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(((moonshots)))

Friction <> Innovation

Innovation requires friction and holding friction requires innovative ways. Innovation at times feels like two icebergs in the path to colliding, or two tectonic plates, which rather than destroying themselves into pieces, create a new mountain, a new path, a new sand castle, a new ground to walk through. 

Present vs Future Integration

Longtermism, is built around the notion of “future value”. Dreaming that “our potential” is fulfilled in the future. It often involves maximizing productivity, or eventually living inside high-resolution computer simulations.

Sitting in the present and being graced with presence, with all that it is, is necessary to hear the clues and opportunities from the universe. Being present doesn't mean you need to just think in present terms. Retreating into a constant and absolute present (presentism?), can make us renounce our imagination and our creative and generative power, into a more passive attitude not conducive of new imagined shared spaces. Or even worse, into paralysis by analysis. 

So how do we integrate longtermisn vs presentism into the ability to generate new shared visions of the future? How can we see present and presence as a resource that galvanizes and actively moves us into nourishing the soil for imagination seeds to germinate and grow, without creating future escapism scenarios or purely present passive stories “hoping” the future will find us there?

Utopia vs Distopia

In the present we can consciously choose the many “futures”, instead of singular one. Moonshots are meant to engage the plurality of such future possibilities — not a singular journey but rather the ever shifting evolution of the probable, possible, plausible, and the desirable future.

Futures is a continuous conversation, more a verb than a noun, a process rather than a destination, always iterative, meant to be questioned, adjusted, and expanded.We are here to journey together — in crafting new shared visions that challenge, rather than further entrench the status quo and are anchored in principles of:plurality — community — celebration of presence – life as technology – spirituality – emergent subcultures – evolution of cultural values.

Futures are also continuously shaped not just by our actions but also by our inactions and our apathy. In fact, we may be living in a crisis of imagination. 

Utopias and dystopias are how we tell each other many stories about the future. But there are probably plenty of misconceptions about them and how to integrate our potential future visions.

Dystopias

Dystopia is this idea of a future gone wrong. Everything is terrible in it, and it is beyond repair. Historically, dystopias had a lot of significance. They awaken us to the possibility that futures might not be what was promised. But what we end up with is spaces where some see the potential for power or money within the dystopia.And imagining the end of the world is easier than imagining a better one – you tweak what’s there, and make it different and worse. It takes more imagination to make something beautiful, something truly inspiring.The moment we start believing that the future is doomed, that it’s being decided by someone else, somewhere else, we start disengaging, going into hopelessness and despair escapism.When people see that the visions of the future are those they would rather not embrace – utopias become the answer.

Utopias

The word etymology for ‘utopia” is a ‘no place’, a place that cannot exist, but historically, utopias have existed, except that they were utopias for the few.Surprisingly, utopias and dystopias aren’t opposing poles. They’re two sides of the same coin. Most utopian concepts were only for the elite; everyone else was living in the dystopia.Utopias are just as flawed as dystopias. Both of these frameworks are unsatisfying, Could there be a third way to integrate a way to look at futures? Something that’s beyond and integrates these two? 

Desirable futures

How about to create such shared futures we need to integrate the people who are living the real-life dystopia, and ask them how it could be improved?What if new shared futures find and amplify traditionally excluded voices. “What if to make a future that’s kinder and safer for most of us, we need to look at the people who are at the very frontline of any negative effects. When in the moment of integration what matters it is to realize that nothing is insignificant, nothing is insignificant, whether it's something that's very displeasing or uncomfortable, or whether it's something that's very small and quiet For instance, if we look at technological innovation, we realise that disability-led innovation isn’t charity work, it’s the source of so much innovation that improves our lives.What if the covid pandemic were here to show us not only how elderly can suffer with covid, but how non-covid elderly are suffering covid-like experiences every day (isolation, depression, unseen), by making us go through the same experiences, and making such invisible situations become visible to *everyone so we can create new futures for them.Integration is having the audacity to change your mind based on your freshest thinking, newest experiences, and more current visions. How do you start building such new futures, beyond dystopia and utopia? Such Shared Futures (beyond dystopia and Utopia) don’t happen decided by someone else. If we come together and insist that the future is what we are creating, with every single story we share, we help create the future we want.(*) If you want to dive more into futures and protopian futures, see monica bielskyte’s write up.

