From Information to Transformation: Technology and the Evolution of Consciousness

 "Seeing our world through technology's eyes has, for me, illuminated its larger purpose. Technology is now as great a force in our world as nature, and our response to technology should be similar to our response to nature. We cannot demand that technology obey us any more than we can demand that life obey us." -- Kevin Kelly, What Technology Wants

What does our attempt to master a fancy new phone or navigate a complicated Web site have to do with our psychological or spiritual work? Isn't technology simply a bunch of gadgets, frenetically marketed with hype and glitz? Bigger, brighter pictures, TV in our pocket, information at our fingertips, restaurant recommendations, tweet-sized experiences, instant friendships ... Indeed, to marketers, technology is all about ego gratification.

But what happens when we look at technology not from the perspective of our ego and personal needs, but as a sweeping phenomenon with its own characteristics and tendencies? This phenomenon is profoundly reshaping our modes of perception and thought--even our identity. Particularly among the young, we find far-reaching changes in how we spend our time and focus our attention, how we create and share information, and how we form and maintain relationships. Could this all represent a challenge to create a new form of consciousness?

We invite you to spend a day with us in a probing dialog with technology--engaging it with perception, imagination, and reflective thought. We'll begin by exploring our personal experience of technology and how we feel and think while using it. Next, we will let technology's iconic images lead us to explore the patterns, tendencies, and purposes behind this new cultural phenomenon. Finally, we will consider how human and technological consciousness may be "co-evolving" as part of the larger desire of psyche or soul to know itself.

We will meet at 9:30 AM at the home of Jean and Alex Gansa in San Francisco. Please bring something for our potluck lunch.

Note: this is a revision of the seminar listed as "Technology as Soul" in the latest Guild catalog.