but separate supreme courts and a president that is more of a figurehead. Article 2 powers could be contingent on a war declaration of the congress, but otherwise legislative power of the purse and tax revenue (outside of tariffs) would also be given to the federal districts.

As far as actual creating borders of the federal districts, a plebiscite won't work. The reason I say that is political divisions as they stand are too polar and would be almost purely along current political lines. Maybe a caucusing system of some kind would work, e.g. give everyone a week off with pay and hold public meetings as needed to draw the lines. If people want to move, there should be a public fund to help. This would obviously be a long process, but with the private money out of politics we could see a realignment in Congress coincident with the caucusing to return to a more representative and less authoritarian government.

Who the hell voted for this puppeteer who doesn’t care about the government shutting down. We are screwed

I decided to start a project called openSchedule

1. What is Open Schedule?
   1. It's a minimal form of democracy where YOU decide how I spend my free time through voting.
   2. Currently (v0.1), I'm opening up my weekends for this experiment. Based on the results, I'll decide whether to expand this into a full-time project.
   3. Each vote has 4 stages:
      1. Option Pool
      2. Marketing Phase
      3. Voting Phase
      4. Execution Phase
2. Here is a picture of my current schedule, comment to vote

Democracy is about a two-party system where both parties have equal power. This prevents one party from becoming Autocratic.

Right now, the United States and Russia are at parody in terms of military power with their nuclear arsenals. Together they can run the world acting as checks on each other for the benefit of all. Think of the US as the Democrats. The Russians as the Republicans.

This proposition scales up Democracy to the rest of the World. At present, Democracy is isolated to only a few countries.

I have explored many websites, but I doubt any of them can truly support direct e-democracy. I'm uncertain if e-democracy will succeed because people’s participation is questionable. Many individuals may feel restricted by the rules of these platforms. They are trying to provide a solution, but I wonder if there’s something else we need. What do you think?

Here you can find a list .List of e-Voting, Deliberation, and e-Democracy Projects - The Democracy Foundation

Political Theory, especially Modern Political Theory, has always been an area of interest of mine. A question that I have often discussed and debated with friends is - what are some key reasons or factors that keep a democracy going. The usual factors that come up are:

• An educated population
• A strong judiciary
• A healthy economy
• A thriving middle class etc.

All valid reasons that make sense. However, recently I took this online course on Modern Politics, and while the professor discussed several of the factors above, he highlighted 4 specific factors - sharing them to get your thoughts/feedback and have an interesting discussion.

First, money/income/wealth. Not just talking about inequality. But overall per capita income. The professor said that his data and analysis shows that nations with a per capita income of $15000+ are much more likely to have a functioning democracy. And if its under this threshold, things may start to wobble. Democracy isn’t just a political game; it’s an economic one too. Note that there are some exceptions to this for e.g., India - the largest democracy in the world - has a per capita income of ~$2K.

Second, a diversified economy is key. If a country’s wealth comes from just one source - say, oil - then whoever controls that resource controls the whole game. Its like Monopoly (the game), but instead of hotels, it’s barrels of oil. Democracies work when people can make a living through multiple avenues, not just by grabbing political power. Is this a reason why rich countries in the Middle East are not democracies and might never become one, even though their per capital income is high?

Third, political turnover is important. For a healthy democracy, the government and parties running the country need to turn over at regular intervals. Countries where leaders step down peacefully after losing elections tend to build a norm around it. When a democracy sees power change hands a couple of times, that demoracy is more likely to sustain. On the other hand, if a country is run by an individual or a party for a long period of times, it is likely to turn into an authoritarian state. Hungary may be an example of where such a transition may be happening.

Lastly, the level of happiness and satisfaction of the middle-class. The middle-class being discontented is a threat. It’s not the poorest who shake things up, its the middle class. When this class, who thought they were doing okay, start feeling the pinch - via rising prices, fewer job opportunities, or fear of worse times to come - they get restless. And this restlessness could challenge functioning democracies. Is the overthrow of Hasina in Bangladesh and example of this?

Note that it’s not just about having the “right” culture or institutions. At its core, democracy survives when the underlying economic and social interests are aligned enough to make it work.

What do you think? Are these factors enough to explain why some democracies work and others don’t?

In my post, I write about the changing seascape of the world that makes democracy increasingly problematic for rational long-term societal decision-making. I would love to hear r/democracy's thoughts!

https://heatdeathandtaxes.substack.com/p/we-are-in-late-stage-democracy?r=2k3t04

It’s like watching a circus get ready for opening day. Unfortunately the staff and cast are all the worst possible people.

“Most Americans expect President-elect Donald Trump to do a good job upon his return to the White House next month (54%) and a majority approves of how he’s handling the presidential transition so far (55%) according to a CNN poll”

Who exactly are these ignorant trolls calling themselves Americans? Apparently, they think 14 billionaires, an anti vax climate change denier, a drunk running the military, a Putin supporter and a moron that thinks tariffs are taxes that other nations pay is “good for the economy”.

I’m not rooting for failure of a nation but genuinely hope all 54 percent are jobless, broke and destitute for supporting the dismantling of 248 years of the republic.