Connect - Separate
_AM: You have a problem and you know it, right?
_I: Only one? He he…
_AM: Well, there are different types of problems. There are those that we inherit, those that we are not aware of, those that the context imposes on us and those that we choose. Normally you are full of problems that you chose.
_I: That's true. I mean, I know that I could live very peacefully, but I always create more and bigger and more complex things that make my peace of mind practically impossible and that bring me problems that I chose, yes.
_AM: Today's topic leads us to talk about two problems that come together as one in your life, two sides of the same coin that come together in the word “connection.”
_I: Define problem.
_AM: As we already defined it once, problem is what you have thrown forward with force and what you will face until you reach it again (“pro” = forward, and “balléin” = throw with force).
_I: What have I released?
_AM: Your will to connect a world that is separated.
_I: Sure… That's a big problem…
_AM: And you live separate from the world.
_I: How?
_AM: Isn't that a beautiful paradox?
_I: What do you mean?
_AM: To your phone addiction.
_I: Uish… Just mine?
_AM: There will always be time to judge others, but I would like you to judge yourself first.
_I: Okay… Ok. Yes. I have a problem… I am addicted to the phone.
_AM: Every time you sit down to write, every half-sentence you write, and even before you get to a “comma” or a “period,” you glance at your phone, even if nothing is happening there.
_I: Now that you say it, I notice it more. It's true.
_AM: Tell me... Why do you do it?
_I: Well, I could give you all kinds of explanations, but you will surely use them against me.
_AM: And that bothers you?
_I: A little…
_AM: See? There you have given me the reason for your addiction. Denial. Wanting to avoid talking about it so as not to recognize the conflict from its roots. Look, this is not a judgment, it is an observation, and we know that the phone is not negative, the problem is not in using it, but in trying to understand why you use it.
_I: Well, okay. Go for it. Since I've been in Egypt I've used it more than ever, I'm on the phone all day, sometimes even in the shower. I listen to videos, or talk or converse with many at the same time. I read all the comments on social networks, I check emails, I search for things, I watch series... And the reason is because most of the time, both here in Egypt and on my trips, I am alone. I am alone in the world, and on the phone I feel accompanied, because I talk to friends who are not present. In other words, if technology gives me the option to communicate with those I can't see for a long time as if they were there with me, what's the problem?
_AM: Do the same as when there are friends present.
_I: Well…
_AM: Admit it.
_I: Well, yes, it's true. I no longer have a logical explanation there. She slips out of my hands.
_AM: We could talk about several reasons, but let's go to the easiest to describe: biological logic. The brain is a data processor, it is like a muscle eager for constant information, processing each new information as if it were candy in a child's mouth. Data, sounds, colors, are the sugar of neurons. The greater the amount of data, the greater the stimulus, and therefore, the greater the processing capacity. The brain is not flexible, it is mechanical; and therefore, where you find repetition mechanisms that deliver data, you will find your comfort and try to repeat it by searching for more and more, harvesting information. The more sweets you eat, the body will produce more insulin to capture the sugars. Therefore, instead of satiating yourself, you only make the body need more. The same thing happens with synapses: the more data you give it, the more it seeks to satisfy the number of neurons that generate connection within you by managing data. This means you need a constant source of changing data within a mechanical framework.
_I: Swiping the screen.
_AM: Platform designers know about this basic functioning of the brain, and that is why they use it in systems, such as Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, YouTube, Netflix, among many others.
_I: It's endless mechanical, automated data...
_AM: And this is where dependency occurs. The synapses generate electrical discharges, pulses, which make hormones react to promote the mobility of the body to generate mechanical actions that you hardly control, such as looking at the phone. These pulses are translated into emotions, and thus generates an emotional need to fill data gaps when you are not looking at the screen. The feeling is “lack of connection”, and yet, it is the excess of connection that disconnects you and separates you from the world.
_I: Sure... The more data I search on the phone, the more disconnected I am from the world, the more separated from reality...
_AM: Connecting comes from the words “com” (unity) and “nectare” (binding, linking, links), that is, it is the action of joining nodes, links, tying up loose ends. The word Separate comes from “së” (to separate one thing from another) and “parare” (to stop). That is, separating would be the act of separating things to stop them where they are. When you connect things, you unify data, but when you fill yourself with data, you create so many links that they prevent the vibration and flexibility of the flow of information, causing it to stop and stagnate.
_I: Wow... I mean, it's as if on a guitar, instead of only having 6 pegs to make its 6 strings sound, you added more pegs to these same 6 strings, putting so many along the neck that there would come a time when the strings could not sound, there would be no vibration.
_AM: Very good image. Rests and relaxation are needed between one data and another for there to be vibration. Therefore, the greater the connectivity, the greater the separation.
_I: But, if we are in times of networks, entering the technological age of Aquarius, and our goal is to create a network of networks of consciousness, wouldn't so much connectivity be counterproductive?
