RAFFIAPALM

Resources for product teams from industry experts.

Fundamentally, there is no reason why pleasure, excitement, profound well-being and simple joy at being alive could not become the natural, default state of mind for all who desire it. – Nick Bostrom

Though it is so often accompanied by descriptions of futuristic gadgets, body augmentation, and distant concerns, the Transhumanist vision provides a reminder that humanity can be far greater than it is today. The human condition is a work in progress. An early and very rough draft of what could be a masterpiece. And the evolution of society begins with the evolution of the individual mind.

This evolution cannot be left to chance. It must be the result of deliberate design conducted by each person and directed toward the highest values within them. The software framework and the principles of psychitecture are basic psychotechnologies which, if provided and instilled in each individual, could radically advance our evolution.

— Designing the Mind: The Principles of Psychitecture by Ryan A. Bush

Source: Amazon Kindle

Related Stories and Excerpts:

  1. But the principle of constantly expanding your experience, both personally and vicariously, does matter tremendously in any idea-producing job. Make no mistake about that. Another point to encourage you. No doubt you have seen people who seem to spark ideas—good ideas—right off the “top of their heads,” without ever going through all this process that I have described. Sometimes you have only seen the “Eureka! I have it!” stage takes place. But sometimes you have also seen the fruits of long discipline in the practices here advocated. This discipline produces a mind so well stocked, and so quick at […]
  2. Work for goals that you and your organization are excited about and think about how your tasks connect to those goals. If you’re focused on the goal, excited about achieving it, and recognize that doing some undesirable tasks to achieve the goal is required, you will have the right perspective and will be appropriately motivated. If you’re not excited about the goal that you’re working for, stop working for it. Personally, I like visualizing exciting new and beautiful things that I want to make into realities. The excitement of visualizing these ideas and my desire to build them out […]
  3. Soon enough, virtual reality environments may overtake our physical world as the primary locus of our experience, which means every aspect of our environment will have been designed by someone. Even today, it is hard to go anywhere that has not been deliberately shaped by human design. The concept of ontological design posits that in the act of designing our environments, we actually design ourselves, as the human mind is shaped greatly by its experiences. Hence there is a continual cycle of shaping between the individual and his environment. The earliest opportunity we have to shape our own behavioral […]
  4. Iterate Live long and prosper, said Sojuku as he stepped out of the meeting room. Peace and long life, I replied. Sojuku is a big fan of Star Trek. I could care less about Star Trek, but anything to make the man smile and continue feeling good about the work he puts in to enable our customers to share data about their lives and commerce. “Another shot of whiskey before you hit the streets?” “Yeah, why not!” I like the view from here. Our office overlooks the ocean, and we were fortunate to get a beautiful view of it right […]
  5. I strongly believe in the promise of technology, when directed toward the right ends, to lead to a genuinely better world for all. But I would estimate that ninety-nine percent of technologies created today only create new addictions. They “improve” our lives only in the sense that they become our new baseline of expectation, ultimately creating new barriers to contentment. There are technologies, like medicine, which truly improve life for people. But most of the technologies which can actually serve this end effectively are psychotechnologies. We need tools and methods for cultivating robust well-being and self-mastery. We need to […]

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