The end of an old operating system
Our world view is dominated by the enlightenment period and its aftermath. The achievements of this era have equipped us with the ability to solve problems through reasoning, build remarkable technologies and replace feudalism with a much more humane political system.
However, the enlightenment and its legacy are not perfect and we seem to be fast approaching their expiry date.
At the core of the enlightenment’s shortcoming is René Descartes’ famous “I think, therefore I am”. While his method of radical doubt brought us Cartesian thinking, a commitment to rationality and truth, it is flawed because at its core is the conviction that reality is dualistic: an observing subject and an objective world to be observed, measured and manipulated.
In fact, Descartes’s mistake was to assume that “I” am. The correct sequitur would have been that “consciousness is”. The “I”’s existence is not proven merely by the process of thinking. The implications are far-reaching. If the true nature of reality is non-dual, then we may have to build a new operating system for the world based on this understanding.
This could allow us transcend many of the dead ends we currently find ourselves in.