_AM: The problem does not lie in the number of connections, but in their accumulation. Following the guitar image, the connection buildup would be adding 72 new pegs to the 6 strings. But in terms of a network of networks, it would be adjusting 12 guitars each with its 6 pegs, which together create a song.
_I: Of course... Not wanting to absorb everything alone, but doing it among several, delegating... An excess of connectivity in a single person generates separation. This is what we see in the world, as it happens to me... The more information, the more division, the greater acceptance of diversity, the more groups that appear and separate into collectivities. The more human and united we want to become to respect each other, ending up generating more separation between the parties and individuals.
_AM: It is the counterproductiveness of positivism. It is the Unity that divides, it is the connection that separates, the group that divides.
_I: How to connect without being addicted to connection?
_AM: In the time of networks and communications, humans will begin to merge more and more with technology every day, and this brings a positive and a negative aspect.
_I: What is positive about merging with technology?
_AM: The inevitable development, expansion of human thought and capabilities. It is not negative, because humans are also part of a technology, biological technology, which has evolved by trial and error, combining technological organisms such as bacteria, viruses, cells, fungi, which have adapted to our interior, improving the species.
_I: But when we hear that they want to chip us, that is terrible, because it is a horrible control.
_AM: Therein lies the negative aspect. There is no progress without will, there is no progress from imposition. You cannot force an individual to go down the path he does not want. This is the serious challenge: the loss of humanity. Consider technology as the only solution, separating us from the Earth, from each other, generating unnecessary battles.
_I: How not to lose that humanity?
_AM: Developing our own technology and interior connectivity. Don't you see it? You are your biggest phone, your biggest wifi, your biggest connection, your best technology. Connecting to yourself, having your times of silence, listening to inner wealth, using imagination and the arts, is what develops natural technology. You should never, ever prohibit technology or its use, deny its usefulness; but on the contrary, you should simply focus on improving your own technology, growing internally as well as externally. The human challenge is to advance in biological technology, the development of one's own being, at the level of advancement of external technology.
_I: I once met with a person from India, a spiritual millionaire, with whom I spoke about the YOSOY project, and the intention of connecting networks to harmonize the Earth and Humanity. And his response left me baffled. He told _I: that will be obsolete, because inner development is very slow, and what people are really looking for is happiness, nothing more. And every experience of well-being and spirituality comes from a chemical reaction at the glandular level. “Having a chip that can regulate your hormones, you could easily be happy always, and there would be no conflicts on Earth, that is our goal.” I thought it was horrible, and I left.
_AM: Why did you think it was horrible?
_I: It seemed lacking in humanity.
_AM: What is it to be human?
_I: Well... It is being an entity capable of connecting from your being, from your emotions, to be a creator, an adventurer, someone who collaborates from your nature... Not because an electrical pulse from a chip tells you so.
_AM: How does a chip that sends an electrical signal to a gland differ from the electrical signal that your brain sends to the same gland?
_I: …That one is exterior and the other interior.
_AM: If the result is the same, the end is the same, how do they differ?
_I: I don't know…
_AM: They differ simply in the factor of consciousness. The rest is the same. A population that seeks to survive and be happy is unconscious, since it is based on basic needs as the only goal, eternal life as the idea of true victory. However, they are all animal ideas. Self-awareness, autopoiesis, which we have talked about, is the only differentiation between a biological process and a technological one. If you face a people that seeks to connect out of necessity, you will find a world connectedly separated, but happy. If you face a people who seek to be their own connection for the simple fact of being, of experiencing and enjoying existence, you will find a world connected to consciousness, creator. And being conscious or not does not depend on you, but on each person's will. Both paths are logical, since those who do not seek consciousness can acquire the chip and be happy: why would you prevent them from being happy? Just because your ideology doesn't allow it? Wouldn't you be being like all the ideologies you criticize?
_I: Sure... I understand, I can't fight against something that I consider good for others when others don't consider it good for them...
_AM: Therefore, your role is to connect to yourself, create better synapses by expanding to others who seek the same thing, creating networks that make it easier for the world to discover its infinite creative power of evolutionary networks, without preventing the unconscious from finding the desired happiness they seek. . Even so they are controlled, it is their choice. You can only watch over those who wish to live awake and free.
_I: And what about helping those who don't know that they are prisoners of that false connectivity?
_AM: You can't take them away from their truth, just show them yours, and they will decide.
_I: I understand…
_AM: But first, you must be free yourself from that control that the world imposes on you. You have come to connect the networks, but you will not be able to do so if the same networks that you will use keep you prisoner, taking away the spaces to connect with yourself. Excess information is counterproductive to a flexible mind: knowing more does not make you wise.
_I: What makes me wise?
_AM: Be yourself.
_I: I AM.