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(((alchemy of chaos)))

imagination & language

Imagination is an important process of the integration process. Life is comprised of our individual and collective imaginations - our images of the mind expressed through our words and actions. Einstein said that imagination is the most marvelous, miraculous, inconceivably powerful force the world has ever known. As Marques said, “language is the coding material of our reality.” We use our imaginations to access a more desirable future (or present), then we connect to those emotions, at which point we use language to communicate these desirable futures to one another and co-create a shared vision so that we can collectively bring it all into our reality, into our experience of ourselves and of our lives…in other words, to integrate into new possibilities. But as we march ever-forward, I love to play with what it looks like to use the imagination to transcend and include, vs transcend and deny or reject, so that we continue to integrate and learn from our past and morph the best of us into our futures.

Integration is the slow embodiment process of the realizations and revelations we have received. This gradual awakening process can be so subtle it is hard to detect the internal shifts that have occured. It is the hard-earned alchemical process of transforming insight into wisdom.

In Transition awareness is about gleaning the insight. In Integration it is about using that same awareness to move into deeper consciousness and wisdom.

There is dark and light in everything, In every move, in every decision, in every reality. There is always a consequence, A ripple effect, an opportunity. There is always something that pushes out when something else is pulled, and vice versa. With every choice and move we make, something is lost, and something is gained. We live in a fundamentally interconnected universe. If you’re open to the experiences that are around you, the infinite possibilities of what you may encounter are real.

Attunement -> Emotion -> Truth -> Connection -> New Shared Possibilities / Desirable Futures

PS, remember when we discovered that the etymology of the word “innovation” is <<restoration and renewal>>?? What? So cool. So aligned with the word “integration” (to render something whole, to bring separate parts together) and we didn’t even know.

Integration is Becoming & Unbecoming

Integration is becoming and unbecoming. Unbecoming, and becoming. These two things are inextricably linked, yet it’s so helpful to slow down riiiight at the juncture of integration.

Integration is having the audacity to change your mind based on your freshest thinking, newest experiences, and more current visions. The work of consciously understanding the necessity of letting go of past parts of yourself, past parts of your life, even past identities that worked up until a certain point. It’s the recognition that something can work, until it doesn’t. And then, the letting go of it once it starts to atrophy as you enter a new chapter of self is such important work. Slow down and you’ll get there faster. Shed the notion that duality has to exist in order to create definition. That’s not necessarily true. Give yourself the chance to see the nuance beyond the nuance. 

Integration doesn't necessarily mean you’ve gotten to the end of a transition...instead it is getting comfortable with being in the dark tunnel, while kind of seeing the light at the end, but still not knowing where there is ground, or what texture it is, and all the while not having a flashlight. And finding joy and humor in that. Keeping a lightness in that. Integration can happen in the midst of a transition - we don’t have to wait to integrate. 

Integration feels like awakening - awakening to a new self, awakening to what it feels like to lead in all capacities of life with the fullness of self, rather than strategically or consciously subdividing the self. Just being you - and owning the “I am an AND/SLASH” vibe to give ourselves to be all of it - creates this electric experience. It’s as if true integration means being your most electric, vulnerable self. Integration and collaboration are complementary…collaboration I think is another form of integration.

Integration is New Seeing

What do you value more: clarity or certainty? Clarity right now helps you trust the path right now, and “true certainty” is pretty much impossible, right? Integration is about clearly seeing. You can’t integrate something you aren’t conscious of, you can’t integrate something you haven’t understood. Whether this corresponds to something new and unexpected and/or unwanted in a transition, or whether this corresponds to a new vision you’ve accessed…it’s necessary to take the time to slow down towards the end of a transition and really look, so that you can see. It is tempting to rush to the end of a transition especially if you can see things on the other side come into focus, but my hypothesis is that the slower you go, the better integrated you’ll be once you arrive. As uncomfortable as it can be to look at the things within outside of yourself that don’t feel good for longer than you normally would, your ability to stay with it and in it is so important to what ultimately becomes of it. By not rushing through a transition, you are better able to metabolize the tension of transition, and benefit from the growth that happens in the wake of it, and come to new conclusions as a result.

As good as it feels to coast along while everything goes our way, it’s in those moments of friction that the cleansing fires are started. Opening to and feeling pain, particularly the pain of others, is part of waking up. If you’re sleeping and someone delivers a gut punch that takes your breath away, you’re sure as hell gonna sit up and gasp for air and try to understand what just happened. There is grace and difficulty to allow elements of us to stir and awake. The new seeing that we gain within this process is integration.

Integration is New Discernment

If transition is the pathway to integration, and disintegration happens before reintegration, you are in several dimensions of flux throughout this where you are able to pick up new discernment. It is not so much about how you handle transition, it is how you develop discernment. Being fully with transition is what allows you to flex the discernment muscle. If you are always surrounded by things you know, you don’t have to exercise discernment. When everything around you is changing and moving, you are constantly coming face to face with decisions, new landscapes, new opportunities, new depths, new heights…and discernment is what you use to move through all of these elements effectively and with ideal alignment.

Integration is Truth Telling

Integration is telling the truth. Consciousness requires close attention and curiosity and the sense of wonder of what is, which takes it out of judgment and rigidity. The fastest way to integrate is to truth tell to yourself about yourself - how do you show up in moments with transition? What is available for you in the midst of transition? That awareness IS the integration. 

Our purpose is found in each step. Integration is understanding the nature of our steps. The pedestrian speed is required for proper integration. Like we said when comparing that scene in the Matrix…the slow down that happens as you intensely observe your life in present time is so real. “Going nowhere, and going everywhere.”

Part of integration and truth telling is self acceptance, and self acceptance means you generate alignment where you stand - then everywhere you stand will be ideal for you.

Integration is always happening, as is transition, as is chaos...I think the trick - if there is one - is to be present with ourselves and our lives to the extent that we can see and identify all of these micro and macro transitions and integrations happening at all times. I think that would create a rich life. We are here to experience our life, experience ourselves, experience what this world has to offer us by way of even more finely tuning our understanding of ourselves...it’s all connected. 

When thinking about what integration really feels like, there are three words that come up for me, and they happen, mysteriously and confrontingly…simultaneously. 

Collapsing / expanding / disappearing

Integration is Experience

The experience is the tool. The discomfort we create for ourselves and for each other and how we orient around that is the learning. What are we doing here? We are showing up and telling the truth and experiencing the results of what happens when we feel the uncomfortable thing and say the uncomfortable thing and are willing to hold the tension of opposites and stand in the power of our perspective and also the power of floating in space and the unknown. Why is that important? Because as we keep saying, this is a microcosm demonstration and experience...what happens in here, and who we are able to show up as in here, we can hopefully then garner the courage and the wherewithal and confidence to show up out there in the same way. We are here to participate in an experiment and see what happens so that we have new confidence and new trust in ourselves and in the value of the process. We are here to create the intimacy and connection and depth that we are experiencing together, and explore what that fabric can support. That is strong fabric. These are the threads of self-knowing that can weave new paradigms and new systems and new thinking that expands far beyond the edges of us 18 people. We are experiencing what is possible when we play with these dynamics. We are understanding what it is to learn, to apply, to insert new understanding and ways of being in places other than this group. We are grasping more and more that alchemizing chaos “out there” is anchored in our ability to alchemize chaos within, and speak the truth about what that is for us.